A mobile telephone mast at Cornagrade Road, Enniskillen. RMGFH81
TWO OF Fermanagh’s most notorious phone signal black spots are to benefit from two new masts set to be in operation my mid February.
The areas of Boho (Carrickbeg Road) and Clabby (Ramaley Road) are the beneficiaries from a £150m government scheme to tackle mobile phone ‘not spots’, but the two areas are the only two of 16 sites identified in the Fermanagh and Omagh District that will go ahead within the March 31, 2016 timeframe.
However the impact will be limited as the two masts will each cover roughly an area of six square kilometres (four square miles).
Telecommunications company Arqiva, tasked with implementing the scheme, will not proceed with sites in Fermanagh in Roslea, Eshnadarragh, near Brookeborough, Cloghanmore, Derrygonnelly and two proposed areas in Monea. A series of excuses have been offered for the failure to proceed with the sites including a ‘complex transmission solution which could not be achieved in the project time’ and an inability to achieve line of sight radio transmission connection into the Mobile Network.
Independent councillor Bernice Swift, who lives in Derrygonnelly, an area with no mobile phone coverage, has called for more to be done.
“Whilst I am delighted that years of persistence and petitions on this issue has finally addressed some of the blatant digital divide and a resolutions has been obtained for the Boho area. However, this announcement is a very small drop in the ocean for full and effective solutions, more masts are needed for Derrygonnelly and right across Fermanagh, no excuses are acceptable.”
“It is just not good enough that rural homes and businesses in Fermanagh, suffer the continued discrimination and excuses from Government. All refusals from providers where they fail to provide signal and now citing supposed engineering difficulties as to why they can only provide masts in certain locations is totally unacceptable.”
DUP councillor Paul Robinson welcomed the mast being built in his neighbouring Clabby.
“There’s no signal out there at all, not a bar, you have to go the other side of Tempo before you get signal. It’s great news, because everyone is using mobile phones nowadays and they are vital in an emergency.”
In a letter to the council Arqiva explained why 14 of the 16 sites will not go ahead.
“In order to progress, a potential mast site needed both planning permission and completion of a
lease agreement with a landowner in addition to a viable power supply, vehicular access to the site,
and a confirmed connection back to the Mobile Network Operators’ networks.
“All of these elements needed to be in place allowing enough time for site construction and implementation of the masts. Unfortunately this was not achievable in Fermanagh and Omagh within the available time frame.”
At January’s meeting of the council’s regeneration and community committee it was agreed that the council writes to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Arqiva to express its disappointment that only two of fourteen sites within the Council area will progress to fruition.
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