Business, Innovation and Skills written question – answered at on 6 September 2010.
Stewart Hosie
SNP Chief Whip, SNP Deputy Leader, Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Treasury)
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many telephone lines are in use in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales, (c) each region of England and (d) Northern Ireland; and how many such lines are broadband lines.
Ed Vaizey
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) (Culture, Communications and Creative Industries) (jointly with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department does not gather or keep such statistics. Ofcom's Communications Market Report 2010 reports that in 2009 the number of fixed telephone lines in the UK was 32.1 million. Ofcom's Technology Tracker Q1 (January to February 2010 fieldwork) for fixed line telephone and fixed broadband penetration (proportion of households with each service) indicated that in the UK, 85% of households had a fixed line, (some 27.3 million lines) and 65% of households had fixed broadband (some 20.9 million lines). The Technology Tracker also records the following country and regional information by household:
| Percentage | ||||
| England | Scotland | Wales | N. Ireland | |
| Fixed line | 86 | 79 | 79 | 81 |
| Fixed broadband | 66 | 54 | 57 | 62 |
| Percentage | ||||||
| London | South East | South West | East Midlands | West Midlands | East of England | |
| Fixed Line | 84 | 92 | 90 | 85 | 83 | 92 |
| Fixed broadband | 63 | 74 | 72 | 69 | 58 | 72 |
| Percentage | |||
| Yorkshire/Humberside | North East | North West | |
| Fixed line | 84 | 82 | 82 |
| Fixed broadband | 64 | 63 | 60 |
Yes0 people think so
No0 people think not
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