VODAFONE ANNOUNCES MULTI MILLION POUND NETWORK INVESTMENT ACROSS SWINDON

Vodafone UK has announced a major network investment across Swindon

Vodafone UK has announced a major network investment across Swindon, bringing stronger indoor and outdoor coverage and mobile internet services across its 3G and 4G networks. The multi-million pound investment across the town will extend 3G and 4G mobile coverage to more than 98% of Swindon’s population.

As a consequence of the network improvements already undertaken by Vodafone over the last year, mobile data traffic in Swindon has rocketed. Customers in the town on average are now using over eight and a half terabytes of data every week, which is equivalent to watching The Magic Roundabout around 12,000 times*. The improvements are also great news for avid streamers and music lovers in Swindon who streamed 4 million times from Spotify** in May alone. In fact, data traffic per day on Vodafone in the area is now equal to listening to Wonderwall by Oasis over 310,000 times.

The upgrade forms part of Vodafone’s approximate £2 billion nationwide network and service investment across 2014 and 2015. This investment is already benefitting customers in Swindon, a fact endorsed by results from independent technology consultancy LCC, which show that Vodafone has unbeatable indoor and outdoor 4G coverage in the town***.
In addition, the recent strengthening of our 3G network across the city has already provided greater coverage, High Definition (HD) Voice technology for voice calls and faster mobile internet services to more consumers and businesses.

A snapshot of Vodafone in Swindon:

• Vodafone will have upgraded 100% of sites across the town, which involves implementing a 4G overlay system, by the end of the improvement period. This creates better indoor and outdoor coverage for both voice and data, whilst ensuring that concentrated areas of customers have the highest possible network capacity to cope with increased demand.
• The average data traffic a day in Swindon is equal to browsing the internet for nearly 50,000 hours*- that’s equivalent to surfing the web for over five and a half years.
• Data usage in Swindon peaked during the 2015 general election with approximately an extra 2,700 hours of browsing*.
• In addition, the commitment to investment in the area stretches to Vodafone stores with the Swindon store, located in Canal Walk, featuring a brand new and improved layout following refurbishment.NOTES TO EDITORS
• *based on the average song size being 4MB, average non HD film being 700MB and 1 hour of typical browsing equating to 10-25MB as collated by
  http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/guides/broadband/guide-to-internet-data-usage
• **Spotify Premium is included in Vodafone Red Value Bundles at no extra cost.
• ***4G coverage assessed by LCC between January and March against key competitors with 4G coverage.
• Vodafone has expanded its ultrafast 4G coverage to 578 larger cities, towns and districts as well as thousands of smaller communities across the UK. For more information on our 4G coverage visit www.vodafone.co.uk/4g.
• Customers can check Vodafone’s current and planned coverage at http://www.vodafone.co.uk/our-network-and-coverage/uk-coverage-map/index.htm
• Coverage predictions are based on an assumption that Vodafone can obtain planning permission to build sites, access to land or buildings to place equipment and backhaul to connect sites.
• Vodafone 4G is typically 3.6 times faster than our 3G. Speeds vary and depend on coverage and demand. For more information visit www.vodafone.co.uk/4g (Ookla 2015)
• 4G devices are available for review on request.