obile provider EE National Communities Team unveiled a whole range of initiatives to improve reception in the West of the County at a meeting with councillors in Shirehall this week.
Gareth Hewlett of EE came back to Shropshire to report back on progress they have made since they addressed the Local Joint Committee in the Bishops Castle area in October. This followed a long campaign run by local Councillors Charlotte Barnes, Heather Kidd and Nigel Hartin in the area and the STAR across the County as a whole.
Charlotte said “We have had some major problems with a decline in our signal quality in this area. We received a number of promises from John Carwadine of EE at our last meeting and we are eager to see what progress has been made. I don’t think the signal is particularly good in Shropshire as a whole but in the Clun, Bishops Castle and Chirbury areas it is particularly dire.”
Specific to Western Shropshire Mr Hewlett said that EE were:
1. Looking in detail how many calls where missed and how many local calls were connected. They were doing this on a very local level i.e. they gave Clun as an example. They were also sending out engineers equipped with enhanced smart phones to analysing signal strength throughout the area.
2. A new mast was being erected in Clun.
3. They were looking to renew many of the masts in the area as they were reaching the end of their service life. EE was keen to install a larger network of ‘minimasts’ in place of a few larger ones. These if possible would be sited on community buildings both to give them an income and create more comprehensive network coverage.
and
4. There is an EE app that is available on most new android and smart phones that will let EE know if there is a drop in signal the information from the app is anonymous to protect peoples privacy.
On a general level they were overhauling their complaints system which had been a major source of dissatisfaction with Shropshire residents. Mr Hewlett said that they were being trained to be much more responsive and recognise area wide problems when they occur. Call centres were being moved back to the UK from abroad. Some £12.5 billion was being invested in service issues.
Heather added: “This looks like good news. Th