Vodafone has committed to investing more than £1 billion in its network coverage over the next year, after merging with Three UK.
The new brand, VodafoneThree, has said it will invest over £11 billion in improved coverage over the next 10 years, with an initial scheduled investment focusing on capital investment projects over the first 12 months.
The merger was finally approved by the competition regulator after securing legally binding commitments, and it means there will now be just three main network operators in the UK – the others being Virgin Media O2 and BT/EE.
The VodafoneThree network will have over 27 million subscribers. The conditions of the deal are that the new company must upgrade its 5G coverage while ensuring customers are protected from price rises, as well as retaining data plans and price tariffs for at least three years.
Until now, the UK has lagged behind other European countries in 5G accessibility, but it is hoped network investment and increased capital expenditure will help maximise coverage, reliability, availability and signal performance. The Government has stressed that nobody should be left behind, including those residing in rural areas of outstanding natural beauty.
If you are tech investment planning in Oswestry and rural North Wales, the UK Government has confirmed that mobile masts across Snowdonia have been upgraded to improve mobile coverage across all networks. The improvements are expanding coverage to thousands of local residents in line with the Shared Rural Network programme to boost remote connectivity – a project that has now expanded reach to 81% of the country.
