Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) implemented the project itself, with the following objectives:• To improve the coverage and quality of mobile network services for the 5-10 per cent of consumers and businesses that live and work in areas where mobile network coverage was poor or non-existent; and • To extend coverage to 99 per cent of the UK population.• A GBP 150 million capital fund was set aside by the UK government to construct new masts (passive infrastructure only)31. These masts, which would be made available to all mobile operators on a wholesale, open-access basis, would allow operators to install their own active equipment and offer 2G, 3G or 4G connectivity to end users. The operators would be reponsible for funding their own operations. MIP was funded through a private DBO arrangement. Arqiva, a UK infrastructure provider, won the contract to design, build and operate the masts following a competitive procurement. As a result, much of the design and planning responsibility was left to the private sector. But because MIP was government funded, it had to gain clearance in December 2012 from the European Commission, which confirmed that the project was compatible with the rules of the single market. MIP was expected to connect an additional 60 000 premises out of 80 000 known \"not-spots\" by the end of 2013 and was slated to conclude in 2015. However, the project encountered delays and its conclusion was pushed back to March 2016. The first site went live in September 2013, with little progress made in 201432. By December of that year, only two out of several hundred potential Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016 9 Chapter 1 Table 1.3: Selected examples of private DBOs Name of private DBO Description Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP) (UK)23 UK government programme that aims to improve mobile coverage in remote areas by 2016 (See case study below).Superfast Cornwall (UK)24 Project that leverages the resources and expertise of an established operator (BT) to deliver a large and complex project.NGB Wales (Wales)25 Grant-funded government intervention has been used to increase the availability of next-generation access (NGA) broadband coverage in rural areas across Wales.InfraCo (Nigeria)26 The core tasks of InfraCo will be to build, operate and maintain the fibre-optic communication network, and to lease fibre-optic connections to operators and other companies, as well as to the public.National Broadband Initiative (Malaysia)27 This initiative is rolling out high-speed broadband infrastructure through a PPP agreement with Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM).Telebras (Brazil)28 Telebras, the previously dormant incumbent operator, was re-established in 2007 in order to provide wholesale services to service providers over its backbone network.Rural Broadband Initiative (New Zealand)29 This JV between Vodafone and Telecom New Zealand for rural network roll-out is subsidized through a government grant.Mobile network sharing (Sweden)30 Mobile operators have entered into a network-sharing agreement to reduce their costs and to help achieve the regulator’s coverage obligations.Source: Analysys Mason, 2015