Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what comparative assessment has she made of the adequacy of mobile mast density in the UK with other European countries.

No assessment has been made of the comparative adequacy of mobile mast density in the UK against other European countries. It would be difficult to compare these across markets in a meaningful way as the mast density will be dependent on factors including market structure, topology, reusability and sharing of infrastructure, as well as spectrum availability.

Our ambition is for all populated areas to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030; this is commercially led and it is for network operators to define infrastructure deployment plans to deliver this ambition. Network operators have committed significant investment that align with Government’s ambition and already made significant progress with Ofcom reporting that as of January 2026, standalone 5G is available outside of 93% of premises across the UK from at least one operator.