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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on the roll out 5G; and when 5G will be available in North Herefordshire.

As part of our commitment to becoming a world leader in 5G, the government has been working to ensure we build the right conditions for commercial investment in 5G. One part of this work has been the significant investment made to establish a nationally coordinated 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme, which continues to build the business case for 5G in Britain.

Another component has been the establishment of the Barrier Busting Task Force, which continues to look to identify barriers to 5G deployment and work with industry, local authorities, and others to overcome them.

This work has contributed to the 5G rollout beginning earlier than expected, with all four Mobile Network Operators having launched their 5G offerings as of last year. Currently a 5G signal is available, from at least one operator, in over 50 major cities and towns across the UK, with a further 18 locations expected to be covered by the end of 2020.

It is important to note that the vast majority of commercial rollout of 5G services will be delivered by industry, according to their own timeframes. As such, it is difficult to confirm exactly when 5G services will be available in North Herefordshire.

In the interim, government is working closely with the Mobile Network Operators on the Shared Rural Network proposal to provide high quality 4G coverage to 95 percent of the UK.

This proposal will help reduce the amount of partial not spots - area where this is currently only coverage from at least one, but not all operators - and total not spots - areas with no coverage from any operator, ensuring good 4G signal wherever people live, work and travel.

Harder to reach areas, such as rural and remote spots within North Herefordshire, are expected to see the greatest benefit from the proposal.