Though much of this early progress has been made possible without breaking new ground or installing significant new hardware, the next phase of the plan will challenge us more. This is predominantly due to the planning permission we require to get started. Despite 96% of our planned sites involve upgrading existing infrastructure rather than building new masts, more than half will require planning permission under current rules.
The cost of planning processes can be significant. They can place added pressure on local council resources, slow businesses’ access to new technology and may delay improved connectivity for rural communities. Analysis by WPI Economics estimates that network planning delays could represent a £2.58bn missed opportunity for the UK economy by 2035.
The only way to help deliver better connectivity is to work together to modernise a planning system for the era of 5G connectivity. After all, 5G is a very different technology to 4G and, despite physical hardware moving on vastly since the last generation making it more energy efficient, compact and less visually obtrusive, we are still being asked to work with outdated planning rules.
The height and width of 5G masts are bigger than 4G, requiring us to apply for full planning permission or a General Permitted Development Order (GPDO) for relatively unobtrusive upgrades to existing sites. The challenge is that even relatively modest changes to existing sites still require full planning approval, which slows down progress despite actually reducing our overall footprint in the UK by 30% over the course of our investment.
This hardware is the only way to ensure better connectivity – something that everybody in the UK wants. The same MobileUK report found that there were 14.9 masts in Manchester per 10,000 people and 6.6 in London per 10,000. For a city as building-dense as London, this deficit could be quickly reduced by non-invasive rooftop sites. But only if planning rules are amended to allow for routine upgrades to happen without lengthy planning processes.
While we welcome the recent consultations on both Permitted Development Rights for telecoms and the National Planning Policy Framework, we need to recognise that, as a nation, we remain behind our peers. Just look to similarly sized markets in Europe: Germany plans to treat network deployment as being in the “overriding public interest” until at least 2030, fast tracking planning approvals for network upgrades. In Sweden, meanwhile, rooftop installations are exempt from planning permits entirely, providing they don’t significantly change the appearance of the building.