Just slightly pre-emptively, I know this is a very very complicated topic and the technical issues around spectrum usage are sometimes hard to unpack. (I’ve spent days talking to people who have been very generous with their time on this one.)
So please do get stuck in to the comments but bear in mind this is aimed at a general audience full of people (like me) who might be surprised that were promised one thing and are perhaps getting a very different thing.
What frustrates me further is checking the network providers’ coverage maps to see a solid 5G painting which, in my experience, is entirely untrue. I’m willing to pay more for the service but I can’t even find an honest description of a service offering among major providers in the U.K. I’ve resigned myself to accept that leaving the house means I’ll be lucky to have access to the service I pay for. Oh wait, I don’t get signal in my neighbourhood, that’s my WiFi doing the job.
I often wonder if some of this could be solved by good design. If someone could design a phone mast with an “iconic” look rather than a drably functional appearance, then we might see an uptick in acceptance of new masts. London has plenty of examples of street furniture enhancing the streetscape (witness the queues to have a photo taken at a Westminster red phone box, or the stately reassurance of a classic postbox). If someone could make a characterful phone mast, it might cost more to manufacture and install, but would pay for itself in reduced planning battles.
An iconic look for mobile masts can cut both ways re acceptability, as NYC has found out.
Also a risk of encouraging deployment of ugly street furniture e.g. the video screens that were masquerading as free voice phone and Wi-Fi access point (as seen around Swiss cottage)
The picture in the article of the quite discrete small base stations on lamp posts shows a way forward but these can only cover small areas so are an expensive way to boost coverage across a wide area. A free city Wi-Fi subsidised by bus shelter digital advert screens (and integrated to tube Wi-Fi) would be a good mitigation.
As someone in a road that only has mobile broadband I knew that my nearest mast is not 4G. I currently fork out nearly £200 a month for comms. Separate mobile broadband for upstairs and downstairs and BT Landline broadband (2MB!) No date for fibre in sight😩
Unless you need a lot of incoming bandwidth or want reliability of different networks, should not need 2 mobile broadbands, just mesh Wi-Fi hardware (one off purchase) to get good Wi-Fi coverage in house
If you can install external antenna for mobile broadband then do it, can help a lot. Three can supply a router with external antenna as standard which can be window mounted. And know that three/ee often share masts, ditto voda/o2.
On the funds being generated by festivals. Royal Parks! Wow. Wish Lambeth would just tell people what the festivals are bringing in. Lack of transparency is what bothers a lot of people.
A line in my previous reporting that got slightly lost is that Lambeth’s “we get £700k towards the country show” argument is actually “we pay the promoter £330k to host the country show and it’d cost us £700k extra if they didn’t leave the stages up for us”.
They get payment for the use of the park for the series of festivals, like other councils do with their parks — Lambeth just haven’t disclosed how much since 2023, when events in Brockwell Park brought in £510k
I’d never heard of the FTM dashboard before this article, but I found a useful shortcut to add to your IPhone home screen should you wish to access it without the long code
It looks like a significant benefit we will get when the proper 5G-SA rolls out more widely is the improved latency (responsiveness) we were promised would come with 5G, though I'd be happy just to have a usable data connection at all in the West End.
My understanding is that 4G is sufficient to do pretty much everything you'd want on. 5G has other technical limitations - such as not travelling as easily through blockers like concrete walls. I imagine if we had great coverage and consistent 4G service, no one would be complaining.
As it stands, however, when I'm at home in my flat in East London, I don't even get 4G..
Thanks so much for this. Frequently frustrated by calls dropping out on the trains from Wimbledon to Waterloo, and even on the m25. Have tried 3 networks and they all don’t work well. Data is one thing but phone conversations are really difficult. I to would be happy to pay up to double my existing contract if it just worked.
The coverage in India was light years ahead and far cheaper.
I've switched networks 3 times in 18 months as I just wasn't getting the phone service I was use too and this article explains A lot of why the coverage has gone soooo bad. I can't even use Google pay if no network or order an Uber late at night, putting us at risk. Lets hope ALL the phone companies do something about it as its absolutely awful now!!
I've switched networks 3 times in 18 months as I just wasn't getting the phone service I was use too and this article explains A lot of why the coverage has gone soooo bad. I can't even use Google pay if no network or order an Uber late at night, putting us at risk. Lets hope ALL the phone companies do something about it as its absolutely awful now!!
I've switched networks 3 times in 18 months as I just wasn't getting the phone service I was use too and this article explains A lot of why the coverage has gone soooo bad. I can't even use Google pay if no network or order an Uber late at night, putting us at risk. Lets hope ALL the phone companies do something about it as its absolutely awful now!!
I know that your publication is primarily aimed at Londoners, but just spare a thought for those of us who live outside London that think it would be great to get a 2g signal, let alone 5g!
Just slightly pre-emptively, I know this is a very very complicated topic and the technical issues around spectrum usage are sometimes hard to unpack. (I’ve spent days talking to people who have been very generous with their time on this one.)
So please do get stuck in to the comments but bear in mind this is aimed at a general audience full of people (like me) who might be surprised that were promised one thing and are perhaps getting a very different thing.
Promising people one thing whilst giving them something very different seems to be the new British disease.
What frustrates me further is checking the network providers’ coverage maps to see a solid 5G painting which, in my experience, is entirely untrue. I’m willing to pay more for the service but I can’t even find an honest description of a service offering among major providers in the U.K. I’ve resigned myself to accept that leaving the house means I’ll be lucky to have access to the service I pay for. Oh wait, I don’t get signal in my neighbourhood, that’s my WiFi doing the job.
