EVESHAM’S and Pershore’s MPs have joined forces to launch a campaign to improve rural mobile signals in the Vale.
Nigel Huddleston and Harriett Baldwin recently met with four major mobile phone operators to discuss how to improve connections for residents currently living in areas of the Vale with poor signal.
Representatives from local councils and the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership were also at the meeting to create a framework for working better with the mobile phone companies.
All four mobile phone providers said they are looking to add more masts to deliver better 4G coverage for rural areas.
Pershore’s MP Harriett Baldwin said: “While all four companies are continuing to invest in improvement to coverage in Worcestershire, there are still not spots across the county.
“Together with my colleague Nigel Huddleston, who sits on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, we met with all of the operators and brought all the key people in the room who can help them to extend their network.
“We all agreed we must do much more to fix this long-standing problem but also to aim for a much more ambitious plan to place Worcestershire ahead of the game.
“Many of the solutions for delivering a better network boil down to planning regulations and being bale to access the rural superfast cable network. Worcestershire County Council will now take the lead in helping the operators locally to secure the fastest roll-out of new masts.”
Evesham’s MP, Nigel Huddleston, added: “The Digital Economy Bill, which I helped scrutinise in committee in Parliament this month, should make it easier for mobile phone operators to build a better network of masts, but we must all work together to make sure we are already for the next blast of technology.”
