Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason her Department not supported activation of a commercial 4G service on the majority of built extended area service sites.

Wherever possible, we have chosen a future-proofed design for EAS mast structures, meaning that they can be easily upgraded to be part of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) which is being delivered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). SRN is a partnership between Government and industry to deliver on the manifesto commitment of increasing mobile coverage to 95% of the UK landmass by 2026. Through the SRN programme, Government will fund upgrades to the Home Office EAS sites, to enable Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to provide commercial mobile coverage from these sites.

The HO is making as many of the EAS sites available to the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), working with DCMS under the SRN programme. This includes physical upgrades to the sites to enable MNOs place their equipment onto the sites. Activation and timing of the site for 4G commercial services is a responsibility of the individual operators. The role of the HO is to provide physical access to MNOs which it is enabling.