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Written Question
Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
Thursday 16th January 2020

Asked by: Edward Timpson (Conservative - Eddisbury)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

What steps her Department is taking to improve (a) broadband and (b) mobile phone coverage in rural areas.

Answered by Matt Warman

The government’s £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme is already supporting rollout of gigabit broadband in rural areas.

The government has also pledged £5bn of funding for Gigabit broadband in the ‘hardest to reach’, predominantly rural, areas of the UK.

The government announced in-principle support in October 2019 for the Mobile Network Operators’ Shared Rural Network proposal. It aims to collectively increase 4G mobile coverage throughout the United Kingdom to 95% by 2025.