IET urges reform of mobile infrastructure regulations in UK

Members of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) believe that the government should take radical steps to ensure that regulation does not continue to be a serious barrier to growth and say that this must begin with the government defining a national ambition for UK mobile infrastructure to support UK competitiveness, investment and innovation.

‘Growing demand for broadband is stretching the capability of existing networks’ said Prof Will Stewart from the IET. ’Wholesale network competition must perform better or we will fall further and further behind consumer expectations.

‘It is important for the government and regulators to promote a vision for the future of mobile superfast services that inspire sustainable investment and wider competition.

‘A reformed and modernised UK network regulatory framework then needs to fully support this ambition.  It is not about more regulation but the right regulation.’

The IET has outlined three mobile-communications challenges, namely capacity, coverage and regulatory.

It stated that growth in demand is set to continue, but mobile networks lack the capacity to allow them to keep up with both the capacity demand and the rising access speeds on the fixed broadband networks. The organisation maintains that an additional spectrum will only provide modest gains and will not satisfy the rapid-growth demand in data services.