Moray MP Douglas Ross has joined MPs across the country in writing to the Minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Matt Hancock MP asking him to speed up the process of rolling out improved 4G coverage to rural areas across the UK.
Commenting, Douglas said: “The lack of 4G coverage, particularly in rural areas, is something that continues to be raised with me by constituents in Moray who are becomingly increasingly frustrated by the poor speeds and in some cases by the complete lack of 3G or 4G signal.
“I raised this with the Minister in the House of Commons recently after an Ofcom report revealed that rural download speeds in Scotland were the worst in the country.
“The truth is that both the Scottish Government and the UK Government need to look seriously at this issue, given that money is in place to improve the current speeds and coverage, we need to know why this doesn’t seem to be helping.
“In Moray, we have a strong and growing rural economy and people should be able to use their phone and internet services for home and work, no matter who their provider is, but despite a Government commitment to roll out improved speeds by 2022 there is no legally binding coverage obligation imposed on any of the four major operators.
“I’m joining other MPs from across the political parties in asking for urgent action to deliver the coverage our constituents expect and deserve.
“Operators also need to be truthful with their consumers and let them know when and where they can expect better coverage.”