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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the rollout of the mobile phone Shared Rural Network will be fully delivered by 2025

The Shared Rural Network remains on track and both the Government and the mobile network operators remain confident that their combined coverage is expected to be delivered to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025, with areas around the UK starting to see improvements to 4G coverage long before completion. The four operators have already commenced work on the first element of the Shared Rural Network which is funded by the industry, and are on track to eliminate the majority of partial not-spots - areas where there is currently coverage from at least one, but not all, operators - by mid-2024. Coverage upgrades in many partial not-spot areas are already being delivered, with work to improve coverage in other areas in progress. The 2021 Ofcom Connected Nations report, published in December, demonstrates increased coverage across the whole UK by the mobile network operators, including 46 deployments towards their Shared Rural Network commitments.