The Rich Country With the Worst Mobile-Phone Service

Economist: Britain has long been a pioneer in telecoms. In 1837 it built the world's first commercial telegraph; the first transatlantic call was placed from London in 1927; in 1992 a British programmer sent the first text message to a mobile phone. Today it lags rather than leads. According to figures provided to The Economist by Opensignal, a research firm, Britain ranks 46th for download speeds out of the 56 developed and developing countries for which there are data. That gives it the worst mobile service in the rich world.

Some of this is due to demand. Over the past three years data usage on mobile devices has doubled as people stream films and play games. The busiest parts of cities often lack mobile reception because the system is at capacity. But mainly it is an issue of supply. British users of 5G are only on it 11% of the time. That puts Britain 43rd out of the 56 countries. This lacklustre performance is caused by a combination of government U-turns, insufficient investment and sclerotic planning.

Brexit

[r1348]

I'm sure that will fix it, it's definitely the immigrant's fault.

Re:

[smooth wombat]

where we're also fixing all of our problems, which of course are also the fault of immigrants.

Yes, the Native Americans would agree with this sentiment. Those white immigrants have caused all our problems.

That may seem counterintuitive, but remember, most immigrants from the UK to the US will be white, so of course they're welcome.

Again, the Native Americans would take issue with this considering the torture, rapes, murders, general destruction, and genocide done by those white people.

Re: Brexit

[RightwingNutjob]

Yes. If you announce to the world that anyone can just show up and be eligible for free shit, then it will cause all kinds of weird problems as society reallocates its resources to make that free shit happen for the large numbers of people who show up from all over to claim said free shit.

Insurance premiums will go up as hospitals cover the costs of free care to the uninsured. Uber and Lyft prices will rise as state, local, and private charity organizations begin to book rides for migrants who cannot pay fo

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

OK, but:

a) since it's "taxpayer-funded", not "free" :

b) are the British telecoms rolling all the additional subscriber funds into additional infrastructure and there's just deployment latency, or is the whole program a massive cash-grab from the Treasury and they intend to dash the economy upon the shoals?

I can see how the country will quickly go bankrupt but are the telecomms also?

Or is the government screwing the telecomms out of funds like the taxpayers?

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

All the cell companies brought back roaming charges the instant Brexit was official.

Re:

[newcastlejon]

All the cell companies brought back roaming charges the instant Brexit was official.

All except O2.

Surprised!

[dskoll]

I thought for sure it would be Canada!

Re: Surprised!

[lowfence]

The worst? Not sureâ¦The most expensive? Hell yeah.

Canada is the worst....

[Roger W Moore]

...if you measure service per dollar. Personally I much prefer the vastly cheaper prices in the UK and will happily wait a few extra milliseconds for my web pages or email to download if I could get British prices.

Immediately Guessed the Country

[Oxygen99]

I live almost in the centre of a reasonably large UK conurbation and mobile coverage is garbage. The infrastructure is a bin fire fuelled by grasping companies overpromising and underdelivering. Still. At least it's not railways, or water companies or...

Dying shit country

[KlomDark]

UK, especially England, is a dying shithole. Stuck in it's past glory, sniffing it's own farts. Doesn't even know it's irrelevant. Wonder what they'll call it once it's eventually taken over by another country because they won't be able to defend it? Or the whole area will turn into United Scotland or something. But the current pattern is just a cargo cult mentality, it won't last.

Re:

[thechanklybore]

No idea which country you're in, but the standard of living in the UK is still far higher than the vast majority of the world, so that's a little strong.

https://oecdbetterlifeindex.or... [oecdbetterlifeindex.org]

Re:

[KlomDark]

I wanna see that same report in 10 years, it won't be anywhere as rosy.

Re:

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

What would make it dramatically less rosy?

Re: Dying shit country

[drinkypoo]

Yes, Putin's attack which became known as brexit succeeded brilliantly. Which reminds me of a story...

Perhaps not a surprise

[kvezach]

There has to be some kind of first mover disadvantage to tech. If you're first, you get to make all the mistakes, and your system has time to be entrenched. Newcomers can learn from your mistakes and not make them, or just skip the system entirely, like countries going directly to cell phones without running copper.

Yep

[jrnvk]

Can confirm. A summer trip there this year made me question if my phone was broken whenever I was anywhere near a tourist destination. And I travel a lot, so I know what bad networks are like.

Is cellular the only wireless data?

[John.Banister]

Britain has a fairly high population density. Maybe a fibre network back end with ISPs using wifi to connect to devices would help.

All mobile phones companies are private enterprise

[Pop69]

What's with mentioning the government ? All mobile phones companies in the UK are private enterprises, they bear the responsibility for any lack of investment in their own infrastructure

The 5g cell towers are busy with mind control

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

If they controlled fewer people they could handle more calls.