UKC

"Home Office plans to build a 10m-tall phone mast by a path up Snowdon are expected to be rejected" - BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51659931

I'm surprised it was even proposed. Why did this proposal even see the light of day?

some jobsworth trying to justify his/her existence and the expenditure on tea and biscuits, possibly? sorry, feeling grumpy....

It would really take away from that wilderness feeling that is already provided by:

- the YHA lights on all night
- queues of buses and cars trying to get into the car park from 0800-1800 every day from April to September
- roar of bikes and cars with tuned cans heading up and down the pass
- deforestation and lack of biodiversity caused by subsidised (and pointless) grazing

If you put the mast up and fence off the mountainside for 1 mile in every direction I would be all in support of it.

Quite.  Snowdon is not the wilderness.  If you want the wilderness, you only have the choice of every single other mountain in the UK.

Put the thing up.  Having a phone signal on the mountain might at least save a few lives.

It's not even proposed for 'on Snowdon' as such, it's next to the car park...

Quite.

What have you got against paul mitchell?
He'd never be able to go to Pen y Pass ever again!

If you read the link you will note that it is for emergency services, we are having them built around here. The emergency services have been using the airwaves system for some time ( I remember it coming in), although this had better coverage than the previous system it had many flat spots with no coverage.

A new system is being rolled out across the UK that will give far better coverage, on the back of this the mobile phone providers  will be   given opportunity to use these masts for their coverage.

Although I don't want phone masts all over the countryside, I also know the frustration of not having communications when driving an emergency vehicle - possibly at an incident. So I see it as the price to pay for a hopefully better service.

I have a feeling that as it is home office who are authorising these they may ultimately be able to bypass some planning - but not sure.

If Elon Musks Star Link works out, the mast (and many others) could be obsolete in a few years ?

L

How on earth am I going to reliably phone mountain rescue for a lift back down when I've run out of puff, and more importantly bevvies up on the mountain.

Or what if my flip flops get damaged  ? 

Have a heart . 

;-D

Do mobiles have the signal strength to contact satellites?

Anyhow, how bad is the signal there? Couldn't a sector mast at Capel Curig beam straight up the valley and cater for that entire side of the mountain?

For anyone interested, I think this is probably what is going on, have a read to see.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-emergency-services-mobile-co...

You forgot the hydro piping running right down the hill from the llyn. 

Indeed - anyone who thinks Snowdon (or infant 99.9% of Snowdonia) isn’t an anthropogenicly influenced environment needs their head tested. Or at least to learn a bit of geography. Put the mast up, and save everyone a lot of hassle - PyP is a classic signal black spot.

UKC logic: The nature is already destroyed so we may as well destroy it further.

Sticking a 33 foot stick in the ground is hardly destroying nature, you'll barely notice it.
According to that BBC piece, there are power lines knocking about up there, I can honestly say that I've never noticed them amongst all the other crap and people, as richy's incomplete list has already pointed out, up there.

Anyway, it'll present a post pub challenge, who can shin up it the fastest.

A pretty typical response by the national park and Gwynedd. 

Given that the beauty of the area is already ruined by the hoards who are unable to park due to the p&@£ poor park and ride/public transport, a small mast would be nothing in comparison. Until a local councillor is run over and no one can call for help I doubt they’ll ever change their mind unless of course they manufacture the mast from Spanish slate and then I’m sure it will be ok. They could even construct a small shelter at the base to protect the parking wardens sent up there to generate extra revenue from the main industry (tourism) in the area. 

Put all the infra structure on one hill for carrier bag and trainers brigade to take their selfies and help mrts rescue them. Leave the carnedds, glyders, arans, rhinogs, moelwyns etc.. unspoilt by any more modern trappings other than the mining or water based industrial heritage that already exists. 

All are overgrazed, ecologically trashed and covered in erosion scars formed by footpaths. Again, not especially natural. 
 

Also, the welsh plurals are Carneddau, Glydererau, Moelwynion and Rhinogydd. 

