Political opinion: James McCleary MP calls on Government to do more to improve mobile connectivity in Lewes

During the Commons debate on connectivity, MPs from across the political spectrum accused Ofcom and mobile operators of “gaslighting” rural communities, arguing official coverage figures bear little resemblance to lived experience. Dropped calls, persistent not-spots and card machines failing to connect, they said, remain routine across rural Britain - despite network operators' claims of steady improvement.

MPs urged ministers to take urgent steps to address poor rural coverage. Speaking about conditions in Lewes, James MacCleary said” “According to research published last year, the UK has the worst average 5G download speeds of all G7 countries. We are not slightly behind; we are dead last.”

James MacCleary said: “Only 69% of rural areas in the UK are said to receive 4G coverage through the four major mobile network providers - not 5G but 4G, which is technology that is already years old, and we are at just 69%. So much of what we are told is 3G, 4G or 5G is actually mislabelled.”

“The signal bars on phones can be deeply misleading. There might be full bars and the assumption is that everything is fine, but when trying to make a call or load a webpage, suddenly you realise that those bars do not mean what you thought they meant”

The debate followed Ofcom’s latest Connected Nations report highlights the scale of the gap. Urban 5G site coverage has reached 48 per cent and suburban areas 38 per cent. Rural coverage, however, has edged up only marginally - from 16 to 20 per cent - with around 5 per cent of rural sites providing full standalone 5G.

MPs warned that patchy coverage is not only a daily frustration but a drag on local economies, affecting small businesses, tourism and card-based payments in communities already facing a structural disadvantage.

Landowners and rural groups argue the roots of the problem lie in policy. Reforms to the Electronic Communications Code in 2017 changed how operators pay to host mobile infrastructure, shifting to a “no-scheme valuation” model that in many cases reduced rents by up to 90 per cent and allowed long-standing agreements to be reopened.

The changes were intended to speed up rollout by lowering operators’ costs. However, they have coincided with a sharp rise in disputes and litigation, and a cooling in relations between operators and site providers.

A recent UK-wide survey of 500 landowners found around one in three are now considering walking away from hosting infrastructure if the regime is extended - raising concerns about the long-term pipeline of new rural sites.

Despite this, the Government has confirmed it intends to extend the framework to a further 15,000 sites in April, under Part 2 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act.

Industry and rural groups warn ministers are pressing ahead with extending the mast regime despite mounting evidence of strained relationships and patchy rural coverage. They argue the government is relying too heavily on operator-reported data while leaving no formal route for landowners or residents to challenge poor practice.

They are urging ministers to bring Section 70 into force before any further expansion, creating a statutory complaints mechanism that would allow concerns to be raised directly with Ofcom. Without it, they warn, Britain risks entrenching a two-tier network - with urban communities advancing on paper while rural Britain continues to struggle for a reliable signal.