Wireless infrastructure provider Freshwave, which is backed by investment firm DigitalBridge and naturally has its own vested interests in this field, have published a new study that claims a focus on improving indoor mobile (4G, 5G etc.) signals and “eliminating mobile dead zones” could help to grow the UK economy by £70bn a year.
According to Freshwave’s somewhat high-level Mobile Connectivity ROI Index, just 5 minutes of poor current connectivity a day reduces annual productive time by 1% and 87% of UK organisations say poor current connectivity causes “daily disruptions at their sites“. The value lost each year by poor current connectivity in the average UK organisation with more than 100 employees is said to be -£4.6m.
Overall, the study claims to have found that poor indoor mobile connectivity costs the UK economy £100bn annually. But respondents to the study believe better indoor mobile connectivity could reduce that impact by as much as 70%, equating to added value of £70bn per year across the UK economy.
The public sector was found to be the most affected by indoor connectivity dead zones, losing £46bn annually, with potential gains of £33bn not being realised. The professional and financial services sector follows, losing £24bn annually, with a potential gain of £17bn from better indoor mobile connectivity. As the nation’s financial and governmental hub, London stands to gain the most from improved indoor mobile connectivity (£14bn), followed by the South East (£13bn) and the Midlands (£10bn).
The majority of respondents (62%) identified workforce productivity as being the primary beneficiary of improved indoor mobile connectivity. Not to mention other immediate gains from better indoor signal, such as financial performance (57%), operational efficiency (56%), and customer satisfaction (52%). Respondents also saw longer term benefits such as AI-driven use cases, automation use cases and personalised experiences.
Simon Frumkin, CEO of Freshwave, said:
“The UK economy simply cannot afford to lose £100bn every year. That is why massive investments have been made in digital infrastructure over the past decade. We must now build upon this platform and ensure seamless mobile connectivity extends to wherever people want to use it. The prize will be £70bn of added value for businesses, so it’s little wonder the majority expect to invest in mobile technology over the next two years.
Working alongside the UK’s mobile network operators, we’re at the forefront of helping businesses reap the full economic benefits of this decade-long investment. 4G/5G connectivity is going to enable transformative technologies across every sector, benefiting organisations and the economy both today and for years into the future.”
Admittedly, we always advise taking studies like this with a pinch of salt, not least since there are vested interests fuelling it and they tend to make a lot of assumptions about service coverage, performance and economic benefits, which may or may not accurately reflect reality.
On the other hand, there are clearly positives to be had and few people will complain about the arrival of indoor signal improvements, regardless of whether they can be directly proven to result in significant economic or other positive impacts.