Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of competition in the mobile network operator sector.

Any proposal to merge mobile network operators needs to be looked at by the Competition and Market Authority (CMA). The government does not have a role in the review of mergers on competition grounds. It is the responsibility of CMA to assess the impact on consumers and competition in the market, with input from sectoral regulators.

Strong competition in the UK mobile market has produced good outcomes for consumers and businesses to date, in terms of costs, choice and quality of service. UK prices for mobile services are some of the lowest in Europe. In addition to the four national mobile network operators (MNOs) (BT/EE, VMO2, Vodafone and Three), consumers and businesses can also buy services from mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). The UK MVNO market is strong, representing 27% of mobile subscribers in the market.

Competition has encouraged the four MNOs to invest to extend and upgrade their networks. 4G coverage currently extends to 92% of the UK landmass from at least one MNO, and our Shared Rural Network programme will extend this to 95%. All four MNOs launched their 5G networks in 2019 and last year we met our ambition to deliver a basic 5G signal for the majority of the population by 2027 - 5 years early.

Our recently published Wireless Infrastructure Strategy set out a new ambition for nationwide coverage of standalone (high-quality) 5G to all populated areas by 2030.