Brings coverage to 57 more rural locations
Vodafone has extended its 4G coverage to 57 rural communities and locations across the UK as part of its ongoing commitment to the nationwide Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme.
The sites are in locations from the Orkney Islands to the north of mainland Scotland down to Devon in south-west England.
The SRN programme is a £1 billion joint initiative between government and the UK’s four mobile network operators. It uses mast sharing at sites in rural areas where one or more, but not all four, providers offer coverage.
Another of the programme’s goal is to build new shared masts to connect areas that have no coverage, with the aim of collectively providing 4G to of 95% of the UK landmass by the end of 2025.
Vodafone has already made to bring 4G coverage to 99% of UK premises. The operator is also pioneering Open RAN in rural areas of the UK and offers solutions like MyFarmWeb. This is a cloud-based platform app that enables farmers to store, visualise and view information gathered through agricultural IoT sensors and other data sources in the field.
The Minister for Science, Innovation & Technology, Julia Lopez, noted, “The £1 billion Shared Rural Network is a key part of our plan to make patchy mobile phone reception a thing of the past and give people great connectivity wherever they live.
“Vodafone is working tirelessly to boost 4G coverage in rural areas and it’s great to see the progress being made. We are making sure our countryside communities don’t miss out on the speed and efficiency of internet services on the go – from keeping in touch with family to running a business.”
Andrea Dona, UK Network and Development Director for Vodafone said “…connecting rural and hard-to-reach parts of the UK can be difficult and restricted by cost. The Shared Rural Network initiative enables the UK network operators to work together so people living and working in such areas have a choice of network as well as the connectivity they need to support local and ultimately the wider UK economy.”