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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made with the Rural Connected Communities Project; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using North East Bedfordshire as a pilot area for that initiative.

The 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme is currently developing proposals for the Rural Connected Communities (RCC) project. This aims to build the business case for 5G, and rural mobile coverage by testing a range of technical solutions and commercial models, building and proving demand through new use cases.

When the application process for the RCC project is open, as a mainly rural area, North East Bedfordshire may wish to submit a bid, subject to the competition’s final eligibility requirements.