UK mobile operators reject government plans on national roaming

[Anonymous]

"Mobile operators in the UK have rejected government proposals on setting up national roaming, according to the Financial Times. Earlier this year, operators were urged by officials to look into the possibility of sharing infrastructure in rural parts of the country, as well as locations where consumers seemingly loose signal coverage. While this would help prevent customers experiencing drop outs in connectivity, mobile operators didn't believe the plans to be viable.

It's reported that Culture Secretary Ed Vaizey fired out letters to each operator in attempt to reach an agreement over national roaming, but carriers noted they would receive little in return and wouldn't be able to collaborate on a solution by the start of 2015. They also state that there wouldn't be the incentive to invest in their own networks to compete against one another. The UK government is able to put more pressure on local operators and push through such plans, but for the time being officials are awaiting for said companies to work on plans of their own."

So much for common sense, and putting the customer first!

Source: Engadget via CrackBerry

[Anonymous]

Now that's a shame as so many could have benefited. 😞

[jonsie]

That wasn't to be unexpected in all honesty. What would stop some small independent starting up and using all the networks' masts thus making huge profits with minimal investments, reaping the benefits of the networks' costs.

It's a shame from a customer point of view but you can't blame the networks for protecting their investment.

[MI5]

Entirely unsurprising and as I predicted.......

[aldaweb]

Not surprising as it could easily make the existing networks congestion worse if it's the only one with service in a remote area.

[Anonymous]

One option might be to force the sale of all the towers. That way they would still have to invest but we wouldn't need so many of them so more could be put in more rural areas where signal is at best sparse.

[Anonymous]

Really don't see why they couldn't share a rural network where the commercial argument isn't there leaving the operators to slug it out in the populous areas.

[MI5]

Rural coverage is sparse due to low population (no incentive to invest vs potential returns), so the only way it would work would be for the Govt to force investment in these areas which would result in a price increase for everyone and the competition element would be removed so networks could pretty much charge what they wanted - That wouldn't be good for anyone.....