Mobile networks need to do more to improve phone signal – MP
A Shropshire MP has called on mobile network operators to do more to improve connectivity and for minimum coverage and signal standards to be introduced.
North Shropshire MP, Helen Morgan, told Parliament that people using a mobile phone in the constituency were finding the service getting worse, not better.
Helen’s comments followed a report launched by the MP earlier this month which revealed the impact of poor digital connectivity in rural communities.
The Digital Communities All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report warned that people in rural areas were becoming increasingly “digitally disadvantaged”.
Helen set up the inquiry into connectivity as part of her campaign to deliver better broadband and phone signal to North Shropshire.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 20 January, Helen told an adjournment debate that the issue of mobile connectivity “applied equally to urban and rural areas”.
She added: “Mobile network operators do not have minimum standards of coverage and quality of signal. At some places where there was good coverage before, that now no longer appears to be the case because the signal quality is so poor.
“Does he agree that we need to look at a way to ensure mobile network operators provide a good quality signal to everyone?”
In response, Telford MP Shaun Davies said he agreed with Helen’s points: “This is a rural issue and an urban one.”
Helen has previously shared stories from constituents of being forced to sit in the loft or standing in the only spot in the garden where there is a good signal.
The MP has highlighted an issue with the accuracy of the coverage maps referred to by the regulator Ofcom, which she said “significantly underestimated” the scale of the problem.
Shaun Davies, who called the debate, echoed these points in his speech on Tuesday.
