Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, lnnovation and Technology, what recent steps her Department has taken to improve 4G connectivity in (a) remote and (b) other areas.
Answered by John Whittingdale
This Government understands the frustration arising from the impact poor mobile coverage has on some communities, particularly in rural and remote areas. That is why we agreed a deal with the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to deliver the Shared Rural Network (SRN) which will extend 4G coverage to 95% of the UK landmass by the end of 2025, underpinned by legally binding spectrum obligations.
The SRN will improve mobile coverage for an extra 280,000 premises and 16,000km of roads and will lead to increases in coverage across all four nations, with the biggest coverage improvements in rural parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
In fact the programme is already delivering coverage improvements across the UK with 4G coverage now at 92%, up from 91% when the SRN agreement was signed in March 2020. The MNOs have now deployed more than 150 new sites and have upgraded over 1,500 sites across the UK. On 3 May we announced the activation of the first government-funded SRN phone mast upgrade in Lockerbie, Scotland.
As part of our Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, we have asked Ofcom to improve the accuracy of their reporting of mobile coverage and network performance in rural areas.