Its an interesting time for UK mobile users as a recent survey found that thousands of miles around the UK have no mobile coverage.
In the BBC article, the RAC foundation stated that about 2% of all roads in England, Scotland and Wales have no 2G coverage, the minimum required to make a call or send a text, said the RAC Foundation. With networks such as Three and virtual operators such as ID Mobile and FreedomPop UK running on just 3G and 4G networks, it leaves the question open as to how strong 2G really is and the infrastructure that supports it. With EE and BT now given the approval to merge by the competition commission and Three’s $10 billion takeover of O2 looming, what can these partnerships do to help us, the consumer, on these deserted roads should we need to seek a guardian angel in the form of breakdown recovery or the emergency services.
The article continues to list the areas with most black spots for coverage.
- Highlands – 452 miles
- Powys – 437 miles
- Argyll and Bute – 293 miles
- Cumbria – 252 miles
- Devon – 243 miles
- Dumfries and Galloway – 237 miles
- North Yorkshire – 231 miles
- Scottish Borders – 226 miles
- Gwynedd – 172 miles
- Ceredigion – 156 miles
So is investing millions of pounds into expanding coverage worth it for the occasional time you may need it stuck on a lonely winding road en route to search for the Loch Ness monster or is investment for the masses that live in around town and city locations.
