PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Access to Telecommunications Networks Bill - 26 January 2024 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Second time.

The Access to Telecommunications Networks Bill seeks to ensure that, wherever someone lives, they can choose which operator their mobile phone will connect to. We had a Westminster Hall debate on this on Wednesday, so there is an inevitable element of repetition, but if something is worth saying once, it is probably worth saying twice, and there was good cross-party support for improving and speeding up the roll-out of the shared rural network.

The network is the Government’s scheme to increase 4G coverage from 91% to 95% of the UK land mass by 2025, and it is welcome, as is the Government’s investment of half a billion pounds on new masts for total notspots where no signal is available. However, the roll-out is not progressing as quickly as we would like, so this Bill seeks to improve or speed up the rate at which people in places in my constituency such as Cockshutt, Woore or West Felton get a usable phone signal from more than one provider wherever they travel in the local area.

Improved rural coverage is really important for all sorts of reasons. Most importantly to me, it is one of the top issues raised by my constituents—I had a series of open meetings over the summer where it came up time and again as something that people find frustrating in their daily lives—and if it is their issue, it is my issue. That is one of the reasons why I have been so keen to pursue it in this place.

According to a survey for the Country Land and Business Association, 80% of rural business owners said that improved connectivity would make the single largest improvement to their business. That is partly because they struggle to recruit, which is linked to poor public transport, but it is also important for the people they might want to employ to be able to access a wider range of job opportunities and to work flexibly from home in a way that is not always currently available to people in rural areas.

Mobile phones have been cited as the default back-up option in a power cut once the copper landline network is switched off in the next couple of years. I emphasise how concerning that is, particularly to elderly constituents who might be a little less familiar with “voice over internet” technology, as well as everybody in the area who is worried about what happens when a big power cut occurs. Because we are rural, our power is not put back online as quickly as in some urban areas, and while back-up batteries for routers will last for one to two hours, we are sometimes off for much longer than that. Someone at home on their own in the dark and frightened might want to be able to call someone other than the emergency services in the event of a power cut. It is really important that people can access their mobile provider—whoever that might be—when the power is down.

Respondents to a survey recently conducted by Building Digital UK cited poor mobile coverage as a major factor exacerbating poor outcomes from agricultural injuries. I do not wish to dwell on disaster, but a couple of years ago we saw a number of combine harvester fires across my constituency. If such people are in a partial notspot, they can already ring 999 from their phone, but in that situation they might want to call all sorts of other people to help them.

It is not just 999 calls that are needed. Just over a year ago, I did a shift with an ambulance crew, where the crew used a mobile signal to download patient data on to their tablets to help with patients’ conditions. We visited an elderly lady near Ellesmere who was very poorly, and although we were quite close to the town centre, the crew could not download her medical record, so her care was necessarily compromised compared with what somebody in an urban area might expect.

Finally, improved rural coverage would reduce digital inequality, which is talked about a lot in this place. Many people do not feel that comfortable on a full broadband-connected computer but have learned how to use a phone—it is part of everyday life—and if they cannot use it as they move around on their daily routine, they are left out to a great extent.

We all understand that there are technical challenges to building masts in rural areas—not least in getting a power supply out there—and that that is why there is a disparity between rural and urban areas. That is a fact of life when living in a rural area—I think people do understand that—but North Shropshire is one of the worst served areas in the country. Less than 60% of premises have coverage indoors from all operators, when the average for the whole of the UK is 86%. Once we move away from the towns and into the villages, less than one in three can choose which operator they have in their home.

As we know—we have talked about this at length and the Minister acknowledged it in oral questions recently—the coverage data is very optimistic and does not always reflect what is happening on the ground. For example, in North Shropshire I have been to talk to people in Trefonen, where some maps say they should have coverage but that is not the lived experience. There is also a capacity issue whereby the coverage might be there but calls might drop out regularly because other people are linked up to that mast at the same time. The data we use to assess the success of the roll-out is therefore very important.

As I mentioned, the shared rural network has involved the four mobile network operators spending half a billion pounds to end partial notspots. Because EE already had an extensive network of mobile masts, it has already met its obligations even though the deadline was June 2024—it is six months ahead—but according to reports in The Daily Telegraph, the other three providers have requested a delay. That is down to a number of reasons, some of which are difficult to overcome, such as lack of planning resource, the logistical challenges I mentioned earlier, and issues over access to land. Those are impacting the delivery of the shared rural network. It is interesting that not a single mast that will be delivered by the Government for the total notspots has been built yet, according to the House of Commons Library briefing.

There are challenges that are difficult to overcome, but part of the problem is that EE has not shared its masts, because it has failed to reach agreement with the other mobile network operators. That is a commercial issue and was part of the commercial negotiations, so whether EE was asking for too high a rate, or whether the other mobile operators were offering too low a rate, is a matter of perspective, but the reality is that we could have achieved better coverage without blighting the countryside with loads of additional masts if those operators had shared their network equipment effectively. That is where this Bill comes in, because it would ensure that operators share their equipment wherever possible, and would penalise them where they do not. The rate at which they would share it would be determined by Ofcom to help ease the commercial discussion along.

Sometimes sharing is not possible—sometimes a bigger, wider, stronger mast is needed and that might not be possible—and that brings me to the solution of rural roaming, which is strongly opposed by the industry. The industry argues that it causes shortened battery life, people might drop calls, it does not deal with total notspots and, perhaps most importantly, it would undermine future investment, presumably because competitive advantage would be undermined. However, an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report in 2019 said that it would achieve an equivalent result to the shared rural network and be achievable in around 18 months. An Ofcom report in 2018 said that the cost did not appear disproportionate.

Since those reports, the shared rural network agreement has been signed, but there are significant concerns about the speed of roll-out, the quality of the data we are using to judge success, and the fact that this is yesterday’s technology and we are not yet there in the countryside—while the rest of the country is hoping to get 5G or stand-alone 5G in the near future. The Bill would address those shortfalls by requiring the Secretary of State to improve rural roaming by incentivising companies to engage in that work.

In conclusion, I cannot emphasise enough—separately from the mechanism of this Bill—the importance of having better data so that when the shared rural network is assessed against its objectives, we can see what people are experiencing on the ground. We know that rural roaming will not happen unless we force the companies to do it, because they have already shown such strong resistance, and the Government have acknowledged that.

This Bill would work alongside the shared rural network by taking steps to improve the infrastructure sharing and encouraging rural roaming wherever possible. People might be with an operator that works at their home, and they could be out and about in their day when their mum falls over at home. She might call an ambulance, but she cannot get hold of that person to tell them. That is problematic in the modern age. We need to ensure that people in rural areas are connected wherever they go, not just when they are in their home or place of work.