Pause Digital comms roll-out until emergency communication is resilient in rural areas
Pause Digital comms roll-out until emergency communication is resilient in rural areas
The Issue
Ofcom's stated mission is "to make communications work for everyone." The ability to communicate is at the very heart of community resilience and of vital importance to rural communities.
With analogue switch off in 2025, we need to know that in times of emergency/crisis, communications really will work for everyone because currently, they do not - particularly in rural areas. Migration to full digital rollout in such areas should be paused until communication reliability is assured.
During the recent storms (Arwen/Malik/Corrie/Eunice), some rural communities lost power for up to ten days and broadband/phone signal for fourteen days. Mobile masts were down, there was not even a 2g signal. People had no means of contacting emergency services unless they had an analogue phone. With no access to a power supply, mobile phones could not have been recharged even if there WAS a signal.
One family in rural Aberdeenshire stood and watched their house burn down, utterly powerless to call for help. Luckily no one was hurt or killed.
More extreme weather events are predicted. Many rural communities have no security of backup communication in the event of broadband failure and lengthy power cuts.
With no access to phones or email in rural communities, how do emergency services such as doctors, ambulance, police, fire... respond where needed? How do we get emergency information from power companies or learn where to get emergency food/water provisions? How do we check on vulnerable people in outlying areas? - if trees are down, access by road may be impossible.
In many rural communities, radio reception may be patchy. Following Storm Arwen for example, we had to drive miles to get news
BT Digital Voice will provide back up batteries to (vulnerable) people but those batteries last only one hour - chocolate fireguards... loss of mobile signal is no back up.
Who decides who is 'vulnerable'? A young mother with a new born up a farm track may be vulnerable, in the middle of a village she might not be...
Please pause roll out where more work on reliability for communities is required.
6,439
The Issue
Ofcom's stated mission is "to make communications work for everyone." The ability to communicate is at the very heart of community resilience and of vital importance to rural communities.
With analogue switch off in 2025, we need to know that in times of emergency/crisis, communications really will work for everyone because currently, they do not - particularly in rural areas. Migration to full digital rollout in such areas should be paused until communication reliability is assured.
During the recent storms (Arwen/Malik/Corrie/Eunice), some rural communities lost power for up to ten days and broadband/phone signal for fourteen days. Mobile masts were down, there was not even a 2g signal. People had no means of contacting emergency services unless they had an analogue phone. With no access to a power supply, mobile phones could not have been recharged even if there WAS a signal.
One family in rural Aberdeenshire stood and watched their house burn down, utterly powerless to call for help. Luckily no one was hurt or killed.
More extreme weather events are predicted. Many rural communities have no security of backup communication in the event of broadband failure and lengthy power cuts.
With no access to phones or email in rural communities, how do emergency services such as doctors, ambulance, police, fire... respond where needed? How do we get emergency information from power companies or learn where to get emergency food/water provisions? How do we check on vulnerable people in outlying areas? - if trees are down, access by road may be impossible.
In many rural communities, radio reception may be patchy. Following Storm Arwen for example, we had to drive miles to get news
BT Digital Voice will provide back up batteries to (vulnerable) people but those batteries last only one hour - chocolate fireguards... loss of mobile signal is no back up.
Who decides who is 'vulnerable'? A young mother with a new born up a farm track may be vulnerable, in the middle of a village she might not be...
Please pause roll out where more work on reliability for communities is required.
6,439
The Decision Makers
Petition created on 21 February 2022