Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what advice her Department has received from (a) mobile network operators, (b) Ofcom and (c) independent telecommunications resilience experts on the most cost‑effective means of improving back‑up power provision at mobile phone masts.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which gained input from wide range of interested parties including mobile network operators, other industry bodies, local authorities, and members of the public. They published an update on their work in February 2025, setting out the results of their analysis of the resilience of mobile networks, and estimated that the cost of upgrading mobile networks to ensure almost everyone can maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours would be £1 billion. Ofcom also announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government looks forward to the rapid conclusion of that work.
The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to publish the analysis underpinning the Government’s estimate of the cost of improving power resilience at mobile phone masts.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which gained input from wide range of interested parties including mobile network operators, other industry bodies, local authorities, and members of the public. They published an update on their work in February 2025, setting out the results of their analysis of the resilience of mobile networks, and estimated that the cost of upgrading mobile networks to ensure almost everyone can maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours would be £1 billion. Ofcom also announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government looks forward to the rapid conclusion of that work.
The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate her Department has made of the cost per customer per year of different mobile network resilience options.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which gained input from wide range of interested parties including mobile network operators, other industry bodies, local authorities, and members of the public. They published an update on their work in February 2025, setting out the results of their analysis of the resilience of mobile networks, and estimated that the cost of upgrading mobile networks to ensure almost everyone can maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours would be £1 billion. Ofcom also announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government looks forward to the rapid conclusion of that work.
The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department plans to undertake further work on improving the resilience of mobile communications infrastructure.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which gained input from wide range of interested parties including mobile network operators, other industry bodies, local authorities, and members of the public. They published an update on their work in February 2025, setting out the results of their analysis of the resilience of mobile networks, and estimated that the cost of upgrading mobile networks to ensure almost everyone can maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours would be £1 billion. Ofcom also announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government looks forward to the rapid conclusion of that work.
The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of implementing alternative models for improving power resilience of mobile telecommunications networks, including the use of (a) shared or mobile back‑up generators, (b) regionally stored generators deployable in emergencies, or (c) partnerships with local authorities or resilience forums.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which gained input from wide range of interested parties including mobile network operators, other industry bodies, local authorities, and members of the public. They published an update on their work in February 2025, setting out the results of their analysis of the resilience of mobile networks, and estimated that the cost of upgrading mobile networks to ensure almost everyone can maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours would be £1 billion. Ofcom also announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government looks forward to the rapid conclusion of that work.
The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assumptions her Department used to estimate the cost of installing back‑up power at mobile phone masts, including assumptions on (a) the number of sites covered, (b) the type of back‑up power provision assumed, and (c) the expected operational lifetime of such equipment.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which gained input from wide range of interested parties including mobile network operators, other industry bodies, local authorities, and members of the public. They published an update on their work in February 2025, setting out the results of their analysis of the resilience of mobile networks, and estimated that the cost of upgrading mobile networks to ensure almost everyone can maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours would be £1 billion. Ofcom also announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government looks forward to the rapid conclusion of that work.
The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of providing back‑up power to mobile phone masts on consumer electricity costs; and whether this estimate is based on (a) Departmental modelling and (b) information provided by mobile network operators.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which gained input from wide range of interested parties including mobile network operators, other industry bodies, local authorities, and members of the public. They published an update on their work in February 2025, setting out the results of their analysis of the resilience of mobile networks, and estimated that the cost of upgrading mobile networks to ensure almost everyone can maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours would be £1 billion. Ofcom also announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government looks forward to the rapid conclusion of that work.
The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of installing back‑up power at mobile phone masts on (a) one‑off capital costs, (b) ongoing operational and maintenance costs and (c) consumer bills.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which gained input from wide range of interested parties including mobile network operators, other industry bodies, local authorities, and members of the public. They published an update on their work in February 2025, setting out the results of their analysis of the resilience of mobile networks, and estimated that the cost of upgrading mobile networks to ensure almost everyone can maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours would be £1 billion. Ofcom also announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government looks forward to the rapid conclusion of that work.
The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.