Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has assessed the suitability of incentives to build mobile network infrastructure to meet the needs of rural areas.

Jointly funded by the Government and the UK’s mobile network operators, the Shared Rural Network is utilising Government funding to incentivise mobile network operators to deliver commercial outdoor mobile coverage in rural areas, where there was previously limited or no 4G coverage at all. The programme has successfully delivered its main objective of 95% 4G geographic coverage from at least one operator by the end of 2025 and will continue to deliver coverage improvements until it closes in January 2027.

Government is also committed to ensuring the policy and regulatory framework drives investment in widespread high-quality mobile connectivity across the UK, including working to identify and address barriers to deployment of mobile infrastructure where appropriate. To support this, we have recently launched the Mobile Market Review call for evidence, calling on stakeholders to provide detailed evidence on how developments across the sector impact investment in connectivity over the long-term and what more Government can do to support this. The call for evidence is open for responses until 5 May 2026.