Macneil urges Ofcom to improve mobile coverage 15/9/11
MP Angus Brendan MacNeil will meet with representatives from OfCom to discuss the ongoing communications problems that are experienced in the Western Isles.
Following the signal strength study that took place on 2nd September Mr MacNeil will be presenting a large amount of evidence to OfCom regarding the mostly weak mobile signal coverage on the Outer Hebrides.
Angus MacNeil said: “For years the Outer Hebrides have been overlooked by the regulators and our mobile phone service is a prime example of it.
‘While the Irish, Rwandans and Faroese enjoy full coverage no matter where they are in their countries, we find our communication stifled by regulations that benefit the businesses instead of the people.”
He highlihgted: ‘OfCom’s commitment to reaching 95% of UK population is simply not good enough.
‘Five percent of the UK population is approximately three million people. That’s a small country of people who OfCom have chosen to ignore.
‘To put this in perspective the London metropolitan area contains nearly 20 percent of the population of the UK while the Outer Hebrides contains .00004 percent.
‘Clearly, companies have and will continue to overlook us until they have a clear message from the regulator.
‘We also have to deal with the lack of roaming capability. If we had roaming in the Outer Hebrides many of our problems would be solved overnight but, for some reason, OfCom doesn’t think this is a good idea.
‘I intend to bring these issues to the forefront tomorrow as well as invite them to send a representative to the next Hebridean Communications Summit where we can all work together to get better coverage for the Outer Hebrides.