A WEST Clare farmer has slammed the quality of phone coverage being provided by Vodafone, which he said has a major impact on life in the Cross area.
When he spoke to the Clare Champion last week, John Keane said there was no reception at all around his home, and it had been poor for some time. “It has been diabolical for months and months and we’re blue in the face from contacting them. You get through to some fella in Israel, and when they put down the phone they’re not going to worry much about a bit of phone coverage in west Clare. You can’t even talk to someone in Ireland about your phone.”
He said numerous people living close to him had the same issue.
Some time back there was media coverage about how poor the service was, and he said Vodafone started to take the issue seriously then, but the standard has slipped dramatically once again.
“At 8pm that evening it was just 100%, we never had phone coverage like it before. Our data was working, everything was perfect. But it slowly started going again.
“At the time they said there was a booster transmitter on the mast that had to be replaced, that it wasn’t throwing the signal back to Loop Head.
“That’s what they said was wrong and it’s obviously something similar again. I’m in Kilkee now and I’m talking to you as clear as day. From Carrigaholt back it’s just useless.”
He said that having a proper service is essential from a personal and business point of view.
“We’re dairy farmers and half our work is on the phone now. We get hardly any post, everything is by email, you’re making calls all day to order stuff from suppliers, we have three kids who have to be picked up here and there.
“My mother lives next door to us, she’s 90 and she rings me on the mobile if she needs to get me. If I’m working on the farm I need my phone if an accident happened, it could be the difference between life and death. “
“Where you have broadband and a landline you might get around it, but a lot of my work is done in the milking parlour or on the tractor. I might have to transfer money online or pay a bill online, but I can’t even do that.”
Besides all of that, he said there is a more basic customer service issue at stake. “Outside of all that, we’re paying for a service and we’re not getting it.”
Vodafone said that works were completed in West Clare on Tuesday and they were hopeful of an improvement.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.