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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the economic and social benefits arising from increasing the number of mobile network operators in areas where fewer than three operators provide services.

On 5 November 2014 Government published a consultation on measures to address poor mobile coverage. This included an impact assessment that assessed the benefit to consumers from extending mobile coverage. This impact assessment received a favourable opinion and a green rating from the independent Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), and was subsequently selected by the RPC to be used as an example of good analysis. The impact assessment is available on the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-partial-not-spots-in-mobile-phone-coverage