Ofcom have been looking into claims that more than half of consumers have had problems with mobile reception. They’ve decided that the best way to combat poor reception problems is for networks to enforce a ‘try before you buy’ policy, meaning customers can take the mobile phone home or to the office and test signal quality before committing to the sale.

More than 1,700 UK adults were surveyed, the panel found that a third of people had regular reception problems and around 91% of small businesses have had problems with mobile coverage as well. Anna Bradley, chairwoman of the panel, said: "While all the focus is on rolling out new services like mobile broadband, our research reveals that large numbers of consumers and small business employees are still having problems making even basic voice calls".

However, some networks were against the idea, reasoning that it would be difficult to enforce a policy of this nature because once the handset is returned it is second hand. This would result in higher costs for the operator, which would eventually be passed onto the consumer.

The panel found the most common problem for consumers was so-called ‘not spots’, where it was impossible to receive any mobile signal. The next in-line were poor sound quality and text messages being delivered late. Only 12% of those who suffered coverage problems actually contacted customer services, but only 2% changed networks.

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