UK telcos lament planning rules, says 5G coverage is being stifled

The UK’s mobile operators have taken aim at some of the planning policies currently in place as telcos aim to keep pace with network infrastructure rollout.

Both VodafoneThree and Virgin Media O2 highlighted this issue during Connected Britain this week, claiming that planning restrictions have hindered the rollout of newer technologies, such as 5G.

– Paul Lipscombe

It comes after an Ookla report earlier this year showed that just 45.2 percent of the UK’s population has 5G availability, ranking the country near the bottom of the 30 countries recorded. For comparison, Denmark, which sits at the top of that list, has 83.9 percent 5G coverage.

While the UK telcos launched 5G back in 2019, the emergence of 5G Standalone (5G SA), in particular in more recent years, has heralded faster speeds and increased capacity, with all three of the UK’s MNOs rolling out 5G SA (now dubbed 5G+) at pace.