Technology exists to solve Shropshire's mobile phone signal problems, says expert
The boss of a new communications company in Shropshire says technology is available to solve the county's mobile phone signal problems.
But he said mobile phone firms are reluctant to use solutions such as dual-sim phones and domestic roaming.
Mike Harris, chairman of The Network Selector, in Oswestry, said he has heard many stories about bad reception and loss of signal from businesses across Shropshire.
His company is hoping to address some of the issues by introducing new services, but he admitted it didn't solve the underlying problem that mobile phone firms do not currently have a good enough coverage in Shropshire.
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One of the new services to be introduced will be similar to the roaming service available when abroad. Calls will be automatically routed to the strongest network signal based on the current location of the customer, minimising the risk of having no signal when trying to make important calls.
Mr Harris said the fact that the system works proved that there was no real reason why mobile phone companies couldn't make sure the whole of the county was covered.
He said: "There's nowhere in the county we've found we haven't been able to get a service working from on one of the providers. Possibly you might find a complete and utter blackout in a dip between hills somewhere, but they're very rare.
"If you can use multiple networks you can avoid signal black spots. Currently the providers don't want that to happen but we as an independent can force that to switch using a bit of clever technology."
Mr Harris said another option to get around the lack of signal was to have one phone with two sim cards –the small cards inserted into mobile phones which contain information including the phone number and which network to connect to.
"The other thing we can do is put two network providers on one phone. You could take a sim from O2 and Vodafone and have a dual-sim phone," he said. "For example Bishop's Castle is a bit of a black spot for O2 but I believe Orange works quite well there. All that technology exists today and I can understand that people are getting frustrated with the coverage they get."
More than 1,300 people have now signed the Shropshire Star's Get Us Connected campaign for better mobile coverage across the county.
