“It’s got to the point where I have to go to the bottom of my garden just to send a text message,” says one man
Kimberley introduced its own WiFi service in 2020 – but even that only works in certain places, say locals(Image: LDRS)
Above, a maze of telephone lines are strung across the sky.
But when I look down at my mobile phone, there’s no data.
I’m not in some far flung, remote village on the outskirts of the county, though.
I’m in Kimberley – a town less than a 10-minute drive from the city of Nottingham – and a poor, sometimes non-existent mobile signal is the reality for people living and working here.
“It’s awful,” says resident Steven Copson, who has lived in the area for about 12 years and stops to speak to me on Noel Street. “It’s been like that for as long as we can remember. When you get halfway up our street, it goes dead.
“It’s got to the point where I have to go to the bottom of my garden just to send a text message.”
The mobile signal here may be notorious, but it’s not a new problem.
Last summer, Nottingham North MP Alex Norris started a campaign to improve the connectivity of the area, running a survey in which more than 200 respondents called for change.
He subsequently held meetings with Vodafone, Three, EE, Virgin Media and O2.
A number of masts have received upgrades in recent months, the MP told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
But he added that “there is still work to be done”.
To say most people I speak to in the town on Tuesday, July 14, agree with that would be somewhat of an understatement.
There are three people at the till when I head into the Dandelion Deli and Cafe on Main Street, said to be one of the blackspots for data coverage.
When I mention phone signal, all three exclaim at once. They seem grateful for the chance to air theirs – and everyone else’s – grievances.
“It’s shocking,” says Angela Blood, one of the group. “I have to get to a certain spot in the house before people can hear. It’s breaking up all the time. That’s why I don’t want to get rid of my landline. We deserve better.”
Angela Blood(Image: LDRS)
Cafe co-owner Dale Ward lives in Hucknall so can feel the difference when he comes into work.
“It’s kind of a black hole (where the cafe is),” he says. “You can’t get a signal. There’s certain areas where you do get a bit, but other than that there’s less than one bar, which is a bit of an (issue).”
“A lot of people come in here for our WiFi. (Kimberley) is very WiFi dependent. If the WiFi goes down then we’ve got problems, because there’s no way of getting a signal to get the card machine working or even the CCTV or other services.
“We’ve had a couple of times the router has gone down. We’ve had to close partially sometimes, because we’ve not been able to use the card machine.”
Dandelion cafe co-owner Dale Ward says that there are problems for his business if his WiFi goes down(Image: LDRS)
Kimberley was one of the first places in the UK to receive 5G when masts started being erected in 2019, news reports from that time show.
But if that was the case, it’s certainly not worked in the way it should have.
Some say their connection is alright and they don’t notice much of a problem.
Others testify that in certain areas of Kimberley, such as Swingate, there’s no problem at all.
Indeed, according to Kimberley Town Council documents, there are data masts at the town’s water tower, in Giltbrook, on Baker Road in Eastwood, and behind the Hovis building in Watnall.
But the configuration of the land and buildings “means there is a dark shadow over the centre of Kimberley,” the documents say.
The papers then add: “Getting an extra mast in Kimberley to cover the dark zone is a non-starter. It has to be provided by the suppliers like EE, BT, Vodaphone etc and they won’t make the investment, as they can’t guarantee additional subscribers to pay for it for such a small area.”
Resident Steve Lacey says the signal hasn’t improved since he moved to Kimberley in 2009 when he stops to talk to me outside the popular shopping precinct in the centre of the town.
He references the Newdigate/James Street junction as a particular bad spot.
“I travel a lot with work,” he said. “If I’m on a call in the car and drive down there, I have to tell the person I’ll ring them back. As soon as I get near to that junction the call drops, every single time. (The connection) disappears completely.
Steve Lacey(Image: LDRS)
“Up here there’s phone signal, but I was just in the pharmacy and the NHS app didn’t work. Up there (towards Giltbrook) I’ve got full. It’s a strange town for mobile service.”
I walk down to the junction he’s referring to. He’s right – mobile data is non-existent here.
Grace Lebeter’s business, Olde English Chippy, is on the corner of James Street.
She tells me she has no data at all until she leaves the premises – and neither do her customers.
That means that if they find themselves needing to transfer money between bank accounts before paying for their supper, they need to go outside – sometimes for “five, ten minutes” – to find a good spot. Grace doesn’t give out the business WiFi for security reasons.
“It is just terrible,” she tells me. “In this day and age. We’re in 2026. We should have some signal in Kimberley. It’s not good is it? I wouldn’t want to live here.”
Much like Dale at the cafe, Grace would have problems if the chippy’s WiFi went down.
They’d get no phone calls, because there’s no signal for them to receive it.
Grace says she’s spoken to her network provider to tell them how bad it is, but there’s still no lasting solution.
A free-to-use town WiFi service was introduced across Kimberley, Eastwood and Stapleford in 2020 by Broxtowe Borough Council, in the hopes of mitigating some of the issues people experience using their mobile devices outside of the home.
But some say that even that only works in certain places – as does Sainsbury’s free WiFi, which works only within the boundaries of the supermarket premises.
Steven Copson (L) and Lee Parker (R) say the signal has been awful for ‘as long as we can remember'(Image: LDRS)
Within the next six months, the telecoms industry expects to have completed its transition of all landline networks from an analogue to a digital system – meaning home phones will need an internet connection to work.
But here in Kimberley, that strikes concern into many.
“Everyone else has got rid of their house phone,” says Lee Parker, who looks after Mr Copson. “But we haven’t – because if you need to ring the doctors, or they need to ring you, you can’t get a signal. We have to have it. You can’t use the data. It’s impossible.”
Local councils, as well as the MP, are working on solutions, and have lobbied East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward for help.
The East Midlands Combined Authority (EMCCA), which she heads up, is currently working on a “digital connectivity strategy” – a plan to invest in communities that are less connected and to make villages and towns “digital spaces”.
The authority views digital connectivity as a “key enabler” of economic growth in the region and describes it as “important as water and electricity”.
“It’s really holding back some communities”, the Mayor told the LDRS about the lack of connectivity. “People don’t work from home. Local businesses can’t grow. You cant get start-ups operating. We’re looking at how can we invest into some of that digital infrastructure.
“I would certainly encourage more of the businesses and local residents to tell us where some of these challenges are so that we’re able to plot that a bit more. We’re at that early stage of building that digital strategy, so we know where the biggest problems are.”
A draft version of the digital connectivity plan is likely to be ready by early 2027, at which point residents and business owners in Kimberley might find out whether their connectivity issue can be resolved.
Judging by the strength of feeling here, that date can’t come soon enough.