Consultation outcome

Shared Rural Network (SRN) consultation document

Updated 18 March 2024

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

1. Background

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.

2. Total-Not-Spot (TNS) network deployment

The SRN programme is structured so that its publicly funded elements address areas where market failures persist, and are therefore targeted at 4G ‘white areas’ i.e. areas where there is no coverage and which are unlikely to see any roll-out in the near future.^{[footnote 1]} Given the clear cost savings involved, the SRN will encourage the use of existing infrastructure where practical. For example, part of the grant will provide for MNO deployment on Extended Area Services (EAS) masts being built across the UK as part of the Home Office’s Emergency Services Network programme. However, these sites are not subject to this consultation, as they have been predetermined and EAS locations were subject to a consultation in September 2015.

DCMS is committing grant funding of c.£301m to Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited (DMSL) for the TNS deployment, a joint delivery vehicle which the four MNOs have repurposed to be the recipient of the grant funding and to support such delivery. This will fund the construction of entirely new infrastructure for areas where there is currently no coverage at all.

A further c.£53 million funding is available to DMSL for the purchase and maintenance of the radio equipment required to upgrade the Home Office sites which are not subject to this consultation process. DCMS is also providing approximately £130m to the Home Office to upgrade EAS masts being built as part of the Emergency Services Network (ESN) to make them usable by the four MNOs.^{[footnote 2]}

In accordance with licence obligations, the MNOs submitted their initial radio plans to Ofcom by 31 July 2020, outlining where they forecast coverage improvements will be delivered. These plans will be subject to change as more work is undertaken to assess the feasibility of sites.

The publicly funded elements of the SRN will be procured in line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. In line with applicable procurement law and government guidance, there will be a role for the whole supply chain in the procurement process. More information can be found on the SRN website: https://srn.org.uk/procurement/

3. Purpose

We are keen to hear from those who may be in a position to support the TNS network deployment in the target areas demonstrated in Appendix A via this consultation process. 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.

4. Consultation questions

1. If you are a provider of digital infrastructure services, do you have any current or planned (next 3 years) investments in the TNS target areas indicated in red on the maps?

2. If you are an interested party regarding digital infrastructure services, do you have any current or planned (next 3 years) investments in the TNS target areas indicated in red on the maps?

3. If you are a member of the public, do you have or are you aware of any current or planned (next 3 years) investments in the TNS target areas indicated in red on the maps?

4. If you have answered yes to any of the questions above, please provide information concerning current or planned (next 3 years) investments in the TNS target areas indicated in red on the maps.

5. Responding to this public consultation

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 [email protected] or in writing to:

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

1. The majority of intervention areas currently receive no 3G coverage, though there is overspill. The MNOs initial calculations suggest that the current level of 3G overlap into the TNS areas would be around 4.1% or 0.35% of absolute geographical coverage. (This figure may be subject to change as MNO radio plans develop). ↩

2. The ESN was previously approved by the European Commission under SA 38863 (2015/N). ↩