The BBC, with the help of Epitiro and around 44,600 volunteers who installed an Android application on their smartphone to test network coverage, has come to the conclusion that British operators are deceiving consumers when they make claims that their 3G network covers 90% of the island nation. The more realistic figure is 75% and that there are huge patches of the country that don’t have coverage at all. What makes this story significant isn’t the fact that the BBC uncovered that corporate entities are spewing bullshit in their marketing materials, but that operators haven’t taken a more aggressive approach at solving the coverage issue. Most people in the UK buy their device from an operator, so why don’t operators bundle software in said devices that runs in the background at say 04:00 in the morning that reports results back to the command center about where issues are occurring, and then take decisive action to correct said issues?
What do the operators have to say for themselves? An O2 spokesperson said: “The issue of coverage is no longer about covering the land mass to meet a percentage target, but about depth and quality of experience. The results don’t show the ‘experience’ on each network – for example, speed or the ability to hold a connection. Simply having coverage does not guarantee a good service.” James Hattam, Director of Service Management at Everything Everywhere, which is the name of the new joint venture made up of what was formerly known as T-Mobile and Orange, said: “It is a little too early to tell how much it [the data] tallies with our own maps or how we would use the information.”
Shaming someone is sadly the most effective agent of change. Here’s hoping our UK audience will be getting some improved coverage over the next few months now that the BBC has published such a vast amount of data.
[Via: Fierce Wireless]