Recommendation 33

The mobile service company Ericsson wrote to us about the UK National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) Second National Infrastructure Assessment which stated that the government should prepare to act fast to support 5G deployment in areas where the market is unwilling to deliver.64 The Department told us it is reluctant to spend public money on building infrastructure that the private sector would build for itself “within 56 C&AG’s Report, paras 15, 4.3, footnote 8 57 Qq 53–54, 57 58 Q 62; C&AG’s Report, para 15 59 Qq 17, 52, 55; C&AG’s Report, para 4.4 60 C&AG’s Report, para 15 61 Qq 52–53, 61 62 Q 56 63 Q 58 64 Ericsson (SMC0006) 18 Supporting mobile connectivity a reasonable timeframe”. It told us that its policy is that the roll-out of infrastructure should be commercially-led and that it currently has no plans to directly support 5G roll-out in the same way as it did for 4G. It was waiting to see how willing the mobile network operators are to invest and how far the commercial roll-out gets before deciding if government investment is needed.65