DRIVERS who break down on roads across Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire could be left stranded because there is no mobile phone coverage. 

A new study by the RAC Foundation has found more than 13 miles of roads across the two local authorities have no voice coverage from any of the country’s four mobile networks. 

In East Renfrewshire, nearly two per cent of the area’s roads receive no mobile phone coverage, roughly equivalent to six miles. In Renfrewshire, the total figure is more than seven miles, although this represents around 1.3 per cent of the area’s road network. 

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Drivers who rely on their smartphones to access the internet for route planning and to check for congestion could get into difficulty, as the same length of roads in Renfrewshire is not supplied with 3G internet coverage, while nearly eight miles of East Renfrewshire’s roads experience the same issue. 

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: “The good news is, mobile coverage has improved a great deal across our road network.

“On our motorways, which carry around a fifth of all traffic, every mile should now have voice and basic data coverage plus a 4G signal for all but a couple of miles.

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“As rapidly as the technology has advanced, so too have our expectations of enjoying uninterrupted connectivity. 

“Hopes are high that autonomous and connected vehicles will make our roads safer and help cut congestion, but that is dependent on those vehicles being able to communicate with each other and the infrastructure around them.”

Across the UK, some 5,540 miles of road – representing about two per cent of all roads – do not have coverage for calls. 

A further 44,368 miles of road have only partial voice coverage.