Agenda item

To receive, and consider, data collated from survey on mobile phone coverage across Norfolk and discuss how the Committee can best add value to the topic.

Cllr Toye presented the report on mobile connectivity and took questions form the Committee.

Chair recognised Mobile Connectivity was not within the gift of the Council but the lack of it was a source of inconvenience, frustration and potential harm to residents.

Cllr Fitch-Tillett felt that operators should be encouraged to share masts rather than just being for one mobile provider as well as being more creative in the masts they erect in designated areas, adding that masts could be disguised as trees.

Cllr Gray noted that it was important to know what success would look like and what outcome they were looking for as the subject matter was so broad. One option would be to have a mobile infrastructure action plan identifying areas of land the Council owned as to where masts could be housed for example. Cllr Gray also suggested, it may be more effective if the Committee could focus on a key matter of concern such as when trying to get obtaining access codes for defibrillators, as having no or poor signal in those instances could have tragic consequences. This approach would ensure the Committee focused on an achievable outcome and then this could be built on to gain wider successes.

The EGM did explain that the Streetwave data sources that were used could have slight imperfections as there may be roads and areas that the bin lorries, which carried the Streetwave technology, would not go down. It did get more granular the closer you focused into an area, but that was not always going to be accurate and it may just be a field or very rural area so it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where those no service areas were. The EGM manager also said the feedback from residents that the County Council had been obtaining, had over 1000 responses and he would encourage everyone to complete the survey to help provide a clearer understanding of where problem areas were.

Cllr Hankins welcomed the report and thought that it was important to get the providers in to tell the Committee what their plans were, the timings behind those, and what they intended to do to improve the signal in those rural areas with poor signal.  Cllr Toye thought it was important to look at that collectively rather than at each individual operator and to make sure they were working with the Shared Rural Network to provide better mobile service, regardless of which network residents were on.

Cllr Bayes, agreed that health providers and businesses, needed good mobile connectivity, and were the areas that the Committee needed to focus on and he queried if vacant church towers could be used to house mobile masts. Cllr Toye said they had been deemed not acceptable, technology wise, from the operator’s viewpoint but he would welcome that conversation, with them, as to why that is. Cllr Heinrich believed that the cost to get power to them to run the masts from would be a big issue as many churches had no existing power supply.

It was highlighted by Cllr Toye that the areas individual operators stated they covered was different than the service available on the ground and it was important for everyone to fully understand why that was. Cllr Gray believed if the Committee was to ask about wider service plans, the operators would just say that improvements were on the way with no real timeframe, so he reiterated the importance of focusing in on one area, adding it was not about business or economy but about people’s right to call 999 in an emergency and to know they were safe. Cllr Boyle agreed this would be a good focus and a more achievable goal. Cllr Penfold however felt that the Committee should not disclose the primary purpose for calling the operators in as Members would want to scrutinise them on other factors besides emergency calls.

Chair sought support from the Committee to request Officers and Portfolio holder with contacting the four main Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to invite them to attend a Committee meeting with the proposed date of the 28^th of Jan 2026 clearly highlighting the key issues identified by the report and listing, in priority order, the areas the Committee wished to discuss.

AGREED that the Overview & Scrutiny committee gave consideration to convening a dedicated scrutiny session on mobile connectivity and formally invite the four main Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) - EE, O2, Three and Vodafone - to attend an O&S meeting on the 28^th of Jan 2026. This will help the Council to better understand their investment plans and present the opportunity to work towards some agreed objectives that will improve and expedite digital connectivity within the district.

Cllr Bayes offered his apologies at this point as he left the meeting