County plan to blame for lack of mobile coverage, says O2

UNLESS planning restrictions on masts are eased, people in parts of Kerry will not get mobile phone coverage, a leading phone company warned yesterday.

There was outcry this week when the wife of an elderly man, who developed a heart problem in the Black Valley, was unable to make contact with doctors.

Mobile phones do not work in the valley, in the heart of the Kerry mountains, and, instead of landlines, the 70 residents use radio-link phones.