Mobe not-spots 'landmark deal'? We ain't thick, Javid

Less planning permission, less landlord power

While there will be some VoLTE (Voice over LTE), there is none at the moment and the DCMS conceded "mobile operators will be able to choose how best to deliver their coverage obligation. We understand that some voice coverage will be delivered using VoLTE". So, while the release talks about 4G voice there isn't any compulsion to do it.

One thing which casts a shadow on the reduction of not-spots is MIPS, the government’s last attempt to do this, where £150m was budgeted and in three years only two sites have been built. The "landmark" announcement references this as though it's some kind of success.

One thing which casts a shadow on the reduction of

not-spots is MIPS, the government’s last attempt to do

this, where £150m was budgeted and in three years

only two sites have been built

With the focus of this agreement being solving Javid's wanting to use a different network, the areas with no coverage are not as important as those with partial coverage. We were told "the agreement does not incorporate MIP, which specifically targets complete not-spots”.

When we spoke to Vittorio Colao, the CEO of Vodafone about National Roaming he said that what needed to be done was "easier planning permission, reduced power for landlords to dictate what was done on sites, and higher mast heights".

The new agreement doesn’t deal with any of these, the DCMS told us, with "all of this the planning laws would still apply and so checks and balances are in place”.

This is perhaps the most important issue in the agreement, so action has been deferred, and the “government intends to reform the out-dated Electronic Communications Code. It is currently considering details of reform and will announce these changes shortly". This is a little different from Colao’s view that it could be done “within a heartbeat”.

The statement says that the operators will have their licence conditions altered to encompass the new obligations, which will no doubt keep the lawyers looking at the sale of EE to BT ensconced in detailed discussions.

And it makes it clear that there will be no governmental contribution to the £5bn, but it will look at the licence fee, where Ofcom is proposing a near tripling.

The whole deal hangs on measuring if the mobile operators have fulfilled their obligation. But there is no mention of penalties if they fail to do so.