CLA Call on Ofcom to Force UK Mobile Networks to Fix Rural Not-Spots UPDATE

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents thousands of landowners (farmers and businesses) in England and Wales, has once again called on Ofcom to pull rural parts of the UK out of the “digital dark age” by forcing Mobile operators to make 4G “available for all businesses and communities.”

The CLA’s on-going #4GForAll campaign aims to highlight the lack of rural mobile coverage and it has some support. In April 2018 more than 50 MPs called on the telecoms regulator to raise their proposed coverage obligations for the forthcoming 700MHz spectrum band auction (due to occur in 2019) so they align with the Government’s ambition for 95% geographic coverage by 2022.

At present Ofcom has only proposed that the 700MHz band, which is technically more intended for use by future 5G technologies (expected to launch commercially from 2020), should include an obligation that requires both better indoor reception and at least two operators must commit to reach 92% of the UK land area with good reception (details).

Mark Bridgeman, CLA Deputy President, said:

“4G is vital to running a business. It is needed for marketing, communication and driving forward innovative technology. But rural businesses are being kept in a digital dark age because of mobile not-spots across the countryside.

Many rural communities have been abandoned by the mobile network operators who will only make investments in the countryside when forced to do so. Ofcom must demand more and challenge this reluctance to invest in rural areas.

We want 4G for all so that rural businesses and communities have the same advantages as their urban counterparts. With the challenges of Brexit, rural businesses will increasingly depend on good connectivity to become more productive and efficient.

To ensure the countryside is better connected, we need to see regulation introduced which imposes a more ambitious legally binding coverage obligation on all four major operators, plus action from Ofcom to force the mobile operators into providing much greater transparency of coverage performance and plans for rural areas.”

The comments come on the same day as a survey of 13,000 people from the Financial Conduct Authority revealed that consumers in rural areas of the United Kingdom are far less likely to use their Smartphones for banking than those in urban areas. Patchy broadband and mobile coverage took most of the blame.

On the flip side Ofcom’s CEO, Sharon White, last week suggested that providing good mobile network (4G etc.) coverage across virtually all of the UK’s landmass would cost up to around £6 billion (here) and this might require a different approach (e.g. cross-subsidy). Simply forcing operators to deliver universal coverage via an obligation might otherwise result in almost none of them bidding on the spectrum.

At this point we note that EE aims to rollout 4G to reach 95% geographic coverage by the end of December 2020 (currently 90%) and it’s hoped that others will follow. Many of their new masts will be built with investment from the Emergency Services Network (ESN) contract and those can be used by rivals too.

Meanwhile the CLA’s members have in the past also been considered somewhat of a barrier to deployment because of complications over wayleave agreements, which could for example force higher rents on some operators or stall deployments. However recent changes to the Electronics Communications Code (ECC) and the CLA’s newly revised wayleave framework may help to simplify this (here).

Mobile coverage, particularly via 5G connectivity, is currently one of the key focuses for the Government’s on-going Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, which is due to reveal its proposals within the next few weeks.

UPDATE 27th June 2018

Mobile UK, which represents Three UK, Vodafone, O2 and EE, has today furnished us with a comment.

Hamish MacLeod, Director at Mobile UK, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We wholeheartedly reject the CLA’s assertion that we have abandoned rural communities. The mobile networks have worked together to set out a positive vision for what is needed to extend coverage, and have been clear on the partnership model for achieving it. The CLA needs to work with operators on this and making Electronic Communication Code reforms effective in improving coverage and service.”