The Situation Concerning 4G Mobile UK

By Beau Harrold


The coverage of mobile towers that offer phone and data is extreme these days, blanketing most of the western world. British citizens were some of the first to benefit from the new technology of 3G almost 10 years ago, but they are now among the last to gain access to 4G, falling behind North America and most of western Europe. There have been many problems with 4G mobile UK, which has significantly slowed the planned roll-out.

Polls done in the UK show that a large majority of adults endorse increasing and creating 4G mobile coverage in more areas. Citing matters such as keeping up with trading rivals in other parts of the country, 82% of the adults surveyed support the conception of new 4G coverage. However, whether the surveyed population knew about the potential issues involved is uncertain.

4G simply means 4th generation. Presently, 4G appears to mean the bandwidth at 800 and 2100Mhz frequencies. These are the best frequencies for the purposes of mobile providers. However, the 800Mhz band is significantly better at building penetration and distance than the 2100Mhz band, but is currently being used by a number of other technologies.

One possible issue relates to television signal boosters. If a 4G tower goes in close by someone with a television signal amplifier, the signal could be destabilised and that household could lose all access to free channels. This could impact between 3 and 10% of the population, which is millions of people. Filters that try to inhibit this would be used, but they are not fully effective.

Paid television could also be affected, although people could, of course, choose to change to other options in these cases. However, there are a number of powerful companies behind paid TV these days, since it is such a very large business. This suggests that there are strong rivals standing in the way of rolling out 4G at the present time.

One likely option that is being rolled out is to put up for auction the spectrum that is most desired. This has already been done in certain regions, and some proponents of 4G are blaming its slow roll-out on the failure of these auctions. The slow auctioning procedure has been mainly caused by delaying tactics from a few of the Mobile Companies, who are seemingly hoping for courts to sort things out.

Test versions of 4G networks have been accomplished by several major providers in various regions across the UK. However, they do not use the spectrum which are of most contention, and the spectrum they do use are not the best candidates for nationwide coverage. Some frequencies travel greater distances and penetrate buildings better than others, which are important qualities in a cellular phone signal.

It appears that 4G is coming to the UK, but it certainly seems like it's slow getting here. For the moment, the large companies are fighting it out in a war of business deals, auctions and court dates. 4G mobile UK may cause some short-term issues, but most citizens are for the introduction, which will offer much better capabilities in the long run.




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