Vodafone becomes the first UK MNO to share 4G spectrum for rural use

Vodafone is sharing some of its 4G spectrum with StrattoOpencell (part of the Digital Colony UK Infrastructure Platform – soon to be The Freshwave Group) to offer high-speed mobile broadband in remote areas without fibre connectivity, as part of a three-year agreement between the two companies.

StrattoOpencell will use Vodafone’s 2600MHz frequency spectrum to offer mobile data speeds of up to 120Mbps to consumers and businesses without access to fixed fibre broadband. Vodafone will continue to use this spectrum to provide greater mobile capacity for customers in busy areas such as stadiums and city centres.

This is made possible following Ofcom’s decision in July 2019 to allow mobile operators to share spectrum. StrattoOpencell will first use the spectrum to provide broadband services running over 4G outdoor small cells to all users at a holiday site in Devon.

Philip Marnick, group director, spectrum, Ofcom, commented: “Our new sharing approach aims to help more people access the airwaves they need to create local networks around the UK, including improving connections in rural areas. Vodafone and StrattoOpencell are the first to take advantage of this. We look forward to seeing how others use our new spectrum access approach to support innovation and enable local communities to have better connections.”