‘How Labour can finally fix Britain’s 5G problem’

In the top left corner of most smartphone screens are four tiny vertical bars with a huge impact. For most of us, phone signal only registers when we don’t have it, as an annoyance. But taken together, across millions of devices up and down the country, the problem is much more serious.

Britain’s connectivity problem is making us an outlier. We have the slowest 5G rollout in the G7. The economic cost is profound: government research suggests that high-quality 5G coverage could add £159 billion to the economy by 2035. Missing out on that growth is not an option – particularly for rural areas like mine.

For too long, Britain has been talking a good game on rural connectivity – but anyone who’s tried to place a call or load a web page on their phone in the countryside knows that Ofcom’s coverage claims don’t match up to reality.

That’s why, together with more than 20 other Labour MPs representing rural constituencies across Britain, I’ve written to the Government to call for action. Ofcom has just launched a welcome review of the mobile market. Now is the time to be clear about the problems we face – and how we fix them.

The first step is being honest about the scale of the challenge — and why Conservative claims about “nationwide coverage” failed to deliver.

At first glance, Ofcom’s coverage mapping looks reassuring: their annual report in 2025 found that up to 97% of buildings in Britain have 5G coverage from at least one mobile network. But there are some big caveats.

If we look at higher quality 5G coverage, that figure falls to 83%. Often, low quality 5G is simply unusable. Even the reduced figure is misleading. It measures signal outside premises – so unless we want rural businesses to be placing calls from their carparks, it’s not the metric that matters.

Counting an area as covered just because it has signal from one major mobile network is also useless in practice. A small business owner in one of my villages may well be able to place a call from their home office – but if they can’t get signal when they visit a supplier in the next village, because that area is covered by a different network, they have a real problem.

In many rural constituencies, not a single premises has 5G signal from all four of the major networks. That means less choice and higher costs for phone contracts.

The fundamental problem is simple: the Conservatives gave us targets for geographical coverage, with no clarity on quality. The last government announced plans for “higher-quality 5G in all populated areas by 2030” — without defining what “higher‑quality” really meant. Targets without standards are not real targets at all.

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In August 2024, Sir Chris Bryant – then Minister for Telecoms – warned Ofcom that its official data was misleading because it failed to reflect user experience. He was right. The illusion of progress has masked a growing digital divide. Labour must fix it.

We can learn from other countries that are doing better. Germany requires operators to deliver high‑quality 5G along major transport routes, including rail lines. France sets clear service‑quality requirements that have driven investment, accelerating rollout and improving reliability.

High‑quality 5G is not a luxury. Getting this right could add the equivalent to £529 per person to the economy by 2035 — and by delivering for rural areas, we’ll make sure we spread that benefit right across Britain.

To do that, we must finally do what successive Governments have avoided for years: set clearer, more enforceable quality standards for phone signal in every part of the country. Ministers must ensure that the mobile market review considers this.

We cannot accept patchy mobile service and empty promises. If we are serious about growth, productivity and opportunity for every community, then fixing our 5G problem must be a priority.

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