£1bn SIGNAL BOOST
Deal to end mobile black spots in rural areas
A £1billion deal on mobile phone masts is set to end the black holes in phone coverage across rural Scotland.
The companies that run the UK’s mobile network have agreed to eliminate signal dead zones with new shared kit that will guarantee coverage in the most remote areas.
Taxpayers will pay half the £1billion cost, which will include new masts, with the big four firms – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone – paying the rest.
The Government said the plan should guarantee coverage to an extra 280,000 premises and along 10,000 miles of roads and “make poor and patchy rural phone coverage a thing of the past”.
The Shared Rural Network aims to extend 4G coverage to 95 per cent of the UK, no matter which network customers use, by 2025, three years later than first planned.
The scheme will lead to increases in coverage in some areas by more than a third, the Government said, with the biggest improvements in rural parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The chief executive of mobile operator Three, Dave Dyson, said the deal was “a gamechanger for the country”.
Vodafone chief executive Nick Jeffrey said it was “unmatched anywhere in the world”.
The deal hit a major stumbling block a month ago, when other operators objected to the proposed cost of using BT-owned EE’s equipment.
Oliver Dowden, the UK Government Digital Secretary, said: “This is an important milestone to level up the country, improve people’s lives and increase prosperity across the length and breadth of our United Kingdom.”
Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael, who campaigned for improved coverage, said the news would be welcome the length of Britain.