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1580958

registered interest
date	25/01/2023
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) broadband, and (2) mobile phone, connectivity in rural areas.
tabling member printed	Baroness McIntosh of Pickering
uin	HL5089
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/02/2023 answer text <p>Over 73% of premises in the UK can now access gigabit-capable broadband, which is a huge leap forward from January 2019, when coverage was just 6%. The competitive and pro-growth regulatory environment we have created is enabling suppliers to expand their networks to reach more homes and businesses, and we are making excellent progress with Project Gigabit, delivering fast, reliable broadband to rural and hard-to-reach parts of the UK.</p><p>We are awarding a series of contracts to suppliers to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity in areas to which the market will not go without subsidy. We have already awarded six contracts and, in total, have made almost £1 billion of funding available through our live contracts and procurements, covering up to 681,500 premises. We have also recently increased the maximum value of vouchers through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to support suppliers to connect premises in particularly hard-to-reach areas.</p><p>Mobile phone connectivity continues to improve in rural areas via the Government's £1 billion deal with mobile network operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network. The programme will see operators collectively increase the UK’s 4G geographic mobile network coverage to 95%; this will reduce rural ‘not spots’, levelling up coverage between rural and urban areas.</p><p>The operators have already deployed more than 150 new sites and have upgraded over 1,300 sites across the UK since the programme began in 2020. 4G coverage across the UK has increased to 92.2%, as the early impact from the Shared Rural Network took effect.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay question first answered 08/02/2023 17:59:01 answering member 4728 label Biography information for Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay
tabling member	384 label Biography information for Baroness McIntosh of Pickering

1451759

registered interest
date	16/03/2022
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken to help improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	Stockton South
tabling member printed	Matt Vickers
uin	141330
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/03/2022 answer text <p>We are investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit to provide reliable, lightning-fast, future-proofed connectivity in areas not covered by commercial delivery. Project Gigabit is central to how we level up, future-proofing connectivity for decades to come and ensuring no-one is left behind.</p><p>We have already upgraded 600,000 premises to gigabit-capable broadband, and in three years national gigabit coverage has rocketed from six per cent to 66 per cent.</p><p>Procurements under Project Gigabit are now under way in a number of regions across the country to extend this further. Up to 2.5million hard-to-reach premises have been announced as within scope for gigabit procurements and up to £210 million in vouchers is available to help communities that are not in line for commercial or publicly-funded projects right now.</p><p>The Government also recognises the frustration arising from the impact poor mobile coverage has on communities, particularly in rural areas. That is why we agreed a deal with the mobile network operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network programme. This agreement will see the government and industry jointly invest over £1 billion to increase 4G mobile coverage to 95% UK geography by the end of the programme. It will improve coverage for an extra 280,000 premises and 16,000km of roads tackling not-spots and reduce the divide in connectivity between urban and rural areas.</p><p>The four mobile network operators have already commenced work on the first element of the programme, which is funded by industry, and work is already under way and on track to eliminate the majority of partial not-spots - areas of the UK where there is currently coverage from at least one, but not all operators - by mid-2024.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 22/03/2022 16:54:27 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4844 label Biography information for Matt Vickers

1285437

registered interest
date	09/02/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the lack of rural broadband and mobile phone connectivity; and how they plan to address the issue.
tabling member printed	Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
uin	HL13191
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/02/2021 answer text <p>Over 96% of all premises in the UK can access superfast broadband thanks to the success of our Superfast Broadband Programme, meaning the UK has one of the highest levels of rural superfast connectivity in Europe. The Government is committed to further improve the UK’s broadband infrastructure and deliver nationwide gigabit connectivity as soon as possible. As part of this, we are investing an unprecedented £5 billion of subsidy to support the deployment of gigabit broadband in the hardest-to-reach, predominantly rural, areas of the country through our new UK Gigabit Programme.</p><p>We have already made significant progress in connecting rural premises to gigabit speeds and, since 2018, have delivered gigabit-capable connectivity to over half a million homes and businesses in some of the hardest to reach places in the country, through our existing Superfast Broadband and £200 million Rural Gigabit Connectivity programmes.</p><p>The Government is also committed to extending geographic mobile coverage to 95% of the UK. On 9 March 2020, we announced the £1 billion Shared Rural Network deal with the Mobile Network Operators. This landmark deal will see operators collectively increase mobile phone coverage throughout the UK to 95% by the end of programme, underpinned by legally binding coverage commitments.</p><p>On 27 January 2021, the operators Three, O2 and Vodafone announced a joint venture to build and share 222 new masts to boost coverage across the UK to deliver the first stage of the SRN. This will result in increased coverage in each of the UK nations.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 18/02/2021 12:13:25 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	3792 label Biography information for Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

