UK can be a 'world leader in 5G', you say? Er, our 4G still takes a beating from Peru Calls in a government-commissioned report to maximise Britain's position as a 5G "world leader" have been slammed by experts as a case of the Emperor's New Clothes. The UK strategy and plan for 5G & Digitisation [PDF] report this week concluded that "although still not fully developed it is likely that 5G will provide …
The evergreen "Onion" guide to UK political posturing:
http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-11056
The point is, if the UK is the first country to roll out 5G, then lots of UK engineers will be able to put "5G experience" on their CVs.
Then go off and get better jobs in other countries who want to learn from the UK's mistakes.
That's one reason why academics and wannabes are always pushing the next big thing. "Trying to make 4G work properly" is boring. (To be sure, the benefit to actual users would be incomparably greater, but who cares about them?) 5G is sex on a stick, as far as they're concerned.
Considering on one of the UK's largest most expensive networks I only get GPRS or Edge when more than a couple of miles from the city centre.
Mind you their trackers show full 3G and in some cases 4G reception. I suspect they are following these delusional maps to gauge coverage rather than actually going out there with a phone.
Who comes up with this crap.
Whenever our beloved Government claims that we can be a world leader in anything we actually end up as a third rate also ran. I holidayed on a tiny outlying island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean last year and it had more reliable 4g than where I am in the South of the UK, where Vodaprawn incidentally tell me I should have "amazing" coverage.
"although still not fully developed it is likely that 5G will provide revolutionary new technologies to manage a seamless evolution in network, mobile and wireless services".
Fantasy.
What is needed is smaller cells, thus more masts, and even a single wholesale RAN would double performance.
There is no incentive for operators to improve performance as it costs more and brings in almost no extra customers. See ROI. Because people are on PAYG or bill pay, there is almost no extra income from PAYG for better performance, and no extra income but higher operational costs for bill pay, unless you charge by Mbyte.
The UK is a technological laggard in so many ways and for no good reason.
There is nothing especially difficult about the territory. The country is small and it's geographical profiles similar to many other countries, or at least no more challenging than others.
Which leaves only one area that is different - the human element. BT should be relegated to be a 'gridmaster' where it provides the back bone services.
The recent UK story of a woman starting her own ISP from a single link is a heartening one, and should be a way forward for many to follow.
Those who wrote the reports have assured themselves a kinghthood or two.
And some perfomrance bonuses for massaging the collective egos of the Ministry and network operators.
Great Britain (Minus the great) revels in past glory. FFS, Albania is doing better.
Keep on dreaming.
Although i think the UK's coverage is shocking, as the OPCO's are still allowed to focus on population connectivity (Read: London) as opposed to geographic: when installing a mast, on average they are charged 15x more by the landowner than other utility companies like gas, water and electricity. This makes it not profitable for them to go around sticking up masts so they don't bother.
Also, many people don't understand that when there are issues, they are often caused by protected species nesting in or around equipment. Due to our laws, they're then not allowed to do anything until said animals have moved on of their own accord. In other countries, they would just scoop them up and relocate them.
Until the government do something about the amount the operators are being charged for leasing land to erect masts, then we're always going to lag behind as it's not in their interest.
Even more equipment would be required for 5G as it doesn't penetrate as well as 4G, so it's going to end up nothing more than another flop, chucked into the cities while I struggle to make an emergency call on Exmoor.
What a cluster7uck.
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