{"id":49718,"date":"2014-11-05T09:17:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T09:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=d98a87a5d98f57bd2128f1a5502dc50e"},"modified":"2014-11-05T09:17:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T09:17:00","slug":"press-release-eliminating-poor-mobile-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=49718","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Eliminating poor mobile coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As part of its long-term economic plan, the government today set out plans to eliminate the poor mobile coverage that blights a fifth of the UK.<\/p>\n

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid today said mobile users in many parts of the UK regularly suffer from a poor signal leaving them unable to make calls or send texts.<\/p>\n

These areas \u2013 so called \u2018partial not-spots\u2019 \u2013 have coverage from some but not all of the 4 mobile networks (EE, O2, Three and Vodafone). Depending on the network consumers are on, they therefore may have no coverage.<\/p>\n

The Culture Secretary is determined to improve coverage from all 4 networks in these areas and has therefore launched a consultation<\/a> on the various legislative proposals that can help achieve this.<\/p>\n

This will give the government the chance to hear views on these proposals from all interested parties.<\/p>\n

Talks have been held with the mobile companies in recent months in an attempt to find a voluntary solution and this work by the industry is expected to continue whilst the consultation runs. <\/p>\n

Sajid Javid said:<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m determined to ensure the UK has world-class mobile phone coverage as investment in infrastructure will help drive this government\u2019s long-term economic plan.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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It can\u2019t be right that in a fifth of the UK, people cannot use their phones to make a call. The government isn\u2019t prepared to let that situation continue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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We\u2019ve been talking to the mobile companies about the problem and they are working with us to find a solution.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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This consultation will complement the work industry is doing and allow the government to hear from the wider telecoms sector, businesses and the public.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBusinesses have been clear about the importance of mobile phones and improved coverage will help deliver jobs and economic security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take part in the consultation<\/a><\/p>\n

Notes to editors<\/h2>\n

Research by the Federation of Small Businesses found 71% of businesses rated mobile phones as crucial or very important to their business.<\/p>\n

The survey also found that 51% of businesses said their staff had a problem with mobile coverage very or quite often.<\/p>\n

The consultation outlines various legislative options for taking full coverage to areas with partial coverage. The options in the consultation document are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • National roaming \u2013 phones would roam onto another network\u2019s signal when theirs was not available. This is similar to what happens when you\u2019re abroad<\/li>\n
  • Infrastructure sharing \u2013 mobile networks would be able to put transmitters on each other\u2019s masts<\/li>\n
  • Reforming virtual networks \u2013 companies such as Tesco and Virgin currently agree access to a single network and then sell mobile packages to consumers. We could ensure these virtual networks were able to offer mobiles that accessed all 4 networks<\/li>\n
  • Coverage obligation \u2013 oblige the networks to cover a certain percentage of the UK but leaving it open for them to decide how to best to achieve this outcome<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Government sets out plans to eliminate poor mobile coverage that blights a fifth of the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49727,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49718\/revisions\/49727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}