Lord Adonis urges Ofcom to solve 'deplorable' mobile phone coverage

Ofcom has been told to take urgent action to tackle the state of mobile phone coverage in the UK, described as “deplorable” by the chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission.

Lord Adonis, who heads the government’s infrastructure advisory organisation, has written to the communications regulator imploring it to look at all options to improve the situation, including changing the law.

His letter comes after Ofcom issued a new report showing that just 43% of the UK enjoyed 4G coverage from all four mobile network operators - BT-owned EE, Telefonica division O2, CK Hutchison operation Three, and the publicly-listed Vodafone.

When it comes to the more basic services - phone calls and SMS text messaging - 30% of the country lacks reception from all four operators.

“In an age when access to a mobile signal is regarded as a must-have, it is deplorable that even in areas previously considered to have strong coverage, operators are still delivering such poor services that customers can struggle to make a quick phone call,” Lord Adonis wrote.

“The situation is even worse than we thought.

“It demonstrates the need for urgent and radical action to tackle this issue immediately, ahead of new mobile spectrum being auctioned and 5G technology being rolled out.”

Lord Adonis said Ofcom had a duty as the industry regulator to “put all options on the table”, including changes to the law and regulatory framework, to ensure customers were confident they would get the service they pay for independent on where they live and work and which network they choose.

Mobile network coverage has been an area of focus for Lord Adonis, after he singled it out as an area needing urgent attention when he launched a public consultation on the state of infrastructure in the UK in October.

And in 2016, he reported on 4G mobile phone coverage, claiming it was worse in the UK than in Albania, Panama, Peru and Romania.