Ministers and bosses from mobile network operators met yesterday to sign a £1 billion deal to make poor and patchy rural phone coverage a thing of the past.
The world-first deal will be a huge boost for people across the country in rural areas and will deliver strong 4G coverage irrespective of what network provider people use.
The ambition is to make sure everyone can benefit from fast services on the go – from those running small businesses to people shopping or booking travel online to speaking to friends and family. It will spur economic growth and close the digital divide across the country through better connectivity.
The Shared Rural Network (SRN) is a deal with EE, O2, Three and Vodafone investing in a network of new and existing phone masts, overseen by a jointly owned company called Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, they would all share.
It will provide guaranteed coverage to 280,000 premises and 16,000km of roads. We can also expect some further indirect improvements over time, including a boost to ‘in car’ coverage on around 45,000 km of road and better indoor coverage in around 1.2m business premises and homes.
The deal will lead to increases in coverage in some areas by more than a third, with the biggest coverage improvements in rural parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
It follows moves by the government to improve digital infrastructure by making it easier and cheaper for the private sector to deploy faster broadband to the most commercial areas of the country, new legislation to make it easier for telecoms firms to connect blocks of flats, and plans to mandate gigabit-capable connectivity in new build premises.
The government has also pledged £5 billion to subsidise the roll out of gigabit capable broadband in the harder-to-reach areas of the country.
Oliver Dowden, Digital Secretary, said: “For too many people in the countryside a bad phone signal is a daily frustration.”
“So today we’re delivering on the Prime Minister’s 100-day promise to get a £1 billion landmark deal signed with industry to end poor and patchy mobile rural coverage.”
Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, BT Group, said: “High-speed mobile connectivity is a central part of modern life whether you live and work in a city centre or in the countryside. Building out fast and reliable access to 4G across the country is a national mission and we’re playing a leading role, collaborating with government and the other mobile network operators in the UK, to make this happen. The Shared Rural Network is something we can all be proud of.”
Mark Evans, CEO of O2, said: “I’m proud of the work we’ve done to secure the Shared Rural Network agreement, ensuring customers living in rural areas will be able to get the fast and reliable coverage they need and deserve. The collaboration between the industry, government and Ofcom should be seen as a leading example of how to deliver infrastructure investment and we look forward to now rolling the Shared Rural Network out as quickly as possible.”
Welcoming the Government’s announcement today of a £1 billion agreement to take 4G coverage to 95 per cent of the UK landmass by the end of 2025, Dr Adam Marshall, BCC Director General, said: “This is a major win for our Chamber ‘No More Not Spots’ campaign, which has worked across the UK to identify and fix the mobile ‘not spots’ holding back businesses in so many parts of the country.
“Access to mobile voice and data services is a basic requirement of business today, and it is essential to consumers and for linking people and communities.”
“Today’s announcement is a long-overdue step in the right direction, and Chambers will continue to work with operators and government during the rollout to ensure that the new Shared Rural Network gives our local communities and businesses the mobile coverage they need.”