Mobile broadband "won't solve rural divide by itself"

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 20 Mar 2009 at 16:05

T-Mobile has warned the Government not to pin its hopes on mobile broadband to achieve its aim of a 2Mbits/sec connection for every home in Britain.

Lord Carter's provisional Digital Britain report stated that a new universal service obligation (USO) will compel fixed and mobile-broadband providers to deliver a 2Mbits/sec connections to every home in the country by 2012.

However, T-Mobile warns that mobile-broadband companies face the same challenges as fixed-line providers when it comes to providing high-speed data connections to rural areas.

"If we can play a role in expanding broadband access, we're happy to play a part in that," Richard Warmsley, head of internet and entertainment at T-Mobile told PC Pro. "The cost of putting mobile-broadband access in relatively low population places is always going to be a challenge. The economics are always going to be a factor."

"The next stage [of Digital Britain] is to look at the practicalities," he added.

Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards, recently estimated that 15% of the country doesn't have access to a 2Mbit/sec connection.

BT claims to provide broadband to 99% of the UK's residents, but those figures are based on homes with access to a paltry 512Kbits/sec line.

T-Mobile's Warmsley did, however, offer a glimmer of hope to people living in towns and cities who are still unable to get a decent fixed-line connection.

He said T-Mobile will soon be extending its 4.5Mbits/sec mobile broadband network into other major cities across the country. He also claimed that "we will see mobile broadband speeds increase rapidly" over the next couple of years, as the networks move towards Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, which has the potential to reach speeds of 40Mbits/sec and beyond.