Star comment: Time they received message over Shropshire's mobile phone signal crisis
As much of the rest of Britain grasps the opportunities offered by 21st century technology, much of Shropshire – far too much – makes do with a 20th century standard of service.
It is the sort of discrimination you suffer from having a population which cannot compare with the big cities and urban swathes where the technology companies can really make their money.
The patience of Salopians is being sorely taxed. Our spotlight on the generally poor and inferior mobile phone reception and coverage in this county has struck a chord with our readers. You have come back to us with an explosion of anger and dissatisfaction.
See also: Time to tackle Shropshire's 'Third World' mobile phone signal crisis
Salopians are paying their money and being repaid with mobile phone deadspots. In such places you may as well hold a brick to your ear as a phone.
It is not all that long ago that anybody using a mobile phone was seen as a bit of a show-off. Within a few short years they have become virtually a universal must-have. While they are, of course, used largely for chat, texting, accessing the internet, and so on, imagine breaking down in your car in a Shropshire country lane without a mobile phone, and having to play hunt the public phone kiosk.
There again, it is quite possible in Shropshire that if you do break down in a country lane your mobile phone will not have any reception. It is, in effect, a breach of faith to have supplied it to you in the first place, a bit like selling you a radio with no aerial.
Salopians are struggling on against these disadvantages. They have no choice. The mobile phone companies have a case to answer. They are treating Salopians as lesser citizens and, of those who are feeling the heat from our unhappy readers, EE in particular has a duty to do something about it.
People in Shropshire are paying for a service that they are signally – pun intended – failing to receive. People who come to this county cannot believe what we have to put up with.
Some of the mobile phone companies are making encouraging noises. We await to see if that is translated into positive action.
In these affairs what tends to talk most loudly is money. And if mobile phone companies were forced to give refunds to their Shropshire customers for the lousy service, you can bet that things would start to improve a whole lot quicker.
Click here to sign our 'Get Us Connected' petition
Shropshire Star launches petition over county's mobile phone signal crisis
