Asked by: Blair McDougall (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he plans to take with providers to help ensure the resilience of the telephone network, in the context of trends in the number of power cuts.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Although most power cuts are brief, the impact they can have on the telephone network is significant, particularly in rural communities. We are working closely with the regulator, communications providers and the power sector to improve resilience and minimise disruption to the public and businesses as much as possible.
Communications providers have statutory responsibilities to take all appropriate and proportionate steps to minimise disruption to services and must ensure at least one back-up form of communication is available for contacting emergency services for a minimum of one hour during a power outage. On 6 September 2024, Ofcom published detailed resilience guidelines specifying the measures that providers are expected to meet throughout their networks, including resilience to power cuts, and set out the analysis they are completing to consider whether additional resilience is required for mobile services.
Asked by: Blair McDougall (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to fill gaps in mobile telephone coverage ahead of the phasing out of landlines by service providers.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to improving mobile coverage across the UK. The Shared Rural Network will increase 4G geographic coverage throughout the UK to 95% by the end of 2025.
In September, Ofcom reported that 94.9% of the UK landmass now has 4G coverage from at least one mobile operator, with over 78% having 4G coverage from all four.
Non-standalone 5G is available outside 92% of UK premises from at least one mobile operator. Our ambition is for all populated areas to have high-quality standalone 5G by 2030.
Landlines are not being removed. It would be more accurate to say that providers are moving from the old and failing analogue network - the Public Switched Telephone Network - to Voice over Internet Protocol technology. We are focused on ensuring that this industry-led transition causes minimum inconvenience to residents and businesses.
Asked by: Blair McDougall (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to pages 4 and 5 of the report entitled China: The top ten priorities for early Labour government action published by the Coalition on Secure Technology and the Council on Geostrategy China Observatory in September 2024, what steps he is taking to tackle the threat to UK national security posed by the use of Chinese-manufactured cellular Internet of Things modules.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The security of the UK is a top priority for the government. We are taking robust action to ensure new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK. The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act requires manufacturers, importers and retailers to ensure IoT products meet minimum security requirements. In telecoms specifically, we have been working to promote a more open, innovative, and diverse technology supply chain and to strengthen our legislative frameworks. The Government is taking a consistent, long term and strategic approach to managing the UK’s relations with China, rooted in UK and global interests. We will improve the UK’s capability to understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities China poses through an audit of the UK’s relationship with China as a bilateral and global actor.