(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/KristinaJovanovic)
MPs are urging mobile operators to allow temporary switching to rival networks for customers who experience coverage black spots, using an intra-country roaming system where one provider can hand over service to another with better local reception.
Nearly 100 MPs belong to the group advocating this change, noting that foreign visitors often enjoy better mobile coverage in the UK because roaming agreements let their devices switch to the best available network. Domestic customers, by contrast, can be stuck with poor or no signal.
The group, calling itself the British Infrastructure Group (BIG) and led by MP Grant Shapps, highlights that as many as 17 million UK mobile users have poor reception at home and that 525 areas across the country have no mobile coverage at all.
BIG’s report, titled “Mobile Coverage: A Good Call for Britain?”, observes that while the UK mobile market has benefited from sustained private investment and compares well with European peers in cost and technology, visitors to Britain have consistently enjoyed broader coverage because roaming arrangements allow connections to the strongest available networks.
The government previously reached an agreement with the country’s four major operators for a £5 billion investment to improve rural coverage. Under that deal, operators committed to extend 2G coverage to 90 percent of the UK by 2017 and to ensure 3G and 4G services cover at least 85 percent by the same year.
With operators falling short of those targets, the BIG report suggests that intra-country roaming could help relieve coverage shortfalls in hard-hit areas. The report recommends revisiting the costs and benefits of national roaming and urges the government to consider implementing it on a localized basis in regions suffering from “not spots.”
Other objectives of the group include making it cheaper and easier for consumers to switch providers and identifying the worst-performing networks so those operators can be encouraged to deliver more competitive service. BIG also calls for giving Ofcom stronger powers to hold operators accountable.
The report also urges Parliament to pass the Digital Economy Bill to update the Electronic Communications Code and give Ofcom better tools to ensure mobile operators meet consumer needs.
Former Home Secretary and Prime Minister Theresa May opposed intra-country roaming on grounds that it could complicate tracking by security agencies, who fear criminals might evade detection if their devices switch between networks. That security concern could hinder adoption of the proposal.
Do you support intra-country roaming between networks to reduce mobile black spots? Share your thoughts in the comments.