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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to his Department's announcement, Government secures landmark deal for UK mobile phone users, published on 18 December 2014, what estimate he has made of changes in annual licence fees paid by mobile phone companies arising from that announcement.

No estimate has been made of any change in annual licence fees (ALFs), as Ofcom is currently conducting an independent review and has not published final revised ALF levels. As part of the agreement on mobile coverage announced on 18 December 2014, Government brought the agreement to the attention of Ofcom in the context of their process to review ALFs. Ofcom will continue to set the revised level of ALFs independently, on the basis of full market value as set out under the Secretary of State’s Direction to Ofcom of 2010.