The long Parliamentary campaign to bring mobile coverage to rural areas ended in victory last week, as OFCOM finally announced proposals to increase broadband coverage to an estimated 98% of the UK population.
Nicholas Soames, Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex, was one of the earliest supporters of the campaign to increase the coverage, having pushed for this for several years and signing the Order Paper to support the motion which was debated on the 19th May, 2011 and carried unanimously.
Traditionally, up to 6 million people in Britain have been excluded from good mobile coverage, particularly in rural areas.
In October last year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer responded to the debate by committing an extra £150 million to build thousands of new mobile phone masts to cover rural areas. In November the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee slammed OFCOM’s coverage target of 95% as ‘unambitious’ and backed the campaign’s call for a 98% coverage obligation. In last week’s announcement, OFCOM proposes options which should ensure that 98% or more of the population receives 4G mobile broadband coverage. This means that millions who currently do not have a mobile signal will now receive one and that millions more will have their signal upgraded from a 2G ‘voice’ signal to a 4G signal, capable of carrying broadband data.
This investment will transform the fortunes of thousands of small and medium sized businesses, currently hamstrung by inadequate mobile phone and internet coverage. Hundreds of thousands of homes, schools, farms and businesses will get access to decent mobile and internet coverage for the first time.
Nicholas Soames said; “All this matters very much to us in rural Mid Sussex and West Sussex and will present further outstanding opportunities for business and commerce to continue to create the jobs and prosperity we badly need in our area. I have been involved in this campaign for over three years and I am delighted by the outcome”