1171228

registered interest
date	16/01/2020
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	What steps her Department is taking to improve (a) broadband and (b) mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	East Hampshire
tabling member printed	Damian Hinds
uin	900207
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2020 answer text <p>The government’s £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme is already supporting rollout of gigabit broadband in rural areas.</p><p>The government has also pledged £5bn of funding for Gigabit broadband in the ‘hardest to reach’, predominantly rural, areas of the UK.</p><p>The government announced in-principle support in October 2019 for the Mobile Network Operators’ Shared Rural Network proposal. It aims to collectively increase 4G mobile coverage throughout the United Kingdom to 95% by 2025.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman grouped question UIN 900211 question first answered 16/01/2020 15:05:41 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds

1171262

registered interest
date	16/01/2020
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	What steps her Department is taking to improve (a) broadband and (b) mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	Eddisbury
tabling member printed	Edward Timpson
uin	900211
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2020 answer text <p>The government’s £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme is already supporting rollout of gigabit broadband in rural areas.</p><p>The government has also pledged £5bn of funding for Gigabit broadband in the ‘hardest to reach’, predominantly rural, areas of the UK.</p><p>The government announced in-principle support in October 2019 for the Mobile Network Operators’ Shared Rural Network proposal. It aims to collectively increase 4G mobile coverage throughout the United Kingdom to 95% by 2025.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman grouped question UIN 900207 question first answered 16/01/2020 15:05:42 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	1605 label Biography information for Edward Timpson

1148104

registered interest
date	03/10/2019
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	What steps her Department is taking to increase (a) broadband and (b) mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	North West Norfolk
tabling member printed	Sir Henry Bellingham
uin	912544
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/10/2019 answer text <p>The government is committed to nationwide rollout of future proof, gigabit-capable broadband as soon as possible. Improving mobile coverage in rural areas is also a priority. We are committed to extending geographic mobile coverage to 95% of the UK and we are considering all of the options available to facilitate this.</p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman question first answered 03/10/2019 13:23:00 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	1441 label Biography information for Lord Bellingham

1020300

registered interest
date	05/12/2018
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	David Duguid
uin	199468
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/12/2018 answer text <p>The Government’s policy is to ensure world-class broadband connectivity across the UK, including in rural areas, and includes the following steps which have been designed to improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.</p><p> </p><p>£1.7 billion of public money is being invested to support vital improvements in superfast broadband coverage across the UK, including in rural areas. In December 2017, we met our target to extend superfast coverage to 95% of UK premises, and we expect to reach at least 97%. .</p><p> </p><p>We have also put in place legislation to create a new Universal Service Obligation giving every household and business the right to request a broadband connection of at least 10 Mbps by 2020, to ensure no-one is left behind. In addition, the Better Broadband Scheme provides additional voucher funding to UK premises that do not have access to an affordable broadband service delivering at least 2Mbps. This will provide a safety net until the USO is in place by 2020</p><p> </p><p>We want to provide world class digital connectivity that is gigabit-capable, reliable, long-lasting and widely available across the UK. We have set ambitious targets - for 15 million premises to be connected to full fibre by 2025, with nationwide coverage by 2033. In the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, we set out our long term national strategy to meet these targets, and to ensure that rural and remote areas are not left behind. Critical to delivering this ambition, is the “outside-in” approach set out in the review, which seeks to ensure that the harder to reach, mostly rural areas which are not viable for commercial investment - are addressed at the same pace as the rest of the country.</p><p> </p><p>The £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) programme announced in the Budget on 29 October 2018 marks the first step in this “outside-in” process and will prioritise the delivery full fibre to premises in rural and remote areas. The RGC builds on the Local Full Fibre Networks programme which includes a £190 million Challenge Fund designed to stimulate commercial investment in full fibre networks in both rural and urban locations across the UK. In addition, Defra has also allocated £30 million of grant funding from the Rural Development Programme for England, targeted at helping to connect businesses with superfast broadband in hard to reach rural areas.</p><p> </p><p>On Mobile services, the Government is committed to ensuring that the UK has good quality, consistent mobile connectivity where people live, work and travel. Mobile coverage has significantly improved over recent years, with 87% of UK landmass having a 4G signal from at least one operator (compared to 78% in 2017). My Department is also working across Government, and with others, to ensure delivery of our manifesto commitment to secure 95% geographic coverage of the UK by 2022. Alongside this work, we welcome the opportunity that Ofcom's proposed 700MHz auction presents to improve mobile coverage across the UK, including in rural areas.</p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 14/12/2018 11:43:04 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	4606 label Biography information for David Duguid

