Are you reading this on your phone? In public? If the answer is yes you’re one of the lucky ones, because loads of Britons have been reporting problems with their phone signal recently.
If you’ve been struggling to access the internet out and about and felt like you were going crazy, know that it’s not just you. We expect bad service out in the countryside, but it’s often shockingly rubbish in the middle of major cities too.
So, what’s the reason for sluggish network speeds? According to an investigation in the i, it’s basically due to a lack of investment into the industry in the UK.
Andy Aitken, co-founder of Honest mobile network, said: ‘We’re not upgrading our telecom infrastructure to keep up with more devices and users.
‘Planning regulations in the UK make [putting up new telephone masts] difficult, which makes a huge difference in how effectively 5G can be rolled out.’
5G is a high-speed mobile data network, and when it works it has download speeds of 200Mbps (megabytes per second), which is tech-speak for ‘really fast’. For context, an average two-hour long movie will be around 2,000mb, so could be downloaded on 5G in 10 minutes. However this is absolutely useless if you can’t access or download it in the first place.
As well as there not being enough 5G towers, the ones that we do have are struggling to operate due to restrictions placed on Huawei by the government amid security concerns a few years ago. Without their tech, we’ve found it more difficult to get our networks running successfully and efficiently.
But there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Experts reckon that service will get better rather than worse in the future, as long as we continue upgrading our infrastructure and keep up to date with the latest updates in technology. Hopefully we won’t have to live like this forever. Perhaps you’re even reading this on your phone, in public, sometime in the future, thinking reminiscing on the dark days. We can’t wait to join you.
In other news...
We like to keep you up to date on all the UK news you might have missed, like the fact that roads across this bank holiday weekend will be very busy, or that the best fish and chip shop in the country is in Belfast. We’ve also updated you on the country'’ sunniest seaside towns, and this ‘electricity superhighway’ which is being built.
Did you see that this tiny forgotten English town is getting a massive £500 million glow-up?
Plus: The ‘world’s best airline’ is launching more flights from the UK.
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