Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to strengthen mobile coverage in developing rural areas.

The Government’s ambition is for all populated areas to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030, this includes rural areas. The Government continues to work closely with the industry to ensure this is delivered, including through the identification and removal of barriers to deployment.

Alongside the commercial rollout of mobile networks, the Government is delivering the Shared Rural Network, which is bringing new 4G coverage to rural and hard to reach communities across the UK through the upgrade of existing infrastructure and the delivery of new sites.