Mark Menzies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2014-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve mobile internet connectivity in rural areas.

Mr Edward Vaizey

One of the licences granted in the 2013 4G auction contains a demanding indoor coverage obligation. The owner of this licence, Telefonica O2 UK, is obliged to provide indoor coverage for 4G mobile services to at least 98 per cent of the UK population (and to at least 95 per cent of the population of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales respectively) by the end of 2017. Ofcom expects that this level of indoor coverage will result in approximately 99 per cent outdoor coverage. As a result of the competitive UK telecoms market, all four of the UK mobile network operators have publicly committed to provide this level of coverage by the end of 2015.

There is also likely to be further improvement in 2G and 3G coverage as a result of increasing roll out of combined 2G/3G/4G equipment by the industry.

However, sometimes it is not commercially viable for operators to install and operate base stations and associated infrastructure in areas of very low population. On 3 October 2011, the Government announced the Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP) with up to £150 million funding to extend mobile phone coverage to remote and rural area across the country that currently receive no coverage from any network. The scheme sees Government provide the capital funding for Arqiva as contractors to build the new infrastructure. The four mobile network operators (EE, Telefonica, Three and Vodafone) will provide coverage from the sites and cover operating costs for the twenty year life of the project. The project is currently underway and is expected to deliver by 2015. It is focussed primarily on improving voice coverage but is also likely to improve data coverage. Details of this work can be found on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/making-it-easier-for-the-communications-and-telecoms-industries-to-grow-while-protecting-the-interests-of-citizens/supporting-pages/improving-mobile-coverage

Ofcom has also published a plan to improve mobile coverage: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2013/11/five-point-plan-to-improving-mobile-coverage/

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