Calls For Better Mobile Phone Coverage

Calls for better mobile phone coverage in Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire will be made in Parliament today.

Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy has secured a debate on the issue.

He wants the Government to put pressure on network operators to ensure they improve signals for people - particuarly in rural areas.

He told Viking FM:

"I will be presenting the results of a survey that I have conducted with 6500 residents regarding the local phone service. We know it's not particuarly good and we know that 3G coverage, in North Lincolnshire it's about 69% of premises and in the East Riding it's about 45% of households.

"That just shows the 3G coverage especially is particuarly bad and a lot of residents have told me that they kind of have to hang out the back window to get a signal so it's not good enough and that's why the government's trying to get network operators to sign a deal to improve it.

"I met O2 last week and they said that they plan to roll out 3G and 4G coverage to 98% of residents by 2017 so there is the potential to get improvements but there is an awful lot more the operators should be doing to try and provide the service that their customers are paying for."

We've been asking people what mobile coverage is like where they live.

Vicky from Easington said:

"We don't get a signal at all in Easington, we can't ring, you can't receive texts and the only thing you can use is your wifi but that's it, you can't even make a phone call. Even though they've already said they'd put towers up at Easington, we still don't think we'll get any signal. If they can get a signal there then that would be brilliant but I don't think they can."

This person also told us it's a problem where she lives:

"I live in a village between York and Selby and the coverage is really poor, often you can't get a reception at all so it is quite frustrating because you are paying for a facility but you haven't really got full use of it. Often you can be having a call and then the signal just disappears altogether."

Meanwhile Richard is from Hull and told us:

"When you go out of the city and into local areas such as Cottingham, the signal there is really poor and your signal will often just deteriorate once you step outside the Hull boundary."

Another resident said:

"As soon as you go out of the Hull boundary, into Hedon or anywhere around there I just can't get a signal and that's even with 4G. It can be really annoying, especially if I'm trying to access maps and things like that."