Government gets mobile phone signal message from Shropshire

The petition which was signed by more than 2,000 people was handed to the people in charge at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with the help of Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski.

The signed online and paper documents ask for the Government to put pressure on the four major mobile phone networks – O2, EE, Vodafone and Three – to improve the poor coverage in Shropshire and other rural areas.

The petition was handed over at Westminster to Fareed Ahmed, head of telecoms consumer policy at the department.

He will hand it over to Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Sajid Javid MP, who was not available to receive it because he was too busy.

However, the minister of state for culture and the digital economy, Ed Vaizey MP, told the Shropshire Star: "It can't be right that a fifth of the UK – including residents in parts of Shropshire – can't use their mobiles to make a call or send texts.

"That's why we're investing £150 million to tackle poor mobile coverage across the country and working with mobile network operators to address the issues.

"We have also recently consulted on how to tackle partial not spots – where not all mobile network operators provide a signal – to see how best this issue can be resolved."

It is hoped after receiving the petition, the department will be more aware of the strength of feeling in Shropshire.

The campaign was launched by the Shropshire Star backed by Shropshire Council, in September, amid growing complaints about poor coverage in the region.

Mobile operators and regulators today promised Shropshire residents that they are listening to concerns about poor phone reception.

They were speaking after the Shropshire Star handed the Government a petition signed by 2,000 people as part of our Get Us Connected campaign.

The firms have responded to the campaign by apologising and assuring customers they will improve coverage in the county, but they also outlined obstacles which they claim are slowing them down.

Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski said the county's MPs were questioning the Government about the issue.

He said: "I am meeting representatives of all of the four major phone operators. We are meeting them on a one-to-one basis, stressing the strength of feeling of this issue in Shropshire, letting them know the economic drawbacks and asking them what they are going to do.

"They are also telling us what impediments they are facing and obstacles they are experiencing in making sure that coverage is improving as soon as possible."

After being told about the handing over of the petition, Three spokesman Nicholas Carter said: "We are looking at an number of steps to improve the experience our customers in Shropshire receive. This includes the addition of new sites and rolling-out low frequency spectrum which will see Three customers in Shropshire benefit from enhanced coverage in 2015."

Jane Frapwell, Vodafone spokeswoman, said the company wasspending more than £1 billion on its network and pledged to provide coverage to 98 per cent of the population using its 2G, 3G or 4G services.

But she added: "To provide this coverage we must be able to install masts. While we always share an existing structure where we can, this is not always possible. Building a new mast in the right place requires the agreement of the land or site owner and planning permission from the local authority."

Avni Thakrar, a spokeswoman for O2, said: "Improving rural coverage is a priority and we invest £1.5 million every single day to offer the widest possible connectivity for our customers. We'll be investing £1.5 billion over the next three years to extend this further."

She added: "We're confident that rural coverage can be improved through a mixture of existing infrastructure investment, new innovations and policy changes stimulated and co-ordinated by Government."

But residents are still having problems. EE customer David Phillips, 50, of Warrens Lane, Woodside, Telford, said: "I am having a hell of a time with my signal. I am throwing my mobile phone all around I am so frustrated."

Mr Kawczynski today said he was confident of "getting a result" for mobile phone users struggling with poor coverage in the county.

He described the issue as "one of the most important" facing the county and said Shropshire could be missing out on "tens of millions" of pounds because of missed calls and patchy data connections.

As well as giving a helping hand over the Shropshire Star's Get Us Connected petition, Mr Kawczynski has been meeting with staff from the four networks on a one-to-one basis to raise the issue and Shropshire's MPs have also written Parliamentary questions about it.

He said: "First of all I am really appreciative of the Shropshire Star's campaigning on this. It is an important issue so I really appreciate the Star's efforts in pursuing this.

"The Star has tapped into one of the most important issues for constituents that we currently have. I am looking to the Star to keep this campaign going and at the forefront of the news and it is something all the MPs can get behind.

"We will be open and transparent on challenging the Government and sharing information so we collectively use the different tools at our disposal to try to push the agenda.

Investing

"I am very confident we will eventually be successful and get a result and I think what we now have to understand is what is the real loss to Shropshire of having poor mobile phone coverage.

"That is something I do not know and have not seen any figures but I would argue if you think about all the phone calls that are being cut out, people coming here on holidays, organised events and visits it must be running into the tens of millions of pounds potentially."

After handing the Star's petition to Fareed Ahmed, head of telecoms consumer policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, he added: "I was extremely pleased to have the opportunity of engaging with a senior civil servant who is at the forefront of assessing the policy decisions on mobile coverage and mobile blackouts and grateful to the Star for spearheading this campaign.

"I am confident the networks are listening as a result of this campaign. They are getting a lot of representation from us about the situation in Shropshire and they are listening."

Mobile phone networks have also been sent the results of the petition as well as communications regulator Ofcom.

It comes just a month after the Government announced it was investing £150 million across the country to tackle poor signal in rural areas. It is unknown however how much of that money Shropshire will see.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: "Ofcom is committed to ensuring consumers receive good quality of service from their mobile provider. That is why we are leading or supporting initiatives on improving mobile coverage and reliability.

"We are also working with Government on its £150 million mobile infrastructure project, which is funding mobile phone masts in uncovered areas."

More than 2,000 people have signed the petition to get Shropshire connected – but that only scratches the surface.

Despite mobile networks promising to improve their service, residents and business owners are still reporting problems and are keen to keep the pressure on.

If you missed out on signing the petition – or have any further comments for culture secretary Sajid Javid MP – you can contact him through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

It can be done by emailing enquiries@culture.gsi.gov.uk

The address to write to is Department for Culture, Media & Sport, 100 Parliament Street, London, SW1A 2BQ.

Action also pledged on better mobile coverage in Mid Wales

Mobile phone providers have vowed to improve their coverage in Mid Wales to reduce the number of not spots across the region.

The National Assembly for Wales' cross party group on digital communications met to discuss mobile coverage in Wales with representatives from Vodafone, EE and Three.

Montgomeryshire AM Russell George, who chairs the group, said he was pleased to hear the plans to improve coverage in Wales.

He said: "I'm delighted that representatives from three of the four mobile network operators, Vodafone, EE and Three, were able to update the cross party group on their work to improve mobile coverage in Wales.

"While it was disappointing that O2 couldn't attend, we had a lively and constructive discussion about some of the significant developments which have been occurring.

"In recent years, there have been significant developments with the launch of new 4G services, new network sharing agreements between the operators, the Government's Mobile Infrastructure Project which seeks to resolve the remaining mobile not spots in Wales and the recent announcement that the Government intends to mandate mobile roaming.

"All of this provided an interesting context to our discussions and while there was disagreement from operators that compulsory roaming was the best way of tackling the problem of not spots in rural Wales.

"There was a feeling that there is willingness for progress to be made through greater collaboration between the competing operators.

"We also left with a greater understanding of some of the ongoing obstacles and issues which continue to affect coverage and I was pleased to have detailed discussions on mobile operators' plans to improve coverage in Montgomeryshire."

Mr George said thegroup will continue to monitor progress."We are looking to the Government, Ofcom and the industry to make an effort in overcoming the challenges which exist in preventing the roll-out of the mobile infrastructure project to resolve the issue of mobile not spots which still plague rural Wales," he added.