UK Regulator Updates Phone Tower Location Maps
The UK's telecoms regulator, Ofcom has announced that it has updated the information on its Sitefinder website - which shows the location and characteristics of mobile phone base stations that use the GSM, TETRA and UMTS technologies.
On 4 September 2007, following a Freedom of Information request, the Information Tribunal upheld a decision by the Information Commissioner that Ofcom must supply the full Sitefinder dataset to parties who request it, including the names of operators, locations and power levels of all mobile base stations. Ofcom has decided to appeal this decision and a further hearing in the High Court is anticipated.
It was the Freedom of Information request which resulted in the mobile operators initially deciding not to provide the necessary information to keep the database up to date. 3, O2, Orange, Vodafone, Airwave and Network Rail have supplied data to Ofcom at approximately three month intervals. Notable is that T-Mobile is no longer providing information to Ofcom for the website.
The 2000 Stewart Report recommended that a national database should be established giving details of all mobile phone base stations, making it easy for the public to identify all base stations in a defined area. The Government asked the Radiocommunications Agency (now Ofcom) to set up the database, known as Sitefinder, and the MNOs agreed to provide the necessary data voluntarily.
On the web: http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/
Posted to the site on 3rd March 2008
