Providers agree to look into improving Shropshire phone signal

County MPs held a meeting with members of Shropshire Council, Connecting Shropshire, and representatives from mobile phone providers, BT and Ofcom yesterday in Shrewsbury.

Shropshire Council's deputy leader Steve Charmley hosted the meeting.

He said: "There was a common agreement among those in the audience that things are going from bad to worse, and we need to work with the industry and the regulator to address the issues that are hampering improvements as quickly and efficiently as possible. Shropshire Council will continue to act as a conduit between all parties to make sure this happens."

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson, who has long been campaigning for an improvement to coverage in the county, said it had been a positive meeting with some progress made.

He said: "EE, O2, 3 and Vodafone all did presentations and they were telling us how much they're investing, and I said this is all tosh. It's getting worse and it's either because of consolidation of the masts or it's the deluge of new data from photographs and music and so on. If we put a few 50m tall masts across the county that would make a hell of a difference.

"Due to the physical arrangement of Shropshire a small number would be worth looking at and could make a massive difference.

"You could have one very tall mast in a village which would massively improve coverage."

Ofcom provided data on the signal coverage from the four operators, which showed that EE has the best 4G coverage of the county.

Ofcom also said O2 has a national coverage obligation that requires them to provide 98 per cent of the population with access to an indoor 4G service by the end of December 2017.

A follow-up meeting will be held on April 22 when the companies will report on progress.