Ministers and communication chiefs are being urged to significantly improve mobile phone signal in London, which has been described as "worse than Kabul ten years ago." Former minister Tom Tugendhat, MP for Tonbridge in London's commuter belt, is calling on constituents to report areas with poor coverage, known as "not-spots." He is also encouraging Londoners to raise the issue with their MP after The Standard highlighted the deteriorating mobile signal in the capital.
The ex-security minister said: "Well, a lot of it's down to capacity. Frankly, there just aren't enough masts for the number of people, and people are trying to do more and more on their phones. Guess what? It's also down to planning. We need to be much more positive about the opportunity to have masts in our area."
Sharing his personal experience, he added: "I can tell you, on the train up to Newcastle, where I went to talk to some people the other day, I couldn't work on the train. On the train down to Maidstone... I couldn't work on the train. Time and again, there is wasted time. We need to stop this. We need to fill those not-spots and make sure we're connected."
Mr Tugendhat, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, was speaking after posting on X: "I'm in Dulwich. One of the more expensive areas of London, supposedly a global city, and I'm getting worse mobile phone reception than I did in Kabul a decade ago."
In response, O2 messaged: "We're sorry to hear your signal has been so unreliable recently. We understand how frustrating that is when you're just trying to stay connected. Signal can sometimes be affected even when coverage looks strong, for example, by local mast work, temporary faults, or congestion in busy areas."
But Mr Tugendhat replied: "Don't pretend this is temporary. This is universal. It's constant. I've spoken to your teams about it in Kent for years and you do nothing." Communication chiefs attribute the mobile reception problems in London to a "perfect storm" of fewer antenna sites due to housing and other developments, planning delays, and more tall buildings being constructed.
Data services are particularly affected, making it harder to use websites, stream videos, and access WhatsApp messages. Areas badly affected include the West End, the City, Westminster, and Tower Hamlets, but Mr Tugendhat's comments indicate other parts of the capital are also impacted.
Busy areas near Tube and rail stations often experience the worst signal "bottlenecks" due to network capacity shortfalls. Trade body Mobile UK has raised concerns with the Government that antenna sites are being removed due to developments faster than they can be replaced. London currently has fewer antenna sites per person than cities like Manchester and Leeds, and operators have dozens of sites offline, with replacements taking up to seven years.
To address the bottlenecks, operators are calling for planning reforms, including extending temporary site use from 18 to 36 months, reducing full planning consent requirements, and increasing permitted antenna numbers for faster 4G and 5G upgrades. In some parts of London, such as Walthamstow, Wimbledon, Wandsworth, and Beckton, mobile service is improving with 5G upgrades.
An O2 spokesperson said: "Providing customers with reliable mobile connectivity is a top priority and this year we're investing more than £700 million in our mobile network through our Mobile Transformation Plan. This investment is focused on increasing network capacity and improving performance in places where people rely on connectivity most, including major cities, transport routes, and rural communities across the UK. However, in parts of London, outdated planning rules are making it harder and slower to replace and upgrade mobile infrastructure."
A Government spokesperson added: "Access to high-quality, reliable 5G networks is essential to boosting our economy and delivering services which are fit for modern life. That's why we've been exploring targeted planning reforms to speed up the rollout of telecoms infrastructure - including making it easier to temporarily relocate masts when sites are lost, and expanding permitted development rights."
