While doing a TV interview to applaud the installation of gigabit-capable internet across Britain, a government official today had an embarrassing connection breakdown.
A minister in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport named Matt Warman was left looking embarrassed when his connection cut out while he was speaking to LBC radio.
Mr. Warman had just described the government’s “great progress” in establishing broadband across the UK.
As soon as Nick Ferrari, the radio presenter, observed that Mr. Warman’s image had frozen during the conversation, he called the minister’s technical error “senational.”
This is helpful because you are the minister of broadband, he continued. Can’t you hear me, now? The image is frozen, and that is fantastic.
So there you have it, the government is talking about gigabits and how many billions of pounds they are worth while refusing to answer the question.
Matt Warman, minister for technology, culture, media, and sport, will be kind and say, “You can’t hear me, but I’ll be talking about the growth of broadband and the line collapses. Thank you for your time.”
In his morning television interviews to promote the government’s $5 billion “Project Gigabit,” Mr. Warman made a brief visit on LBC.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries paid a visit to North Dorset today to commemorate new statistics indicating that 70% of the UK now has access to gigabit internet service, where work is beginning on the first significant contract under the programme.
However, it seems that the government has lessened its support for the technology, with a goal of 85% coverage by 2025.
The 2019 Tory platform pledged that by that time, “full fibre and gigabit capable internet would come to every house and company throughout the UK.”
A No. 10 spokesperson responded to a question about if the PM was unhappy about violating a campaign promise, saying, “He remains dedicated to providing greater internet coverage for the UK and we’ve seen an example of that today.”
Before his phone went dead during an interview with LBC, Mr. Warman had informed the station that 70% of people now had access to gigabit-capable internet, up from 9% three years ago.
When he established those goals for 2019, he said: “That is significant improvement at a speed that was much beyond what we were looking for, so incredibly wonderful news.”
“But of course there are still 30% of folks who are working as swiftly as we can to get to — and that speed demonstrates that we’re going to get to them as soon as we can,” the speaker said.
The minister said when asked whether the whole UK was linked: “Well, in some form, all except the most distant houses are connected to broadband of some type, and satellites can sweep up the rest, but there is a lot of work to do.”
I’m not claiming to be anything else, but like I said, the speed at which we have progressed to this point is a very strong indication of our intentions and what is to come. The private sector is responsible for the bulk of the success that we are reporting today.