Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
(asked on 10th October 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help improve mobile phone signal in (a) Yeovil constituency and (b) other rural communities.
Answered by
Kanishka Narayan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In Ofcom’s Connected Nations Spring Update, published on 8 May 2025, it is reported that 4G is available across 96% of the Yeovil constituency from all four mobile network operators (MNOs), while 5G is available outside 97% of premises in the constituency from at least one operator.
Our ambition is for all populated areas, including rural areas, to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. Government continues to work closely with the MNOs, ensuring that we have the right policy and regulatory framework in place to support investment into mobile networks and competition in the market. This includes removing barriers to deployment where they exist.
We also continue to work with the MNOs to deliver the Shared Rural Network to boost 4G mobile coverage in rural communities.