Following a request from the Parish Council, Atlas Towers Ltd have halted their investigations into potential sites for a telecommunications mast in the parish.
Atlas Towers had been working to solve the challenge of black spots for mobile and internet connections in the area. But there was a strong local reaction to the identification of the first potential site and as a result the PC has stopped their work to find any further sites.
The PC will be seeking further solutions, including masts with a less intrusive design in the future and consulting with locals about the issue.
As a matter of background the scheme that brought Atlas to the Parish is called the Shared Rural Network (SRN). It is underwritten by the Westminster government, but franchised out to the County Councils in rural areas to research and develop proposals.
The idea is to provide mobile signal coverage in time for withdrawal of PSTN (copper wire) telephone provision. That's currently scheduled for Jan 31st 2027 (originally 31st Dec 2025), with some leeway for customers who don’t want broadband.
The PSTN rundown is already well advanced. For instance, in Longley Green, only 1 operator will now provide PSTN and only to people who already have the service. No new lines are being offered. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that offer comes from BT and is considerably more expensive than any service being offered over fibre-optics.
The Shared Rural Network (SRN) is being worked with across many providers. Some mobile suppliers are updating their own masts to provide enhanced coverage to meet the SRN needs but this cannot always be achieved from existing masts.
Where coverage can not be provided from existing masts and new masts are need, the operator for those masts will be Digital Mobile Spectrum Ltd (DMS), a holding company originally owned jointly and equally by the four main retail mobile phone providers: EE, O2, Three & Vodafone. DMS is now owned by the three remaining mobile retail providers: VMO2 (Virgin Media & O2), Three & Vodafone). DMS will own, maintain and have any other responsibilities associated with the masts, including disposal if appropriate.
In our area, the County Council has franchised out identification of sites to Atlas, having been approached by them. Who actually applies for planning permission and/or builds the masts is open. It could be sub-contractors under Atlas, or DMS or Worcestershire County Council, or one of the mobile operators. It will ultimately depend on who can satisfy Digitalk Mobile Spectrum that the structure and its technical equipment meets their standards (i.e. Ofcom's). Planning permission will still be needed for any site.