Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has set (a) targets and (b) timelines for implementing universal mobile coverage in rural constituencies.

The Government’s ambition is for all populated areas to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. This ambition includes villages and rural communities as well as towns and cities, and Government continues to work closely with the mobile network operators (MNOs) to ensure there is continued investment into the expansion and improvement of mobile networks right across the UK.

The Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme, which is jointly funded by the Government and the UK’s main MNOs, achieved its objective of 4G geographic coverage being available across 95% of the UK landmass by end-2025 more than a year early.

In rural areas, where there is either limited or no mobile coverage, we continue to work with the industry to deliver new coverage to these communities as well as monitor developments in the Direct to Device satellite market.