London,
26
November
2014
|
23:00
Europe/London

EE Response to DCMS consultation on National Roaming

EE Response to DCMS consultation on National Roaming

Download the Capital Economics Report

“EE’s consultation response reflects our longstanding view that while we support the ambition to improve rural coverage, the Government‘s proposal for National Roaming is a flawed concept.

Instead, together with the other major UK network operators, we will propose a solution that helps solve the problem of rural coverage, without any of the technical, economic and competitive barriers of National Roaming.

If agreed by Government, the joint proposal can be implemented quickly and for less cost, a win-win for the British public.”

Notes to Editors

EE has commissioned research by Capital Economics which estimates that National Roaming could lead to a reduction in industry capital expenditure of £360 to £440 million each year, delay the rollout of 4G by 18-24 months, and reduce GDP by 0.1 to 0.2 per cent.

The report finds that national roaming would only increase coverage by 2-4% of the UK geography. Furthermore, any benefit would be wiped out by “signal locking” that would negatively impact a much larger number of people than would benefit from coverage.

The report outlines:

  1. The economic contribution of the mobile industry: 35,400 full time equivalent jobs, nearly 140,000 jobs in the United Kingdom. £5.5bn investment between 2012 and 2015, with the next wave forecast to be another £5-6bn to densify coverage.
  2. 4G driving economic growth: The eventual productivity gains from 4G mobile services could be up to 0.7 per cent of GDP or £12bn per year at today’s levels.
  3. Risks to growth and investment in the mobile sector: The proposed increase in annual licence fees and introduction of national roaming could reduce investment by up to £582 million lowering gross domestic product by 0.2 to 0.3 per cent

For more information, please contact the EE press team on:

ee@nelsonbostock.com

0845 373 7070

About EE

EE is the largest and most advanced digital communications company in Britain, delivering mobile and fixed communications services to consumers, businesses, government and the wholesale market. EE has approximately 15,000 employees and 580 retail stores, and serves more than 30 million customers across its mobile, fixed and wholesale businesses.

EE runs the UK's biggest, fastest and most reliable mobile network, pioneering the UK's first superfast 4G mobile service in October 2012. EE's 4G coverage today reaches more than 74% of the UK population.  EE’s 2G coverage reaches 99% of the population while 3G reaches 98%. EE's superfast fibre broadband service covers 54% of the UK population, and ADSL broadband service covers 98.7% of the population.

In the last few years, EE has received extensive independent recognition including being ranked the UK's best overall network by RootMetrics®, Best network at the 2014 Mobile News Awards, Fastest Network at the 2013 uSwitch Awards, Best Network at the 2013 Mobile Choice Consumer Awards and What Mobile Awards, Network Innovation at the 2013 Recombu awards and Best Network for Business at the 2013 Mobile Industry awards.

Follow us on…

Facebook at: www.facebook.com/ee

Twitter at: www.twitter.com/ee

YouTube at: www.youtube.com/ee

LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/company/ee-uk