Efforts to increase 4G coverage to 95% of the UK’s landmass by the end of 2025 may not be sustainable and are at risk of being missed, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have said.

While the rate of infrastructure roll-out has been at the pace necessary to reach the target, the remaining locations will be harder to reach and connect compared to the work that has been done thus far.

In 2020, the four major operators – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone – signed a £1bn deal to expand rural mobile network coverage by sharing their infrastructure to help boost coverage in hard-to-reach areas.

But the PAC warned that the Shared Rural Network programme was facing cost pressures as the price of delivering new masts has been higher than expected. It is also unclear who will be responsible for bearing the cost increases. At the time of its launch, 4G coverage was estimated at 91.4% of the UK landmass – four years in, coverage is now at 93.1%.

It also found that the Department for Science, Innovation...