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Three out of the UK’s four MNOs requested the deadline extension back in October
The UK government has denied a request from three of the UK’s mobile operators (Three, Vodafone and Virgin Media O2) pleading for a deadline extension of the first phase of the Shared Rural Network (SRN).
Dean Creamer, the head of Building Digital UK (the government body overseeing the project) confirmed this week that the authority has denied a request by the three MNOs to delay the first phase deadline by 18 months.
“That wasn’t accepted and we haven’t agreed that and we’ve said that Ofcom will make that assessment as expected,” Creamer said to MPs this week.
The SRN aims to deploy 4G coverage to 95% of the UK by 2025. The £1 billion scheme is a partnership between the UK’s four mobile operators (EE, Three, Vodafone, and Virgin Media O2), jointly funded by themselves and the government.
To complete the first phase of the project, operators have to get rid of coverage ‘partial not-spots’ by extending the reach of their 4G networks. ‘Partial not-spots’ are defined as areas that receive coverage from at least one operator, but not all of them.
EE became the first operator to complete the first phase in January. Despite the achievement, as the country’s largest operator, they were able to reach the deadline by upgrading existing sites, whereas rivals are having to build more sites from scratch.
The project’s second and final phase (the deadline of which is in 2027) involves the development of shared masts to bring 4G coverage to areas that currently have none at all.
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