4G connections reaching more dead spots in rural Scotland

The Scottish Government’s £28.75 million 4G Infill Programme, aimed at improving mobile voice and broadband coverage in rural areas of Scotland, said it has built 27 new masts in a recent update.

The programme, developed by WHP Telecoms, aims to build 55 masts altogether, with around half having now gone live.

Mobile operators such as EE, O2 and Vodafone have already agreed to provide a 4G service via the new mast sites once they are built.

Currently, the majority of the live sites are providing a service via EE’s network, with a few exceptions which are hosting either O2 or Vodafone.

Three UK has not appeared at any of the masts yet, but it is expected to in the future.

By the summer of 2023, the programme is expected to have completed construction on the 55 new masts across Scotland’s rural regions.

The new development should complement the £1 billion Shared Rural Network (SRN), which is a project that aims to extend UK geographic 4G mobile coverage to 95% by the end of 2025.

It also aids in helping the 10Mbps+ Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband, which is a measure created by the UK Government to ensure that anybody living in a digitally disadvantaged area can request a minimum download speed of at least 10Mbps.