The isle of Colonsay has been without mobile phone coverage since 23rd March – eleven days. Vodafone has not bothered to get the signal back into operation.
Argyll and Bute’s MSP, Michael Russell, is sick and tired of this treatment. He has been campaigning since the major and enduring outages in December 2011 on the contempt with which mobile phone service providers treat those in rural areas like Argyll and the Isles.
Focusing on the practical consequences for residents of such notional ‘services’, Mr Russell says:
‘This incident on Colonsay has been very difficult for Vodafone customers on the island.
‘Lack of service is not just an inconvenience. I have spoken to several doctors who are aware of injuries being made worse, and even deaths occurring , because of mobile phone signal failure or poor coverage, with victims of accidents being unable to contact the emergency services.
‘Certainly the inadequate response of the mobile providers led to complications in communication for those trying to restore power supplies in Argyll in January – and delays in their work.
‘Mobile phone subscribers in Argyll & Bute pay the same bills as every other customer, yet what they receive is very much poorer than is provided elsewhere. I have been arguing that there should be no 4G licences awarded until all of Scotland has 3G coverage , not least because no part of Argyll & Bute has such coverage except for a small spill over signal on the Clyde shore.’
Mr Russell is hoping that the public in Argyll and the Isles will insist upon the arrangement he proposes – no 4G for anywhere in Scotland until we all have 3G.
This means some sharp thinking about quite what leverage we can collectively exert.
Vodafone’s co0verage is not universal. It is not, on the evidence, prompt to act responsibly in restoring to operation the services for which it charges.
But in the Highlands of Scotland, Vodafone’s coverage has the best reach by far of any of the providers.
What leverage does the Scottish Government have? Might planning consents for masts have service conditions attached which would apply to all users of the mast?
What leverage do customers and potential customers have? Not a lot.
Non-Vodafone customers could beneficially transfer to Vodafone – but what about Vodafone clients? All we could do wold be be to go to an even less able provider.
Is there a commercial opening for a specialist highland provider to which we could all transfer our accounts?
It is unacceptable for citizens to be prey to any irresponsible provider of anything.
Perhaps Vodafone’s outrageous tax deals with the Westminster government – they were widely reported as having been ‘let off’ a tax bill between £6 and £7 billion by HMRC – might provide some ‘leverage’. If the Holyrood government comes to have tax raising powers in the future it would be nice to think that such cosy deals would be made impossible. If the UK revenue loss was £6 – £7 billion the pro rata loss to Scotland would have been around half a billion pounds.
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From my experience of the Highlands, Vodafone has rested on its laurels for too long and other networks are now just as good. But that aside.. if lives depend on it, never rely on a single mobile network – carry multiple SIMs from all UK networks to guarantee coverage. Otherwise you will be at the mercy of one network when others may be available
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“….no 4G for anywhere in Scotland until we all have 3G.”
I feel that the above is a reasonable statement and position for the Scottish Government to be taking.
Goodonyer Michael….
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” Your comment is awaiting moderation.
April 3, 2012 at 9:58 pm ”
I’m sorry, did I miss something… When did this start?
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Not sure what the issue is here, Barmore 2.
We have always moderated comments. We have to – but we rarely have to edit or block.
We’re usually pretty quick and maybe where we are, contributors don’t get a message saying this? (We’ll enquire on this from Techroom.)
If this is so, maybe we were slower tonight – several of us just chip in and do moderation when we can and sometimes we’re all busy for a while with other aspects of what we do.
And where we’re slower than usual to respond to new comments, maybe those who have sent comments left in limbo until we get to them are automatically sent this sort of message as an explanation for the delay in their comment showing up.
We will enquire and report back.
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Wasn’t aware that this had been / is the standard. I withdraw my query and offer my congratulations on past performance.
Oh that other sites responded as fast!
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Completely agree that the lack of 3G across Argyll and the islands is a disgrace.
But can I suggest a modification of what is lobbyed for. Rather than delaying the roll out of 4G until 3G has been provided, why not jump straight to 4G? Make it a licence condition that within two years of a licence being granted to an operator (whether Voda or anyone else), the service is made available to key communities in rural areas.
I suggest this idea because 4G offers the prospect of usable mobile broadband in areas that struggle to get any connection at the moment – hence the attraction of moving to the very latest technology.
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Agree with islanddweller; not only is mobile phone coverage a disgrace so is access to the Internet dire in many places. As to the issue of safety, I know personally of two life-threatening emergencies where locals had no phone line (gales) and no mobile signal.
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The title of this page says “Colonsay has been without mobile coverage..”. Is not true. Colonsay has mobile coverage from Orange & O2- it is without Vodafone coverage.
A different thing entirely.
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Thank you. This is an important qualification.
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I find it hard to believe that people still use vodaphone in Argyll, their coverage is poor at best while other network have better coverage in some areas.
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I’m pleased that, at last, someone in government,is getting outraged by Vodaphone’s arrogance about their outages. It has been a problem for the last 3 years here in Tarbert and, I have no doubt, throughout Argyll and its Islands.
After a particularly bad break in service last year they eventually restored it to Tarbert after 2 or 3 weeks.
On behalf of the Community Council I asked their CEO’s office what restitution they could offer to our community for their regular failures to supply usable signal. I was told that it was not their policy to offer anything to communities in any circumstances. All they could do was refund individuals their rental for the period that they were without signal – and then only if they applied for it.
Their arrogance is breathtaking and needs to be recognised by government. The termination of a few public contracts with Vodaphone seems, to me, to be a suitably humbling solution perhaps?
They need reminding that the original funding for their masts was supplied by the goverment via HIE.
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‘..not their policy to offer anything to any communities in any circumstances…’ Their arrogance is more than breathtaking, given the ‘sweetheart’ tax break handed them by the Westminster government, who effectively signalled that it wasn’t their policy to make huge and greedy companies pay their tax bills, in Vodaphone’s case of between £6 and £7 billion. Next in line at the trough is Amazon, whose ability to dodge tax enables it to destroy local retail business far and wide.
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What would life be like without the mobile phone? Phoned Vodaphone a couple of times to tell them of a fault in their system in Islay. They were very courteous and repairs were carried out as quickly as they could. Signal covers much more of the island than other providers.
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once upon a time Vodaphone or BT Cellnet was a must for the Highlands of Scotland.
Only O2 ( BT Cellnet now ) out of these two has kept going. I struggle now in Badenoch & Strathspey , Inverness, Dingwall, Connon Bridge , the A 9 road and heading to Skye.
Everyone seems to have O2 now. My friend with 3 , allowed myself to watch the Liverpool & Everton on the train with Sky Go on her phone.
Have they given up in Rural areas and just switched off transmitting ?
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