The future of a website which details all the mobile phone masts in the UK is in doubt following a row over divulging "commercially sensitive" information. The Sitefinder website is maintained by media regulator Ofcom, following a request from the government in 2000.
But mobile firms stopped giving data to the site last year after Ofcom was told it must publish grid references of all the masts in a searchable database.
It is appealing against the Information Commissioner and Tribunal order.
Sitefinder also shows which type of mobile phone signal is being used, the name of the operator, the frequency of the signal and the height of the mast.
Ofcom was ordered by the Information Commissioner to publish all of that information, including the grid reference of each mast in the country, in a single database file.
It followed more than two years of requests from Ian Henton, of Health Protection Scotland, for the data under the Freedom of Information Act.
The request was made under the "general right of access to information held by public authorities" as enshrined by the act.
Ofcom had argued that supplying such specific information could leave the emergency services radio network open to abuse.
It also pointed out that the data was owned by the mobile firms and was supplied voluntarily.
Ofcom explained that if the raw data were available it would provide mobile phone competitors with a "springboard" from which to discover the design of each operator's 2G or 3G radio networks.
But the Information Commissioner disagreed and said the data had to be released.
As a result, mobile phone firms have stopped supplying all data to Ofcom.
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According to SiteFinder -
Sitefinder was set up as a result of recommendations of the Stewart Report to the Government in 2000. It is a voluntary scheme under which mobile network operators make available information on the location and operating characteristics of individual base stations, so that people who wish to inform themselves about this can do so.
Ofcom hosts the Sitefinder database on behalf of the Government, which is responsible for planning and health issues relating to mobile phone base stations and masts and for policy on the scope of the Sitefinder scheme. For details of the appropriate contacts within Government and for general enquiries relating to these issues go to the related sites area.
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