900 Devon and Somerset UK Premises Benefit from 4G Mobile Boost
The Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme in England has announced that 900 homes and businesses have now benefitted from their Mobile Boost Scheme, which aims to improve rural 4G mobile (mobile broadband and voice) coverage by offering vouchers (up to £1,200) to help deploy indoor mobile signal boosters.
The programme, which is being funded through the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership’s (HotSWLEP) Growth Deal, is targeted at those premises which have no adequate access to indoor 4G coverage from any operator or only one operator.
Businesses and residents that make use of this scheme, including those in Somerset, Devon, Torbay and Plymouth (South West England), are also required to make a contribution which, depending on the option chosen, will range from £250 for installation to a monthly fee for a SIM card (averaging around £30 per month). This is because the main cost, as covered by the voucher, is largely in the expensive boosting kit itself.
Three options of equipment are available through the scheme – either a 4G booster or two models of “signal repeaters” which repeat the outdoor signal indoors – and suppliers can advise on the most suitable in each case.
Councillor Rufus Gilbert, CDS Board Member, said:
“It’s great to see that local businesses are being supported through the Mobile Boost Scheme and Nethway Farm Holiday Cottages is a perfect example of that. I’m pleased that Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) has been able to play a part in making their lives, and running their business, that little bit easier.”
However, we should point out that it is down to the applicant to research which of the suppliers can install in their area, contacting the supplier directly to redeem the voucher and arranging to have the equipment installed at their premises.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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I fail to understand this: I expect the majority will have fixed broadband and wifi calling is available for most users so why spend large sums on indoor boosters. I am probably missing something, but what is the rationale? Is it aimed at those who have no fixed broadband?
We 5hpught we could use WiFi calling but our handsets are simfree and no network installed software, so unusable,Luckily we still have a landline.
for iPhones it’ll work rather more consistently, Android is much more a problem due to the fragmentation.
I’m not sure a taxpayer subsidised booster is the way to solve that. How about some regulations on ensuring that phones sold in this country are fully compatible with all of the available networks. You can still buy 2G/3G only phones brand new, which seems utterly mad when 3G is going away next year and 2G capacity will be shrunk down to the minimum, so you really do need 4G and VoLTE/VoWiFi for the best experience.
I guess this is a cheap way around the much harder problem of overcoming NIMBYism and installing a new mast to remove the notspots. If their fibre rollouts hadn’t been such a mess this probably wouldn’t have been necessary, though.
There are many situations where you may be inside a building with no access to Wifi and still want 4G coverage.
We looked at registering to supply this service and when we saw what nonsense and constraints there were gave it up as a bad idea.
Went aren’t the council encouraging the for mobile operators to expand coverage? What’s the point of small repeaters fixed to homes & businesses?
They clearly need improvement in the counties. Our are we dealing with – I want coverage but no mast – nonsense?
How do they think this will solve it. Yes it may amplify the coverage but probably not improve much on speeds.
Here it’s true coverage but no mast, I not sure how the Networks are going to improve in some areas where there is hostility to masts, they need to be closer to the populated areas they are trying to serve, not miles away because of rear of radiation.
Three uk have massive 5g upgrade plan and applied for 20/15 meters many country side and small town and and refused by council planning department because of STUPID public don’t want mast near them.
Same people mourning that we don’t have coverage or 5g.
That’s what makes the articles on here so comical about all populated areas having 4G, the Shared Rural Network etc, no it won’t there will still be areas of the UK, populated and more rural which will not have coverage, this claim that all communities will get coverage is rubbish Government hype, the fight by some communities to stop masts have been going on for years even decades.