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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on what the £740 million 5G research and infrastructure fund announced in the 2016 Autumn Statement has been spent.

At Autumn Statement 2016, the Government announced a a £1.1bn package to boost the UK’s digital infrastructure. This sum is intended to cover all future connectivity technologies and cover work in this area until 2020-21. This included investment in a nationally coordinated programme of full fibre and 5G Testbed & Trials.

To date, the Government has invested £16 million for three leading 5G research institutions to establish a test network to test and trial 5G technologies and applications. This week, a £25 million competition was announced to select projects for initial funding as part of the first Phase of the Testbeds & Trials Programme.

For the Local Full Fibre (LFFN) Programme, the Government announced in September that £10 million has been allocated for 6 full fibre test projects around the country, in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, West Sussex, Coventry and Warwickshire, Bristol (with Bath and North East Somerset), West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. Further measures will be set out in due course.