Connectivity in Wales – I may as well be in the sea

Connectivity for the forgotten many

I had almost finished this blog yesterday morning when I heard a report by Rory Cellan-Jones on Radio 2 Chris Evans breakfast show. Go ON UK the charity set up to promote digital skills have just produced a ‘digital exclusion heatmap’ showing the areas where people are unable to gain access to the digital revolution. According to the report Wales suffers considerably with over a third of the population lacking in the five basic digital skills as defined by the charity. This coincides with my experience and clearly something needs to be done. It is near impossible to keep up with basic digital skills if you have no access to the Internet.

In my last blog I mentioned a few of the amazing engineering achievements over the past 150 years. Starting with the successful delivery of a cable across the Atlantic in 1866 and concluding with a 630MW power station in the middle of the sea. We have telecommunications satellites providing communication wherever we are in the ocean as demonstrated by our MD Steve Hodges while sailing around the channel. Yet, only a few weeks ago while working a short distance from Cardiff, one of the major cities the UK, I needed some Internet access to test some applications in some specific areas in and near the Brecon Beacons in Wales. However, I suspect I would have achieved better results sailing around in the middle of the English Channel with Mr Hodges.

“This is a regular location for media and emergency services…”

I managed to get 3G service with a good signal at Storey Arms, but that is because there is an EE mast on the site. This was confirmed by the owner of the refreshments caravan. “I’ve tried them all. EE is the only one that works around here.” I did see signals from O2 and Vodafone but just enough to establish the service provider, not sufficient to provide a service. Luckily, I could make a call using my EE handset but my company O2 handset was just there for the ride. This is a regular location for media and emergency services activity due to road traffic incidents and incidents on the Brecon Beacons – a popular area for walkers and an SAS training ground.

We moved on to Brecon where I established two Three connections and a brief glimpse of a 3G service from EE but then it dropped leaving the two Three 3G connections but they were far from reliable. I could at least make a call on my EE and O2 handsets.

We later moved on to Merthyr Tydfil and found similar results to Brecon. I was hoping for a workable 4G service in at least the town areas but only succeeded in finding 3G services with very erratic latency and packet loss. Admittedly, I wasn’t sat immediately under the service masts but in the case of Brecon I was in the centre of town and in Merthyr Tydfil I was in a very popular retail park area.

“If we don’t take this seriously… we will stunt the development of new generations of entrepreneurs and talented software and hardware developers.”

In the major towns and cities the available 4G service is very good and reliable. There are also many other options such as access to public Wi-Fi. Like in many other areas of the UK it seems to be an all or nothing service. It is very frustrating to keep reading about developments in mobile technology when so many of us across the UK suffer a second or third class mobile data service. In fact there are still many locations with no service at all. The recent publication of the Ofcom mobile cover chart clearly shows the problem we are faced with.

I have posted some previous blogs about the lack of broadband in rural and urban areas. Although it wasn’t part of my recent testing I would hazard a guess that many of the areas suffering with a lack of mobile data cover are also having to put up with low speed broadband, if they have access to broadband services. I appreciate many of the problems the mobile providers face in delivering 4G are shared with the broadband providers, such as line plant, power and way-leave.

Having access to a good quality Internet service is just as important as having access to electricity, water and gas. Ideally we need good quality fixed and mobile connectivity but at the very least one or the other. Internet access is a utility. If we don’t take this seriously business will suffer, it will slow our progress as a nation and even worse, we will stunt the development of new generations of entrepreneurs and talented software and hardware developers.

“Achieving near due south line-of-sight a few degrees above the horizon can also be a challenge in built-up and mountainous regions.”

Many of the areas I passed through while in Wales cannot get a successful 3G signal. My concern with forthcoming upgrades is that the areas with 3G will be upgraded to 4G creating an even greater gap for population that are unlucky enough to be outside the main broadband and mobile provision. Yet there isn’t a day goes by without mention of 5G, even though this is some years away I can just see the problems getting worse.

Satellite broadband is an option but the latency can mean some applications just will not work. Also, the service may be stopped if the monthly data download limit for the subscribed tariff is reached. Flexible tariffs where additional bandwidth can be automatically charged for on a pay-as-you-go type arrangement can result in runaway costs. For mobile applications, satellite equipment can be bulky and difficult to line up unless they are equipped with a self seeking auto-alignment system. Achieving near due south line-of-sight a few degrees above the horizon can also be a challenge in built-up and mountainous regions.

In a nutshell, I believe there should be a priority for good quality 4G mobile services in areas lacking physical connectivity. This could be extended into wider cover through mast sharing, national roaming agreements and by overlapping 4G mobile services with public Wi-Fi access. This may include agreements with public and private enterprise to make use of SSIDs on their wireless networks to fill any remaining gaps. Providing mobile cover would better serve the members of the population that need to improve their digital skills as they are more likely to have smart phones with mobile data packages than broadband services with Wi-Fi access.

“Providing a dependable 4G service to the depths of Wales and other rural locations around the UK requires investment. Urgent investment.”

There also needs to be some means of coping with increased demand. This is not a nicety, this is a necessity, especially if our Emergency Services Network migrates to the commercial 4G service.

I appreciate this requires significant investment and it relies on service providers working together, perhaps more closely than ever before. But as I mentioned in the last blog, over 150 years ago and against all odds both physically and technically we laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic, Only a few years ago we built a power station 20km offshore capable of supporting almost half a million homes a year. Providing a dependable 4G service to the depths of Wales and other rural locations around the UK requires investment. Urgent investment.

Useful links…

More than 12 million fall into UK digital skills gap (BBC News)
Go ON digital exclusion heat map