Ministers and communication chiefs were urged to significantly boost the mobile phone signal in London which has been branded “worse than Kabul ten years ago”.
Former minister Tom Tugendhat, MP for Tonbridge in London’s commuter belt, is urging his constituents to contact him if they are struggling to get mobile phone coverage due to “not-spots”.
He is also encouraging Londoners to raise the issue with their MP after The Standard revealed how the mobile signal in the capital is getting worse.
The ex-security minister stressed: “Well, a lot of it's down to capacity.
“Frankly, there just aren't enough masts for the number of people, and people are trying to do more and more on their phones.
“Guess what? It's also down to planning.
“We need to be much more positive about the opportunity to have masts in our area.”
On his personal experience, he added: “I can tell you, on the train up to Newcastle, where I went to talk to some people the other day, I couldn't work on the train.
“On the train down to Maidstone...I couldn't work on the train.
“Time and again, there is wasted time. We need to stop this. We need to fill those not-spots and make sure we're connected.”
Mr Tugendhat, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, was speaking to The Standard after earlier messaging on X: “I’m in Dulwich. One of the more expensive areas of London, supposedly a global city, and I’m getting worse mobile phone reception that I did in Kabul a decade ago.”
Responding to Mr Tugendhat, O2 messaged back: “We're sorry to hear your signal has been so unreliable recently. We understand how frustrating that is when you’re just trying to stay connected.
“Signal can sometimes be affected even when coverage looks strong, for example, by local mast work, temporary faults, or congestion in busy areas.”
But Mr Tugendhat stormed back: “Don’t pretend this is temporary. This is universal. It’s constant. I’ve spoken to your teams about it in Kent for years and you do nothing.”
Communication chiefs blame the mobile reception problems in London on a “perfect storm” of fewer antennas sites caused by housing and other developments, as well as planning delays, and more tall buildings being built in the capital.
Data, rather than phone calls, is being impacted making it harder to use websites, stream videos and access Whatsapp messages.
Areas badly affected include the West End, the City, Westminster, and Tower Hamlets, but Mr Tugendhat’s comments show other parts of the capital also impacted.
Busy areas, such as near busy Tube and rail stations, often have the worst signal “bottlenecks” due to capacity shortfalls on the network.
Trade body Mobile UK has raised with the Government the fact that antennas sites are having to be removed due to developments in the capital faster than they can be replaced.
The capital currently has fewer antennas sites per person than cities such as Manchester and Leeds.
Operators have dozens of sites offline in London and replacing some of them can take up to seven years.
To tackle the “bottlenecks,” operators are calling for reforms to planning rules, being able to use a temporary site for 36 months rather than 18, reducing the number of applications requiring full planning consent, and increasing the number of antennas permitted under existing rules to enable faster 4G and 5G upgrades.
In some parts of the capital, including in Walthamstow, Wimbledon, Wandsworth and Becton, east London, the mobile phone service is improving as it is upgraded with the latest 5G technology.
An O2 spokesperson said: “Providing customers with reliable mobile connectivity is a top priority and this year we’re investing more than £700 million in our mobile network through our Mobile Transformation Plan.
“This investment is focused on increasing network capacity and improving performance in the places where people rely on connectivity most, including major cities, transport routes and rural communities across the UK.
“However, in parts of London, outdated planning rules are making it harder and slower to replace and upgrade mobile infrastructure.”
A Government spokesperson said: “Access to high-quality, reliable 5G networks is essential to boosting our economy and delivering services which are fit for modern life.
"That’s why we’ve been exploring targeted planning reforms to speed up the rollout of telecoms infrastructure - including making it easier to temporarily relocate masts when sites are lost, and expanding permitted development rights.”
