Better mobe coverage needed for connected cars, says firm flogging networking gear

One of the biggest barriers to widespread deployment of connected cars is poor mobile network coverage, according to Nokia's chief car connectivity chap.

Uwe Pützchler, head of car V2X (vehicle to everything) at Nokia, reportedly said that the car industry "is not as happy as they should be" thanks to coverage notspots across the continent of Europe.

What Pützchler refers to is the age-old problem faced by mobile networks of coverage blackspots. These come about either because of the local geography (think deep valleys) or because it simply isn't economically viable, or required by licensing regulators, to cover a particular area.

While some excitable industry folk are already shrieking about 5G and how the continent as a whole is supposedly "falling behind" in deploying it, others argue that Blighty in particular should instead concentrate on perfecting 4G coverage.

Pützchler added that the car industry had some requirements that "today's networks cannot currently meet to the extent... industry would like to see, and that's why we are working to improve it."

Nokia, in these dreary days of bathroom scales and Android-based knockoffs of its past glories, is concentrating on flogging networking equipment – and the connected car industry's gripes about poor connectivity gives it a strong hook on which to hang its sales hat.

Increased connectivity in general is an EU-backed goal, to the point that the EU Commission is supporting a deployment of 300 dedicated base stations and a satellite, all for airline passengers to get slightly better in-flight Wi-Fi. ®