Following an agreement by all four mobile operators, 4G coverage will be made available to 95% of the UK landmass by 2025.
Background: While 4G coverage has improved significantly in the last few years, only 67% of the UK landmass receives 4G coverage from all four operators, and about 7% of the UK receives no 4G coverage at all. Ofcom and Government have continued to debate ways to further enhance coverage and Ofcom had put forward proposals as part of an upcoming spectrum award. The industry response to those plans was for an industry wide solution that would achieve the objective quicker and more cost effectively, as a result, the Single Rural Network (SRN) was born.
What does the agreement comprise? Under the proposal, the four operators will invest £530m to open up and share existing masts and infrastructure to close almost all partial not-spots (areas where there is currently only coverage from at least one but not all operators). It would also mean additional mobile coverage for 280,000 premises and 16,000 kilometres of roads. If the operators meet the ambitions on partial not spots, Government will commit up to £500 million of investment to go even further to eliminate total not-spots – those areas where there is currently no coverage from any operator.
The impact on Ofcom’s planned spectrum award: The SRN is an alternative to two coverage obligations Ofcom were proposing as part of the award of spectrum in the 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz band, as such Ofcom are no longer proposing to include coverage requirements in their auction. Ofcom’s duty now is to ensure the commitments are legally binding and will do this by writing them into operators’ licences. They will also shortly set out revised plans for that auction to take place next year.
Further next steps: Getting this far has taken time, particularly given the political uncertainty as a result of Brexit. The SRN is still subject to legal agreement, and The Government’s ambition is to reach a formal agreement on it early next year. The £500m from Government will also need the approval of the EC or CMA to pass state aid rules.
