Mims met with the UK-based mobile provider, Three, raising issues local constituents and businesses are having due to the lack of service and not-spots in East Grinstead, Uckfield, and the villages.
Mims raised how both residents and businesses are struggling, as well as those working from home, those trying to reach friends and loved ones, but being cut off from lack of service.
Whilst Three doesn't have a 2G network, residents have also asked Mims to raise how elderly residents with their medical alert tools in the forms or necklaces and bracelets are going without signal causing huge concern for them and their loved ones. As well as those with smart meters who are struggling because of signal cutting out and then incorrect figures being sent to providers – resulting in residents getting charged more than they should be and in this financial climate is causing chaos for them.
Mims Davies MP said:
I'd like to thank the mobile provider, Three, for joining me this week for a meeting to discuss the issues my constituents in East Grinstead, Uckfield, and the villages are having.
For a long time, residents, local businesses, those working from home, and loved ones have been struggling to successfully reach those they're trying to contact due to poor services - which I raised with Three and will be raising in my further meetings planned with other suppliers, including Vodafone.
This was a really useful meeting and I thank Three for their time and discussion on improving service for residents.
I'll also be publishing an online survey imminently to gather information from residents on:
- Where the 'not spots' are
- Which patches are struggling the most
- Which mobile network provider residents are with and having difficulty with
- Asking land owners if they would be willing to have a mast on their land improving signal - and more.
As we know, we have an incredibly beautiful area, but what comes with this is a topography which doesn't help our providers including the hills and more of the beautiful South Downs, High Weald, AONB’s.
Three shared with Mims their plans with Vodafone have been granted conditional approval to merge by the CMA.
Under the merger, they will invest £11billion in improving the network and plan to deliver advanced standalone 5G to every populated area in the UK by the end of this decade, including every school and hospital.
Their new 26,000 site network will ultimately deliver 99.9% 5G population coverage, 65% more capacity than the current Three and Vodafone networks and faster network speeds of c.800Mbps.
This will significantly improve the experience of constituents, many of whom we know are currently struggling with mobile connectivity.
Three have also been turning off the 3G network – under 5% of the network was being used by residents so shouldn’t have affected them. Three ensured they were switched off in a way that had minimal customer impact:
- Started 2 years ago on their capacity sites
- Last year – main switch off at remaining sites that were covered by 4G – only issue being for those with 3G dependant devices but Three ensured these individuals were contacted directly with help and support and plenty of notice
- Next step – turning off 3G in 3G only areas but not until Three are confident 4G will be covering the area resulting in minimal impact again for customers and residents
Overall, turning the 3G off shouldn’t have affected constituents, in fact, the reallocation of 3G spectrum to 4G may have improved the 4G network experience.
