Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to assess the service provided by Vodafone and other mobile operators in remote areas to ensure that they are complying with their operating licences.

The coverage outcomes that the mobile network operators committed to as part of the Shared Rural Network and that were then added to their spectrum licences are overseen by Ofcom, with regular reporting throughout the life of the programme to ensure agreed obligations and targets are met. Compliance with these obligations will be assessed by Ofcom at the end of June 2024, by when each operator has committed to have reached 88% geographic coverage of the UK, and 2027 when each operator has committed to have reached at least 90% geographic coverage of the UK. Progress towards these outcomes is published in the regular Ofcom Connected Nations reports.