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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the levels of digital connectivity in rural areas of Wales.

At present, 96.7% of premises in Wales can access a superfast (>=30Mbps) broadband connection, with 57.4% able to access a gigabit-capable connection.

As part of the UK Government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit, a Public Review was conducted last year to establish broadband suppliers build plans across Wales, and the results were published in November. We are working closely with the Welsh Government and plan to launch procurements in Wales in the coming months.

In addition to our procurements, nearly 2,800 vouchers have been issued under the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to help communities in rural and hard-to-reach areas of Wales.

In December 2022, DCMS also launched a series of Alpha trials to test the use of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to improve broadband connectivity in very hard to reach locations. Up to 15 sites will be selected to trial the technology across the UK and to date four sites have been announced, including two in Snowdonia National Park.

The £1 billion Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme is already delivering 4G coverage uplifts in Wales and across the whole of the UK. Currently, 4G coverage in Wales stands at 62% from all four operators and will rise to a minimum of 80% through the SRN. Coverage from at least one operator currently stands at 90% and will increase to 95% in Wales once the programme completes. For further details on the SRN and how it will enable rural businesses and communities to thrive please visit https://srn.org.uk/forecast-coverage-improvements/.