Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to provide reliable broadband service to rural areas that fall into the category of ‘Very Hard to Reach’, and outside of the scope of contracts already awarded as part of the roll out of Project Gigabit.

Through a combination of commercial market and government subsidised delivery, government is ensuring 99% of UK premises will have access to gigabit-capable broadband by 2032. However, our expectation is that some remote premises will remain too expensive to build a gigabit connection to.

The market for ultrafast, alternative connections via technologies such as LEO satellite and 5G fixed wireless access is developing at pace. Government continues to monitor and support the development of this market, including encouraging spectrum releases and ground station deployments, with many remote premises are already adopting these services

We continue to consider what the government can do to further enable alternatives to fibre connections, for premises located in very hard to reach and rural areas.