UPDATE Vodafone Unveil Last 40 Rural Communities for 3G Mobile Broadband

Mobile operator Vodafone has today reportedly announced the final batch of 40 rural communities across the United Kingdom that will soon start to receive improved 3G based mobile broadband and voice network coverage via their on-going Rural Open Sure Signal project. But where are they?

The operators Rural Open Sure Signal (Femtocell) technology, which harnesses an existing fixed line connection in order to link with Vodafone’s network and thus boost outdoor mobile coverage in a specific area (mobile “not spots“), was first tested with 12 villages in 2011/12 (here) and last year the project was revived with the aim of helping up to 100 communities (here).

Since then the first lot of 30 new rural communities to receive 3G based mobile coverage via Vodafone’s enhanced project have been confirmed (here) and today the operator has announced a seemingly final batch of 40 more. Sadly there’s no support for the latest 4G connectivity, which is perhaps at least partly due to the limits of the related fixed line data connectivity in such remote areas.

The Sure Signal boxes themselves effectively behave like small wireless routers and can be installed on any number of buildings (e.g. village halls, pubs, shops, telegraph poles, payphones etc.), which then distributes the mobile signal over a wider area than might ordinarily be possible, or affordable, by building an expensive new mast.

Jeroen Hoencamp, CEO of Vodafone UK, said:

“I am delighted to announce that we have now shortlisted all 100 ‘not spot’ communities who could benefit from Vodafone’s Rural Open Sure Signal programme. We are pleased to be able to deploy our innovative technologies to deliver 3G mobile signal to these rural communities for the first time.”

The Next 40 Communities (Unordered)

Ardfern
Connel
Dunbeg
Ormsary
Port Askaig
Heriot
Dunbeath
Trevose
Donemana
Gilcrux
Mungrisdale
Uldale
Loggerheads
Ceres
Silchester
Morvern
Newtonmore
Spean Bridge
Benbecula & Balivanich
Lochboisdale
Lochmaddy
Applecross
Cromarty
Culbokie
Ettrick
Aith
Baltasound
Fetlar
Sandness
Skeld Sandsting
Benacre
Lighthorne
Isle of Whithorn
Whithorn
Bradfield
Buckden
Markington
Melmerby
Scorton

The new communities include villages in and around Argyll & Bute, Borders, Caithness, Cornwall, Co Tyrone, Cumbria, Denbighshire, Fife, Hampshire, Inverness-shire, Outer Hebrides, Ross-shire, Selkirkshire, Shetlands, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Wigtownshire and Yorkshire.

Assuming that Vodafone’s original announcement last year still stands, then all of the planned communities should be connected up by the end of this year. We will update again when the big V responds.

UPDATE 1:46pm

Vodafone has finally furnished us with a list of the 40 communities, which we’ve updated above.

In addition, the eagle eyed among you will no doubt note as we did that 40 + 30 + 12 does not equal 100. In fact there’s fourth batch of 30 villages, which were announced towards the end of last year and went unnoticed by us and many others, so we’ve added them separately below.

Glenbervie
Crossapol (Isle of Tiree)
Abbey St Bathans
Chillaton
Ideford
Lifton
Postbridge & Bellever
Elmdon
Owslebury
Pucknall
Fownhope
Boat of Garten
Croxton
Horning
Loddon
Salhouse
Saxthorpe
Reepham
Martham
Badby
Castlebay
Eoligarry
Barratlantic
Horve
Cardrona
Conon Bridge
Hamnavoe
Dornoch
Oare
Wilcot