Britain’s signal shame: What does our dodgy 5G says about a nation that’s lost its connection?

It’s the UK’s embarrassingly poor phone signal.

Regardless of your politics, background or beliefs, you’ll have experienced it. Maps failing to load when you’re late and lost, videos endlessly buffering when killing time on the train, messages refusing to send when you need to make contact. If you think your phone signal’s terrible right now, you’re not imagining it. London ranks as the worst for 5G speeds among Europe’s major cities.

Venture outside of the big cities and signal is even more dire. Only 69% of rural areas are covered by all four major networks – leaving millions of Brits in blackouts without a connection.

The news may be rife with headlines about divisions and protest, but there’s at least one thing we’re united in: our frustration over dropped calls, dead zones, and endless buffering. We want and deserve better.

Decent phone signal isn’t about uploading your brunch shot to Instagram. It’s about running your small business in Cumbria. Letting loved ones know you’re heading home in London. Staying connected while commuting in Glasgow.

At a macro level, our terrible phone signal holds a mirror up to us as a nation. It reflects a modern Britain that’s settled with a complete lack of innovation and hunger to achieve greater.

It’s ironic that while the world celebrates 4G on the moon, most of us Brits still struggle to get a single bar in the middle of where we live.

In China, government-backed investment forced infrastructure through, virtually guaranteeing coverage nationwide.

In the UK, planning laws stall progress, operators chase profits in cities while leaving rural areas in blackouts, and the big networks shrug their shoulders, safe in the knowledge that there’s little alternative.

In the end, this is about more than bad phone signal. It’s about fuelling growth in our future as a nation.

The big networks and the government need to stop turning a blind eye.

Building masts takes time and cash, but nationalising like rail or energy, or sharing masts between networks, would get us closer to actually enjoying those 5G speeds everyone keeps talking about.

Right now, our telecoms infrastructure is stuck in the past, while the rest of the world powers ahead. This must change.

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Andy Aitken, co-founder and CEO of challenger network Honest Mobile

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