More mobile phone misery for users

Complaints about mobile phone coverage in Newtown and surrounding Montgomeryshire continue today with customers claiming loss of signal for days on end.

MyNewtown has already reported on the situation with EE customers who have had intermittent signals and loss of 3G in Newtown over the past month.

We have now been contacted by a number of residents and businesses in the area who say Three, which shares the EE network, and others have had problems.

It is understood a number of mobile operators, including EE, have been undertaking work to replace base stations in the area and to share the sites.

EE has had two planning applications in the Newtown area for new masts, although it is understood they have been switching some transmitters on and off to check coverage as part of plans to rationalise such base stations with the roll out of 4G and other mobile phone systems.

This has meant some areas being without coverage because a base station has been switched off during tests, although EE would not confirm this.

Ofcom, the telephone regulator, has already said this is the likely issue as mobile operators look to share systems in rural areas to ensure coverage.

Paul Williams from Newtown was one of several readers to contact us yesterday. "Last week on Three I went three days without service, with silly excuses from Three. Now, yet again the service is down again," he said.

Businessman Gwyn Williams from Llanfair Caereinion who runs a four-wheel-drive vehicle business said they were constantly having problems with mobile phones.

“I live and run a business in Llanfair Caereinion and our EE mast is constantly giving trouble.

“I have to phone them regularly to inform them we have no signal and as always they say there is no problem and no one else has complained.

“They try to blame our phones, but I tell them we have five here and all don’t work.

“They do get it sorted once I phone them. As for 3G, we don’t even get that service here.”

Other businesses have contacted us to highlight issues.

"We rely heavily on mobile coverage not just for mobile phones, but iPads and other systems that are team uses while on the move. We're being charged and constantly urged to upgrade kit and packages to use them more and yet we can barely use them in the first place," said a spokesman for a manufacturer in Newtown who didn't want to be named.

"We're only just starting to get reliable broadband. We really could do with reliable 3G or even 4G coverage in the area which would mean we could operate a lot better.

"One of the first things customers and clients comment on when they get to us is that they cannot use their phone or get their emails. I don't think the operators understand or appreciate how important mobile technology is in the area and how businesses rely so much on it.

"Recent problems mean we are looking to change providers, but the more people we talk to the more we understand it is the same issue with all the big mobile operators."

Montgomeryshire AM, Russell George, who also chairs an Assembly committee on digital communications, is attempting to convene a meeting of mobile operators to discuss the issue.

He said he'd already been assured that operators were working on shared services to ensure coverage throughout rural areas.