Mobile Coverage: Rural Areas
Thursday, 12 November 2026
Contributions
Sir Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)Conservative
13. What steps she is taking to improve mobile coverage in rural areas.
The Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Online Safety (Ian Murray)Labour
The right hon. Gentleman is really showing his experience in the Chamber there. [ Laughter. ] Mobile connectivity is not a “nice to have”; it is an everyday necessity which connects people and communities and drives growth in every postcode. Of course, we cannot have growth in every postcode without connectivity in every postcode. The Government’s ambition is for all populated areas to have access to high-quality stand-alone 5G by 2030.
I will try again. Mobile notspots are a big challenge in parts of North Yorkshire and other rural parts of the UK. The shared rural network has been effective at meeting its targets, but now that those targets have been met, what plans do Ministers have for the remaining notspots to be sorted out?
The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to talk about the success of the shared rural network, but notspots still remain. Direct-to-device technology is one way of resolving those. It is a pragmatic solution for remote areas where terrestrial infrastructure is not viable. Lessons learned from the shared rural network programme demonstrate where this might offer a better solution, including for deployment costs, topography and local opposition to new infrastructure in some areas. We will continue to monitor this closely with the industry and ensure that all the tech is being made available to ensure these notspots disappear.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Ind)Independent
Meur ras ha myttin da, Mr Speaker. With Cornish constituencies ranking on average 628th out of 650 for good-quality mobile coverage, the paucity of our digital connectivity affects businesses, residents and visitors alike. It is an exemplar of market failure. What are Ministers actually doing to correct this Cornish imbalance?
The shared rural network programme has been a huge success, but as I said in answer to the initial question of the right hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon (Sir Julian Smith), there are still notspots and still some infrastructure problems across the country. We are working closely with the mobile networks to ensure that we can resolve those issues. New technology is coming forward all the time, including that direct-to-device satellite technology. I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend to go through the specific issues in his constituency and region to ensure that we have everything covered.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)Green Party
A constituent of mine in her 80s living in a village with no mobile signal has contacted me to share her anxieties about the impending digital switchover. She has done everything asked of her to prepare and has a battery back-up, but she has been told that no fall alarm will work outside her house. She is worried that if there is a power cut that lasts longer than an hour, she will have no way of calling for help. As she put it to me, would it not be sensible to ensure that there was adequate mobile reception everywhere before the digital switchover? Does the Minister recognise these concerns and what will he do to address them?
We have received correspondence on the kind of issues that the hon. Lady raises, and I am happy to meet her directly to go through her constituent’s particular concerns. We have to ensure that nobody is left behind when we are doing any kind of switchover from older to new technologies. We need to ensure in particular that vulnerable customers are looked after. We are working closely with the mobile networks to ensure that that happens and with the broadband providers to ensure that they can get to every part of the country as well.
Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)Labour
Mobile reception is patchy at best in my semi-rural constituency. However, what is clear is when industrial sheds are built close to residential areas, mobile reception deteriorates, like in Ellistown in my constituency. Would the Minister agree to meet me to discuss how we can manage situations like this and prevent them in the future?
I can commit to meeting my hon. Friend to talk about these specific issues. We do a regular telecoms drop-in for MPs, and I encourage all MPs to ensure they come to that so they can meet the mobile network operators and Building Digital UK on the broadband side to ensure that we are covering all these issues. It is not an exact science, so when there are examples like that which my hon. Friend brings forward, I would like to hear about them, so I am happy to meet her.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5436639.