Mr Mundell, who has been campaigning for improved mobile reception locally for some time, says the move which will see mobile phones transfer to an available network when the phone providers' network is not available, and is urging mobile phone companies to accept the government's proposals.
He said:-
"Mobile reception is not good enough locally and I continue to lobby the mobile phone operators to improve the situation by investing in expanding coverage and boosting existing coverage. We need that to happen, but we can also make a big improvement quickly by making better use of the existing network as the Government is now proposing. There are a number of places locally where one network works but others don't. Under the Government initiative your phone would automatically transfer to the network that worked while you are in what is called a "partial not spot." Many people will have experienced dropping in and out of service travelling between local communities, but hopefully under the new arrangements this would happen much less often and people would feel secure that throughout a journey or at their destination they would have service."
"People may have seen this approach in operation when they have been on holiday in Europe and the only reason that it has not happened here is the reluctance of the mobile phone operators. I hope that they will now agree with the Government and adopt this approach, but if they don't do it voluntarily, then I would support legislation to make them. Local people pay a fortune for their mobile phones and deserve a better deal."