Appreciating the nominative determinism.
It’s situations like this that make me think we’re living in a simulation. It’s too perfect, if a little on the nose
Moment of appreciation for the mobile phone expert being called Mr. SIMS!
Reading this on a Thameslink train with 5G-NSA. Why I oughta
I often wonder if some of this could be solved by good design. If someone could design a phone mast with an “iconic” look rather than a drably functional appearance, then we might see an uptick in acceptance of new masts. London has plenty of examples of street furniture enhancing the streetscape (witness the queues to have a photo taken at a Westminster red phone box, or the stately reassurance of a classic postbox). If someone could make a characterful phone mast, it might cost more to manufacture and install, but would pay for itself in reduced planning battles.
An iconic look for mobile masts can cut both ways re acceptability, as NYC has found out.
Also a risk of encouraging deployment of ugly street furniture e.g. the video screens that were masquerading as free voice phone and Wi-Fi access point (as seen around Swiss cottage)
The picture in the article of the quite discrete small base stations on lamp posts shows a way forward but these can only cover small areas so are an expensive way to boost coverage across a wide area. A free city Wi-Fi subsidised by bus shelter digital advert screens (and integrated to tube Wi-Fi) would be a good mitigation.
So much good stuff in this edition again Jim! Also, it’s just too good that SIM man’s name is Sims.
He (and Peter) were also very generous with their time, especially when I'd phone up for the seventeenth time to be like "EXPLAIN THIS AGAIN, PLEASE."
As someone in a road that only has mobile broadband I knew that my nearest mast is not 4G. I currently fork out nearly £200 a month for comms. Separate mobile broadband for upstairs and downstairs and BT Landline broadband (2MB!) No date for fibre in sight😩
Unless you need a lot of incoming bandwidth or want reliability of different networks, should not need 2 mobile broadbands, just mesh Wi-Fi hardware (one off purchase) to get good Wi-Fi coverage in house
If you can install external antenna for mobile broadband then do it, can help a lot. Three can supply a router with external antenna as standard which can be window mounted. And know that three/ee often share masts, ditto voda/o2.
On the funds being generated by festivals. Royal Parks! Wow. Wish Lambeth would just tell people what the festivals are bringing in. Lack of transparency is what bothers a lot of people.
A line in my previous reporting that got slightly lost is that Lambeth’s “we get £700k towards the country show” argument is actually “we pay the promoter £330k to host the country show and it’d cost us £700k extra if they didn’t leave the stages up for us”.
So they don't get any money from all the other festivals? I did not know this.
They get payment for the use of the park for the series of festivals, like other councils do with their parks — Lambeth just haven’t disclosed how much since 2023, when events in Brockwell Park brought in £510k
Is the 2023 figure obtained from close reading of annual accounts, or was the figure published separately (FoI or otherwise)?
It is possible to make a estimate from annual accounts when eventually published; in which case we would eventually get a 2024 figure?
It's from an foi, and Lambeth refused our request re the 2024 info
Interesting to see the strength of feeling on this. Loads of money already pledged in a couple of days for the new legal appeal.
It's the other way round - the old crowdfunding page was £50k (all spent) for teh original JR. The new one has £7600 so far.
Thanks, need to contribute to that one!
I’d never heard of the FTM dashboard before this article, but I found a useful shortcut to add to your IPhone home screen should you wish to access it without the long code
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/heres-a-way-to-access-field-test-mode-on-ipad-cellular.2378557/
It looks like a significant benefit we will get when the proper 5G-SA rolls out more widely is the improved latency (responsiveness) we were promised would come with 5G, though I'd be happy just to have a usable data connection at all in the West End.
My understanding is that 4G is sufficient to do pretty much everything you'd want on. 5G has other technical limitations - such as not travelling as easily through blockers like concrete walls. I imagine if we had great coverage and consistent 4G service, no one would be complaining.
As it stands, however, when I'm at home in my flat in East London, I don't even get 4G..
Thanks so much for this. Frequently frustrated by calls dropping out on the trains from Wimbledon to Waterloo, and even on the m25. Have tried 3 networks and they all don’t work well. Data is one thing but phone conversations are really difficult. I to would be happy to pay up to double my existing contract if it just worked.
The coverage in India was light years ahead and far cheaper.
I've switched networks 3 times in 18 months as I just wasn't getting the phone service I was use too and this article explains A lot of why the coverage has gone soooo bad. I can't even use Google pay if no network or order an Uber late at night, putting us at risk. Lets hope ALL the phone companies do something about it as its absolutely awful now!!
I've switched networks 3 times in 18 months as I just wasn't getting the phone service I was use too and this article explains A lot of why the coverage has gone soooo bad. I can't even use Google pay if no network or order an Uber late at night, putting us at risk. Lets hope ALL the phone companies do something about it as its absolutely awful now!!
I've switched networks 3 times in 18 months as I just wasn't getting the phone service I was use too and this article explains A lot of why the coverage has gone soooo bad. I can't even use Google pay if no network or order an Uber late at night, putting us at risk. Lets hope ALL the phone companies do something about it as its absolutely awful now!!
I know that your publication is primarily aimed at Londoners, but just spare a thought for those of us who live outside London that think it would be great to get a 2g signal, let alone 5g!