Welcome

Welcome to the Autumn/Winter 2008 edition of the Mobile Operators Association’s Open Line. This newsletter is sent to all elected representatives of the Westminster and UK devolved Parliaments and Assemblies, as well as MEPs and councillors across the UK.

The Mobile Operators Association (MOA) was established in January 2003 to represent the five UK mobile phone network operators (3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone) on radio frequency health and associated town planning issues.

Mobile telecommunications are, more than ever, part of our everyday lives. According to Ofcom in its latest Communications Market report published in August 2008, there are now around 74 million mobile connections in the UK. At the end of 2007 four in five households had both a mobile phone and a landline phone and the proportion of households relying on mobile phones exclusively was 11%. Nine out of ten of adults own a mobile phone. These statistics show the importance of mobile communications to individuals and businesses across the UK.

This continuing increase in mobile phone usage across the UK is only possible due to the networks which support calls, texts and data usage.

Open Line aims to keep elected representatives across the UK updated on mobile phone network development and RF health and safety issues.

In this edition we provide:

• An article by Professor David Coggon, Chairman of the UK Mobile Telecommunications Health Research
  programme, giving his views on the future of RF health research in the UK.
• Information on the operators’ annual rollout plans, which are sent to all planning authorities in the UK in October each year.
• Highlights of the latest Ipsos MORI public opinion research on mobile telecommunications.
• We have also included a Q&A addressing typical questions that are raised during the many telecoms training workshops that the MOA and operators provide for local councils across the country throughout the year.

I hope you find this edition of Open Line useful and
informative. We always welcome feedback on our
publications. If you have any comments on the contents of this and future newsletters, please send them to stuarteke@ukmoa.org

Mike Dolan
Executive Director
Mobile Operators Association