BT (EE) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’re in advanced talks over a new agreement with rivals, including at least O2 (Virgin Media) and Vodafone, that will give them the ability to access some of EE’s mobile masts in remote locations. The deal may help to improve 4G (mobile broadband) coverage in Partial Not-Spot areas and tackle delays.
The deal relates to the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, which is supported by £501m of public funding and £532m from operators. The project involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and the demand-led building and sharing of new masts in others between O2 (Virgin Media), Vodafone, EE and Three UK. The goal is to extend geographic 4G coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025 (or 84% when only considering the areas where you’ll be able to take 4G from all providers).
The SRN includes two key targets. The first involves the delivery of industry funded coverage improvements in Partial Not-Spot (PNS) areas (i.e. areas that receive coverage from at least one operator, but not all), which needs to be achieved by June 2024 – at this point 4G (mobile broadband) must cover 88% of the UK’s landmass. EE became the first operator to report having achieved the first target for PNS areas in early 2024.
The second target involves Total Not-Spot (TNS) areas by early 2027. Just to be clear, Ofcom’s licence obligations commit each individual operator to increase its 4G coverage to 88% of the UK’s landmass by June 2024 – rising to 90% by January 2027 – with these individual obligations supporting the overall target of 95% by December 2025.
However, both the National Audit Office (here) and Public Accounts Committee (here) have recently confirmed that Three UK, Vodafone and O2 were “each likely to miss their Ofcom licence obligation to provide 88% 4G coverage by June 2024” and had requested to “discuss an 18-month extension to the PNS element of the programme.” At present, the TNS target has not been impacted by this.
The government have naturally been putting pressure on the three operators to catch-up with EE. However, ultimately it will be Ofcom’s responsibility to take a view on whether the licence obligations have been met and what, if anything, they want to do about that. The regulator is due to run a progress assessment during the summer and will then reach a conclusion a couple of months later, during the early autumn.
Significance of the New Deal
In case anybody has forgotten, BT (EE) has historically put a significant amount of commercial investment into delivering the strongest level of geographic 4G network coverage, which is partly how they were able to achieve the PNS target ahead of schedule – as well as being roughly two years before their rivals now indicate they may be able to achieve the same target.
Back in early 2020, before the SRN deal was signed, Vodafone, Three and O2 did attempt to reach an infrastructure sharing deal with BT over several hundred of these sites (excluding the state aid supported ESN sites that can already be shared), but this did not succeed.
At the time, EE’s rivals suggested that the operator was trying to charge 250% more than the existing commercial rate to access the sites. The suggestion was that this might have made it cheaper for Three UK, Vodafone and O2 to just build their own masts, which is partly what they ended up doing under the final SRN agreement.
However, recent pressure from the government, as well as concerns about PNS delays (Ofcom could impose fines for this, but they probably won’t), may be signalling a change in approach from the aforementioned players, with talk of a mast sharing agreement now being confirmed.
A BT Group Spokesperson told ISPreview:
“We’re proud to have delivered on our Shared Rural Network targets six months early and continue to work hard to expand EE coverage. We’ve been in discussions with a number of other mobile networks in recent months to share sites to support their own coverage efforts and we’ll continue to collaborate with them on the next phase of the project.”
The negotiations over site sharing are said to be part of BT Group’s recently formed Towers Division, which could make it easier for them to facilitate this kind of access. But at this stage the specifics of any agreement and how many masts it may involve are unclear, although it’s reasonable to assume that O2 and Vodafone will only be looking at strategic sites that can get them as close as possible – as quickly as possible – to that 88% (PNS target) figure.
Some news reports (Telegraph) have claimed that BT has already done a deal, which ISPreview understands from its sources is correct, although the operator does yet appear able to formally confirm that or the specifics of any agreements they have been discussing. But it does seem like this could certainly boost the 4G coverage for all those involved, which will naturally be of benefit to people living in such areas.