Shropshire MPs urged to unite in mobile phone signal row

He is calling on his Shropshire colleagues in Westminster to unite against mobile phone companies to show they are not prepared to accept "second rate coverage".

Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow revealed this week he planned to write to bosses of EE to express concerns about the poor signal quality experienced by customers in many parts of the county.

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has also waded into the row this week, claiming the lack of signal was affecting businesses trying to trade in the county.

Now Mr Kawczysnki has called for all five Shropshire MPs – David Wright, Mark Pritchard and Phillip Dunne are the other three – to co-sign Mr Barrow's letter and provide a united front

"I have sent a message to Keith Barrow on Twitter, we have agreed to co-sign this letter to mobile phone operators complaining about the coverage," Mr Kawczysnki said.

"I think that rather than working individually in each constituency, we ought to collectively co-operate.

"I would urge MPs to support Keith Barrow here in Shropshire.

"The council has actually done a huge amount of good bringing investment through broadband provision. There has been recent investment in Pontesbury.

"But it is actually very difficult to get any mobile phone signal at all in Pontesbury, which is the largest village in my constituency.

"We are putting this on our agenda at the next MPs meeting with the council, and we will be asking them to all sign this letter from Keith Barrow appealing to the mobile phone operators.

"If you are running your own business and you are out travelling in your car, or you are trying to work from home, it is just very, very difficult to get a signal in certain areas.

"I have managed to get mobile phone operators to intervene and improve their service in certain villages.

"But in others it is like painting the forth bridge.

"That is why I very much support Keith and all of the five MPs in Shropshire need to do that so they are aware of the strength of feeling that exists in Shropshire.

"We must show that we are not prepared to put up with second rate coverage in Shropshire."

An EE spokesperson, Rosalind Prinelle said: "A technical fault has occurred at a site in the area, and we have an engineer on location working to fix this as quickly as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience caused while we work to restore service."

Recently EE insisted full coverage had been restored to remote areas of Shropshire - after being forced to apologise to customers for poor service.

Officials said a new mast had been installed in the Bishop's Castle area, and added poor signal in the south of the county had been caused by the removal of an old mast which had been mistakenly deemed surplus to requirements.

The mobile network operator also says that it has made improvements for customers in Telford, Shrewsbury and north Shropshire.

Poor mobile phone signals have been giving Shropshire residents a headache for the past few months.

Kev Glover, from Coton, near Whitchurch, says he has been struggling to get a decent phone signal with EE since the spring.

"I have lived in the same house since 1999 and I have had a T-Mobile, now owned by EE, phone for the last eight to nine years," he said. "I have always been able to get a signal in my house.

"Since about April or May this year we have been unable to get a signal in the house as before.

"We can go outside and get three bars on the phone but the phone will not make a call.

"After speaking to EE about this, their technical support informed me that a mast in the area had been decommissioned as there was another mast that would cover the area.

"EE also don't seem to have an official way to make a complaint, only through speaking to someone in technical support."

Richard Underwood, from Wollerton, near Hodnet, said: "We have three Virgin mobiles which use the EE network and an EE phone, and all of them have stopped working over last three weeks or so.

"We can't get reliable signal here, nor for several miles around – yet we used to.

"I have spent hours on the phone to Virgin and EE."

Lincoln McMullan, chairman of Ellesmere Trade and Commerce, said: "I know some people have two phones – one for their work which is in one place and one when they are at home which is in another place. You would have thought they should be able to work it out."