Today I was in the fantastic city of Leeds.
I’m a big fan of Yorkshire (dangerous ground for someone born in Lancashire) but it was my first time in the city. The place feels very at ease with itself – a fantastic example of how to celebrate the past while embracing cultural diversity.
I was up north for a Government briefing about a new opportunity for rural areas like Dorset to improve mobile connectivity.
The network operators – EE, Vodafone, Three and 02 – naturally focus their infrastructure around centres of population. This often leaves rural bits of counties like ours with zero bars of phone coverage, no mobile data and at a significant disadvantage.
Through the Rural Connected Communities (RCC) programme Government is looking to fund trials showing how 5G could be delivered at lower cost outside large towns and cities.
It also wants to know how rural communities and businesses would use 5G. That could be anything from more efficient agricultural and health care systems to saving those in life-threatening situations.
What I took from the briefing was that the trials aren’t going to eradicate mobile phone not-spots. But they could just show that digital connectivity is even more important in rural areas and pioneer different (and cheaper) delivery models.
And, who knows. Taking part may just place an area firmly in the eye-line of the major network operators, increasing the chance of better mobile phone coverage.
Watch this space . . .
Public Health Dorset statement on possible health concerns
If you are interested in staying up to date with our bid to Government and the latest digital news from Dorset then follow us on twitter or sign up for our e-newsletters.
