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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the role of 5G connectivity to play in Levelling Up.

In 2017, the government set an ambition for the majority of the UK population to have access to 5G by 2027. This has been met five years early, with basic “non-standalone” 5G - which uses 5G equipment on 4G infrastructure. Ofcom’s Connected Nations Autumn Update (7 October 2022) showed that non-standalone 5G is available outside up to 64% of premises across the UK.

The Mobile Network Operators are currently trialling standalone 5G, where all network architecture (base stations, core networks and backhaul) is dedicated solely to 5G. We expect standalone 5G deployments to begin in 2023, and for this to help unlock greater potential of 5G and support uses in industrial and other settings, bringing significant economic and social benefits to the UK.

The Levelling Up White Paper outlined our mission for what we want nationwide broadband and mobile coverage to look like by 2030.

The Government has made reforms to the planning system to support the deployment of 5G and extend mobile coverage. Furthermore, the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill will allow operators to enter into additional agreements with site providers, enabling apparatus to be upgraded to 5G. In addition, the Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator programme is dedicated to accelerating the roll-out of 5G through the use of public sector assets.

We are developing a Wireless Infrastructure Strategy to establish a new ambition for 5G, and set out how the UK can realise the full benefits of advanced wireless connectivity. We aim to publish the strategy later this year.