VMO2 calls in helicopters to plonk 4G towers on remote island

‘Get to the chopper!’ VMO2 engineers may have screamed as six new partial not-spot masts were deployed on the island of Islay in Scotland via helicopter.

The extra masts are there to add a greater choice of provider for the residents of Islay as well as obviously boost coverage there, which is apparently blighted by countless not-spots and areas of patchy signal.

Currently just 60% of Argyll and Bute, the region the island is in, has from 4G coverage from all four mobile network operators – Virgin Media O2, Vodafone, EE and Three. This will increase by 25% after all Shared Rural Network upgrades have been delivered, we’re told.

The Shared Rural Network, in case you wondered, is a project to improve mobile coverage in difficult-to-reach areas across the UK. The UK government set the goal of extending 4G coverage to 95% of the UK landmass by 2025, ponying up £500 million of its own cash to facilitate this while UK operators throw in another £532 million.

“The industry’s Shared Rural Network initiative is making a real, tangible difference to people’s lives,” said Paul Kells, Director of Network, Strategy and Engineering at Virgin Media O2. “At Virgin Media O2, we are committed to playing our part in bringing reliable 4G coverage to rural locations all over Britain to help bridge the digital divide between rural and urban communities.

“Many rural parts of Scotland are already benefiting from our rollout of new and upgraded masts, and nowhere will benefit more from our investment than the Argyll and Bute area, where we are working to upgrade more than 60 sites as part of our commitment to the Shared Rural Network programme.”

Councillor Liz McCabe, Policy Lead for Islands and Business Development added: “It is fantastic to see the investment that is being made by Virgin Media O2, bringing much needed rural mobile connectivity to Argyll and Bute as part of the Shared Rural Network programme. Argyll and Bute has languished behind other areas due to our geography and logistical challenges, including 22 inhabited islands.

“However, over the last number of years significant investment has been made and we have seen major coverage improvements. The Shared Rural Network programme will enhance this further with multiple operator coverage improvements to many parts of our remote rural areas.”

Incremental SRN updates don’t make for the most earth shattering news on the planet, but in an industry that doesn’t generate much in the way of interesting photo ops – RAN equipment being what it is – we’d be remiss if we didn’t take the opportunity to publish some masts dangling precariously off of a helicopter.

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