The Information Rights Tribunal has ruled on an ongoing matter about disclosure of the precise location and other details of mobile operators' base stations under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, holding that Ofcom must release the information supplied to it by mobile operators, including information about the TETRA network, which is used for emergency services communications.
The decision is EA/2006/0078.
The tribunal adopted much of the reasoning of the tribunal which originally heard the case, with some added discussion about the nature of the public interest test and its application, in determining certain qualified exemptions to the regulations.
The result of this case is that, in a few days, a lot of detailed information about cell site locations, power outputs and directions and the like will be released to the applicant in the case by Ofcom. It remains to be seen what the applicant will do with this information — the tribunal acknowledges that the operators' claims to database rights may well be valid, and that, whilst the claimant is entitled to receive these data, it does not get a licence for any act restricted by copyright — but I would have expected it to be posted online.
What do you think? Should this sort of information be made public? Or is it right that it should be kept confidential? Do you think there's a risk here that, if operators cannot trust their regulator to keep information private, they will stop providing information, potentially frustrating a regulator's ability to regulate?
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