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Ofcom plans rural connectivity boost

December 18, 2018

Mobile and broadband coverage are improving in the UK, but too many rural areas still get a poor signal – according to Ofcom’s major study of the UK’s communications networks.

Ofcom’s annual Connected Nations report shows that mobile coverage continues to increase. Almost all homes and offices can get a good, indoor 4G signal from at least one operator; while 77 per cent are covered by all four networks, up from 65 per cent a year earlier.

Indoor reception is important, but people also expect a good signal when outdoors and on the move. The report finds that 78 per cent of the land mass has ‘complete’ call coverage from all four operators – up from 69 per cent a year ago.

And 91 per cent of the UK’s geography has a good 4G mobile internet signal from at least one operator, up from 80 per cent last year. Two thirds (66 per cent) of the land mass has ‘complete’ 4G coverage from all four, up from 49 per cent last year.

But too many rural areas are left with patchy or unreliable mobile reception. For example, while 83 per cent of urban homes and offices have complete 4G coverage, the figure for rural premises is less than half that (41 per cent). In some remote parts of the country, there is no coverage at all.

So Ofcom wants to see faster progress in rolling out mobile Internet to areas still lacking good coverage – allowing people to make calls, access the web, stream video and use smartphone apps wherever they happen to be.

The regulator has set out updated plans to release new airwaves for mobile services, including requirements for operators to increase outdoor data coverage significantly, using at least 500 new transmitter sites to reach more people and businesses.

Releasing more airwaves for mobile

Ofcom plans to auction two spectrum ‘bands’ for mobile services together, in late 2019 or early 2020.

  • The 700 MHz band. These airwaves are well suited for providing good-quality mobile coverage, both indoors and across very wide areas – including the countryside.
  • The 3.6 GHz – 3.8 GHz band. This ‘mid-frequency’ spectrum, which will be auctioned alongside the 700 MHz band, is suitable for supporting lots of data-hungry connections in concentrated areas. It can be used to offer 5G services – the next generation of very fast mobile broadband.

Ofcom plans to include binding coverage rules with the spectrum. These mean that up to two winning bidders would each have to, within four years of the award:

  • Extend good, outdoor data coverage to at least 90 per cent of the UK’s entire land area within four years of the award
  • Improve coverage for at least 140,000 homes and offices which they do not already cover. This means new coverage will be targeted at areas where it is needed; and
  • Provide coverage from at least 500 new mobile mast stations in rural areas. This will ensure operators transform coverage in areas where it is lacking, rather than meeting the rules by just boosting existing signals.

During next year’s auction, the price for winning airwaves that carry these rules would be discounted by up to £300 million-£400 million – to reflect the significant investment required to meet them, and the social benefits they will deliver.

Ofcom’s priority is working towards comprehensive mobile broadband coverage across the UK. At the same time, Ofcom is supporting the development of 5G – the next generation of mobile networks – to increase mobile capacity and help the UK remain a world leader in mobile technology.

“Mobile coverage has improved across the UK this year, but too many people and businesses are still struggling for a signal,” noted Philip Marnick, Ofcom’s Spectrum Group Director. “We’re particularly concerned about mobile reception in rural areas.

“As we release new airwaves for mobile, we’re planning rules that would extend good mobile coverage to where it’s needed. That will help ensure that rural communities have the kind of mobile coverage that people expect in towns and cities, reducing the digital divide.”

Sharing spectrum to support coverage and innovation

Ofcom has also published plans to allow certain spectrum to be shared by different users, to support innovation and local coverage initiatives across the UK economy.

Some of these airwaves could support wireless technology in areas as diverse as logistics, mining, agriculture and connected devices that will form the ‘Internet of Things’. Other airwaves could be used by organisations and groups to build and operate their own local mobile networks, improving coverage indoors and outside.

For example, Ofcom proposes to make spectrum available for shared use in the 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands, which can be used by existing mobile handsets. We also plan to enable third parties to use airwaves that are licensed to mobile operators, but not being used by them. This could be particularly suitable for local communities to boost coverage.

Broadband progress

The latest Connected Nations report also shows progress made in extending decent broadband coverage to the whole country.

The proportion of premises that cannot receive decent broadband – offering a ‘download’ speed of 10 Mbit/s, and an ‘upload speed’ of 1 Mbit/s – has halved this year from 4 per cent to 2 per cent.

However, that still leaves 677,000 homes and offices without decent broadband. The large majority of these (496,000) are in rural areas. So as operators continue to extend networks, Ofcom is working to implement the UK Government’s universal broadband service. This will give eligible homes and offices the right to request decent broadband by 2020.

Superfast broadband – which offers a download speed of at least 30 Mbit/s – is now available to 94 per cent of homes and offices – up from 91 per cent last year. We expect this to continue increasing as companies extend superfast networks, backed by funding from the UK Government and those in the Nations.

Ultrafast broadband, which is around ten times faster, is available to half (50 per cent) of homes, up from 36 per cent – largely as a result of continued upgrades by Virgin Media to its high-speed network.

Around 1.8 million premises now have access to ‘full-fibre’ broadband – an increase of 1m in a year. This newer form of broadband uses fibre-optic cables to connect buildings to the local street cabinet, replacing older copper wires. Full fibre is very reliable and can deliver speeds above 1 Gbit/s. Ofcom has taken a range of steps to promote investment in full fibre, and it expects coverage to accelerate in the coming months.

More reliable, secure networks

Connected Nations also considers the resilience and security of telecoms networks – which are especially important as people become reliant on them, and cyber threats increase.

Most incidents reported to Ofcom in the last year were interruptions to landline services, usually affecting a small number of customers for a short period of time. But while major incidents remain rare, Ofcom was concerned by the outage suffered by O2 on  December 6th.

The report announces three areas where Ofcom will work with industry to help avert large-scale outages, and reduce their potential scale and impact:

  • First, Ofcom is collecting targeted information from industry on network design, to identify elements which are paramount to ensuring availability. It will propose systematic, preventive checks that companies should apply to hardware, software and their internal processes to improve network availability and resilience.
  • Second, it will propose a code of best practice to reduce the time required to reconnect subscribers after large-scale network outages.
  • Third, Ofcom is examining how network companies that provide widespread, wholesale services – for example, to mobile ‘virtual network operators’ – might add extra protections for these customers.

 

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