Shared Rural Network

Infrastructure and Construction

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £328.2m
Published schedule: 11/03/2020 – 11/02/2041
NISTA delivery confidence: Not disclosed
Senior responsible owner: Ben Whitestone

What the project is for

The Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme is a deal between government and the four Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) - EE, Virgin Media O2, Vodafone and Three (with obligations flowing through to any subsequent merged entity). It has achieved its overarching objectives of delivering 4G coverage to 95% of UK landmass, 280,000 premises and 16,000km of roads over 12 months ahead of the programme deadline of the end of 2025, with the most significant coverage improvements in rural parts of Scotland and Wales. The SRN programme is split between public and privately funded elements and underpinned by the MNOs’ spectrum licence obligations. In line with the six-year capital funding period, the MNOs’ legally binding spectrum obligations for the SRN must be achieved by January 2027 and the programme will continue to deliver coverage improvements up to that point. Having achieved the overarching objectives of the SRN programme, government and the MNOs agreed a revised plan in July 2025 to target the remaining deployment of infrastructure in places where the benefits will be felt the most.

Departmental delivery commentary

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 increased to Green. This is primarily due to the programme having delivered its overarching objectives for coverage, premises and roads‚ a year ahead of schedule. The SRN Programme team has completed actions to implement the recommendations of the January 2025 Gateway 0 Review. These focused on refining the remaining delivery of the programme (given achievement of the overall objectives) to maximise effectiveness of the governance and value derived from the programme, improving communications to further align and strengthen stakeholder support, and ensuring the team's operating model is ready for the longer-term grant funding claims operation. The revised, targeted portfolio agreed with the MNOs in July 2025 is now in delivery alongside enhanced reporting requirements to monitor delivery progress effectively. BDUK has implemented a plan to support an increased volume of grant claims, which was informed by findings from a GIAA audit of the SRN programme’s grant management processes.

Schedule

The Grant Agreement allocates funding up to and including FY 2040/41. The Transparency Notice was published on 11/03/2021, stating that SRN will start in February 2021 and is a 20-year programme. Publication of the Transparency Notice was delayed due to ongoing Brexit negotiations spilling over from 2020 to 2021. Funding could not be released until the Notice had been published and this in turn required changes to the Grant Agreement.

Cost

The grant funding envelope was set by the HMT-approved business case in 2020 and continues to be sufficient to deliver the programme effectively. A reduction in the Whole Life Cost was made in 25/26 when the revised approach to the programme was agreed with the MNOs.

Benefits

The benefits model was enhanced in late 2025 to improve accuracy, reflect new evidence and incorporate more granular data.