If you’ve been having problems with your mobile phone signal lately, you’re not alone. While weak signals are usually an issue in more remote areas of the country, they’re also an issue for people living in larger cities and towns across the UK.
According to a survey by Which?, a third of UK mobile phone users have experienced issues with their network provider in the past year, with 17 per cent complaining about connectivity issues such as network disconnections, frequent outages and consistently poor phone signals.
Browser buffering and dropped calls are just some of the impacts of a weak mobile internet signal that we rely on in public when we’re not connected to a private or public WiFi network.
Why is mobile phone reception so bad in the UK?
The problem lies in a lack of investment and technological advancement in the UK’s telecoms industry. Andy Aiken, co-founder of innovative mobile network Honest, told i that the UK’s mobile speeds are “terrible” because “we’re not upgrading our telecoms infrastructure to accommodate more devices and more users”.
Earlier this year, the Public Accounts Committee said more was needed to ensure the government’s target of providing 4G mobile coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of next year was met. The committee’s report concluded that the pace needed to reach the target was “unsustainable”.
Phone towers send and receive radio signals, enabling high-speed mobile connections like 4G and 5G. To use the network, a phone needs to be within range of the tower. But the UK’s 5G rollout was delayed by two to three years after the government imposed restrictions on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in 2020. In addition, Aiken said UK planning regulations make it more difficult to install phone towers.
How many 5G towers are there in the UK?
The exact number of 5G cell towers in the UK is unclear, but the UK’s largest network providers have published statistics on their 5G coverage: EE launched its 5G network in 2019 and provided 5G to 78% of the UK population as of March this year, O2 covers 50% of the UK population, and Vodaphone covers 193 locations across the UK.
Where in the UK has the worst mobile phone signal?
To find out where the UK has the weakest phone signal, technology platform Nomad used data from Ofcom to rank areas based on their estimates of signal quality from the UK’s four biggest network providers. Here are the places in the UK with the weakest phone signal:
- East Anstey, Devon
- Rugeley, Staffordshire
- Rushton Spencer, Staffordshire
- Higham, Kent
- Mayfield, East Sussex
- Hubertsbridge, Devon
- Eisholt, Somerset
- Hanbury, Worcestershire
- Ugborough, Devon
