Written question asked by Lord Smith of Finsbury (Labour) on Tuesday, 25 March 2025, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 8 April 2025. It was answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour) on Tuesday, 8 April 2025 on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Shared Rural Network

Question: To ask His Majesty's Government what further consideration they have given to the size and coverage of the Shared Rural Network programme, and whether they have made any change to the scale of the programme or number of masts required as a result.

Answer: The Shared Rural Network (SRN) has already delivered significant coverage improvements across the UK. However, there are still rural parts of the UK where there is either limited or no mobile coverage. The government-funded parts of the SRN will deliver this new coverage by utilising existing Home Office masts across Great Britain and building new masts in Scotland. We continue to work with the four mobile network operators to minimise the number of new masts required in Scotland and now expect to meet this part of the programme’s objectives with far fewer masts than originally planned. We expect to reach a position on exactly how many new masts will be built in Scotland soon.

Secondary information