BT has urged the government to remove “unnecessary roadblocks” from the planning system and increase the amount of spectrum available to mobile networks, or risk missing out on more than £200 billion in growth over the next decade.
The rollout of the highest-speed fifth generation, or “5G standalone’’ (5G SA), network is being held back by an overly complex and under-resourced planning process, the FTSE 100 group said.
The telecommunications company has called for the “public interest” in improving mobile connectivity to be prioritised by authorities signing off new phone masts and for the permitted height to be extended up to 20 metres, rather than the standard 15 metres, which it says could cut 12 months off construction times.
The UK seems “to have made it the hardest of anywhere” to build new mobile infrastructure, Howard Watson, BT’s chief security and networks officer, said.
Accelerating the rollout of 5G SA would unlock £230 billion in economic benefit by 2035, according to analysis by Assembly Research, on behalf of BT. An increase in capacity in the busiest parts of the country would deliver the biggest boost, of about £124 billion, by allowing businesses to adopt new technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics more effectively, in turn increasing the UK’s attractiveness as an investment destination.
