The study was conducted by WPI Economics on behalf of the telecommunications company Vodafone, and introduces a new index that correlates rural connectivity ‘not spots’ with levels of rural deprivation, exposing significant disparities across the country. 

According to the study, nearly half of rural deprived areas are 5G ‘not spots,’ meaning that an estimated 838,000 could benefit from access. This is compared to just 2.7% of urban areas. 

Of the report’s five most poorly ranked regions in terms of connectivity, Scotland is named alongside Wales, East Anglia, Cumbria, and the South-West. The report suggests that the rural communities could benefit from 5G standalone, which would include reducing reliance on existing 4G networks. 

According to Vodafone, the potential benefits of 5G technology could transform health services, distance learning, and improve agricultural yields through 5G-enabled sensors. Which, for all intents and purposes, could be achieved with a more robust 4G network as well. 

“We believe everyone should have access to connectivity and our research shows the alarming rate at which almost a million people living in deprived rural communities are being left behind,” said Andrea Dona, chief network officer at Vodafone UK.

“It’s clear we need to accelerate the roll-out of the UK’s 5G infrastructure.”

In light of this, recent protests against gigabit-broadband network infrastructure in Willersey and Broadway resulted in arrests just earlier that week. Their protests were based chiefly on the addition of “ugly wooden poles blighting people’s properties when a satisfactory broadband system already exists,” according to Willersey’s MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.

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A £1 billion Shared Rural Network (SRN) project is aiming to extend 4G mobile coverage to 95% of the UK’s geographic area by the end of 2025, which would bridge the existing coverage gap of around 80%.

Currently, regular 5G covers approximately the same amount of the UK’s outdoor population. Vodafone is now positioning itself to deliver 95% 5G standalone coverage by 2034. However, given delays observed in the SRN project, the ability for the mobile operator to deliver on this goal is ambitious.