Buffering Britain

A campaign to improve Britain's phone signal.

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

We're Buffering Britain, and we're going to fix the country's phone signal. Join us.

[Ben Cope @BenHCope]

Lots of replies questioned whether German internet speeds on trains really was any better than the U.K. Here’s the evidence. Embarrassing for us. The government’s new initiative is welcome but there’s so much ground to make up.

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

Frustrated by your phone constantly buffering at the worst moments?

New research commissioned by Buffering Britain in collaboration with the Centre for British Progress shows mobile network congestion is costing UK consumers between £490 million and £785 million every year in lost value.

In London, where we have the most detailed time-of-day speed data, the hit is £150–260 million annually – and it could climb closer to £370 million when you look at the raw evening peak numbers.

They combined willingness-to-pay figures from a major European study with real Opensignal crowdsourced data. Peak times in London see speeds drop to around 65% of uncongested levels, sometimes as low as 46% in the worst hours and that lost performance adds up.

So what’s the culprit here? As with so much else in Britain, planning rules are slowing the buildout new masts and small cells on street furniture.

We kept the numbers conservative, adjusting for common survey biases and focusing just on speed for now. Latency spikes during congestion would push likely the total even higher.

Buffering Britain is campaigning to cut through the red tape and get Britain properly connected.

If poor signal is driving you mad, come join the fight. Poor connectivity is a choice – we can make a different one.

Read the full working note here: https://t.co/qQG61P3paS

[Ben Cope @BenHCope]

I’m taking a train from Frankfurt to Leipzig. Germany’s phone signal is so much better than ours. People are streaming videos, sending emails, and making calls. I took a train from Manchester to London at the weekend and I had to give up the work I’d planned because the signal was so poor. It doesn’t have to be this way.

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

New modelling by @BritishProgress for Buffering Britain puts the direct consumer welfare cost of Britain's mobile network congestion at £490–785 million a year. Here's how they got there. 🧵

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

@BritishProgress Full report: https://t.co/fWrLjqkgeQ

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

New modelling by @BritishProgress for Buffering Britain puts the direct consumer welfare cost of Britain's mobile network congestion at £490–785 million a year. Here's how they got there. 🧵

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

You can read the full report in the comments. Thank you to @DuncanMcClement for producing it.

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

The London figure is also the rigorously measured part of the estimate. Opensignal publishes hour-by-hour speed data for the capital but not for other cities, so peak congestion there is measured directly. The wider UK figure scales the same framework up via a careful extrapolation.

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

These guys are worth a follow. The UK has worse phone signal than Kazakhstan, Namibia and Guatemala - that tells you enough

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

@BenHCope You can read the full article here: https://t.co/CKbGnfNfex

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

Yesterday, @BenHCope wrote for the Spectator about how his own experience of poor phone signal is unfortunately all too common. Some key points:
- Britain's phone signal ranks 59th in the world, behind countries like Kazakhstan
- It costs the UK up to £7bn a year
- A planning system that blocks rather than builds is the key culprit
- Buffering Britain is going to fix it.

[Buffering Britain @BufferingBrit]

We spoke to GB News about why Britain's mobile signal is so bad, what it's costing us, and what can be done to fix it.

[GB News @GBNEWS]

'Infracstructure planning approval rates are about 80%, for mobile masts they are only about 50%... We need more.'

Director of Buffering Britain Ben Cope discusses warnings that weak mobile coverage could be costing the econom £785m a year.

[Jack Rowlett @Jack_Nostalgic]

Britain has worse mobile connectivity than Kazakstan, Peru, and Vietnam. A first world country shouldn't be at the mercy of the buffering wheel.

@BenHCope and I are launching a campaign to fix things. Watch the video and check out our website below. Plenty more to come!

[Ben Cope @BenHCope]

Britain’s phone signal is a national disgrace. @Jack_Nostalgic and I are launching a campaign to fix it. Watch the video, check out our website, and get involved. There’s lots more to come.