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<p>This Government understands the frustration arising from the impact poor mobile
coverage has on some communities, particularly in rural and remote areas. That is
why we agreed a deal with the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to deliver the Shared
Rural Network (SRN) which will extend 4G coverage to 95% of the UK landmass by the
end of 2025, underpinned by legally binding spectrum obligations.</p><p>The SRN will
improve mobile coverage for an extra 280,000 premises and 16,000km of roads and will
lead to increases in coverage across all four nations, with the biggest coverage improvements
in rural parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.</p><p>In fact the programme
is already delivering coverage improvements across the UK with 4G coverage now at
92%, up from 91% when the SRN agreement was signed in March 2020. The MNOs have now
deployed more than 150 new sites and have upgraded over 1,500 sites across the UK.
On 3 May we announced the activation of the first government-funded SRN phone mast
upgrade in Lockerbie, Scotland.</p><p>As part of our Wireless Infrastructure Strategy,
we have asked Ofcom to improve the accuracy of their reporting of mobile coverage
and network performance in rural areas.</p>
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