Why do we need so many base stations?

We publish details about mobile networks and how they work on our website: O2 in society. 

In common with other network operators, O2 provides an adequate number of masts in a particular area to provide enough capacity and reduce the chances of the signal being interrupted or the call ‘dropped’.

Dropped calls are one of the performance measures used by the regulator to measure the quality of our network. When we applied for a UMTS (3G – third generation mobile networks) licence in Germany, for example, we were specifically required to achieve 50 per cent coverage of the population by the end of 2005. In the UK, the licence requirement is 80 per cent population coverage by the end of 2007.

O2’s success in growing its customer base has resulted in an ever-increasing demand on the network. This calls for more second-generation (2G) cell sites to provide increased network capacity, at the same time as we are expanding our 3G network. Base stations must be located where customers use their phones.

In total, our networks now include 27,635 base stations. They break down as follows: