£1million per mast
So who will benefit from costly new Highland phone lines?
A MOUNTAINEER who has mapped the locations of the phone masts planned by the UK Government on wild land has called for a “rethink before resources are wasted and wild land unnecessarily damaged”.
David Craig has said that the UK Government’s expansion of telecoms network should prioritise places where people live and where roads exist, rather than attempt to “tame the wilderness” with new masts in wild land areas.
His maps reveal that all of the publiclyfunded masts are far from habitation and in some of Scotland’s most remote and dramatic landscapes.
“Wild land is a precious and fragile sanctuary and its casual systematic destruction borders on sacrilege,” he said.
Mr Craig also observed that the plan was not deilvering for Scotland’s rural populations: “It is now becoming clear that the SRN’s (Shared Rural Network) area-driven planning algorithm doesn’t deliver in the Scottish Highlands.”
Among those who have also called for a rethink are the John Muir Trust, Mountaineering Scotland, Torridon and Kinlochewe Community Council, and other groups in a coalition which wrote a letter in January to Julia Lopez, the UK Minister of Media, Data and Digital Infrastructure, saying that such masts would “despoil some of our most remote and beautiful landscapes and cause significant environmental damage”.
The mast installations, the letter said, could also lead to the wasting of “up to £500 million of taxpayers’ money”.
The Shared Rural Network was born as one of Boris Johnson’s 100-day pledges in the 2019 election campaign and promised to deliver better rural coverage and levelling up.
After only 87 days, the £1 billion contractual plan was signed by the government and the four network operators: Three, Vodaphone, EE, and O2. The confidential details of the plan included 320 nominal sites for new masts in Scotland.
As part of the deal, UK Government funding of £500m was dedicated to building new masts in areas known as “total not-spots (TNS)” – landscape without any coverage, much of which has no population, roads or other infrastructure – with an overall geographical target that 4G should reach 95% of UK landmass by the end of 2025.
Two-year delay?
A FURTHER £500 million of investment was agreed by mobile industry operators to fill what are called “partial not-spots” – areas which do not have coverage from all four of the UK’s mobile operators. But last autumn, Vodafone, Three and Virgin Media O2 wrote to the UK Government asking for a delay of up to two years to complete this stage of the network.
Communities, campaigners and walkers are increasingly questioning whether the policy is working for Scotland and if investment might be better used.
Ofcom’s latest data, revealed to Mr Craig, indicates that 274 masts are now planned for “total not-spot” areas of Scotland, each of them costing between £500,000 and £1m of UK Government money.
With Scotland’s remote wilderness targeted for the UK Government’s telecoms network expansion, the John Muir Trust, Mountaineering Scotland, community councils and others are calling for a rethink ...
Mr Craig observed: “Never in the history of phone masts have so many served so few at such cost.”
He added that the information he used to create the maps was not easy to obtain. It took five Freedom of Information attempts. “I believe this culture of secrecy has contributed to the ignorance apparent in SRN planning,” he said.
“These total not-spot masts will not help communities – and indeed they will help no-one – because these areas are what NatureScot has designated ‘wild land’ where there are no buildings, no roads, and virtually no people.”
The Shared Rural Network has a target for the reduction of total not-spots that revolves around the area of new land covered rather than people, premises or roads. “This area approach may work in other parts of the UK, but it doesn’t deliver in the Highlands e.g. Gairloch,” he said. “The SRN should first tackle partial not-spots like Gairloch before seeking to tame the total not-spot wilderness.”
Not Spot targets
A TARGET for partial not-spot reduction does exist. The plan is that in the Highlands, 4G coverage from all four operators should rise to a minimum of 68%, up from 26%, and 4G coverage from at least one operator will increase from 73% to 91% by the end of the programme. But, for those areas, all this means is a guarantee of coverage by one of the four operators. Those moving around could easily find themselves without signal through being on the wrong operator.
Caroline Hamilton, chair of Torridon and Kinlochewe Community Council, a key organisation behind the letter to the UK Government, echoed concerns that masts are being erected where they are unnecessary, yet some villages and roads still have poor or no coverage. She said she had also seen 11 maps showing coverage areas for the masts proposed for the Torridon and Kinlochewe area.
Ms Hamilon noted: “Of these, seven do not reach any road, let alone any house, and three cover small stretches of road that already have a signal. Only one, which covers quite a lot of road, appears to be useful, and that seems to be in exactly the same place where there is proposed to be an emergency services network mast. There’s no point having two masts next door to each other – why can’t they share that one?”
“There needs to be a cost-benefit analysis,” she said, “especially if that’s £274m coming to the Highlands and at a time when the Highland Council is facing a £113m deficit in its budget over three years, and the council is consulting with people here about which services are important to them and which they can cut.
“We want to work with the Shared Rural Network to establish what the community’s needs are and where are the deficits.”
Also key in the campaign around the masts is the John Muir Trust, which is calling for “an urgent meeting with Julia Lopez, the UK Government minister in charge of telecoms”.
‘Pause’ plea
MIKE Daniels, head of policy said: “The John Muir Trust has been working with a coalition of over a dozen community and environmental organisations which is now calling for an immediate pause to the scheme pending a proper review.
“The coalition is clear that we urgently need improved rural connectivity. The programme, however, should have a laser focus on households, businesses and transport networks with the aim of delivering 100% coverage for people and communities. Instead, we have a flawed, map-based scheme drawn up remotely that fails to take into account population distribution.
“Our concern is twofold. First, as a charity whose mission is to protect wild places, we are alarmed that damage will be inflicted on landscapes and wildlife for no other purpose than to meet crude top-down government targets. And second, we are concerned that public money is being wasted in unnecessary locations, with the sole beneficiaries being the four big telecom companies who are aggressively imposing these installations upon community, public, private and charity landowners.”
A chief reason often given for installing the telecoms masts on wild land is the need for connection in situations of emergency. But critics point out that there are already emergecy signal devices that mountaineers can use in remote areas with these more reliable than phones, and providing 100% coverage.
Stuart Younie, CEO of Mountaineering Scotland, the representative organisation for hillwalkers, climbers and snowsports tourers in Scotland, said: “The SRN programme claims that it is in the interests of public safety and will benefit hillwalkers and climbers visiting remote areas. However, there are already many devices available on the market which provide connectivity using satellite technology and the latest generation smartphones are also equipped with that facility.”
A Department for Science, Innovation and Technology spokesperson said: “The Shared Rural Network is a once-in-a-generation chance to bring fast, reliable 4G mobile coverage to the hardest-to-reach parts of the country, helping emergency services save lives, supporting tourism, and driving economic growth.
“Regardless of the number of premises in some locations, the masts will provide coverage for those who live, work, and explore in those rural communities.
“Local planning authorities are responsible for approving applications which form part of this programme. Publicly-funded masts will be shared by all four mobile network operators to minimise impact on the environment and, wherever possible, the programme will utilise existing infrastructure.”
It won’t help communities. These areas are what NatureScot call ‘wild land’ where there are no buildings, roads and virtually no people