21815 - SCTE Broadband Feb2023 COMPLETE v3

38 Vol. 45 No. 1 - February 2023 Issue On one hand consumers expect ubiquitous mobile coverage, but on the other have no expectations of coverage information being freely available. Dr William Webb asks why. Dr William Webb is Chief Technology Officer at Access Partnership. He oversees the development and dissemination of technology for their clients and vendors, bringing over thirty years’ experience in technological communications. He was one of the youngest Fellows ever elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering, the youngest President of the IET for a century and has been awarded three honorary doctorates and three visiting Professorships and in 2018 the IET’s highest medal - the Mountbatten Award. Have you suffered from poor mobile coverage today? The chances are that if you’ve been on a train, the underground, passed through a rural area or been inside a large building, then you lost connectivity at least for a few moments. Ubiquitous connectivity is the most important factor in mobile service for most consumers – being without a phone signal can be annoying and deeply inconvenient. But despite coverage being so important, it has not changed materially for years. Why? Ask yourself how you chose your last mobile contract. My guess is it was based almost entirely on price. You didn’t consider coverage because there was no way of determining which operator would provide you with the best coverage in your home, office, across your commute, and across your leisure activities. Operators know this, so they compete on price. That’s not a bad thing, but it means they are not inclined to invest in coverage as this would push up their costs for no likely gain in subscribers. This is a classic market failure. Without good information, buyers cannot make an informed decision and so cannot send the right signals to suppliers. And where there is market failure, regulators and governments should intervene to remove the failure and allow the market to work as it should. from the industry Still suffering from poor mobile coverage – here’s why By William Webb, CTO Access Partnership Dr William Webb, Chief Technology Officer, Access Partnership