Vodafone Wants Local Authority Support To improve London 4G

Vodafone wants easier access to public buildings, such as council offices and libraries, in London so it can install more masts in the capital to boost the performance of its mobile network.

The operator claims it is already spending £200m on its network over the course of 2014 and 2015, and notes that a quarter of the data traffic on its network takes place in London. This figure increases to 60 percent for 4G.

However, Vodafone claims there are just 2.5 antennas per kilometre in the capital – significantly less than the 6.3 Madrid can boast of.

Vodafone London 4G

The Newbury-based firm says it needs access to 1,000 additional sites to ensure its network can cope with demand and has also urged London’s local authorities to formulate better planning laws for mobile operators.

“Londoners are the UK’s biggest consumers of mobile data with around 90 terabytes used every day which is equal to streaming nearly 23 million average length songs,” said Jorge Fernandes, Vodafone UK CTO. “Today, we call on local councils to open their roof-tops to allow us to make London’s digital network infrastructure world-class.

“We are committed to the largest ever investment in London in our 30-year history and we need their help. We want to further extend our coverage indoors and out as well as ensure ample capacity to support London for the next twenty years.”

Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao has previously spoken of the importance of London to the company because of the presence of so many big spending businesses. Research firm RootMetrics has reported Vodafone has the second fastest download speeds, but significantly behind EE, while more recent testing from P3 suggested Vodafone offered the best overall network in London, albeit slower than some of its rivals.

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