Recommendation 16

We were concerned about the people in the 5% of the UK landmass that would have no 4G coverage after December 2025, and whether these communities would lose out forever. The Department assured us that the 5% consisted of the most unpopulated areas of the country, such as extremely remote parts of the Highlands of Scotland. These were extremely rural areas where broadly nobody lives and where there were low levels of people travelling through. The Department pointed out that 95% coverage of the UK landmass would still mean that 99% of UK premises would be reached. As a result, only a very small number of people would have no 4G coverage. The Department’s business case for the programme had shown that the benefits of building significant amounts of infrastructure in really remote areas for very small numbers of beneficiaries ‘fell off a cliff’ beyond 95% coverage.28