Vodafone Improves UK Rural Mobile Coverage by Hiding Kit in Bird Boxes

How do you expand rural mobile network coverage (2G, 3G and 4G) without causing annoyance to locals or triggering unfounded fears of brain melting radiation? Vodafone’s answer is simple, hide everything inside an otherwise unassuming bird box.

Admittedly nesting birds might not be too happy when they check out the entrance hole only to find a rather unsuitable home inside, but that’s beside the point. Most of the time mobile operators can improve rural coverage simply by installing a large new mast, but in some areas (e.g. National Parks) this often isn’t feasible due to access and planning restrictions or opposition from unhappy locals.

The fix for Vodafone was to work with NET Coverage Solutions (NETCS), which is a firm that specialises in developing In-Building DAS and Small Cell technologies. NETCS came up with the approach of hiding a new type of mini-antenna inside a fake bird box, which acts as a “supercharged signal booster” that picks up the operators signal from the nearest mast and boosts it to improve coverage.

Pedro Santos, Vodafone UK’s Lead Network Engineer, said:

“The Vodafone bird box is working well and no birds have been sufficiently fooled to try to get into it, although the customer says it looks very convincing.

We take great care about the visual impact our systems have on the beautiful country side. A standard external mobile antenna can look out of place situated on or near a rural cottage so we are always looking at clever ways to ensure they blend into the surroundings.”

The news comes shortly after Vodafone announced that their on-going work to improve coverage through the Government’s Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP) has resulted in a new 4G capable mast being built in Portesham (Dorset, England).

The MIP was setup to extend mobile phone coverage to areas where no service is currently available, although its slow progress hasn’t gone unnoticed (here). Meanwhile the Government are also pushing mobile operators to further improve geographic coverage through a new £5bn agreement (here), although this isn’t without its own challenges (here).

In the meantime we’d expect to see more of Vodafone’s bid boxes popping up in rural areas, although we’re not sure how they’re being powered. Now we can all be melted by radiation and without needing to know where it’s coming from.

It’s predicted that Vodafone’s next step could be to miniaturise the antennas even further so that they can be carried on the backs of local starlings, thus producing a mesh network and improving mobile coverage for all. Excellent..