Ceredigion’s Assembly Member, Elin Jones, has highlighted how important the digital connectivity in Ceredigion has been during the Coronavirus lockdown.
Elin Jones AM recently held an online meeting with Mobile UK, the UK body representing the four major mobile phone companies in the UK – EE, Three, Vodafone and O2.
Mobile UK has acquired over £1billion of funding for the development of 4G across rural communities as part of a programme called the Shared Rural Network, and Elin Jones put the case for the Ceredigion constituency to play a prominent part in this.
According to Mobile UK, the Shared Rural Network will see 4G coverage from all four operators rise to a minimum of 80% in Wales, up from 58% in 2020, and coverage from at least one Mobile Network Operator increase to 95%.
Elin Jones welcomed news of the four major UK phone companies working together, saying:
“Reliable phone signal has never been needed more than in the current pandemic. With all aspects of life needing to adapt to working at home, and access to Broadband still not as good as it should be in many parts of Ceredigion, more and more people are relying on their phones to access 3G and 4G.
“School work, working from home and socialising has never relied on our phone signal more.
“There are many signal blackspots in Ceredigion, and as a result many constituents are limited to their choice of provider.
“With these four companies working together, I hope that constituents will not only be able to make their lives easier in accessing the mobile phone network, but also that they will be able to get the best value for money from their phone providers.
“All opportunities must be taken to upgrade our systems and aim for a 100% accessibility target, and the workers who are upgrading networks and maintaining these systems are rightly classified as Key Workers.”