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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve mobile phone signals in rural areas.

As set out in our 2017 5G Strategy our ambition is for the UK to have good quality connectivity where people live, work and travel. This is why we reformed planning laws in England in 2016, reformed the Electronic Communications Code in 2017 and signed an Accord with the Church of England in February 2018 to make it easier and cheaper to install digital infrastructure across the UK including rural areas.

We also welcome Ofcom’s consultation, launched on 9 March, which outlines potential new licence obligations for rural coverage as part of the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction. This will further help drive coverage improvements for consumers.