Urgent action needs to be taken to improve poor mobile phone coverage in rural areas including Shropshire, a rural watchdog has said.

The Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) has released its “Rural Mobile Phone Coverage” publication which gives recommendations for areas lacking decent mobile and broadband signals.

It identifies obstacles to improved coverage and recommends further action.

Graham Russell, executive director of CRC, said there were concerns about rural economies being put at a competitive disadvantage compared to urban areas.

He added many of the issues raised in the report would be felt by people living in Shropshire.

A number of network providers including Vodafone, O2 and Orange show moderate to poor coverage, according to the UK Mobile Coverage website, in places including Market Drayton, Bishop’s Castle and Craven Arms.

Mr Russell said: “Mobile phone technology – like broadband – is embedded into every aspect of life and has become almost an essential utility for people and for businesses.

“Yet there are rural places which still cannot receive a good mobile phone signal, with significant implications.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the rural economy but they need decent connectivity in order to be accessible to customers and to keep in touch with their offices.

“Employers are cutting costs and increasingly want their employees to work flexibly including from home but this can be difficult for people with poor mobile reception.”

Part of the summary of the CRC report says: “Improving rural mobile coverage is challenging on many fronts. Coverage is measured according to population, not landmass, so the methodology for calculating coverage does not pick up areas of poor coverage in sparsely populated areas.

“So an area may be classified as ‘covered’ when in fact large swathes of it are not.

“Mobile and broadband technologies are converging, so they need to be considered collectively and planned strategically.”