Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what information her Department holds on the quality of 5G UK mobile services compared to (a) France, (b) Germany, (c) the USA, (d) China, (e) Spain and (f) other international counterparts.

The department uses Ofcom's Connected Nations data which includes metrics on geographic, indoor and outdoor premises coverage across the UK. Ofcom describes quality of service using coverage confidence levels and signal strength thresholds. The methodology is available at: CN2025 - Methodology Annex.

The department is aware of various external data sources, including the EU commission’s 5G Observatory report 2025 | Shaping Europe’s digital future, The Mobile Economy 2025 - The Mobile Economy and Global Network Excellence Index | Opensignal that publish a variety of metrics for international comparisons. While direct comparisons between countries are difficult to draw, this is an invaluable input into informing the department’s policy development.

The EU commission published data on 5G coverage for households at the end of 2024 which showed that coverage in the UK at the end of 2024 (95%) was on par with India, China and ahead of France (94%) and the EU (94.3%), but behind South Korea (100%), Japan (99.2%), Norway, Iceland and Germany (all 99%) as well as Spain (95.7%) and USA (97.0%). Since this assessment, UK 5G coverage outside premises has increased to 97%.