Quarter of Scotland will not get 4G, despite £1bn deal to boost connection

RURAL parts of Scotland will continue to suffer from patchy internet coverage despite the UK’S four largest mobile networks agreeing a £1 billion deal to improve connections.

The Shared Rural Network (SRN) will see EE, O2, Three and Vodafone work together to bring 4G coverage to 95 per cent of the UK by the end of 2025. But it has emerged in

Scotland, 25 per cent will still not get coverage.

In August, research revealed that a quarter of a million people living in rural parts of Scotland were receiving the worst mobile reception service in Britain due to poor signal coverage.

It prompted calls for the Government to come up with an urgent plan of action on how it expects to fulfil a 2017 pledge to expand coverage to 95% of the country by 2022.

The deal is set to bring guaranteed coverage to 280,000 premises and 9,942 miles (16,000km) of roads, with the biggest beneficiaries set to be Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The UK Government in announcing the “world-first deal” said it would “make poor and patchy rural phone coverage “a thing of the past”.

But beneath the spin, the details indicate that it will not actually bring poor rural mobile coverage to a complete end.

The Department for Digital, Culture,

Media & Sport coverage says that in Scotland, “where there are unique geographical and landscape challenges and sparsely populated areas” coverage will rise by more than 10 per cent to 91 per cent from at least one operator and 74 per cent from all four operators.

“This compares to 80 per cent and 42 per cent today,” the department say.

The consumer organisation Which? said more clarity was needed from the Government.

Caroline Normand, Which? director of advocacy said: “Substandard 4G and broadband continues to be a huge problem for many people around the country, shutting them out of important online services and frustrating their daily lives, so it is good to see the Government keeping its promise on this much-needed investment.

“When it comes to 4G, the Government and industry must urgently clarify plans and how the right level of geographic coverage will be delivered if it is to match what people actually need.”

The consumer organisation last year found huge areas of rural Scotland were home to the UK’S biggest 4G blackspots for Britain’s four major operators, EE, Three, O2 and Vodaphone.

A full analysis of the 650 parliamentary constituencies in the UK seen by the Herald showed that the five areas at biggest risk of mobile signal blackouts due to patchy coverage were all in Scotland. According to the Government, other benefits to the new deal will include better coverage on 27,962 miles (45,000km) of roads and indoor signals for around 1.2 million businesses and homes.

Currently, around nine per cent of the UK’S landmass does not have decent 4G outdoor mobile coverage from any operator, according to industry regulator Ofcom.

“For too many people in the countryside a bad phone signal is a daily frustration,” said digital secretary Oliver Dowden.

“So today we’re delivering on the Prime Minister’s 100-day promise to get a £1 billion landmark deal signed with industry to end poor and patchy mobile rural coverage.

“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.”

The networks will each invest

£532 million as part of the deal, with the aim of closing almost all partial not spots – areas where there is currently coverage from some but not all of the network operators.

According to thegovernment in England, coverage will improve from 81% to 90% across the four operators, in Northern Ireland it will rise from 75% to 85% and in Wales it will go up from 58% to 80%.