How to ensure connectivity in rural areas?
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Having a good quality Internet connection is now a need for consumers, businesses, and local authorities. Yet 32% of 4G users do not yet have high-speed mobile coverage in rural areas. With the ongoing deployment of 5G, a question arises: how to improve connectivity? It turns out Towercos have a role to play in furthering mobile deployments in both urban and rural areas.
The pandemic has reshuffled the maps of geographical location, causing a temporary urban exodus (depending on the situation), which has more than ever highlighted the importance for rural areas of having quality mobile coverage. An essential need to allow residents to benefit from everyday digital uses: whether to manage administrative tasks, telecommute or develop their business.
How is the connectivity in rural areas?
A study carried out by UFC-Que Choisir between December 1, 2020 and November 30, 2021, shows average speeds 66% higher in urban areas than in rural areas* (55.3 Mbit/s against 33.3 Mbit/s).
While most mobile digital uses require a minimum speed of 3 Mbit/s, 14.3% of the speeds recorded during this study* were found to be below this requirement.
And yet, although still incomplete, mobile coverage continues to develop in France and will continue to do so in the years to come. During 2021, Emmanuel Macron repeatedly mentioned the importance of a nationwide start-up and that this vision is based on a New Deal Mobile already decreed in 2018 by the government. This measure has made it possible, thanks to an infrastructure pooling approach, to allow operators to go further in the densification of 4G networks in the most complex and expensive territories to cover.
Why is a good Internet connection a necessity in all territories today?
The continuous rise of new technologies comes with a fact: the essential role of the Internet in our lives will only increase in the near future.
Beyond anticipating future needs in terms of digital coverage, it is a question of meeting today’s connectivity needs. Make doctor’s appointments, watch movies, listen to music, go shopping… The Internet is currently essential for a multitude of things in everyday life: banking, administrative, but also communication and entertainment. This of course requires a quality wired connection, but also good mobile coverage.
Good digital coverage has become a real factor of attractiveness for territories: local authorities and landowners need it to attract residents, tenants, while professionals are increasingly making it a criterion of choice for setting up their business.
On April 5, 2022, a bill (Proposition de Loi N° 5192) was submitted to the National Assembly to insert into the Postal and Electronic Communications Code (CPCE), an enforceable right to connection guaranteeing equal access to digital technology in the territories.
What factors are essential for a good quality mobile coverage?
Better equipped populations
The 4G mobile coverage of operators in mainland France is over 99% of the population. However, according to the Inequality Observatory, 1 in 4 French people is not yet equipped with a smartphone compatible with the new networks. The Orange Group has announced the end of 2G in 2025 and in 2028 for 3G. So providing the means to renew obsolete equipment is a first factor for improvement. This notably involves the development of responsible sectors, with second-life circuits for smartphones and specific social offers allowing everyone to be able to access the digital uses they need.
Reduce White Zones
Connecting certain particularly inaccessible rural areas via a mobile network is a real technical challenge. According to ARCEP (the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts), white areas are territories that are not covered by any wired or mobile network.
These areas are generally remote, in the countryside or in high mountains, which increases the costs of building and maintaining infrastructure. The New Deal Plan launched by the French Government makes their deployment a priority for operators, who rely closely on Towercos for this purpose.
Target demographic deserts
There is sometimes talk of a “digital divide” in rural areas, because the population there is divided into small groups scattered in areas far from each other. Therefore, the deployment of the infrastructures necessary for good mobile network coverage is particularly complex and costly for telecom operators who must deploy multiple installations for a relatively small number of inhabitants. Farmers are often the most affected by these constraints.
Towercos reduce installation and maintenance costs for operators by making the necessary investment and then renting capacity to all players who want it on their infrastructure.
How to improve network coverage in rural areas?
The new relationship between telecom operators and Towercos opens new opportunities for new players, both regional and international, who wish to extend network coverage.
Towercos are companies responsible for sites and so-called passive network infrastructures. The latter are composed of pylons, masts, fences and power supply. They identify areas with low or high demand for mobile coverage and build there, at the request of operators, supports whose spaces are available for rental. They thus bear all the costs of construction and maintenance of the infrastructures deployed and allow operators to go further in their connectivity projects, to meet the growing needs of their individual and business customers.
By facilitating the pooling of telecom infrastructures, the Towercos model now plays an essential role in the connectivity landscape in France, as in the rest of the world, and makes it possible to support operators in their projects to cover urban areas as well as more rural areas
