Image Courtesy of EE
The UK’s largest mobile network operator, EE, has promised to ensure 95% of the UK have 4g coverage by 2020. The pledge was made alongside another encouraging promise by the BT owned giant, to close down all of their Indian call centres and move their customer service departments back to the UK and Ireland.
Last year, EE made a deal with the government to connect the emergency services, by replacing the airwave radio network, eradicating areas of no coverage aka ‘not-spots.’
At presents EE’s 4g coverage extends to around 60% of the UK. This rapid rollout of 4g will see an increase of 35% coverage in the next four years, providing the emergency services working in rural areas with vital voice calls coverage and access to fast data.
EE was taken over by BT at the beginning of the year, when the CMA finally gave the deal the green light. Marc Allera stepped in to the role of chief executive and is on a mission to improve the reliability and reputation of the network provider. He said this project will “go further than any operator has ever gone, with the aim of covering the whole of the UK with 4G”.
In the past, EE’s competitors have blamed the slow roll-out of 4g on planning rules, which have prevented them from erecting new masts to build the necessary infrastructure. EE however, claim the project will go ahead, Mr Allera would obviously like changes to come in to force surrounding these issues, to make the job easier, saying “Reform that gets us access to sites and stops landlords paying ransom rents would certainly help.”
If EE succeed in their vision, it could leave them as the only 4g provider in the majority of rural areas, which rural campaigners feel is extremely unfair, especially considering the poor customer service record of the mobile giant, who recently came last in a customer satisfaction survey.
Obviously plans to improve upon the current customer satisfaction record are already underway, with the clear intentions of bringing call centre’s back to the UK and Ireland, which will see around 600 jobs created. This still won’t leave much in the way of competition in these rural areas though, as anyone wanting a 4g connection will have to opt for EE as their carrier.
“We cannot have a situation where people can only choose from one operator,” said Shane Brennan of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). “It is hard to see any evidence of delivery in rural areas on the ground. We need proper choice across all the networks.”
As its stands only 4% of rural countryside can access a 4g connection which is in stark contrast to urban areas, where more than half of the inhabitants can. The government has set targets for mobile operators to achieve 90% geographical coverage by next year. EE themselves are pretty far off the mark at present.