The city grappling with unreliable phone signal

In a time when we rely so much on our mobile phones, it can be frustrating when you cannot find good signal. In some towns and cities with so-called notspots - areas with patchy, slow, or missing network coverage - a type of technology involving lamp-posts could help eradicate the issue.

It is a mild Thursday morning and market traders are busy serving customers in the cathedral city of Ely, Cambridgeshire.

I have never been to the city before, but a lot of people I know warned me about the area's poor mobile connection.

Among a group of tourists visiting Ely from Middlesbrough is Lauren Atkinson, who says she has found it hard to find her way around because the signal is not good enough to use a maps app on her phone.

"We've been relying on a good old standard map to get us places," the 27-year-old says. "Luckily these guys that I'm with understand a map a lot better than I do."

My own experience of trying to find the market was similar. The maps app on my phone did not work – despite having one or two bars of signal.

Switching to my work phone – on another network – was more successful.

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Unlike other cities, Ely does not have any phone masts in the city centre. Instead, they are dotted around the outskirts.

Telecommunications consultant Bob Driver says the size and location of Ely Cathedral, a short walk from the market, also reduces connectivity.

"It's a really big building made out of stone and that will interrupt signals," says Driver, who was formerly chief executive of Cambridge Wireless.

"Because it's a historic town you don't want to see lots of base stations everywhere and people object to them, so planning permission for base stations is a problem," he adds.

Cambridgeshire County Council provides free wi-fi around town to combat the lack of usable 5G service.

There is a separate network for market traders, but baker Will Grey says the network occasionally goes down, particularly during peak shopping periods such as Christmas.

"A couple of weeks ago it went down, but it got fixed quickly. Not many people had cash on them so we didn't have the best of days," the 21-year-old says.

Tasnime Rotherham, who runs a catering business with her mum, says the signal is hit and miss "especially when we're all trying to do card payments".

Market trader Sue Marchant recalls taking customers to a nearby bar with a stronger wi-fi signal to process a sale.

"If you have a bad day here and it really goes down, you've got no chance of taking any money," she says.

The Connecting Cambridgeshire programme, which is funded by Paul Bristow, the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, oversees improvements to infrastructure across the area.

"We've noticed that mobile coverage is not as good as we'd like it to be in a number of locations," programme manager Michael Stevens says.

"Now we're trying to come in with interventions on how we can improve that coverage for our residents and businesses."

One way to improve mobile signal is to install more masts, which are often in the countryside or mounted on top of buildings in urban areas.

But they are expensive, says Stevens, who estimates one mast could cost more than £100,000.

Another option is small cells, devices that are about the size of a shoebox which can be mounted on existing structures such as lamp-posts at a fraction of the cost of a mast.

Mobile network operators cover the cost of small cells and pay to rent space on street furniture. Multiple providers can join one device to avoid duplication.

They are already being used in big cities such as London and Manchester and they have been rolled out in some areas of central Cambridge to boost networks put under strain by high footfall.

But they are not a perfect solution, says Stevens, only boosting signal for about 150m (492ft), about ten times less than a traditional mast.

In Ely, early conversations are being had about installing small cells on CCTV columns owned by the City of Ely Council, which has backed the project.

Mobile UK, which represents providers, says small cells are designed to complement masts, not replace them.

"To truly unlock the connectivity the country needs, the government must actively prioritise the mobile sector by enacting progressive planning reforms and supporting long-term investment through the Mobile Market Review," a spokesperson said.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology says its Mobile Market Review is looking at what more can be done to boost investment in mobile networks across the UK.

At least one provider offers 5G data outside 93% of UK premises, it said, with an ambition for "high-quality 5G coverage to be available across all populated areas of the UK by 2030".

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