back to article Huge erections - or lots of small ones. Checkmate, mast NIMBYs

Easing restrictions on the maximum height that existing telecoms masts can be increased to will lead to a reduction in the number of masts needed for supporting mobile broadband services, an expert has said. The Government is consulting on proposals to improve mobile connectivity in England [44-page 306KB PDF]. The plans …

COMMENTS

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  1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    This sounds like good news

    provided they really do start seeing operators sharing masts and not simply improving the probability of their own services being receivable in an area.

    Although given the reception quality of some operators....

    Cautious thumbs up.

  2. StephenTompsett

    Questions to ask objectors

    Do you own a mobile phone? 99.9% ob objectors will probably own a modern smartphone, in which case the followup question is: How do you expect to use it?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Questions to ask objectors

      "Do you own a mobile phone? [...] How do you expect to use it?"

      Your typical NIMBY would respond with:

      "What does that have to do with anything? What does that tower have to do with my phone?"

      As inconceivable as it may be to most Reg readers, that sort of person often truly does not realize his phone is a radio, and needs a radio tower to work.

    2. A J Stiles

      Re: Questions to ask objectors

      Yep. See also "Gavin and Stacey", series 2, episode 6.

    3. Elmer Phud

      Re: Questions to ask objectors

      "Do you own a mobile phone? 99.9% ob objectors will probably own a modern smartphone, in which case the followup question is: How do you expect to use it?"

      At a WOMAD festival a while back and overheard people going on about how 'natural' it was and how they had good coverage on phones .

      I pointed out the three large generator/aerial trucks behind some trees - especially the '24 hour operation of the gennies to ensure that messages about the 'wonderful natural atmosphere' get through ---

      --- or the two-faced twats would moan like hell.

      1. Phil Parker
        Pint

        Re: Questions to ask objectors

        I worked for a local council and was colleared as I walked back to the office by someone sitting outside a pub (I'd foolishly not taken my ID badge off, didn't normally make that mistake) to take her pettition in to the building and get some signatures against a mobile mast.

        I asked if she had a mobile. She did. I left the petition with her.

  3. Tempus_felix

    A good plan, but what about user density?

    This idea is good in principle, particularly in lower density areas, where coverage has been traditionally patchy, but in higher use areas, there will still be limitations on the number of users a cell can handle. Lets hope the operators can actually get it together and provide us with a working system for once.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Meh

      Re: A good plan, but what about user density?

      "This idea is good in principle"

      But only in principle. In practice I suspect this is the result of lobbying by Torangeeverywhere to enable them to shrink their infrastructure maintenance bill, rather than anything to do with better coverage.

      I must say I'm amused by the eighty fold increase in mobile data that is forecast. Unless they are proposing to replace fixed lines with mobile that won't happen, and mobile operators have failed to step up to that plate time and time again. I doubt that anything has changed in that respect. Other drivers like mobile penetration aren't going to materially change, the opportunities to view mobile content aren't going to grow unless you can force more people onto long public transport journeys, and we've got developments like H.265 that will reduce bandwidth for mobile video viewing. I don't doubt there's growth, and a lot of it...but 80 fold?

  4. Lloyd
    Thumb Down

    Bigger masts eh?

    I've just bought some nice Eucalyptus trees to cover up the one at the bottom of my garden, of course I wouldn't need to if TFL hadn't cut the existing trees down so that the mobile operator could get better reception (despite them saying that the location was the ideal site as there was no interference when the planning application went through).

  5. Return To Sender
    Headmaster

    Vociferous?

    "Britons are vociferous adopters of new technology..."

    I presume ms. Gill meant 'voracious'. Don't remember hoards of folk taking to the streets yelling and screaming about their new tech, 'leastways around here. Maybe near a fruity store around Oxford St occasionally?

  6. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Stop

    So much infrastructure for so little reception...

    All these masts and still Vodafone can't offer reliable 3G coverage where I live.

    I'd like to see these masts disguised similar to how they do it in Egypt. There, the mobile masts are disguised as Palm trees - albeit taller than usual. Nonetheless they blend very well into the landscape so you don't notice them at all, other than an initial "hmmm.... that's a very tall Palm tree..."

    Whilst it may be odd to look at a very tall Palm tree from your garden in the UK, it could be a Scots Pine or something similar - anything other than a 20m tall hunk of galvanized steel plonked in the ground.

    1. Return To Sender
      Joke

      Re: So much infrastructure for so little reception...

      Disguise 'em as Leylandii; seriously tall, just as likely to piss off the neighbours.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So much infrastructure for so little reception...

      I'd like to see these masts disguised similar to how they do it in Egypt

      Pretty sure theReg has done a "spot the phone mast" item in the past where they had a collection of picture in which some contained disguised phone masts.

      Anyway, the ones that they are putting around our area nowadays seem to look just like streetlamps without the light bit at the top. And the good news is that EE seem to have managed to outflank the local tinfoil brigade and managed to install one ~200m from our house which I hope will give me coverage indoors!

    3. Chads

      Re: So much infrastructure for so little reception...

      You mean like the one here..

      http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/369229

      We developed this for Orange, but the additional cost over a standard tower meant that not very many were ever sold. The palm trees were a bit more successful

  7. ScottME

    I've always wondered why we in the UK have such pissy little cellphone masts compared to the huge great f**k-off towers you see all over the USA.

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