I have recently found that with the imminent termination of 3G mobile phones, the 4G system we were all told to convert to is not a single standard. Different operators all use their own interpretations which means that having an “unlocked” device and just buying a sim only contract is more difficult or impossible. It may be too late for this episode but surely critical national infrastructure like this should be fully interoperable?
We can, no doubt, expect the same when 5G is introduced for all calls and 4G switched off.
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Honestly, this is part of why I somewhat think that mobile telecoms infrastructure should be nationalised. As I understand it, there are two networks in the UK, with most providers just reselling from one of these networks. Or is it different for data compared to calls/texts?
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I don’t really favour nationalisation in principle but there should certainly be national standards that companies need to keep to.
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In principle, I don’t either. However, it is a bit of a natural monopoly. We could not have 200 telephone masts on top of each hill for example.
What would make most sense is universal roaming, where each mast was capable of dealing with calls from each provider. The cross-billing is already covered by the big two providing service for smaller sellers and could be modified to allow billing between the two main providers as well. However, they will not do so unless forced by legislation.
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So quickly, I was wrong. There are currently 4 major carriers in the UK, not 2, and everyone else just rents space from them.
I was thinking about this and I’m not actually sure it would be effective. Right now, presumably the major carriers don’t rent space on each others networks because it would be uneconomical to do so. It’s also worth noting that there is no virtual carrier which operates on different towers either, they all stick to one main network. To me, this suggests that the cost for quality improvement is too low to be worth running.
I lived in France for three years and had both a French and British mobile phone for the first year, then I gave up on the French phone. The geography and population density of France is very different but my French phone would operate in the village where I lived, but not the nearby market town. It worked on some autoroutes and not others. In the end, my British phone, although it cost a grear deal more to use, proved to be the only way I could get usage everywhere I needed it, because it roamed.
I suspect that the four (I was wrong too, I thought it was two.) providers have not come to an agreement on sharing because that might effectively take away their claims for best coverage. The only way around that would be legislation and I am against that on principle.
