Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what responsibility telecommunications providers have under the plan to maintain consumer access during localised infrastructure failures.

The Government works with telecoms providers to help ensure UK telecoms networks and services remain secure, resilient and accessible, including during emergencies and service disruption based on infrastructure failures.

There are statutory obligations on public telecoms providers within the Communications Act 2003 to take appropriate and proportionate steps to ensure their networks and services remain available. Public telecoms providers are required to take appropriate measures to reduce the risks of, prepare for, and respond to, significant incidents such as those involving infrastructure failures. They are also required to report significant incidents to Ofcom, which has powers to monitor and enforce providers’ compliance with their legal obligations. Ofcom has published Network and Service Resilience Guidance that sets out expectations on how providers can meet statutory obligations.

Consumers can also report faults or delayed repairs directly to Ofcom through their website and there are protections in place for consumers under Ofcom’s voluntary industry automatic compensation scheme.

Whilst networks are designed to be resilient, events such as severe weather, power cuts, and technical faults can sometimes cause disruption. In accordance with Ofcom’s guidance issued in October 2018 on the obligations in their General Condition A3, providers should guarantee access to emergency services for at least one hour during a power outage for customers and ensure that at least one form of communication, mobile or fixed, remains available.