Towering feud in the air over phone mast rents telegraph.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from telegraph.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Mobile phone giants have been accused of leaving small landowners thousands of pounds out of pocket by using a loophole to dramatically reduce their rents for phone masts.
Campaigners say telecoms firms have slashed agreed rents by up to 90 per cent. But other landlords accuse the firms of hacking their income by far more.
Derek Spence, 63, said he was offered a ‘derisory’ £250 rent by EE – the UK’s largest network – instead of the usual £6,000 for space at Aylesbury Rugby Football Club.
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I have been very happy to have them on my property, but when they said the sum I was quite upset.
Mobile firms to tackle rural not spots by sharing more than 200 masts
The companies are planning to provide 4G coverage to 95pc of the UK by 2026
27 January 2021 • 10:29am
Nearly 300,000 rural homes and businesses plagued by not spots are in line for a better mobile phone signal as telecoms giants begin building more than 200 new masts.
Vodafone, O2 and Three are rolling out the first stage of the Shared Rural Network (SRN), an attempt to banish the patchy signal and black spots that plague rural communities.
It aims to increase 4G coverage from all operators to 90pc of the UK s landmass by 2026, guaranteeing a signal to an extra 280,000 homes and businesses.