Vodafone has published a blog post in which it talks to UK CEO Jeroen Hoencamp about 4G LTE coverage. The network notes that it currently covers around 50% of the UK population with its 4G service.
And its CEO insists that the 4G rollout is progressing at its current speed for very specific reasons.
Mr Hoencamp is quoted as saying “It’s not about who’s got the most coverage. It’s more about having the strongest signal. We’d love to expand the network faster, but it’s about doing it right first time. Instead of just having 4G in the centre of a town and saying that the whole town has 4G, we don’t say it’s there until it’s there.”
He also points out there’s more to 4G than its improved speed.
“We could build a network just to achieve massive speeds, but the reality is that you don’t currently need anything beyond 20Mbps on a mobile device. Even for streaming video you only need a couple of megabits per second, so we think less about absolute speed and more about using that bandwidth to enable more customers to enjoy great content on the move, even in the busiest places and at the busiest times.”
“For us it’s about having the strongest network. One of the things that makes us different from others is that we have our ‘low band spectrum’. What that means is that our 4G is on a lower frequency, which travels further and deeper indoors.”
[Vodafone UK blog]