Debate contribution: Mobile Coverage in Rural Areas

Debate contribution by Mr Andrew McMurray on 24 September 2024.

MLA

Mr Andrew McMurray

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

24 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Mobile Coverage in Rural Areas

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4644945

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I support the spirit of the motion and the amendment. High-quality mobile coverage is important to our economy, communities and public services. Improving rural connectivity is particularly important. Some rural areas in Northern Ireland are still held back by poor connectivity. That affects business, investment and access to distance education and remote jobs and services. High-speed networks can provide access to important public services like remote GP consultations. New technologies such as agri-tech and virtual reality rely on 5G. Those technologies are particularly relevant for the agriculture and tourism sectors, but 5G is still not widely available in rural areas of Northern Ireland. It is important that our rural economies benefit from those innovative technologies as much as possible. Depending on how it is measured, the extent of 4G coverage by at least one network is, in percentage terms, in the mid to high 90s in rural areas here but is lower in rural areas of Newry and Armagh, south Down and west Tyrone. We need to make sure that areas that do not have indoor access to 4G through any networks are connected as soon as possible. For 5G coverage, the difference between rural and urban areas is much bigger. 5G coverage by at least one provider is rolled out to only about 50% of rural Northern Ireland compared with 80% of urban areas. The UK Government, who are responsible for telecommunications, have a target of delivering stand-alone 5G coverage to all populated areas in the UK by 2030. It is fair to say that our rural areas have some way to go to meet that goal. I recognise that 5G technology presents particular challenges in rural areas. Environmental and aesthetic considerations are also important in rural areas and need to be given due weight. I do not want to see 5G masts installed in any place at any cost, but we still need to ensure that we remove any unnecessary barriers to the technology where possible. Telecommunications are a reserved power, but the delivery of mobile infrastructure projects often overlaps with our devolved planning powers. Updating communications infrastructure often involves building new masts or making existing masts bigger, which requires planning permission. That is typically dealt with at council level. In 2022, the previous Minister for the Economy established a barrier busting task force to identify and address the barriers preventing the fast and efficient deployment of mobile connectivity in Northern Ireland. It includes a planning subgroup that looks at barriers related to the planning system. The Minister for Infrastructure said in July that the group had met twice since 2022 and is at an early stage in its deliberations. It has been nearly two years since that group was established, and we would be interested to know when we can expect deliberations to come to a more mature state. The Minister also advised that we should wait for evidence from the task force before making policy changes. The Alliance Party has always supported evidence-based policy, but the failures of our planning system are extremely well researched. I spoke in the Chamber only last week about some issues in relation to renewable energy infrastructure. The barriers are the lack of progress on local development plans; capacity and skills shortages in planning departments in statutory consultees; the financial sustainability of the planning system; a lack of cooperation between organisations; and poor-quality planning applications. Wind turbines and 5G masts have a lot in common, and I expect that the planning system fails them in similar ways and that many of the problems that our planning system faces have nothing to do with the type of structure in question. Will the evidence from the task force give significant insight, or are we are merely kicking the can down the road? The Alliance Party has long asked for fundamental reform to create a sustainable and functional planning system. Pre-application discussions and checklists for major applications will help to reduce waiting times, as will statutory time frames for determining applications and a sustainable funding model for the planning system.

676 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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