'Cups and string would be better' – responses reveal scale of poor mobile phone service

The dire state of Shropshire’s mobile phone coverage has been revealed after Helen Morgan asked for residents’ experiences to share in Parliament.

Hundreds of people across North Shropshire and beyond responded to Helen with stories of patchy service, which will be referenced by her in a debate she is leading in the House of Commons tomorrow (12th February).

Residents from towns and villages across the north of the county described having to use Wi-Fi connections at home to make calls and shared the impact of living in ‘not-spot’ areas where signal is not available from any operator.

Helen will tell Parliament that even those people living next door to a phone mast can't make a call and that capacity in the network must improve.

Helen applied for the debate as she continues her campaign to secure the broadband and mobile improvements that Shropshire so desperately needs.

Helen said: “People from all over North Shropshire and from all walks of life, have described the daily challenges they face. Elderly people, vulnerable people and businesses all struggling to stay connected.

“This shoddy service is simply not good enough. Operators, Ofcom and the Government need to sit up and listen to these real-world examples and deliver improvements.”

One commenter online said it was “unprofessional and embarrassing” when his taxi firm was unable to take contactless payments for trips, due to a lack of strong phone signal.

More than 400 people responded to the Facebook request for feedback, with a Whittington resident describing their service as “dreadful”, another in Pant commenting that they can “just about get a poor signal if you stand in one corner of the garden at the top of the hill”, and another in St Martins suggesting that “two cups and a bit of string would be better”.

Helen also chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Digital Communities, which recently released a ‘Reconnecting Britain’ report, which stated that successive governments have recognised the need for improved rollout of connectivity, but found there had been a lack of noticeable improvement.

Reacting to the flood of online comments, Helen said: “I’m so grateful to everyone for sharing their experiences. Clearly not-spots are not limited to just one network, nor those living far from a mast or in a very rural area. They are everywhere, and on every network. It’s unacceptable.”

Helen has previously 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.

She also warned that the situation was even more serious for those people who had already been through the ‘Digital Switchover’ – a scheme removing copper wired ‘landline’ telephone services.

Helen added: “Unless these people have a good mobile phone signal, there is no way of them contacting the emergency services at home. I’ve had one older couple tell me they could be dead for a week, and no-one would know.

“Mobile phones are an essential part of daily life all over the UK and all over the world – yet huge swathes of the country are still being forced to cope with a sub-standard service.”

Helen called on the Government to outline its strategy for bringing improvements to rural infrastructure and is calling for rural roaming so that people can temporarily use signal from another provider when they can’t get coverage from their own provider.

A link to the full Reconnecting Britain: Restoring Trust, Connecting Communities and Driving Inclusive Growth report, which outlined a series of other proposed policies that Helen supports, is available here.