Debate contribution: Mobile Phone Coverage: West Belfast

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 20 May 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

20 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Mobile Phone Coverage: West Belfast

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4964601

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for West Belfast for securing an Adjournment debate on this important item for discussion. It is important that we discuss it in the Chamber. This issue has plagued a lot of constituents, particularly in West Belfast, for a long time. For years, people, particularly in the Glen Road and Andytown area, have faced serious problems with phone coverage, although Members will probably agree that, in the past nine months or so, it has become noticeably worse. Maybe 10 or 20 years ago, a mobile phone might have been seen as a luxury or an extra, but, for everyone today, it is now a literal lifeline. Like Members opposite, my office has been contacted by people who face the consequences of dire mobile phone coverage or no mobile phone coverage at all. The result has been a real-life negative consequences for people. People, including the Member opposite, have missed doctors' appointments, calls giving medical advice and calls from doctors because the phone signal is completely shoddy or non-existent. One parent stressed to me that she needs to use the phone to order her son's medication, a particular form of medication, every four weeks and that it takes many attempts to do that. On several occasions, that person has been on hold waiting for a receptionist in the GP surgery when their phone has died, and they have had to start the process all over again. It is very frustrating and unnecessary for that parent and many others. That same child has additional needs, and, regularly, the school cannot access the parent, despite her having the phone in her pocket. ADHD clinician updates have also been missed. The network providers may try to say that, on the basis of their graphs or assessments, their coverage in the area is great. However, if you speak to anyone in the areas that have been mentioned, other parts of West Belfast and, I am sure, elsewhere in the North, they will tell you otherwise. Parents have also reported to me difficulties with schools trying to contact them. Obviously, that can be an nuisance and an annoyance, but my concern is about what happens in an emergency when a parent, guardian or carer needs to be contacted and the school cannot reach them. Even when calls can be made and answered, people report that, half the time, they cannot have a proper conversation, with words becoming muffled and broken up. There is also a question of privacy, with some people forced to take personal calls in parts of the street that have a better signal than is available in other parts of the street or area or in their home. People have also reported to me and our office that they have missed universal credit telephone interviews. I hazard a guess — I am probably right — that people have been sanctioned for not being able to take those calls. That is, of course, not to mention those who rely on the emergency services, including elderly people, people who suffer from mental health issues, people with medical complications and people who have an NMO in place. Everyone, including all those people, has the right to be able to access and use their phone. The other side of the debate is, of course, the financial cost borne by those who are impacted on by inadequate phone coverage. People on contracts are still paying hefty monthly bills to the providers, regardless of the service provided. It is time for the network providers to show some compassion for the individuals and communities affected by coughing up and paying them the money that they are owed. Of course, I am talking about the shareholders, the chief executives and those who make the financial decisions, not the ordinary workers at those network provider companies. The fact that phone masts have been damaged needs to be challenged and called out, but that is not the whole picture and does not explain why there is such a bad connection. Mobile phone networks in Britain generated at least £3·5 billion in revenue in the year ending 2023. The BT group, up to March 2024, had revenue in the region of £21 billion. Who knows what BT's figures will be next year when it completes the likely sale of its shares in TNT Sports to the US joint venture partner Warner Bros. Discovery?

It is therefore clear that, in the North, in Britain and in the South of Ireland, the privatisation of telecommunications services and infrastructure has been a disaster for those who work in sectors that rely on those services but has been profitable for those who are at the helm. It is not an anomaly that such profits and revenues are being made by companies that were once viewed as providing essential public services. The telecommunications companies are interested not in service or infrastructure but in the bottom line of profit. It is absurd that we have four, five or more private networks competing with one another, fighting for market share and people's bank accounts. Internet and mobile phone coverage should be treated as a public utility and provided to individuals at no extra cost. I would like to hear the Minister's assessment of the situation and about what powers she will use to compel those companies to pay back people what they are owed for a lack of service and coverage.

903 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:33 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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