Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has harnessed a Starlink based LEO satellite broadband connection for backhaul capacity in order to successfully expand their 4G mobile coverage across the remote rural Northumberland (England) village of Craster, which they say “previously had no coverage from any mobile operator“; 5G and fibre will follow.
In case anybody has forgotten, O2 have spent the past couple of years conducting various trials of satellite-based backhaul solutions to help connect remote mobile sites (examples here and here). But the latest deployment marks one of the first times this has been deployed as part of a commercial roll-out from the operator.
The new mast, which is being supported by the Atlas Tower Group, will provide reliable mobile signal to the whole of Craster on the coast, which is an important tourist destination attracting more than 250,000 visitors every year. Dunstanburgh Castle, the nearby National Trust site, is also set to benefit, with the connectivity set to improve the experience for visitors.
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Steven Verigotta, Director of Mobile Delivery at VMO2, said:
“As part of our commitment to improving rural connectivity, we’re using innovative satellite connectivity to bring mobile coverage to Craster for the first time. Our investment to deliver reliable connectivity in this beautiful area will be a boon for the many visitors that come here each year, transforming their experience and improving opportunities for local businesses and residents.”
The remote area does not currently have access to any fibre optic broadband networks, which are typically used to carry mobile traffic to and from their mast sites. But that is due to change “later this year” when new fibre lines are installed into the area and plans are already in place to upgrade the mast, at which point O2 plans to bring their fastest 5G based mobile broadband to Craster and the surrounding areas.
UPDATE 11:13am
In the first pass we missed that Alncom had already run gigabit FTTP broadband into the village (here), although this is a very recent deployment and so it’s possible O2 might have overlooked it during the planning phase. But Stephen Pinchen, Managing Director of Alncom, informed us that O2 could have easily taken a fibre from them, if they’d only asked.
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Mark, this is becoming all too common, Vodafone especially are operating several new cell towers backhaul only from Starlink – possibly in advance of the Smart Metering network moving to 4G for DCC.
One mast site near Clatworthy has starlink for VF and another starlink for O2.
Worse is EE who have recently enabled 4G at a 30m mast near Wimbleball Lake (built for ESN in 2020, but until recently not active), but are using VSAT for backhaul, unfortunately as a high site, while it has massively improved 4G coverage across Exmoor, the QoS is awful, with 3+ seconds latency.
All 3 locations are on-net for us, but offer to service declined.
Suspect it is all to appease Ofcom coverage commitments!
I strongly suspect that the MNOs only use a few larger connectivity providers, they probably can’t cope with using different AltNets up and down the country.
Ben, backhaul connectivity is very different market sector from FTTP, MNO’s will use fibre tails from any number of providers (Openreach, VF, Zayo, NTT, NG Telecoms, VM, CF, Arelion, Neos, GTT, Verizon………..) could be a DF product, a wave, an IRU or an active product… more often a combination of any of the above to reach from A to B, plus of course their own RAN network.
Throwing up starlink is a shortcut that could have consequences longer term.
Nothing screams Typical o2 than this does, they don’t even speak internally to their own teams
They allowed me to leave fee free, because lack of good service… great right?
Well, retentions didn’t tell collections that it was a fee free contract termination did they? no
If ofcom wasn’t stuck in the grammarphone days they could authorise SpaceX to do direct-to-cell for the entire UK but they’re probably either still figuring out this new fangled space technology or working out how best to rinse them of billions of pounds in fees for doing nothing
What frequencies would you recommend that SpaceX uses?
Alncom and Openreach both have fibre here. So what they’re saying is that 02 value quality of service, latency and capacity less than the difference in cost between starlink and a 1G EAD?
Pathetic. There’s places where this technology is useful – this isn’t one of them.
Is this not a good thing? I don’t understand why the comments above seem unimpressed.
Because it’s O2. If this was EE we’d have comments about how this is as revolutionary as discovering fire.
The reality is that O2 now covers this area. EE does not.
The reality is that EE lost millions of customers since it was formed. O2 is the biggest network by far in the UK.
This forum has a massive hate and bias against O2. But in the real world they are winning.
@Gigabit Most likely because most users on this forum are more bothered about data than voice…
The “oh poor O2 being attacked by EE haters” comments won’t make O2’s network any faster. Just like EE’s indoors coverage, you need work on the cell towers to change the situation.
I can see why customers that use little data and rely more on calls prefer O2. Based on ranks and band deployment, that’s O2 focus (coverage that works for calls). But understand that every year data consumption is increasing and that for years O2 didn’t do much to add capacity to their network… hence their current situation. Other than weird people obsessed with brands, no one decides to hate a network for no reason… “Slow2” is a thing because O2 made it a thing.
These news are obviously a good thing as a network now works where others don’t, but fibre was available and O2, with more customers and usually bad for data, picks a slower and less stable satellite backhaul. This isn’t an innovation as it’s done in other places with other providers… and of course it’s going to be criticised: this is the type of shortsighted decision that makes O2 bad for data. It’s more of the same.
So congratulations to O2 for having coverage where others don’t have, but it’s sad to see them doing the same mistakes over and over again.
And we’ll be more dependent on this power hungry weirdo… Good luck space pollution – let’s shoot more satellites in the sky that will stop working in 10 years… Who will get them back on earth? Oh screw it – progress!
Well said.
Jason, Mr Gravity will bring these satellites back to earth when their power source expires and they will burn up on re-entry into the atmosphere.
It’s good that there’s coverage from at least one network now, but it doesn’t make sense to use a satellite connection if fibre is available.
What’s the latency like with Starlink for backhaul?
Its funny that all these mobile comms systems were planned way back like in the 1990s. ETSI had a big book with all the info. I wonder why such slow progress.
How could it be that a village of this size, not far from the A1 and a major train line, with no particular geographic challenges went into 2025 with no mobile coverage? I haven’t encountered anywhere like this in mainland Europe for quite some time.