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Written question asked by Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 16 December 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 18 December 2025. It was answered by Kanishka Narayan (Labour) on Tuesday, 23 December 2025 on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.


Mobile Broadband: Standards

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of aligning the regulatory standard and the consumer information standard for 5G and 4G mobile coverage.

Answer

For the purpose of this answer, regulatory and consumer standards have been interpreted as how 4G and 5G is referred to by Ofcom in its Connected Nations reports and its consumer coverage checker, ‘Map Your Mobile’, respectively.

The ‘Map Your Mobile’ tool was updated in June 2025 to provide consumers with a definition of ‘good’ mobile coverage, agnostic of any generation of cellular communications. This was done to better reflect what users today expect to do on their mobile device when connected to a mobile network in an easy to understand way.

Network operators do refer to their products slightly differently in some cases, for example, referring to standalone 5G as 5G+ or 5G Ultra. These are marketing terms used for customers and do not reflect a different standard.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
100520
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Standards 4G 5G
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk