A FRESH investment of £430,000 has seen the re-opening of a Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) scheme to help residents and businesses access a better mobile phone signal.

The much-maligned CDS, run jointly by Somerset and Devon county councils, was supposed to connect rural homes and businesses to superfast broadband.

But it has also been running a ‘Mobile Boost’ programme with more than £1.1 million from the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership.

The previous scheme ran for two years until March of last year, with CDS claiming more than 1,700 residents and businesses had been helped.

Now, it has been re-started with businesses and households able to apply for a voucher for up to £1,300 toward the cost of a mobile signal booster from a number of registered suppliers.

One resident to benefit was Peter Samwell, who lives near the Blackdown Hills.

Mr Samwell said: “We have always had a reasonable mobile reception in the garden, but in the house, because the walls are three feet thick, it was impossible.

“We were pulling our hair out in frustration and we would come out into the garden to make and receive phone calls.

“We read about the CDS Mobile Boost scheme and it was explained to us if we got one bar of signal outside of the house we could get five bars inside.

“It was exactly what we needed. It has been an absolute revelation.

Now, we can talk to friends and family and do not even think about mobile signal, we get a full-strength signal.

“It is not fixed to one particular provider, which makes it flexible as well.

“It has changed our lives completely.

“It is a small box in our dining room that boosts the signal throughout the whole house.”

Another customer was the Exmoor Forest Inn, in Simonsbath, which applied and had booster equipment installed.

Charles O’Connor, a partner in the Exmoor public house, said: “We are at the bottom of a valley and had a patchy signal inside the building.

“For us as a business it was probably not as frustrating as for somebody who may be working from home and suffering from poor signal, but we have seen a significant improvement so we are not having to think about it at all now.

“It has made it much easier to contact members of staff working in other parts of the building and it has also had a positive effect for customers.

“The grant from CDS was very helpful and I do not think we would have gone ahead without it.

“I would encourage everybody who needs a better mobile signal to go for it.

“Having it installed is painless, the equipment is unobtrusive, and it works.”

Somerset executive Cllr Richard Wilkins, who sits on the CDS board, said: “This initiative has already had a positive impact across Somerset and Devon.

“I have no doubt that we will see plenty more applications coming from residents and businesses.”

More information is available online here.