Last week (Thursday 30th June), Russell George, the Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire, and newly appointed Welsh Conservative Spokesman for the Economy, met with Vodafone to hear about their plans to improve the coverage and capacity of their network in Mid Wales.
Following the meeting, Mr George said:
“I was pleased to hear from Vodafone about their plans to improve their network in Montgomeryshire.
“This is welcome news as all network operators, including Vodafone, must recognise the need for faster progress to ensure that residents and businesses in Powys are able to benefit from the latest advances in mobile technology.
“Mobile phones have become an essential part of people’s lives and investment in world class mobile infrastructure is fundamental for Mid Wales to compete with its urban counterparts.
“It is still a bugbear of mine that residents in Cardiff enjoy superfast 4G mobile coverage while many residents in rural Montgomeryshire still suffer with unreliable 2G or non-existent mobile services.
“Greater cooperation between network operators and reform of the planning regime is essential, and I will continue to press the Welsh Government to make a commitment to achieving the vision of universal mobile coverage to transform the Mid Wales economy.”
Graham Dunn, Senior Government Affairs Manager at Vodafone added:
“As part of our major nationwide investment plan, we are improving the coverage and capacity of our network across the UK, including in Montgomershire.
“Our plans will mean that the majority of people are able to access the benefits of the mobile internet.
“In order to deliver these improvements, we need a number of factors to be in place, including planning permission, agreements with landlords and good quality connections into the rest of the network from BT Openreach.”