Two County MPs teamed up last week to kick off a campaign to improve rural mobile signals for Worcestershire people. Harriett Baldwin MP and Nigel Huddleston MP gathered the four major mobile phone operators for a meeting to discuss how to improve connections for people living in rural areas. The MPs were joined by local authority representatives and the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership to create a framework for working better with the mobile phone companies. All four mobile phone companies are looking to add more masts to deliver better 4G coverage for rural areas and both MPs have discussed repeating issues of poor signal direct with the companies. Harriett commented: “While all four companies are continuing to invest in improvements to coverage in Worcestershire, there are still not spots across the county. “Together with my colleague, Nigel Huddleston, who sits on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, we met with all of the operators and brought all the key people in the room who can help them to extend their network. “We all agreed that we must do much more to fix this long-standing problem but also to aim for a much more ambitious plan to place Worcestershire ahead of the game. “Many of the solutions for delivering a better network boil down to planning regulations and being able to access the rural superfast cable network. The county council will now take the lead in helping the operators locally to secure the fastest roll-out of new masts.” Nigel added: “The Digital Economy Bill, which I helped scrutinise in committee in Parliament this month, should make it easier for mobile phone operators to build a better network of masts but we must all work together to make sure we are ready for the next blast of technology. “Together, Harriett and I have tasked the phone companies and the local authorities with working together to make Worcestershire better for all of our residents.” Photo: Harriett Baldwin MP and Nigel Huddleston MP gather with local authority chiefs and mobile phone companies to plan for better signals across south Worcestershire.