Mobile networks face tougher rules on poor rural phone signals

THE telecoms watchdog has set out plans to improve rural mobile services coverage, outlining tougher requirements for operators bidding to provide services next year, as it continues its push to support next-generation 5G internet access.

Ofcom has launched a consultation aimed at addressing the issue of “particularly poor” mobile coverage in rural areas.

The regulator plans to award the 700MHZ spectrum band, which is mainly used for digital terrestrial television, to mobile services and an auction will be held for it in the latter half of 2019.

As part of its efforts to improve mobile coverage in the UK, the regulator is proposing to include obligations in the licences that it awards for the band, such as a requirement for winning bidders to roll out better coverage in rural areas.

In 2014, all four mobile network operators agreed to an obligation set out by the Government that mobile phone calls could be made in 90pc of the country’s land mass by the end of 2017, using measures of mobile coverage in place at the time. Ofcom also required O2 to provide 4G mobile data coverage to 98pc of premises across the UK by the end of last year. The watchdog wrote to the mobile companies yesterday to confirm that they had met those requirements.

Ofcom has enhanced its mobile coverage measures since then. It said that “today’s mobile devices receive far more data, but also require stronger signals than older phones”, so it has “changed the way we measure coverage to reflect the growing usage and expectations of smartphone users”.

That means that mobile companies will be required to provide coverage that extends much further than the obligations set out in 2014. Ofcom said this would bring “improved mobile reception to more rural, harder-to-reach areas”. The watchdog said it was also planning to release different spectrum bands to “fuel” 5G internet access. These bands will be made available to mobile operators and “innovative companies” developing services supporting 5G in the manufacturing, transport and healthcare industries.

Ofcom has also launched an “innovation and trial portal” to make it easier for companies to access spectrum to test technologies, applications and business models.