Mobile UK Digital Champions report

Today mobile communications are vital to how society communicates and conduct business.  The UK Government recognises this central role and has set a target for the majority of households to be connected to 5G by 2030.  Further to that, 95% of the UK’s landmass is set to be covered by a reliable 4G signal through the Shared Rural Network, a joint initiative between the UK’s MNOs and the Government.  In order to achieve this, it is equally important to identify and alleviate any barriers that impede or make mobile infrastructure deployment more difficult, costly or timely to roll out.  In its newest report ‘The Case for Local Authority Digital Champions’, Mobile UK outlines several areas that continue to make mobile equipment deployment difficult; these are the lack of coordination, expertise, and focussed resource to enable mobile connectivity at local authority level.   The report points out that Investment in a localised resource in the form of a Digital Champion offers significant benefits in enabling mobile deployment and thus realising the benefits of connectivity to local areas more quickly.  This report seeks to highlight how Digital Champions, funded by central government, put in place to coordinate local authorities’ digital strategies and relationships with the industry, can have hugely positive outcomes in the smooth deployment of mobile networks and in building more effective relationships both within councils and with telecommunications providers.

Read the full report here.