The arrival of Vodafone 4G at sites in locations from Orkney Islands to Devon has brought residents, businesses and visitors faster and more reliable data speeds as well as better quality voice calls.
A £1bn joint initiative between government and the UK’s four mobile network operators, the nationwide SRN programme uses mast sharing on existing sites in rural areas where one or more but not all providers have coverage.
It will also build new shared masts to connect areas that currently have no coverage at all and will result in a combined cross operator network reach of 95 per cent UK landmass by the end of 2025.
Across the four UK operators, Northern Ireland will see 4G coverage rise to at least 85 per cent of landmass, Scotland will rise to at least 74 per cent, England will rise to 90 per cent and Wales will rise to at least 80 per cent.
Andrea Dona, UK network and development director for Vodafone said: “Connectivity is vital for everyone, which is why we are continually investing in our network. However, connecting rural and hard-to-reach parts of the UK can be difficult and restricted by cost.
“The Shared Rural Network initiative enables the UK network operators to work together so people living and working in such areas have a choice of network as well as the connectivity they need to support local and ultimately the wider UK economy.”
The activity builds on the multi-billion-pound investment Vodafone has already made to bring 4G coverage to 99 per cent of UK premises. Vodafone is also exploring new mast technologies such as OpenRAN which is already supporting delivery of coverage in a number of rural areas.
Meanwhile, solutions like MyFarmWeb offer a cloud-based platform app than enables farmers to store, visual and view information gathered through agricultural Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and other data sources in the field.