Prime minister Rishi Sunak questioned over mobile network issues in Wrexham

Investment from mobile network operators and the UK Government should help to improve 4G and 5G signal the majority of communities, the prime minister has said.

Locally Wrexham’s patchy at best mobile signal has been long documented, with recent applications for 5G masts proving controversial in some areas, with some being approved and some rejected via the planning process.

Looking back to 2015 Wrexham.com attended a local meeting where then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Sajid Javid was challenged about 4G roll out and poor reception – and in his answer promised improvements, with examples cited nationally where people complained about reception yet did not want a tower built.

Now in 2023 history repeats with similar issues around the next technological step – and reluctance over building masts from some quarters.

Wrexham’s MP Sarah Atherton has been writing to residents about the matter:

With an opportunity to question the Prime Minister on the issue we pointed to the complaints over poor mobile signal in our now city, the historic promises on improvements, and that some objections to improving the infrastructure to tackle the problem were from councillors in his own party.

Speaking during the prime minister’s visit to Wrexham last week, we asked what he would say to councillors in that situation.

Rishi Sunak MP replied: “Obviously, I wouldn’t be familiar with the precise details of a local planning application.

“I will add more generally, what the UK Government is doing is rolling out better mobile connectivity across the United Kingdom.

“We’re investing hundreds of millions of pounds in something called the Shared Rural Network.

“So, those rural communities whether they’re in Wales, Scotland or England will benefit from better connectivity, that is happening as we speak.

“Over the next couple of years, it will mean that the vast majority are getting the exact number 90 something percent of the UK landmass will have access to mobile phone coverage.

“That’s really important. I represent a rural area, plenty of communities in Wales will be rural like mine in North Yorkshire and the UK Government is going to provide connectivity for those communities.

“It’s something I’m proud that we’re doing. It’s the right thing to do.”

Wrexham’s MP Sarah Atherton noted the objections to a mast in Borras was around community issues rather than the mast concept itself: “It was not objecting to the mass per se, because we need it.

“Rossett it in particular is a real ‘not spot’ area. We need better connectivity, whether that’s mobile phone reception, and Wi Fi.

“So my understanding is it was not objected to the mast per se, because we need them, it was the way it was positioned in the line of sight – so visual impact.

“My hope is that could be tweaked or positioned somewhere perhaps copying tree coverage or whatever. But, that is a council decision on that.

“If we’ve got decent Wi Fi, we’ve got decent mobile phone reception, we’ve got the aspiration that the Prime Minister was talking about – we have got the people in their bedrooms doing their businesses, the young people, the connectivity, the education, the startups, and we need to do better on connectivity.”

“I have started a campaign on that just in Rossett, but already people in Borras and Rhosnesni have come and said ‘oh, are you doing it here?’

“People are flooding in with their stories so we are going to collate those at the end of the month, and we are going to go to Government Ministers to see what we can do – because we need decent mobile connectivity – and wifi.”

The Shared Rural Network is a project was developed by the UK’s four mobile network operators (MNOs) with support from UK Government.

The programme will make 4G mobile broadband available to 95% of the UK.

The operators expect this will extend mobile coverage to an additional 280,000 premises and for people in cars on an additional 16,000km of the UK’s roads, boosting productivity and investment in rural areas.

The project consists of MNOs investing to extend their coverage by upgrading their existing networks, working together on shared infrastructure and building new sites, with new government-funded masts being built to target areas with no mobile coverage from any operator.

Through its work, the SRN will increase the parts of the UK that get a mobile service from all operators from 69% to 84%, improving consumer choice, adding: “Each of the MNOs’ individual networks will cover 90% of the UK, enabling rural businesses and communities to thrive”.

In Wales, coverage from all four operators will rise to a minimum of 80%, up from 60%. Coverage from at least one operator will increase from 90% to 95% by the end of the programme.

Top pic: Coverage prediction increases, Orange is total no reception spots, yellow partial and blue is 4G coverage from all four opreators. There is no data / map on the source site for 5G.