5G Connectivity: Telford and West Midlands
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Kanishka Narayan)
First and foremost, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Telford (Shaun Davies) for securing this Adjournment debate. Throughout his entire tenure as the local MP, he has been a relentless champion for the people of Telford on the question of 5G and mobile coverage. He has listened closely to those he represents in person and through surveys. He has represented their voices in the media and to my hon. Friend the Minister for the Digital Economy in the other place, and he has done that again in this debate with both an impressive speech and a deep understanding of Telford.
Mobile coverage is an extremely important topic, which is reflected in the amount of interest shown across from the House in any parliamentary activity on the subject. Access to high-quality, reliable and secure mobile connectivity is critical for people to participate effectively in the modern digital economy. It is essential for day-to-day life in many cases. Whether it is to run a business online, to access essential public services, to manage finances online, to contact GP surgeries or to stay in touch with loved ones, we all need reliable mobile connectivity.
The Government have an ambition for all populated areas to have access to higher-quality stand-alone 5G by 2030. That of course includes Telford and areas right across the west midlands. It is true that Ofcom currently reports that stand-alone 5G is available outside of only 1% of premises across my hon. Friend’s constituency. That is clearly unacceptable. I am also conscious that the picture has slightly updated in recent months, and I will take the opportunity to shine some light on that. The published coverage stats were last collected in July last year, and there has been some improvement in the picture since then. We expect that the figure will further increase significantly in the next report published by Ofcom as reporting catches up with network roll-out.
Mobile network operators are investing significantly to improve coverage and I know that progress continues at pace. I have been assured that that is leading to coverage improvements in many areas, including Telford. The operators’ significant investment plans are public. VodafoneThree has committed £11 billion as a result of the merger, BT has an ambition to deliver stand-alone 5G to 99% of the UK population by the end of financial year 2030, and Virgin Media O2, as part of its mobile transformation plan, committed £700 million of further investment in its mobile network nationwide.
In preparation for this debate, officials have engaged with the operators to understand their specific coverage improvement plans in my hon. Friend’s constituency and across the west midlands. BT has confirmed that, in line with its announcement of October of last year, 99% of residents across the Telford constituency can now access stand-alone 5G. I will come to points of dissatisfaction between that claim and the wider experience of people in Telford imminently.
VodafoneThree has confirmed that stand-alone 5G coverage will increase in the Telford constituency to 100% by its first reporting milestone in 2028, in line with its merger commitments. Virgin Media O2 has made strides to improve mobile coverage across the west midlands, including boosting 4G and 5G capacity across Coventry and deploying stand-alone 5G small cells in Birmingham city centre in 2024. That feedback from operators starts to show the significant progress being made in rolling out stand-alone 5G across Telford and the west midlands region. I encourage all Members to contact the operators if they too would like to understand plans for their constituency.
I am deeply sorry to hear of the difficulties that my hon. Friend reports about the reliability of services in the region. I recognise that in our modern economy and way of life, services need to be reliable for everyone in all parts of the country. Communications providers have legal obligations to ensure that their services are appropriately resilient, as overseen by Ofcom, and I recommend that if customers are having continuing difficulties, as my hon. Friend has mentioned, they can contact their provider and, in the instance of serious and repeated failures, also report to Ofcom.
At this point, may I raise the particular issue that my hon. Friend has highlighted about the discrepancy between people’s lived experience and the reported data? It is an experience familiar to me, both from my constituency and more widely, and Government recognise that there are discrepancies in cases between the lived experience of people and the level of coverage that Ofcom reports.
The launch of our Map Your Mobile tool in June last year was a positive step forward, but the work of our Government does not stop there. We have restated in our proposed statement of strategic priorities for Ofcom the importance of continuing to improve the reporting of mobile coverage, for example, by building on the launch of the tool through the exploration of measured and crowdsourced data. Alongside that, I also point out that the Streetwave coverage checker is a tool available on the River Severn Partnership website which has also been funded by Government and the 5G Innovation Regions project. I am conscious that that, in particular, includes my hon. Friend’s constituency in Telford.
I understand my hon. Friend’s concerns about flooding in his local area. I know he has brought that up with the Department. There are potential safety risks arising when flooding is combined with a lack of mobile signal, and I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important issue. Clearly, it is right to raise the risk to public safety so that it can be looked into and addressed accordingly. In relation to mobile signal, I hope that some of the information provided starts to give him some reassurance on what is available in the local area and what is planned for the future. I am happy to work with him and colleagues from both the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency so that the matters that he has raised can be investigated by the correct authorities.
As I know my hon. Friend will be aware, satellite services can provide another new means of connecting residents in otherwise hard-to-reach areas. I am pleased that the rapid advance of low Earth orbit technology for satellites means that the performance of services is also increasing through that measure. As well as satellite services offering home broadband that are already on the market, Vodafone and O2 have both announced that direct-to-mobile device services will launch and be available to consumers this year.
To help operators achieve their ambitious roll-out plans, we continue to work closely with them to identify and remove barriers to deployment where it is practical to do so. That includes implementing the remaining provisions of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 and launching a call for evidence to see where planning rules can be relaxed to support the deployment of mobile infrastructure. Alongside that work at national level, we have also provided funding to both the west midlands and Shropshire as part of our 5G Innovation Regions programme to increase the uptake of 5G services and to drive investment in networks.
I know that we need to do more to ensure investment in high-quality mobile connectivity. That is why we are undertaking a full mobile market review. We want to understand better the factors impacting investment in widespread high-quality mobile connectivity and what more the Government can do to support it over the long term. We will soon be publishing a call for evidence to support our assessment and we encourage all relevant parties to engage with this process. I also encourage all Members of the House to be champions of digital infrastructure deployment. It is only through working in our constituencies, with constituents and with the local planning authority, that we can together champion digital connectivity.
Finally, I would like to repeat my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Telford for securing this debate on such an important topic, and to all Members who have intervened and contributed to the debate today. It would, of course, be remiss of me not to end on a note of acceptance of his kind invitation. I will be very happy, either directly or through my hon. Friend in the other place, to visit him and to support his hard work for the people of Telford.