Improved mobile phone signal had no political input

Further to the news item in Reepham Life (Mobile phone coverage boost to town centre, 21 March 2025), the mobile phone signal now transmitting from/to St Michael’s tower is the result of a contract between the installation company, Net Coverage Solutions (NET CS), and Reepham Parochial Church Council (PCC), which was signed about three years ago; there has been no direct input or influence from political councillors, MPs or other agencies.

The time since then has been spent creating and installing the necessary infrastructure in and around the tower.

This has been a slow process, both gaining the necessary approvals and because the NET CS engineers have been involved in similar projects around the country; there have also been changes to technical requirements en route.

An early part of the work was copying some of the bell chamber wooden louvres on all four sides of St Michael’s tower and replacing them with identical fibreglass louvres to allow the signal to penetrate.

Electrical power and lighting was installed in the tower, a steel framework was fitted in the clock chamber to take the weight of the transmission equipment, and a fibre-optic cable was laid joining the Reepham telecoms exchange to the church.

The work was completed on 11 March and the antennae went live that day. These are designed to broadcast mobile signals from any provider if they wish; so far only Vodafone has signed-up, so it is only Vodafone users who are currently seeing the benefit, but it is hoped and expected that other providers may join.

From virtually no Vodafone signal around the centre of Reepham, there is now a four-bar strength and this even extends to improving the signal up to a mile away, depending on location and the availability of other transmitters.

It has been a lengthy project, but Reepham PCC is glad that, 800 years on, its iconic, listed church buildings in the heart of this “best place to live in Norfolk” are continuing to spread the message, both spiritual and secular.

Rupert Birtles, Reepham Parochial Church Council