Date:05/10/11
The Chancellor’s £150m plan to eliminate mobile blackspots has been slammed by market watchers as being totally inadequate.
George Osborne had promised to invest the cash to improve the quality of mobile services, aiming to extend coverage to 99 per cent of the UK population. But Ovum analyst Jeremy Green said it was not possible to “buy much mobile phone coverage” for £150m.
“It's hard to know what the justification is for giving public money to profitable private companies – most of them foreign-owned – to help them to do something that the regulatory framework and licence obligations should be inducing them to do anyway,” he added.
The government said it is planning to start spending the money to buy additional mobile mast sites in 2012.
In 2010, the Commission for Rural Communities urged the government to impose a univeral service obligation on mobile operators to improve the coverage received by those living in rural areas.
Analysts scorn government's £150m mobile blackspot plan
The Chancellor’s £150m plan to eliminate mobile blackspots has been slammed by market watchers as being totally inadequate.George Osborne had promised to invest the cash to improve the quality of mobile services, aiming to extend coverage to 99 per cent of the UK population. But Ovum analyst Jeremy Green said it was not possible to “buy much mobile phone coverage” for £150m.
“It's hard to know what the justification is for giving public money to profitable private companies – most of them foreign-owned – to help them to do something that the regulatory framework and licence obligations should be inducing them to do anyway,” he added.
The government said it is planning to start spending the money to buy additional mobile mast sites in 2012.
In 2010, the Commission for Rural Communities urged the government to impose a univeral service obligation on mobile operators to improve the coverage received by those living in rural areas.
Views: 996
©ictnews.az. All rights reserved.
Similar news
- Mobile operators of national market to reduce roaming tariffs
- Iran vows to unplug Internet
- China Targeting Telecoms in Corruption Probe
- Bangladesh to use electronic voting system for next elections
- Philippine IT sector to launch five-year digital strategy plan
- Russian Premier Vladimir Putin meets ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré
- US lawmakers propose to regulate use of geolocation data
- Unlimited mobile data plans dying as telcos gear up for cloud future
- Europe at risk of falling behind US and Asia on 4G use
- Netherlands first to regulate on net neutrality
- Korean Co Takes Aim At Display Patents
- Regulators, Banks Look for IT Hires After Breakdowns
- Electron transactions spreading
- Schools in remote rural areas will connect to the single database via network without SIM
- Obama to Personally Tweet From Twitter Account
