O2 push 4G mobile to 800 towns in Scotland

O2 says its strategy to connect rural towns and villages across Britain has seen 800 locations in Scotland receive high-speed 4G mobile coverage.

The mobile network deployed fleets of helicopters and off-road vehicles to install the new technology in remote locations, including plans for a 50-metre mast on Scotland’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis.

85 new generators have been installed in some of the most isolated and hard to reach places across the country to minimise the impact of power cuts, “overcoming all the challenges of Scotland’s varied terrain and extreme weather”, O2 said.

In Aberdeen, O2 worked with the Wireless Infrastructure Group to install the UK’s first fibre connected small cell network.

This new technology, O2 says, will improve network capacity and 4G connection speeds for shoppers and city workers and paves the way for 5G.

The recent roll-outs give O2 4G coverage of 98% percent of the UK outdoor population, with O2 investing more than £2 million every day.