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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made on developing capacity to implement the policy of making the UK a world leader in the development of 5G technologies.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK seizes the chance to be a world leader in the development of 5G, and the UK has actively participated in the global process for setting 5G standards.

We have asked the Future Communications Challenge Group (FCCG) of senior academics, industry experts and funders to consider how to drive forward the Government's commitment in this area. In parallel the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) is conducting a study, launched at Budget 2016, into how the UK can achieve early deployment of 5G networks. These reports will feed into a comprehensive 5G strategy for the UK, to be published in 2017.