Study Reveals UK Mobile Digital Divide in Urban and Rural Areas

Mobile operator Vodafone UK has today published a new report, based on analysis carried out by WPI Economics, which reveals that a “stark digital divide” still exists “between rural and urban areas” when it comes to mobile phone and 5G (mobile broadband) coverage. If only there was a mega-merger looming that could solve it.

Vodafone’s study essentially examines the correlation between rural connectivity ‘not spots’ or areas where connectivity is limited and rural deprivation levels. It has, as a result, created a new index that ranks every parliamentary constituency in Great Britain based on its 4G and 5G coverage against its standard deprivation levels.

The report – ‘Connecting the Countryside‘ (link TBA) – found nearly half (46%) of rural deprived areas were classed as 5G “not spots“, whereas the same can only be said for 2.7% of deprived communities in urban areas. The study identified five areas of Britain as performing particularly poorly when it comes to a lack of connectivity and high levels of deprivation – Scotland, Wales, East Anglia, Cumbria and the South-West.

For example, over half of the rural, deprived constituencies in Wales are total 5G not spots. Overall, the report suggests that close to a million (838,000) people living in deprived rural communities would benefit from access to 5G Standalone (SA), although they could just as easily have said regular 5G for that (5G SA is the next evolution of 5G technology, which removes dependence upon 4G).

Naturally, Vodafone lists a selection of benefits that 5G could help to bring to deprived rural communities, although it’s worth noting that all of these are possible via a good 4G network too, even though Vodafone doesn’t mention that. Curiously, they don’t mention the obvious bonus of increasing access to faster broadband speeds, although in rural areas this may be more hobbled by spectrum choice than mobile technology.

Benefits of 5G to these deprived rural communities include:

· Transformative health benefits with fast 5G infrastructure offering the ability to pre-empt and react to health emergencies, crucial in hard-to-reach areas.

· Better access to healthcare, with rural communities often inaccessible medicines can take up to 36 hours to be delivered; with 5G and Vodafone’s Skyport drone programme they can be delivered in just 15 minutes.

· In rural areas, virtual classrooms could open distance learning opportunities and specialist qualifications – vastly increasing the opportunities available to people.

· In agricultural areas, 5G enabled sensors can provide data that makes higher yields and better crop quality (tests have shown efficiency improvements of 15%).

At this point it’s worth highlighting that the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, which involves work from all of the major mobile operators, is currently aiming to extend geographic 4G (mobile broadband) coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025 (currently it’s between 80-87%).

The government’s recent Wireless Infrastructure Strategy (WIS) also set out an ambition for “all populated areas to be covered by ‘standalone’ 5G (5G-plus) by 2030” (here), although they haven’t set a clear percentage to clarify what they mean by this. At present, regular 5G (not 5G SA) covers around 76-85% of the UK’s outdoor population.

Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone UK, said:

“We believe everyone should have access to connectivity and our research shows the alarming rate at which almost a million people living in deprived rural communities are being left behind. It’s clear we need to accelerate the roll-out of the UK’s 5G infrastructure, which is what we commit to do as part of our proposed merger with Three UK. We would close the rural digital divide by delivering 95% 5G Standalone geographic coverage by 2034.”

In short, the report reads as yet another way for Vodafone to plug its proposed merger with Three UK, although it’s worth noting that without a solid regulatory requirement then there would be no way to hold the operators to any commitments they make under that deal. Concerns over the news of a possible delay in the SRN highlights the difficulty that mobile operators can have in delivering on what they promise (here).

Vodafone’s claim above also seems to help clarify the proposed merger agreement, with Ahmed Essam saying they aim to “close the rural digital divide by delivering 95% 5G Standalone geographic coverage by 2034“. But the merger agreement itself said “MergeCo expects to reach over 99% UK population coverage with a 5G standalone network by 2034“, so now we also have a figure for geographic reach.

Separately, Vodafone has also committed to helping 4 million people and businesses cross the digital divide by 2025 as part of its everyone.connected programme, which supplies connectivity, devices and skills to those in need. Take note that, at the time of writing, we hadn’t yet been given access to view the full report.