Why is phone signal so bad in London? Planning, of course

Outdated planning laws that mean that dictate a pointless three-antenna limit on every phone mast are holding back progress, says Maxwell Marlow

You may not believe it, but you can get a better signal at the top of Machu Picchu than you can standing outside of the Bank of England. I believe it. I was there yesterday (not Peru, the Bank). It seems rather bizarre that in the capital of Europe’s richest city, where innovation, growth and modernisation are bywords for our great conurbation, our telephone signal is remarkably poor.

Globally, London ranks 84th for its download speed. Even in the UK, it remains a laggard compared to other cities – with Glasgow, Liverpool and Leeds having superior connectivity and fewer black spots. This isn’t surprising – Britain’s telecoms providers are some of the most competitive in the world, and it is amazing that your own personal supercomputer comes in at £50 a month. They have announced billions in investment in telecom infrastructure without needing a penny of government spending – so why do we have such poor service in the city, despite the best efforts of providers to compete and service their data-hungry customers?

Planning legislation, as readers will have guessed. In the fast shifting tech landscape, and as our city strains to grow, our telecoms infrastructure needs a planning system that keeps up. Needing to get planning permission to upgrade an already built mast is holding us all back. Limitations to permitted development rights, which don’t require full planning permission, dictate the width, height, and volume of masts, keeping our networks frozen in the last generation – even though the visual changes only concern the birds! Likewise, there is a three-antenna limit (the reason for three being the maximum has never materialised in my extensive research) for each mast, even if the area it is serving requires more. 

No planning bill can override the fact that in a busy and growing city, we may need more than three antennas on a phone mast

It seems that the government has taken to regulating physics, hoping to fashion our rooftops much to the inconvenience of anyone who owns a smart device. It is akin to a Peruvian King Cnut, standing with his poncho wet as he commands the waves to retreat. No planning bill can override the fact that in a busy and growing city, we may need more than three antennas on a phone mast.

Indeed, 95 per cent of all work done on masts is regarding upgrades, rather than erecting more. Yet, despite 5G being released seven years ago, some areas of the City can be incredibly unreliable as networks are overloaded with connections for an infrastructure grid which isn’t allowed to keep up. Even when we can build a new skyscraper, developers and planning offices rarely consider the effect that these glass and concrete behemoths will have on the surrounding connectivity. Our planning policies seem to be frozen in 2006, and more recent updates don’t manage to touch the sides.

Small changes can fix the problem

Only small changes (or upgrades, if you will) to planning legislation are needed to fix this problem – only then will companies get the most bang for their buck, instead of pouring cash into planning lawyers and needlessly clogging up stretched planning offices who should be concentrating on housing Londoners. As I’ve argued in my research paper: ‘Small Changes, Big Rewards’, the best part is that it would be absolutely free to do.

The benefits of a better connected City are too numerous to fit into a single article. Driverless cars need strong connections to navigate, mobile office workers want to be able to connect to meetings and send emails whilst dashing between appointments, and exhausted commuters should be able to kick back with HD streaming whist on the 205. The list goes on – but this will only be realised with modernisation of a few small pieces of planning legislation. With a government that is committed to building and modernising, now is the time to let the denizens of the City connect to the world a little faster.

Maxwell Marlow is director of policy at TYI Strategy