There’s good news on the horizon for people struggling to connect to 5G in the UK.
Planning laws are set to be relaxed to boost 5G connectivity by allowing more mobile phone masts to be built across the country.
Digital minister Chris Bryant said this week that the Government “will consider areas where planning laws and guidance might be changed to facilitate the deployment of mobile masts”.
Here, The i Paper looks at the areas where phone users are struggling most with a poor 5G signal, which experts say is down to a lack of infrastructure.
Sylwia Kechiche, an industry analyst at Opensignal, said urban areas have been prioritised to receive 5G first because it is cheaper to roll out there.
She said relaxing planning laws could help build more mobile phone masts, which are needed to boost connectivity.
The worst places for 5G
Availability is worst in the Shetland Islands, where people with a 5G handset and subscription only spend 2 per cent of the time connected to a 5G network, according to data from Opensignal shared with The i Paper.
This is followed by the Outer Hebrides, and Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands in Scotland, where the connection rate is 5.9 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively.
Perth and Motherwell in Scotland also featured in the worst 10 areas> In Wales, Llandrindod Wells and Llandudno struggled.
In England, there was particularly poor coverage in Guildford in Surrey.
Phone users in Truro in Cornwall and Torquay in Devon also struggled to access 5G.
The figures relate to the period from January to last month.
The best places for 5G
Availability is best in London, according to Opensignal’s data. In Romford, phone users are connected to 5G 28.8 per cent of the time, while in Ilford and Southall the proportion is 28.5 per cent.
Harrow, Enfield, Twickenham and the inner London postal area were also among the best areas for 5G.
Watford, in Hertfordshire and just outside the capital also offered users a better experience than most.
Manchester and Birmingham rounded out the top 10 list, with connectivity rates of 26 per cent and 24.9 per cent respectively.
Ms Kechiche said phone users typically struggle to connect to 5G when they are too far from a mobile phone mast, or because the 5G spectrum – a type of radio frequency – used by the operator is too low to reach inside buildings
Higher spectrums provide better connectivity inside buildings but cover a smaller area, which is why some operators opt for low-band spectrums.
If too many people are trying to connect to a 5G network and there is not enough capacity, operators will downgrade the connection to 4G, Ms Kechiche said.
Sometimes people think they are getting 5G because the icon shows up on their phone, but they are actually on 4G.
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Luke Kehoe, industry analyst at Ookla, which monitors the performance of networks, said: “5G availability remains highly fragmented across the UK, particularly in underserved rural areas lacking commercial investment.”
He said some rural regions, such as Hampshire and Dorset in England, Powys in Wales and the Scottish Borders, were “particularly disadvantaged” due to lowerpopulation density – which limits return on investment for operators – challenging terrain such as hills and islands, and higher costs associated with site acquisition and maintenance.
In urban areas of the UK, 29 per cent of network connections are 5G compared to 19 per cent in rural areas, according to crowdsourced data collected by Opensignal between October last year and March this year.
Mr Kehoe said the UK lagged behind most had led to “widespread legal disputes” over installing 5G and had reduced the availability of rooftops for 5G deployment in cities such as London.
Landlords have lacked incentives to rent out space for mobile operator equipment, he added.
Meanwhile, operators do not have obligations to expand 5G coverage to underserved areas in the way they do in other European countries
Since Brexit, the UK has missed out on funding that the EU has given to member countries for 5G deployment, Mr Kehoe said.
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