Vodafone UK wants to tap “at least” 1,000 new antenna sites in London in an effort to build out its network.
The operator has called on London councils to provide it with access to sites such as building rooftops so that it can install new LTE antennas and fibre-optic links.
Vodafone said new sites were needed to meet a “soaring” demand for mobile data in the capital, citing usage growth of 76 percent in the last 12 months.
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It claimed it was spending around £200 million in London during 2014 and 2015 and had provided 4G coverage to 99 percent of the city’s population.
The company also cited and independent study from telecommunications performance and test group P3, which concluded that Vodafone achieved the highest test score among all UK operators for the performance of mobile voice and data services in the capital.
Market reports from RootMetrics have consistently ranked EE as the best-performing UK operator, with Vodafone coming further down the running order.
However, this has drawn criticism from Vodafone UK’s Head of Mobile Networks, Petek Ergul, who has argued that connection consistency is more important that speed.
In an effort to expand the availability of its network, Vodafone said it had built or upgraded approximately 460 LTE sites in London during the past year, in addition to rolling out LTE-A in some locations and prepping VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling.
Jorge Fernandes, CTO of Vodafone UK, said: “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.
“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.”