O2, EE, Three and Vodafone commit to improve coverage by 2017.
The Government has secured a deal with four major mobile operators to improve coverage for mobile users across the UK.
EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have agreed to invest £5 billion and guarantee coverage for calls and text mesages across 90% of the UK by 2017.
It's hoped the move will tackle so-called ‘not-spots’ where signal strength is patchy or non-existent.
The providers rejected the Government's preferred option of a system allowing customers of one network to use another if their own wasn't available.
[SPOTLIGHT]Under the agreement, partial ‘not-spots’ - areas where there is some coverage but not from all four networks - will be cut in half. Full coverage from all four providers should increase from 69% to 85% of the UK by 2017.
Many areas will also receive better data coverage as a result of the improvements.
Ofcom, the Telecoms regulator, will enforce the legally-binding deal. No money will be supplied from the Government to the mobile networks as part of this agreement.
Sajid Javid, the Culture Secretary and the person responsible for securing the deal, said: “Too many parts of the UK regularly suffer from poor mobile coverage leaving them unable to make calls or send texts. This legally binding agreement will give the UK the world-class mobile phone coverage it needs and deserves.”
All four networks agreed this was a great result for mobile phone users.
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