Telecoms groups reject sharing networks
A government demand to improve mobile phone coverage in Britain’s rural areas by asking operators to share networks has been rejected by telecoms executives, forcing ministers to consider other options. Sajid Javid, the culture secretary, has made "national roaming" an important part of attempts to improve the UK’s much-criticised mobile services before next year’s general election. Mobile coverage in rural areas has been particularly criticised by customers, as well as by David Cameron after he struggled with reception on journeys around Britain. National roaming would allow customers to use the network of any operator for voice calls in "not spots" – areas where their carrier has no coverage. Overseas roaming is similar in concept, by allowing travelling mobile customers to use the network provided by a local operator, although national roaming has not been adopted elsewhere in the world. Ed Vaizey, the digital economy minister, wrote to mobile operators to seek agreement on national roaming plans by the start of next year. He has taken oversight of the project, although Mr Javid is still responsible for the delivery of the government’s broadband plans. However, mobile executives replied, rejecting the idea as unworkable in the time suggested, as well as undesirable in principle, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. "It was rejected. There are reasons why it wouldn’t work from a technical and legal perspective," said one person close to the issue. "The letters outlined the complexity of it and pushed for alternatives." Mr Vaizey has since responded with requests for the companies to offer different ideas to meet a similar objective in extending voice services across the UK, the sources said. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is also engaging in its own cost and benefit analysis of national roaming, which remains a key objective of Mr Javid’s. Industry executives insist they are ready to work with the government to reduce the number of mobile not-spots. One idea put forward would be to share the basic mast infrastructure used to transmit mobile signals across the big operators. Companies such as EE and Vodafone have already made improvements to rural mobile services. One executive pointed out that national roaming had not been adopted elsewhere which, he said, reflected the problems of ringfencing voice communications and individual parts of the network. The industry also argues that there would be less incentive to invest in networks to try to beat rivals on quality of service. Mr Vaizey said: "We are investing up to £150m to improve mobile coverage in areas where there is currently no coverage from any of the mobile network operators through the Mobile Infrastructure Project. "There are also areas of the UK that have coverage from some MNOs but not all of them. We’re looking closely at ways to improve mobile coverage in these areas, including national roaming."