City Hall has launched a new plan to boost mobile phone signal across London’s boroughs, after a report found stark differences in connectivity across the capital.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has published a framework setting out 10 practical actions for boroughs to improve mobile connectivity — including appointing a dedicated mobile connectivity officer, making sure new developments consider signal from the start, and identifying council-owned assets that could host mobile infrastructure.
The framework builds on the Connected London programme and the rollout of 4G and 5G mobile connectivity across the Tube network.
Where signal is weakest
A new City Hall report, produced with data firm Ookla, finds that inner north and east London gets weaker signal than areas like Lambeth and Newham.
The mayor has published an interactive map of download speeds and signal strength, allowing Londoners to see how their area compares. The map is intended to give boroughs and mobile operators a clearer picture of where investment is most needed.
Poor mobile signal remains a daily frustration for many Londoners — dropped calls on the move, slow data in busy areas, and dead zones in parts of the city that are otherwise well served.
What the framework asks boroughs to do
The 10 actions are designed to be practical steps councils can take without waiting for national policy changes. They include naming a single officer responsible for mobile connectivity, so operators have a clear point of contact, and embedding connectivity requirements into the planning process for new developments.
Boroughs are also encouraged to audit their own property — lampposts, buildings and street furniture — to identify sites where mobile masts and small cells could be installed. Using public assets in this way can speed up rollout and bring coverage to areas the commercial market might otherwise leave behind.
Building on Connected London
The framework is the latest step in the Connected London programme, which City Hall established to coordinate digital infrastructure investment across the capital.
One of the programme’s most visible projects has been bringing mobile coverage to the Tube. The network is now 70 per cent complete, with the remaining work expected to finish by the end of the year — meaning passengers will soon have signal in tunnels as well as stations across the network.
The programme has also supported full-fibre rollout, with boroughs including Wandsworth, Richmond and Merton among those benefiting from high-speed fibre networks.
Why it matters
Reliable mobile connectivity is no longer a luxury. It underpins everything from contactless payments and ride-hailing to remote working and access to public services. For businesses, poor signal can mean lost trade; for residents, it can mean being cut off from essential services.
Small businesses are among the worst affected. A cafe or shop that cannot process card payments because of a dead zone loses money with every dropped transaction, and delivery drivers navigating by phone depend on a stable connection to do their jobs.
The digital divide within London is often overlooked. While the capital is seen as a tech hub, the Ookla data shows that where you live still determines the quality of your connection — and the new framework is an attempt to close that gap borough by borough.
Whether the 10 actions translate into better signal on the ground will depend on how quickly boroughs adopt them — and how willingly mobile operators invest in the areas the map identifies as weakest. City Hall will be hoping that naming and mapping the problem is the first step to fixing it.
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