UPDATE GBP150m UK Mobile Infrastructure Project Still Dragging its Feet

After four years the Government’s £150 million Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP), which was set-up to improve mobile phone network coverage in areas where there is currently none, continues to drag its feet in some key areas and may not deliver on its promise.

The project, which seeks to benefit around 60,000 UK premises out of some 80,000 known not-spots, is being managed by Arqiva. The first new site (mast) went live in North Yorkshire (Weaverthorpe) during September 2013 and this was set to be followed by more in Cornwall, Northumberland, Strabane, Aberdeenshire and Powys (here).

Under the scheme the four primary Mobile Network Operators (MNO), including EE, O2, Three UK and Vodafone, would all be responsible for providing coverage from the sites and funding their operating costs for the 20 year life of the project.

However 2013 came and went without much progress, with 2014 following a similar trend and in some areas the progress during 2015 has once again been akin to that of an extremely drunk snail. One of the worst examples of this delay can be found in Northumberland (England).

At the end of last year we reported that around 18 sites in Northumberland were being considered (here) and most of the related lattice radio masts would also need to be between 20 and 30 metres in height, which can cause other problems (here). But after a year of work only 3 have been granted planning permission (mostly in Berwick), with just 2 more in the pipeline (here).

The scheme is currently due to run until 31st March 2016 (an extension on the original 2015 window), which means any planned masts that have not progressed to a sufficient stage of development by the end of October 2015 may struggle to get funding due to the long development phase.

A DCMS (Government) Spokesperson said:

“This government is investing in mobile infrastructure, making sure more households have better mobile coverage, and that people in rural areas are not left behind. Providing services for remote areas can be extremely complex but as construction has begun on more and more sites the rollout will gather speed.

As a result more homes will continue to benefit from improved coverage, and government is now considering how coverage for voice and text messages can be delivered for the final 0.4 percent of UK premises that do not currently have it.”

So why all the problems? Firstly, not everybody supports the idea of 20-30 metre tall masts, which can make getting planning permission a challenge and one that often creates a very long consultation period.

On top of that many of the masts require a three phase power supply, which isn’t so easy when you’re working out in the middle of remote rural areas. Furthermore there’s also the challenge of finding landowners that are willing to let operators build for a reasonable fee (many will ask for a lot more money than would be viable), which remains the subject of an on-going row (here).

Lest we note forget that all of these masts need to be supported by good backhaul capacity, which is yet another difficult problem in rural areas where the nearest available supplier (Microwave or Fibre Optic) could be some considerable distance away.

The situation leaves the Government with somewhat of a headache, particularly as last year’s £5bn agreement to extend the geographic mobile network coverage (voice and text) of the United Kingdom from 80% today to 90% by 2017 (3G / 4G data coverage will also be pushed to 85%) may yet face some of the same problems (here).

UPDATE 26th October 2015

The Telegraph has picked up on a related story (here) in a different part of the UK, which includes a comment from Kip Meek, an acting adviser to EE, who states: “The whole MIP experience has given government a small insight into just how complex, expensive and protracted a process it can be to introduce mobile coverage in rural and remote areas. Government should now ask some serious questions about which current regulations stand in the way of its stated ambitions for coverage, digital infrastructure and productivity.”

However passing new rules that ignore public opposition, no matter how nonsensical the opponents, tends to be politically very difficult. It’s a bit like trying to build off-shore wind farms, which have proven difficult due to public opposition, but moan too much and we might one day see complaints about rising power cuts due to a lack of supply and that’s a lot more serious.