Transparency data

Supporting information for data released at PAC

Published 23 April 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-for-supporting-mobile-connectivity-pac-hearing/supporting-information-for-data-released-at-pac

On 22 April 2024, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) took oral evidence on supporting mobile connectivity. Sarah Munby (Permanent Secretary at Department for Science, Innovation and Technology), Emran Mian CB OBE (Director General for Digital, Technology and Telecoms at Department for Science, Innovation and Technology), and Dean Creamer CBE (Chief Executive at Building Digital UK) gave evidence. 

Some of the evidence that they provided has not been previously published. To meet the Office for Statistics Regulation’s guidance on intelligent transparency, we are publishing supporting information on the newly released data.

1. 93.2% UK-wide 4G coverage 

Ofcom provide BDUK with monthly management information about UK-wide 4G coverage. The most recent estimate is 93.2% coverage as of February 2024. This figure is calculated on the same basis as Ofcom’s Connected Nations reports, but does not undergo the same level of quality assurance as the finalised Connected Nations figures. We are releasing this figure extraordinarily in order to provide the PAC with the most recent data we hold.  

Ofcom’s most recent Connected Nations report, published on 19 December 2023 with a reference date of 1 September 2023, rounded 92.7% up to 93%. 

2. Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme benefits

In our 2020 business case for the SRN, we estimated the benefits from the programme. We took the following steps to quantify benefits:

  1. conducted a comprehensive literature review to identify potential benefits for mobile services in rural areas
  2. generated shortlist of viable use cases to quantify in a model
  3. derived 4G not-spot areas using Ofcom data
  4. combined benefits and coverage analysis, linking mobile services and their value to areas of the UK that do not have 4G coverage from any or some operators
  5. estimated how operators might deploy 4G services
  6. used the model to assess different policy scenarios, varying expected coverage (both geographic and indoor) and the extent of coverage

We estimated that the discounted benefit (after applying a discount factor to reflect the time value of money and the discounted consumer benefit) from the SRN would be £1,352 million. This analysis used a literature and assumption-driven methodology, and there is therefore uncertainty about the scale of the programme benefits.

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