Rural Landowners Seek 95% Geographic UK 4G Mobile Cover by 2022

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents 30000 landowners (farmers and rural businesses) in England and Wales, has called on Ofcom to introduce a binding coverage obligation that would force Mobile operators to deliver 95% UK geographic coverage on all networks by 2022.

As part of its demand, the CLA has used Ofcom’s data to claim that in 14 rural local authority areas in England, four out of five households do not receive 4G mobile coverage from all the big four mobile providers. The ten Local Authority (LA) areas with the lowest rates of indoor 4G coverage in England are all said to be given the most rural Government classification of “Mainly Rural“, and have indoor 4G coverage of less than 15%.

The Worst LA Areas in England for Indoor 4G Coverage
1. Rutland – 3.42%
2. Ribble Valley – 6.37%
3. Maldon – 8.63%
4. South Norfolk – 10.64%
5. Breckland – 11.22%
6. Melton – 13.76%
7. Copeland – 14.13%
8. North Norfolk – 14.18%
9. North Dorset – 14.24%
10. Mid Devon – 14.25%
11. Richmondshire – 14.86%
12. Barrow-in-Furness – 15.79% (Classified as ‘Urban with Significant Rural’, all others in bottom 15 are ‘Mainly Rural’ or ‘Largely Rural’)
13. Staffordshire – 16.14%
14. Eden – 17.87%
15. North Devon – 19.11%

In response the CLA wants Ofcom to “force reluctant mobile network operators” to improve coverage in rural areas by imposing a “legally binding” coverage target on their operating licences. Since such an obligation would be a factor that could affect the value of such licences then we suspect that this may only be viable for future auctions, rather than existing spectrum where weaker obligations still exist.

CLA President, Tim Breitmeyer, said:

“These figures lay bare the extent to which those living and working in rural areas are cast out into the digital wilderness. It also poses serious questions about what commitment, if any, the mobile operators have to delivering coverage in rural areas. Delivering this mobile coverage is vital to boosting the economy, providing safety and improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

People living and working in rural areas are missing out on the opportunities that we take for granted in towns and cities to improve the productivity of their businesses, to attract new businesses into their communities, to make emergency calls, and to have the same instant access to social and educational resources. This inequality is simply not good enough.

For years the mobile companies have promised to improve rural coverage. They have extracted public money, sweeping changes in the law and a range of other concessions on the back of these promises. They are not being held to account when they don’t deliver. It is time to impose a legally binding target to cover 95% of the UK with 4G by 2022.”

At this point it’s worth noting that EE’s geographic (landmass) 4G network coverage of the UK is already claimed to be over 86% and they aim to reach 95% by the end of December 2020. However Ofcom’s own data recently suggested that outdoor geographic 4G coverage is actually just a pitiful 43% (here). This shows just how difficult it is to measure highly variable environments like Mobile connectivity.

Another problem is that most of the future Mobile-friendly spectrum, which is coming up for auction, sits in higher frequency bands (3.4GHz etc.) and would not be best suited for a coverage obligation. On the other hand Ofcom did state last year that they would consult on adding such an obligation to the future 700MHz band, which could be much friendlier to rural coverage.

In reality we suspect it may be difficult for Ofcom to apply such an obligation to every single operator and indeed doing so might discourage some operators from bidding in the first place. Meanwhile we shouldn’t forget that the CLA also holds a significant amount of responsibility in this area.

On the one hand the CLA frequently seem to act as consumer champions for the pursuit of better connectivity, yet their remit is also to protect the very land that allows such connectivity to be deployed. The CLA could perhaps help by encouraging landowners to be more accepting of telecoms infrastructure on their land, even if that means lower revenue from rentals under the new ECC system.