If you’ve ever driven around the UK you’ll know that once you get out of towns and cities, coverage can become patchy at best, but this is something O2 is working to resolve, as the network has now optimised its 5G and 4G coverage across almost 600 miles of motorways and A roads.
This includes the M1 (London – Leeds), the M4 (London – Bristol), the M6 (Coventry – Carlisle), and the M8 (Glasgow – Edinburgh), and it has resulted in a 4G boost at 311 mobile sites and the construction of 338 new 5G sites. In total, these improvements cover 590 miles of road, which O2 points out is roughly the equivalent of driving from Exeter to Inverness.
All of this should help drivers and passengers be able to reliable navigate and stay in touch with friends and family, but it could prove especially beneficial to electric vehicle (EV) owners.
You see, national polling by O2 has found that 76% of EV drivers worry about losing mobile connectivity, as this can hamper their ability to find public chargers and even pay to use them. This fear trumps the more well known ‘range anxiety' (that is, worrying about running out of battery before reaching a charger), which is a concern for 68%.
Better connectivity to go with new charging points
So with these network upgrades, O2 should hopefully help alleviate some of those signal worries, and it’s a well-timed upgrade, as charge point operator Believ is now installing up to 30,000 new public charging points nationwide, including in these areas where O2 has recently improved its mobile coverage.
Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “Connectivity underpins a huge part of the driving experience today, but particularly for EVs. By optimising coverage on more than 40 motorways and A roads as part of our £700 million investment in our Mobile Transformation Plan, we’re helping make every journey safer and more reliable. Alongside Believ’s new charging points, this is about removing barriers so more people can make the switch to electric with confidence.”
This is just the start too, with O2 planning similar improvements on the A14 (Rugby – Ipswich), the M20 (London – Folkestone), and the A75 (Gretna – Stranraer).
This is all part of O2’s £700m Mobile Transformation Plan, which involves boosting its 5G and 4G coverage across the UK, from dense urban areas to transport hubs, stadiums, and roads like these.
This latest upgrade work follows other recent improvements from O2, like bringing 5G Standalone to over 70% of the UK’s population, and switching on a first-of-its-kind mobile Giga Site.
