Shared Rural Network consultation

The Shared Rural Network (SRN) is a world-leading £1 billion government deal with the UK’s four Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) EE, O2, Three and Vodafone, that will see both public and private investment in a network of new and existing phone masts closing not-spots and levelling up connectivity across every corner of the UK.

This SRN programme is split between public and privately funded elements. Government is investing over £500 million to significantly reduce total not-spots (TNS) - those hard-to-reach areas where there is currently no coverage from any operator, as well as upgrading the Home Office Extended Area Service masts. The four operators collectively invest over £530 million in a shared network of new and existing phone masts. This will help tackle partial not spots (PNS) - areas where there is currently coverage from at least one, but not all operators.

The TNS investment has been developed in compliance with the UK’s subsidy obligations under the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA), including the publication of a transparency notice on 11 March 2021. The notice sets out how the programme is consistent with the subsidy principles contained in the TCA and, including so as to pursue better coverage to remedy market failures in a proportionate way and mitigate any negative effects to EU–UK trade and investment.

We are keen to hear from those who may be in a position to support the TNS network deployment in the target areas (see Appendix A of the attached consultation document). This could be through ownership of specific telecommunications infrastructure or where there are plans to build such infrastructure. EAS locations are demonstrated on this map for completeness but are not in scope of this consultation.

The consultation also helps the programme to ensure that the “subsidy is proportionate and limited to what is necessary to achieve the objective”, one of the core principles governing domestic subsidy control that UK subsidies are required to satisfy in line with international commitments in the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation agreement (TCA). Responses will be assessed in terms of their viability and commercial decisions taken by DMSL and the operators.

When responding to these questions, DCMS would be grateful if you could provide the following information:

• Your organisation’s name
• Your organisation’s address
• Your name
• Position
• Email address

Please send your response to arrive no later than 27 July 2021. You can respond via email to bduk-srn@dcms.gov.uk or in writing to:

Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2BQ
United Kingdom