Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you provide me with, under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, the location of every mobile phone mast that has been
erected in the UK. Your reply would preferably be in the form of an
electronic database export including a grid reference (such as
Longitude/Latitude or Ordnance Survey).

I am presuming you hold this information, as I have no need to make
individual FoI requests to every planning office in the country.

Yours faithfully,

Stray Taoist.

Dear Mr Taoist

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000; Request for information case 1-59089577

Access to Sitefinder Database

Thank you for your enquiry of 24 June 2008. As your request concerns mobile base station data, Ofcom has considered the request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, SI 2004 No.3391 (EIR); as it is required to do under section 39 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Sitefinder was set up, initially by the Radiocommunications Agency (now a part of Ofcom), as a result of recommendations of the Stewart Report to make information available to the general public. It was not intended to be an engineering or planning tool but a general resource for people wishing to inform themselves about individual sites. Please note that Ofcom does not hold the full addresses and postcodes of sites, only datafiles that generate maps within the Sitefinder tool.

The data within Sitefinder is owned by the mobile network operators, who supplied it on a voluntary basis. Ofcom has not, therefore, supplied the underlying dataset to any enquirers. In relation to the provision of the current information Ofcom holds on masts sites, in September 2007 the Information Tribunal upheld an earlier Decision of the Information Commissioner directing Ofcom to release or publish the Sitefinder national dataset. Ofcom appealed this decision to the High Court, which was heard on 8th April 2008. The High Court dismissed Ofcom's appeal. Ofcom is taking the matter to further appeal and while this appeal is being heard, Ofcom is not obliged to provide the dataset. Following constructive discussions with mobile network operators, most contributors (excepting T-Mobile) have agreed to resume voluntary supply of updated information.

Ofcom considers that the release of the data would adversely affect public safety in that if the dataset were made public it would provide assistance to criminals intent on stealing materials from base station sites by increasing the efficiency of a trawl of the most valuable sites in an area. Also, it would assist criminals to close down specific geographic areas by identifying key locations vital to the Police communication infrastructure. In addition, each mobile operator owns the intellectual property rights in the source data and to disclose this information would adversely affect such rights.

Ofcom therefore considers that it cannot disclose the national dataset, whether in whole or in part, that you have requested as it falls under the exceptions in Regulation 12 (5) (a) and (c) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, In applying these exemptions Ofcom has had to balance the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosure. The attached Annexes set out the exceptions in full, as well as the factors Ofcom has considered in deciding where the public interest lay. However, there may be more exemptions that would apply to this case that have not been covered here.

If you require bulk data of all the operators, e.g. for research or other purposes, you may wish to contact the Mobile Operators' Association to request this (or, alternatively, contact the individual operators). The Mobile Operators' Association is at Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EE, e-mail: [email address]<mailto:[email address]>, web: www.mobilemastinfo.com<http://www.mobilemastinfo.com/>. The contact details for the individual operators are available at www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk<http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/>.

If this is to provide a web-based information resource for the public, you may wish to consider posting a link to Sitefinder to facilitate individual postcode searches. Linking to Ofcom-hosted webpages is permitted as long as it loads in a new window, i.e. not a frame. For full details, please see the website disclaimer at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/accoun/dis...

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. If you are unhappy with the level of service you have received in relation to your request from Ofcom, please see the guidance below. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Shilpa Patel
Ofcom

If you are unhappy with the response or level of service you have received in relation to your request from Ofcom, you may ask for an internal review. If you ask us for an internal review of our decision, it will be treated as a formal complaint and will be subject to an independent review within Ofcom. We will acknowledge the complaint and inform you of the date by which you might expect to be told the outcome.

The following outcomes are possible:

* the original decision is upheld; or
* the original decision is reversed or modified.

Timing
If you wish to exercise your right to an internal review you should contact us within two months of the date of this letter. There is no statutory deadline for undertaking internal reviews and it will depend upon the complexity of the case, but we aim to conclude all internal reviews within 2 months. If you wish to request an internal review, you should contact:

Graham Howell
The Secretary to the Corporation
Ofcom
Riverside House
2a Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1 9HA

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Annex A

Exception in full - Regulation 12 (5) (a) - a public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect - public safety.

Factors for disclosure

Factors for withholding

* accessible information of the complete national dataset of mast sites in the UK

* To make the national dataset available in a comprehensive and searchable form would:

- provide assistance to criminals, aiding them in stealing materials from base station sites by increasing the efficiency of a trawl of the most valuable sites in an area, which in turn might make the mast a danger to the public and to the personnel of the mobile operators; and

- compromise the security of the TETRA sites which provide the Police and Emergency Service radio network. If the national dataset was made public persons would be able to target and close down specific geographic areas by identifying key locations vital to the Police communication infrastructure. If this were to happen, police officers in the field would not be able to respond to emergency police calls which would adversely affect those in need of such support.

Reasons why public interest favours withholding information
To preserve the safety of the public and the integrity of the Emergency Services' communications network - in order to protect: the public and personnel of the mobile operators from the consequences of the theft of mobile masts materials and vandalism of mobile masts; and, the essential police radio communications that are necessary for public safety without which as mentioned above police officers in the field would not be able to respond to emergency police calls. Also, it is in the public interest not to disclose a national dataset as to do so would mean that the mobile operators would be unlikely to provide voluntarily the level of information to Ofcom that they do at present.

Annex B
Exception in full - Regulation 12 (5) (c) - a public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect - intellectual property rights.

Factors for disclosure

Factors for withholding

* Accessible information of the complete national dataset of mast sites in the UK

* The source data for Sitefinder is voluntarily supplied by its owners, the network operators, for open publication in an agreed format. Each mobile operator owns the intellectual property rights in the source data. To disclose this information on a national basis would adversely affect such rights. For example, to provide the raw data in other forms would provide sections of the public (such as competitors) with a 'springboard' from which to construct the original data, namely the design of each operator's 2G and 3G networks.

Reasons why public interest favours withholding information

The aggregate raw data that the mobile operators provide to Ofcom for Sitefinder is neither Crown/Ofcom owned nor public knowledge at the time of its disclosure to Ofcom. The data is disclosed by the mobile operators for the specific and limited purpose of compiling Sitefinder and for presentation to the public in the agreed format. It is in the public interest to protect their commercial interests in this data. Also, it is in the public interest not to disclose a national dataset as to do so would mean that the mobile operators would be unlikely to provide voluntarily the level of information to Ofcom that they do at present.

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Dear Shilpa,

Thanks for that! A very informative reply, I appreciate it.

Yours sincerely,

Dear Shilpa,

It has come to my attention that my request has been made before,
and went to the Information Commissioner, and in that case, the
data was required to be made public.

I would like to ask, if this has been done before, why it was
withheld in my case.

The finding of the Commissioner can be seen at:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/d...

This seems to contradict what you told me. Could you clarify this
for me, please? Was this appealed by OfCom? (I can't find details
of an appeal, nor an overturning of the ICO findings.)

Yours sincerely,

Dear Sir

As stated in our response to you of 16/07/2008

"In relation to the provision of the current information Ofcom holds on masts sites, in September 2007 the Information Tribunal upheld an earlier Decision of the Information Commissioner directing Ofcom to release or publish the Sitefinder national dataset. Ofcom appealed this decision to the High Court, which was heard on 8th April 2008. The High Court dismissed Ofcom's appeal. Ofcom is taking the matter to further appeal and while this appeal is being heard, Ofcom is not obliged to provide the dataset."

I hope this answers your query.

Kind regards

Alex Bevan

Information Requests

[email address]

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