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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to improve mobile signal connectivity in rural areas.

Improving mobile coverage in rural areas is a priority for the Government, and we want the UK to have high-quality mobile coverage where people live, work and travel. We are committed to extending geographic mobile coverage to 95% of the UK, as well as providing an uninterrupted mobile signal on all major roads, and we are considering all of the options available to facilitate this.

The Government is working closely with the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to consider their proposal for a Shared Rural Network. Their proposal is still being developed and my department looks forward to hearing more about the industry’s potential solution to the issue of rural mobile coverage.

My department also welcomes the current proposals set out in Ofcom’s consultation on awarding the 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz spectrum bands to improve coverage, which aims to deliver two MNOs to 90% geographic mobile coverage.