Why is 3G (or better) coverage in UK so poor?

[Guest JTHM]

I've just come back from 2 weeks touring the med and while out there was surprised to find that 3G & HSDPA coverage was the standard.

When in signal range (even 10 miles off shore on the sundeck of the cruise ship I was on) my Hermes connected via nothing less than 3G.

I visited 12 ports in 5 countries and went on several excursions out of town into the countryside in each of those countries and only rarely did my phone drop the 3G data connection. I would say that of the time my Hermes was connected to a network (100% of the time once within 10 miles of shore) it showed the 3G icon 70% of the time, HSDPA 25% and only 'E' or 'G' 5%.

What have the phone operators (Note: Orange in my case) in this country been up to over the past 7(!) years to get to the point ; -- STILL you generally have to be in the middle of a major conurbation to get 3G and only in London to get HSDPA.

By comparison to European networks, in my opinion this is pants and mobile phone operators have no grounds to winge that mobile data has taken SO long to take off in the UK - it's their own fault!

Edited September 10, 2007 by JTHM

[Guest chucky.egg]

True, but it is also partly due to the great hatred of masts that a vocal minority here have.

Enough objections at planning consent meetings and the (elected) officials crumble (in fact many like to be seen to be protesting against the networks).

I've been reading about femtocells (sp?)

That would be fantastic, but can you imagine the scare-monger stories that would produce?