Ofcom Call Research Shows Differences Between Urban And Rural Mobile Service

Mobile users in rural areas experience a significantly worse voice service than those in urban areas, according to new research from Ofcom which highlights the inequalities in mobile coverage across the UK.

The communications regulator combined data from all four major UK operators – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone – with independent research from RootMetrics and a consumer survey as part of its mission to provide relevant information to the public to help them choose a mobile network.

According to the research, 78 percent of mobile users in urban areas are satisfied with their network compared to just 67 percent in rural areas. Overall, 55 percent said they never or hardly ever had to put up with no signal but 30 percent said this happened every week.

Urban and rural call connections

More than two thirds said they never had or hardly ever had a blocked call – instances when a user has coverage but the network is too busy to place a call – or a dropped call – where a call is connected but terminated suddenly, but a fifth of users said they suffered from both at least once a week, a figure higher in rural areas.

This survey appears to be supported by empirical evidence. According to RootMetrics, 97 percent of calls on EE were successfully connected, compared to 95.3 percent on O2, 94.5 percent on Three and 92.6 percent on Vodafone during the second half of 2013.

However while EE connected 97.5 percent of all calls in urban areas, this figure drops to 93.7 percent further away from large cities. On O2 it falls from 97.7 percent to 87.4 percent, Three from 96 percent to 86 percent and Vodafone from 95.3 percent to 79.9 percent.

Operators to improve

RootMetrics’ call failure figures are higher than the data provided by the mobile operators, because the networks exclude call attempts made from outside a coverage area. Ofcom says the information provided by each operator isn’t directly comparable because of differences in how its collected but it appears to show that every two calls out of a hundred are unsuccessful.

All four operators have agreed to work with Ofcom to develop a common methodology to measure rates of successful calls and the regulator hopes that by publishing this information, it will encourage competition among the networks to provide the best service.

Ofcom adds that all four are now meeting their 90 percent 3G coverage requirements and have indicated they will match O2’s 98 percent 4G requirement as per the terms of its 800MHz spectrum license. The watchdog adds it is continuing to work on the £150 million Mobile infrastructure Project (MIP), currently being delivered by Arqiva, which is funding masts in locations outside of existing coverage areas.

Recently, Vodafone invited up to 100 rural communities to apply for the opportunity to improve mobile signal in their area as part of a new national programme which uses its Open Sure Signal femtocell technology.

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