We all know what it’s like to be stranded in some creepy remote village with a dreaded ‘no bars’ situation, but that could soon change thanks to new UK laws that will allow jumping between different networks.
The Culture Secretary, Sajid Javid, is apparently examining the idea of forcing UK networks to allow roaming in the UK, which could soon spell the end of drop-outs on your chosen network when you hit problematic areas.
Plans to introduce new legislation enforcing roaming between networks have reportedly come into play after the major service providers in the UK – O2, Three, Vodafone and EE – failed to reach a voluntary agreement on the subject of improving network coverage in signal black spots.
Following the lack of a satisfactory conclusion in talks with the major telcos, the Government is now launching a consultation on the new law, which would force service providers to allow users to freely switch to rival networks whenever their service drops out.
Quite how the UK Government intends to enforce such a law remains to be seen and, naturally, at this early stage there has been no mention of charging for such a service – which is something that is sure to crop up at some point. However, it’s a refreshing change to see a strong hand finally being used to deal with mobile black holes, a problem that has blighted mobile users for years.
Why a strong hand is being used could cynically be attributed to David Cameron’s recent complaints, when his mobile signal dropped out while he was holidaying in Cornwall. We just hope that this new legislation gets passed through quickly. Knowing the usual thumb twiddling that goes on with passing new laws, we can at least rest easy knowing that our grandchildren will get awesome reception.
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