Even in Developed Nations, Rural Area Mobile Coverage is Challenging

In developed or developing nations, mobile or communications network rural coverage is an issue. In the United Kingdom, for example, two percent of road miles have zero 2G network coverage, while 12 percent of road miles have only partial 2G coverage, the RAC Foundation says.

On six percent of road mileage, there is no 3G coverage, while 45 percent of road miles have only partial 3G coverage.

Some 56 percent of road miles have no 4G coverage, while 27 percent of road miles have only partial 4G coverage.

	Miles (%) of road in Britain with…
	Full network coverage	Partial network coverage	No network coverage
2G	211,753 (86%)	28,975 (12%)	4,561 (2%)
3G	119,057 (48%)	111,679 (45%)	14,554 (6%)
4G	43,070 (18%)	65,950 (27%)	136,271 (56%)

source: RAC Foundation

As a general rule, networks serving such areas are not sustainable on their own, meaning that potential revenues never will justify building facilities. Instead, such investments must be subsidized either from surplus generated elsewhere on the network, or by direct government subsidies.

There is, in other words, no sustainable business model for facilities in such areas. One way or the other, service has to be subsidized in some way, as there is no organic way to support service, using conventional mobile network technology.

That is why work on new platforms, more affordable and therefore potentially able to close the business model gap between revenues and cost, are so important.

Put simply, costs must drop much more, consumers must perceive the value of Internet services and be able to pay for such services, or alternative methods of subsidizing end users must be created.

Some of us would argue all of those developments are required. That is why developments such as Telecom Infra Project, Free Basics, Project Loon, unmanned aerial vehicles, unlicensed and shared spectrum, use of millimeter wave radio and creation of new apps and services that drive value are so important.

Without serious innovation in the access networks business, it might literally not be possible for many service providers to continue operating.

Bringing stakeholders together to understand changing supply and demand issues, and the business model for Internet access, is a key focus of the Spectrum Futures conference. Here’s a  fact sheet and Spectrum Futures schedule.

Innovations in platform and business model will be part of the discussion at Spectrum Futures.