The Sitefinder website gives the location of masts on a map and
is searchable against postcodes or addresses. Individual mast
information such as the name of the operator is also available when
a user clicks on an individual base station.
A freedom of information request demanding that all the detailed
information held by Ofcom be provided in a single, searchable
database has been backed by the Information Commissioner and the
Information Tribunal.
The request, which was made by Ian Henton, the information
manager for NHS body Health Protection Scotland, included in its
scope some information used by Ofcom but not disclosed to the
public by the Sitefinder site.
Operators have withdrawn their co-operation from the site and
Ofcom said that if the request is successful the site will no
longer be useful.
The site was created in response to a 2000 report by Sir William
Stewart, chairman of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones,
which called for such a site to be created and maintained.
Mobile phone operators have voluntarily provided Ofcom with
information on masts and Ofcom has created and hosted the site.
Ofcom and the operators, though, have resisted the attempts to
provide the information in a different format. Mobile operators
have now stopped providing Ofcom with information for the site.
"It was never intended that the entire Sitefinder national
database be available in the public domain as this would entail
serious competitive and commercial issues for each of the
operators," said a spokeswoman for trade body the Mobile Operators'
Association. "However, the operators fully support Sitefinder
continuing to be publicly searchable by postcode, streetname, or
locality."
Ofcom opposed the freedom of information request but was ordered
by the Information Commissioner to provide the requested
information. It appealed to the Information Tribunal and lost its
case there.
The regulator has now launched an appeal to the High Court over
the ruling. It said that it has decided to appeal because it is
"concerned that Sitefinder would cease to be a valuable information
tool for the public as the MNOs [mobile network operators]
indicated that they would cease to provide data".
Operators say that the data they provide is commercially
sensitive and that, if published in a database format with the
additional requested information, it could result in damage to
their networks or their businesses.
The database format could, for example, allow a person to search
for and locate one operator's entire network of base stations.
Ofcom initially claimed that the information which Henton
requested fell under the Environmental Information Regulations and
said that under those regulations the information did not need to
be disclosed in a new format because it was already publicly
available.
Later in the process, Ofcom claimed that the complete database
of information fell under another exemption in the Environmental
Information Regulations: the complete body of information was in
fact not in the public domain and was protected by an intellectual
property exemption. It argued that the public interest in
disclosing the information did not outweigh the public interest in
maintaining the exemption.
The Information Commissioner rejected those arguments, saying
that there was no adverse effect on the intellectual property
rights attached to the information, and that the information did
not have the quality of confidence.
Ofcom appealed to the Information Tribunal, at which point
operator T-Mobile joined the process as an additional party. It was
claimed at that stage that if exact locations of masts were
published it would give criminals the opportunity to vandalise
masts or, in the context of rising commodity and metal prices,
strip them of materials for sale. T-Mobile also argued that
networks could be targeted by terrorists wanting to disrupt
communications if entire network plans were made available.
The Information Tribunal said that much of the information is
already available in planning applications, but that the publishing
of a database might increase the danger of successful criminal
activity slightly.
The Tribunal had different reasons for supporting Henton's
request, but it did decide that the Commissioner was correct in
ordering the release of the information to Henton.
