Survey - TV interference caused by phone masts

Since the summer, people have been contacting the Focus Team about problems with their Freeview TV signal following the installation of new 4G phone masts in the place of old 3G ones.

There is a service, at800, that was set up to help with these problems. However, they won't help if you have access to an alternative service on one TV - such as Sky or Virgin Media - even if you have other TVs in the house that can only use Freeview. We've also heard of a number of cases where the filters they've supplied have not been enough to fix the problem and people have ended up having to take time off work to wait in for engineers to visit.

We're trying to gather evidence of the extent of the problem and have created a short survey. If you've been affected, please fill it in here.

Anger as phone mast ruins TV reception

Residents living near the 4G phone mast that's been installed on Badminton Road have complained to Claire and Steve at the loss of "Freeview " TV reception it's caused. They took it up with "at800", an organisation set up to deal with this problem. "at800" told them they can provide free filters if you only have Freeview in your house but they won't help with Sky reception problems or with Freeview if you also have a TV that uses Sky or cable.

Steve said, "I am not impressed by the way this is being handled. Local residents are the entirely innocent victims. Some have had to spend their own money getting this sorted out or have had to wait in for repeat visits from engineers."

Contractors also failed to promptly remove the old 3G mast, but this was sorted after Claire contacted the council. Claire said, "Local residents have been treated very badly. If you are having problems, please let us know."

TV interference?

A local resident recently informed Claire Young that since the new 4G phone mast was installed on Badminton Road  they have had problems with Freeview reception (in particular, having no signal for BBC1 and ITV3). Having contacted at800 an engineer was sent out within 4 days and rectified the problem. You can ring them on 0333 31 31 800.

at800 say they sent postcodes to addresses that could be affected at the beginning of February, but people do sometimes mistake these for advertising flyers and discard them.