5g expansion

[kcurrie65]

So. On an almost daily basis we get TV adverts from EE and other operators about having the best networks. I get out and about a lot with work and also with our campervan. What strikes me is that despite all the hype on TV that the reality is that 5g is thin on the ground and if I am honest so is 4g unless you live in or near a city. So the question is when or will operator's  actually expand their networks to the more rural areas I say rural but that's not really rural as in my case 5 Miles from one mast 7 Miles from another and no signal. Why do operators not mast share ? Is that to much like common sense ? So many questions. I get that coverage quoted is by population etc but many folk also don't live in a city. Simply upgrading a 4g mast to 5g I beleive reduces the range is that correct ? 4g did 7km radius from mast 5g does 5km radius ? So I read on Google but that may be fake news. So any plans for new masts ?

[kcurrie65]

May not always be an option but for many reasons in a rural location I could think of so many reasons why they should be sharing. 

[bristolian]

Planning consents are indeed one reason why site sharing can be preferable - in both urban and rural locations. Equally there may be technical reasons why new structures can sometimes be required.

Like many things in mobile comms, what often seems simple on the face of it is not always so in practice.

[kcurrie65]

Well in our village O2 have a lovely mast. Vodafone were going to share but after a delay initially then vanished. So o2 only on the mast. Go over 2 hills to the next village the mast has all available networks on it. Same council area ( Scotland dosent have parish cuncils) our village is certainly an ideal candidate for EE to swoop in and take that spare capacity 

[Jeff001]

Interesting that, I talked to the guy who's an expert in this field 3works closely with the Ofcom and to be fair to him it was a couple of years ago and he said that the Government has come to an agreement with mobile operators to embark on a mast sharing approach on rural areas only last year.  By the way I lived in a remote rural area in France, and I had a 5g box receving data around 60 mbps and uploading at 30 Mbps back in 2018.  Today I live in London and not getting 5g still (!)

[bristolian]

This sounds like a reference to the Shared Rural Network initiative

https://srn.org.uk/ 

In Scotland, there is also the Scottish 4G-Infill project - https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-4g-infill-programme-progress-update/