Innovative Approach: Vodafone Seeks Heavenly Solution for Rural Mobile Coverage
Vodafone, the UK operator, is turning its gaze to the heavens to address the challenges of rural mobile coverage. Recently, the company announced a strategic partnership with the Church of England and coverage solutions specialist Net CS. Their joint effort aims to deploy Open RAN 4G signal boosters in 11 church bell towers spread across the country. With a coverage range of up to 500 meters, these boosters will effectively provide mobile coverage to the surrounding areas.
Two churches, The Blessed Virgin Mary in Brompton Regis, Somerset, and St Michael’s and All Angels in Ewyas Harold, Herefordshire, have already gone live with the signal boosters, while the remaining nine installations are scheduled to be operational in the coming months.
The challenge of securing planning permission for new mobile sites in picturesque rural areas is not uncommon for mobile operators. Often, local communities view such sites as visual intrusions on the landscape while simultaneously complaining about poor mobile coverage.
Hence, deploying equipment on revered village churches requires utmost delicacy and sensitivity.
Vodafone is keen to assure that the signal boosters used are discreet, small, and well-concealed, preserving the aesthetics of these cherished structures.
Andrea Dona, the network and development director at Vodafone UK, emphasized that churches are often tall, situated on high ground, and in proximity to the communities they seek to connect. As a result, they provide ideal locations for installing mobile sites. Now, with advanced technology that doesn't mar the appearance of the church, Vodafone aims to leverage these advantages to enhance mobile coverage in as many rural areas as possible, enabling rural communities to enjoy the full benefits of mobile connectivity.
Although the announcement did not mention site rental fees, Vodafone is expected to compensate the churches for hosting its equipment, thus contributing to the maintenance of these historic buildings, which can be quite costly due to their age and materials used.
The wishes of local communities have been of utmost importance in this initiative, and Vodafone received widespread support for these new installations. Net CS, as the infrastructure facilitator, ensured that the installations remain unobtrusive, safe for congregations and the wider community, and bring tangible benefits to church users and the entire community, as noted by Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans.
The utilization of Open RAN technology has significantly increased the viability of numerous sites for the first time, offering new locations that could substantially improve both rural and urban coverage throughout the country, stated Peter Morrell-Brown, chairman of Net CS. This project marks just the beginning of church-based mobile coverage sites, and the infrastructure put in place is available for use by any operator, potentially offering a substantial solution to the UK's mobile coverage challenges.
Moreover, Vodafone recognizes that an efficient mobile site requires a fast and reliable backbone network to swiftly connect end users with the content and applications they need. To address this, Vodafone embarked on the final phase of its multi-year project, Redstream Evolution. This initiative aims to migrate from three separate backbone networks to a unified, high-capacity, software-defined networking (SDN)-enabled IP backbone. With the new architecture, content partners can cache data in strategic locations closer to end users, leading to improved service performance and responsiveness.
Andrea Dona aptly compared data to road congestion, stating that a congested transport network hinders reaching destinations swiftly. The Redstream Evolution project represents a significant investment to modernize Vodafone's critical network link, creating an express superhighway with more than enough capacity to deliver an exceptional network experience for customers today while proactively meeting future data traffic demands.
Vodafone has progressively switched all its mobile, fixed, and business customers onto the new infrastructure, and the finalization of this process seems imminent, although the specific completion date was not disclosed. With these visionary initiatives, Vodafone is making significant strides in ensuring enhanced connectivity and seamless communication for its customers. The partnership with historic church bell towers and the transformation of backbone networks demonstrate Vodafone's commitment to staying at the forefront of technological advancements in the telecom industry, integrating elements like PON and routers to create an interconnected and efficient network infrastructure.