(Image: supplied)
Farmers across Scotland could stop hosting mobile phone masts after seeing their rental payments slashed by thousands of pounds, Scottish MPs have been warned.
NFU Scotland and Scottish Land & Estates say changes to UK telecoms laws have left farmers worse off and could put efforts to improve rural mobile coverage at risk.
One farmer has seen his annual mast rent fall from £6,500 to just £1,500, while a survey of 500 farmers found more than a third were considering ending their agreements.
The warning comes as around 9% of Scotland's landmass still has no 4G coverage from any mobile operator.
However, the mobile industry has rejected suggestions that the changes are making it harder to secure land for masts, while the UK Government insists its reforms are designed to ensure landowners are treated fairly.
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Giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster last week, representatives from both organisations said farmers were becoming increasingly frustrated by falling payments and disputes with telecoms companies.
They warned that unless the situation improves, landowners could become less willing to host the infrastructure needed to connect rural communities.
The Electronic Communications Code was reformed in 2017 to make it cheaper and easier for mobile operators to install equipment.
But farming representatives say the changes have gone too far, giving telecoms companies greater powers while cutting the money paid to landowners.
Anna Gardiner, of Scottish Land & Estates, told MPs: "We support the underlying objective of it, which is to improve connectivity, but in essence the operator powers and rights have expanded so much.
"At the same time, the compensation for hosting has gone down significantly. Basically, the seesaw has tipped so far that it is impossible to suggest that there is balance."
Lorna Scott, senior policy manager at NFU Scotland, highlighted the experience of one farmer who had welcomed a mobile mast onto his land in the early 2000s.
He had even helped the operator secure planning permission, recognising the benefits better coverage would bring to his local community.
But his annual rent has since dropped by £5,000, despite the mast now being shared by several operators and engineers still needing regular access to his land.
Ms Scott told The Herald that farmers were being paid far less while continuing to face the same disruption to their businesses.
"Our members particularly feel that the compensation has gone down significantly, but the hassle factor has not decreased in any reasonable way," she said.
"These are businesses trying to get on with the day-to-day work, so the management issues and disruption are still there with much lower compensation."
The growing frustration was reflected in a 2025 survey of 500 farmers which found 35% were considering ending their mast agreements.
Ms Scott warned that some could follow through if relations with operators did not improve.
"It is possibly becoming, or likely to become, more of a reality. The frustration is just quite high," she said, "If this does not improve, and if this goodwill that we have seen previously in how this was approached is not resolved in some way, it is likely that that will take place."
However, existing laws give telecoms companies rights over equipment installed on private land, meaning farmers cannot necessarily force operators to remove masts when agreements come to an end.
The row comes as Scotland continues to struggle with mobile blackspots, particularly in remote and rural areas.
Research by Consumer Scotland found that around 9% of the country's landmass remains without 4G coverage from any operator.
Poor mobile signal can leave residents struggling to make calls, access online services or run businesses, while also raising concerns about contacting emergency services.
Although coverage has improved in recent years, extending networks into remote parts of Scotland remains expensive and difficult.
Both NFU Scotland and Scottish Land & Estates say rebuilding trust between farmers and mobile operators will be crucial to closing the remaining gaps.
The organisations are calling for a formal complaints process to give landowners somewhere to turn when negotiations break down.
Scottish Land & Estates also wants a wider review of the Electronic Communications Code to ensure farmers receive fairer treatment.
Ms Gardiner told MPs: "The balance within the code needs to be addressed. It is quite clear that it is causing a lot more issues than not."
Ms Scott said the aim should be to make agreements fairer and avoid further disputes.
"It is just about getting that balance in a more sustainable manner so that hopefully going forward, disputes or issues are more easily resolved and goodwill comes back into it," she said.
The organisations warned that without a change in approach, farmers could become increasingly reluctant to host new masts, potentially slowing efforts to bring reliable mobile coverage to some of Scotland's most isolated communities.
However, Mobile UK, which represents mobile network operators, disputed claims that the reforms were making it harder to secure land.
A spokesperson said: "Mobile connectivity is essential national infrastructure, and landowners play a vital role in hosting it.
"Suggestions that the updated Electronic Communications Code is restricting land availability do not reflect our experience on the ground, where consensus is successfully reached in the vast majority of landowner engagements."
The industry body said the reformed system had helped deliver more than 37,000 network upgrades across the UK, alongside improvements to rural coverage in Scotland through the Shared Rural Network and Scottish 4G Infill programme.
It argued that other obstacles, including difficult terrain, access to power supplies and planning restrictions, also made it challenging to improve coverage in remote communities.
The spokesperson added: "Mobile operators remain dedicated to collaborative landowner partnerships and sensitive, low-impact infrastructure design, but delivering essential connectivity to Scotland's most remote communities inevitably requires balancing local conservation priorities with the modern digital networks rural residents, businesses, and emergency services need."
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) spokesperson said: "We recognise the vital role landowners play in providing digital connectivity and want to strike the right balance between their needs and the connectivity needs of communities.
"Our reforms support the ambition for high-quality 5G coverage across all populated areas by 2030 and ensures landowners are treated fairly when negotiating with mobile operators."
The department said changes introduced under the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 had made the rules governing mast agreements more consistent across the UK and reduced uncertainty when contracts were renewed or came to an end.
It also said operators were required to inform landowners about alternative dispute resolution options and consider using them before taking legal action.
The government added that it remained committed to introducing further measures, including a formal process for handling landowners' complaints about the conduct of telecoms operators, as soon as possible.