809120

registered interest
date	19/12/2017
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	Shrewsbury and Atcham
tabling member printed	Daniel Kawczynski
uin	903082
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/12/2017 answer text <p>We are taking a wide range of initiatives that will improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.</p><p> </p><p>We have reformed the Electronic Communications Code to make it easier and cheaper to install digital infrastructure. Our ambition is to extend mobile coverage to 95% of the UK’s landmass by 2022 and this will benefit rural areas as well. Ofcom has identified the 700 MHz band as suitable for coverage obligations and we will work with Ofcom to determine the best options.</p><p>95% of UK premises will have access to superfast speeds by the end of 2017 and we expect coverage will be extended beyond that to reach at least a further 2% of premises.</p><p> </p><p>All homes and businesses which are unable to receive a speed of at least 2Mbps can benefit from support from the Better Broadband Scheme. Further information on the Scheme can be found on our website (<a href="https://basicbroadbandchecker/" target="_blank">https://basicbroadbandchecker</a>.<a href="http://culture.gov.uk/guide-to-" target="_blank">culture.gov.uk/guide-to-</a>better-broadband-subsidy-scheme.pdf).</p><p><br>As confirmed in our announcement yesterday, we are pushing ahead with our plans for a Universal Service Obligation so that by 2020 everyone across the UK will have a clear, enforceable right to high speed broadband.</p><p><br>As part of the Local Full Fibre Network programme, a £4.66 million pilot project has begun to deliver fibre connections to public buildings across West Sussex, including Chichester.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matt Hancock grouped question UIN 903083 question first answered 21/12/2017 16:59:50 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1566 label Biography information for Daniel Kawczynski

809138

registered interest
date	19/12/2017
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Broadband and Mobile Phones: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	Chichester
tabling member printed	Gillian Keegan
uin	903083
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/12/2017 answer text <p>We are taking a wide range of initiatives that will improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.</p><p> </p><p>We have reformed the Electronic Communications Code to make it easier and cheaper to install digital infrastructure. Our ambition is to extend mobile coverage to 95% of the UK’s landmass by 2022 and this will benefit rural areas as well. Ofcom has identified the 700 MHz band as suitable for coverage obligations and we will work with Ofcom to determine the best options.</p><p>95% of UK premises will have access to superfast speeds by the end of 2017 and we expect coverage will be extended beyond that to reach at least a further 2% of premises.</p><p> </p><p>All homes and businesses which are unable to receive a speed of at least 2Mbps can benefit from support from the Better Broadband Scheme. Further information on the Scheme can be found on our website (<a href="https://basicbroadbandchecker/" target="_blank">https://basicbroadbandchecker</a>.<a href="http://culture.gov.uk/guide-to-" target="_blank">culture.gov.uk/guide-to-</a>better-broadband-subsidy-scheme.pdf).</p><p><br>As confirmed in our announcement yesterday, we are pushing ahead with our plans for a Universal Service Obligation so that by 2020 everyone across the UK will have a clear, enforceable right to high speed broadband.</p><p><br>As part of the Local Full Fibre Network programme, a £4.66 million pilot project has begun to deliver fibre connections to public buildings across West Sussex, including Chichester.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matt Hancock grouped question UIN 903082 question first answered 21/12/2017 16:59:50 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	4680 label Biography information for Gillian Keegan