AM to convene meeting of mobile phone operators

A meeting is to be held to discuss the poor mobile phone coverage in Montgomeryshire.

It follows complaints about intermittent and poor mobile phone signals in Newtown from EE customers over the past two weeks, but is down to the overall black-spots and poor coverage from all the major providers in the area.

Montgomeryshire AM, Russell George, has been campaigning for better mobile phone coverage in recent years and held talks with a number of the mobile phone companies about the situation.

He said he has been receiving increased complaints from residents about the deterioration in coverage and called on the operators to make a concerted effort to tackle the issues in the area.

Mr George, who also chairs the National Assembly’s Cross Party Group on Digital Communications, will be convening a meeting of mobile network operators this autumn, to discuss ways in which coverage can be improved in Mid Wales.

Mr George said: "I think it’s important to bring all the network operators to Mid Wales so that they can hear directly from community leaders about the day to day difficulties which residents experience when trying to make a simple phone call or send a text message.

"In recent years, we have heard a lot about the launch of new 4G services and new network sharing agreements between the operators which are supposed to have improved coverage and speeds but the reality in some rural areas is that mobile coverage has actually got worse.

"I have been contacted by frustrated residents in my constituency who have asked me to press for an improvement in mobile coverage, the lack of which still affects a significant number of people, both in urban areas of my constituency such as Newtown as well as more rural areas.”

His comments come after MyNewtown was contacted over the past two weeks by EE customers specifically who complained about intermittent signal and no 3G coverage.

Several readers contacted MyNewtown last week and in the previous week to complain about the state of coverage.

Susan Dixon from Abermule emailed us over the weekend: "This issue is getting worse. Since moving to Abermule the EE signal has been awful.

"Last week it was non existent in my house. It still is low.

"EE have not responded to emails or calls on this subject. Terrible service."

Mr George added: “I believe that mandatory roaming and compulsory sharing of mobile infrastructure are the two most practical solutions which will resolve this issue.

“However, in addition to these measures, I will also be looking to Ofcom and Government to remove any barriers which are preventing the development of mobile infrastructure in Mid Wales."