Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment has she made of the potential merits of introducing a legal definition of adequate mobile signal.

As part of the Government’s Mobile Market Review call for evidence, we asked how Government should think about, and define, ‘good’ mobile coverage in relation to quality of service provided to consumers, businesses and the public sector. We also asked what steps Government could take to ensure operators are able to provide this.

The call for evidence closed on 5 May; we are now reviewing responses and determining appropriate policy options with a view to setting out next steps later this year.

Whilst not a legal definition, Ofcom recently proposed a good performance standard for consumers for discussion in their ‘Connectivity you can count on’ discussion paper, published 3^rd June 2026; this can be found at the following link

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/coverage-and-speeds/mobile-connectivity-you-can-count-on