Original Summary

Trudi King-Gunn / Trudi King-Gunn says mobile phone signal is non-existent in the village of Eskdalemuir Trudi King-Gunn works in a village with virtually no mobile phone signal. She and the village's residents rely mostly on Wi-Fi and landlines to stay connected, but in a power cut that becomes problematic. "The concern is when we need to call the emergency services," said Trudi. Most areas of the UK now have access to 4G and 5G signal, but in some places the lack of it can cause serious disruption to people's lives. Analysis by the consumer organisation Which? suggests the UK has the poorest mobile network quality in the G7 nations, while more than a third of mobile customers surveyed reported problems with poor signal. BBC News has spoken to people in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England to find out how the problem is affecting communities. 'It is a blackspot' Eskdalemuir, where Trudi works, is a remote village in southern Scotland with about 250 residents. "In the actual centre of Eskdalemuir, it is a blackspot," said Trudi, who works at the Eskdalemuir Community Hub. There are concerns that with digital-only systems replacing analogue landlines, the villagers could be cut off in an emergency. Power cuts are not uncommon in the area and not everyone has back-up batteries to keep their landlines operating. There have previously been issues when people have tried to call for an ambulance, says Trudi "We have got a defibrillator and there have been a couple of issues when people have needed it and tried to ring the ambulance service," she said. "Sometimes you can jump on [the hub's] Wi-Fi - if you are close enough." She said back-up batteries were available but they would only keep landlines working for two or three hours. The situation is even more frustrating, according to Trudi, because she knows there is good signal nearby. Eskdalemuir is home to about 250 residents "I live four miles down the road and I have perfect mobile signal but in [Eskdalemuir] there is just nothing," she added. "There is no talk of any sort of change or mast going up or anything like that." Villagers keep their fingers crossed that power cuts do not last long or that their back-up systems are sufficient. BT said it offered a range of options in the event of a power cut, and that back-up power generators were being added to more sites. 'Card machines can go down completely' In north Wales, the coastal town of Llandudno attracts millions of visitors every year. But poor phone signal leaves traders struggling to process payments and visitors struggling to make calls. "It affects us massively, especially with the number of businesses we have," said Paul Williams, general manager of Llandudno Pier. "They all rely on the 5G signal to try and get the card transactions processed." The problem was clear just moments after meeting kiosk owner Bella McBride, as one of her customers faced a long wait to pay by card. "My card machine, for example, some days it can go down completely and not everybody carries cash," said Bella. Bella says some days she can only take cash payments at her hats and accessories kiosk, due to poor connectivity "It ranges from atrocious to completely useless," said Alan Heseldine, who runs a seafood kiosk on the pier. "It's a major problem because I can't use the card machines to best effect. I can't make phone calls to suppliers, I have to wait until I go home or I can get Wi-Fi somewhere else. "It's really difficult. It makes the job a lot harder than it needs to be." Last year local councillors gave permission for new phone masts to be put up in the town, but the work is yet to be carried out. The visual impact of any new masts has been raised as a concern, as Llandudno's Victorian seafront is a conservation area. Tilly, who was visiting Llandudno, said she had no bars of signal on her phone at all Tilly Adams-Mears, who was visiting Llandudno for the day to surprise her grandmother, said she was caught out by the lack of signal. "I've been trying to contact my nan and you can't get hold of her at all. Honestly - there's no phone bars." 'I've lost sales' Meanwhile, 230 miles (370km) away on the opposite side of the UK, traders in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, face similar issues. Tasnime Rotherham, 42, who runs a mobile catering business, said the notoriously bad signal in the city centre was affecting trade. "Fifty percent of our payments are on card, so we need a decent signal," she said. "I've lost a few sales because people have walked off and not realised their payment didn't go through. "We now have trader Wi-Fi because the signal in the marketplace is like a black zone." Elliot Deady/BBC / Tasnime says it can be difficult to take card payments Ely does not have any phone masts in the city centre. Instead, they are dotted around the outskirts. Telecommunications consultant Bob Driver said the size of Ely Cathedral also reduced connectivity. "Because it's a historic town you don't want to see lots of base stations everywhere and people object to them, so planning permission is a problem," he added. Tasnime has much better reception in her home village a couple of miles outside of Ely, which she described as "the middle of nowhere". "I don't understand why we are OK [there]," she said. Ely is looking at installing small booster cells on lamp-posts, which would cost less than a mast and not interfere with the city's landscape. Mobile network operators cover the cost of these cells but they only boost the signal for about 150m (492ft). Mobile UK, which represents providers, said the cells were designed to complement masts, not replace them. Calls to 'cut red tape' The roll-out of mobile services and infrastructure in the UK is led by private mobile network operators (MNOs). According to the latest Ofcom data, 84% of the UK has good 4G coverage from all MNOs, while 96% of the UK has 4G coverage from at least one MNO. Mobile UK said MNOs were investing billions across every UK na

中文概览

中文标题： 从拨打999的担忧到支付失败——英国手机信号“盲区”的生活

BBC报道英国多地手机信号盲区。苏格兰Eskdalemuir村几乎无信号，居民依赖Wi-Fi和固话，停电时恐难拨打急救电话；数字固话替换模拟线路引发担忧。北威尔士Llandudno商户因5G信号差常无法刷卡，只能收现金，新基站已获批但未建。Which?称英国移动网络质量在G7中最差，超三分之一受访用户遇到信号问题。

  • 情报分类：综合情报
  • 分类依据：涉及英国手机信号覆盖与社区影响，非技术学习或项目，归综合情报。
  • 信息来源：英语新闻 / BBC News Top Stories
  • 发布时间：2026/9/30 13:22:07