The Rich Country With the Worst Mobile-Phone Service 42
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.
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 (Score:2)
I'm sure that will fix it, it's definitely the immigrant's fault.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
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: (Score:2)
Says the guy who never bought house built on top of an ancient graveyard.
Re: (Score:2)
an ancient graveyard
No such thing. Until the indigenous people found out that land had value to the white man.
Where I lived as a kid (Seattle area), the area was a frequent battleground for tribal conflicts. They just left the bodies lying where they were. For thousands of years. When our family first moved in, the cool thing to do was to look for arrow heads and bones*.
*Never mind that the neighborhood had been seriously regraded when the housing was built. There was nothing to be found.
Re: Brexit (Score:1, Flamebait)
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: (Score:3)
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: (Score:3)
All the cell companies brought back roaming charges the instant Brexit was official.
Re: (Score:2)
All the cell companies brought back roaming charges the instant Brexit was official.
All except O2.
Re: (Score:2)
Lebara still do free roaming, and are about as bad as the rest of them for UK coverage and speed. Cheap too.
Re: (Score:2)
No, that's wrong. Why can't you do a search before posting, or do you just not care? O2 is one of the big 4 operators in the UK and never introduced a roaming charge. The other 3 charge approx £2/day.
https://www.uswitch.com/mobile... [uswitch.com]
Re: (Score:2)
So only 75% of the big telecoms brought back roaming. Sounds much better that way I suppose.
Surprised! (Score:3)
I thought for sure it would be Canada!
Re: Surprised! (Score:1)
Canada is the worst.... (Score:2)
Huawei infrastructure.. (Score:1, Insightful)
.. was banned from use (because their eavesdropping is worse than the 5-Eyes or whatever), and so the majority of 5G-based installations were halted in their tracks. We now have the worst 5G in the developed world.
Great work, guys!
https://www.eureporter.co/busi... [eureporter.co].
https://www.theguardian.com/te... [theguardian.com]
Re: Huawei infrastructure.. (Score:1)
How the fuck was I modded Troll on this? It's literally what happened. The IQ level on Slashdot really does mirror the general lack of intelligence shown by the US as a whole at the moment.
Enjoy your new era of preventable diseases and right-wing idiocy, fuckwits.
Immediately Guessed the Country (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
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...
A large part of this will have been the switching off of the 3G networks recently. Phone call stability has dropped like a brick in my home in the London borough of Reading, it used to be rock solid now I have to hold my head at an unnatural angle or the call drops.
Another part is that the UK has a very dense population. So towers are easily overwhelmed with a lot of people using their phones in a popular area like a town centre, Tesco or Boris' mum. Add to this that a lot of the "speed" in 4 and 5 G co
Re: (Score:2)
The UK has been plundered. Everything of value sold off cheap, the population turned into a cash cow. Many key industries loaded up with debt and asset stripped.
Dying shit country (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
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: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
What would make it dramatically less rosy?
Re: (Score:2)
... and falling for most people.
Re: Dying shit country (Score:3)
Yes, Putin's attack which became known as brexit succeeded brilliantly. Which reminds me of a story...
Perhaps not a surprise (Score:2)
Yep (Score:4, Informative)
Is cellular the only wireless data? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking about this myself. I live in South California, our cable isp Cox.com has wifi built into the router/cable modem combo they provide. Anyone that has credentials for cox.com can sign into one of those wifi networks for high speed access.
If we had more residential and business mixed zones I imagine the strategy John mentions would work well for everyone.
All mobile phones companies are private enterprise (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The 5g cell towers are busy with mind control (Score:1)
If they controlled fewer people they could handle more calls.
Yorkshire City in UK (Score:2)
I live in a small city in Yorkshire and mobile service has gone completely to shit. It seems to get worse every time they upgrade their networks to the latest G. While getting more expensive ever year not cheaper as they used to claim.
The last government ... (Score:2)
... can be blamed for a lot of things, but this isn't one of them.
The should follow Canada's example... (Score:2)