THE owners of a West Cork business, which employs 24 people, have said the mobile phone coverage in their area is ‘absolutely pathetic’ with calls dropping off on a regular basis.
Caroline and Finbarr O’Shea of Glenview Heating in Adrigole – who were the winners of Best Medium Large business category at the 2023 Southern Star West Cork Business & Tourism Awards – told The Southern Star that this has been going for about three years and is hugely frustrating for them while trying to run a business.
‘I would be in the middle of a call with a client or customer and suddenly the call drops. It’s not great from a business point of view and obviously very frustrating for everyone,’ said Caroline.
‘We would be up and down to Cork a lot of the time too and you can’t make calls at all.
‘There are few spots where you can get coverage but then the calls drop again. It’s brutal and when you are on the road you should be able to make some calls using hands free.’
Caroline said people have tried unsuccessfully to contact the business on several occasions and she has to tell them to try it through WhatsApp.
‘I’ve emailed and rang Vodafone but you can’t even get to speak to anyone so it’s pointless.’
Finbarr said the coverage is ‘absolutely pathetic’ and said that when he heads to Cork city the reception is hit and miss and doesn’t improve until he hits Crookstown.
‘We’re running a fairly big business and we would have clients on the phone and then the calls drop and they think we have hung up on them. The coverage is absolutely terrible.’
He echoed his wife’s comments that there is no point contacting Vodafone with the problem.
‘This is going on three years now and it’s terrible. We have no issue with our broadband service provided by a company in Schull but our mobile phone coverage is pathetic.
The issue of poor mobile coverage was highlighted by Cllr Finbarr Harrington (Ind) at a recent meeting of the Western Division in Clonakilty who said it has in fact got worse instead of improving in parts of West Cork.
‘It’s gone diabolical in recent months with calls dropping off mid call and it’s become really frustrating for people living there and those trying to run their businesses,’ said Cllr Harrington.
After the meeting he later told The Southern Star that he had to sign up to Elon Musk’s Starlink system just to be able to make and receive mobile phone calls.
‘It was worth signing up as we are having no difficulties now but we still need to get better mobile coverage across West Cork.’’
