Analysts scorn government's £150m mobile blackspot plan

The Chancellor’s £150m plan to eliminate mobile blackspots has been slammed by market watchers as being totally inadequate.

George Osborne had promised to invest the cash to improve the quality of mobile services, aiming to extend coverage to 99 per cent of the UK population.

But Ovum analyst Jeremy Green said it was not possible to “buy much mobile phone coverage” for £150m.

“It's hard to know what the justification is for giving public money to profitable private companies – most of them foreign-owned – to help them to do something that the regulatory framework and licence obligations should be inducing them to do anyway,” he added.

The government said it is planning to start spending the money to buy additional mobile mast sites in 2012.

In 2010, the Commission for Rural Communities urged the government to impose a univeral service obligation on mobile operators to improve the coverage received by those living in rural areas.