A 33ft metal pole is ok in the mountains? Ok cool, you shouldn't mind a few tiny ab bolts at Stanage then. 

Musk is going launch thousands of satellites, maybe newly developed phones could be sat phones instead, to use the starlink network.

I was in Huddersfield the other day and the Emly Moor mast was impressive. Could be worse I suppose, imagine Emly Moor mast on Snowdon or Carnedd Ugain. 

I wasn't suggesting they were natural; mining, deforestation, grazing, various construction related to water and so on. But most hills elsewhere don't have a railway to the top, a cafe, hydro pipe and old mines. 

Yes.. I know. I was just using their often used shorter names, arguably englishised version. 

It's a tv and radio mast? 

Why the problem with mountains... it is only because they are more related to our pastimes that we apply some imaginary special status to them. 

What about summit weather stations, I presume you deliberately ignore any data from them on principle. Never used a cable car, ever? 

Is it back to one mast again? 

The facts are that somewhere there is going to be a mast for the emergency services, so they can serve us ( the public) better, so the ambulance can talk to control when attending a car crash, or fire brigade cutting someone out - whatever scenario. 

Siting the mast depends on two things, best coverage that will link with other masts coverage and access. It's easy to point to a spot and say "it should be over there", but then you may need two masts in the area instead of one and have to build a road to the site to build it. Most people forget about access for machinery etc. They want a mast out of sight but forget about building a bloody great road to get there. 

Having all these arguments in our village.

If Stanage was already a sport crag, then there would be no issue with a few more bolts.

Where this pole is being proposed is not "in the mountains" in that sense.  It's on a mountain pass, but in that location there is also a car park, a YHA, a cafe, a set of toilets and a reasonably sized car park.  And some power lines.  Have a look yourself and tell me seriously that you think a mast there will be out of place:

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.080628,-4.0204115,3a,75y,235.94h,81.31t/dat...

It's not like anyone is proposing to put it on the top of Tryfan.  If you want to use the Stanage comparison, it's more like putting one in the Plantation car park, and no, I wouldn't object to one there either.

Ah, I can see the power lines now!
How tall are those poles ... 20 feet?
This mast will be less than two of those, won't even know it's there.

There's a mast of some kind (TV aerial maybe?) on top of the YHA which I only noticed because I was looking for it.  I doubt it will be any more obtrusive than that.

Fair enough, clearly I got the wrong end of the stick here and misinterpreted. 

Even worse then IMO. You (presumably) wouldn't call Mont Blanc Mount White, so why anglicise the Welsh? 

What about Everest or McKinley though? Yeah, I know whataboutery. 

I'll cope with my crime. I've heard plenty native speakers say rhinogs and glyders, or even Snowdon itself. 

In light of a recent Scottish thread, us English stand next to no chance with the pronunciation of the Goidelic/Celtic languages, let alone the spelling.
I've got a Munros book which gives the phonetic spelling of said mountains, I'm still none the wiser

Only a little - I just find it interesting as to why people choose to use the names for things that they do. FWIW I'd go for Denali and Everest respectively - so also guilty of the latter. I think the Welsh edition of using the local names frustrates me more as I bothered to learn them when living in Wales, so have a bit of attachment. 

And yr arennau... Oh! That would be something else entirely.

It is curious that often it is the same people that claim to love the beauty, history and industrial heratige of a place that at the same time care little for it's native culture and linguistic heratige.

You can probably guess I couldn’t remember that one, so thanks

Sorry that was my attempt at humor, arennau is actually welsh for kidneys. That's what I meant when I said it was something else entierly.

I don't know what the correct term is, i guess it can be confusing in any language due to the number of mountains called Aran in Wales (as well as other geographical features across western Europe). Personally if I was referring to Aran Benllyn and Aran Fawddwy collectively I would call them Yr Aran, although this would only work in context due to potential confusion with another mountain called Yr Aran. Otherwise I would refer individually by name.

probably but like other posters have said, MRT will make good use of the reception there. its a double edged sword.