We wanted to extend our gratitude and appreciation for your continued support in facilitating access to our telecommunications apparatus over these past challenging months. Your cooperation has enabled us to keep the UK’s mobile networks running to support the new way of life under the COVID-19 pandemic.
As England enters a second nationwide lockdown, and tiered lockdowns/tighter restrictions are put in place in other parts of the UK, we would like to draw your attention to the government guidance that covers telecommunications workers and the industry during the pandemic. The Government recognises the ongoing importance of the telecommunications industry, including mobile networks, at this critical time and has therefore designated the industry as one of the critical sectors in new government regulations and legislation for dealing with the pandemic. Telecommunications workers have also been given “key worker” status as government guidance states that network operators must be able to rectify network outages promptly and to mitigate any effects of network degradation over the duration of this emergency period.
Like the last nationwide lockdown, the country is unequivocally reliant on digital communications. Maintaining the integrity of our communications networks is of paramount importance to keep individuals and businesses connected to get through the pandemic and level up for recovery afterwards.
Read more about the Government’s COVID-19 guidance for telecommunications infrastructure deployment in England: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-guidance-for-telecommunicationsinfrastructure-deployment-in-england
Lockdown rules and seasons change, but your support remains crucial to us
We appreciate that people across the country are having to adjust to evolving government guidance and restrictions that apply in each UK nation. Your unwavering support remains crucial to enabling us to attend to critical repair and upgrade works in a timely manner in order to minimise the impact on the user communities. In line with government guidance, we are focusing on tasks that are absolutely vital to ensuring our networks can continue to deliver resilient connectivity for supporting mass homeworking and the effective operations of the NHS and emergency services during the lockdown.
Timely restoration of disrupted voice and/or data services is of utmost importance when connectivity to the outside world at such difficult times matters the most to everyone, including yourself. We aim to prioritise our fault-repairs based on the severity of the impact to EE and
Three’s customers. As we are sure you can imagine, high-priority repair works will require access to our equipment within 2 hours of the outage being reported.
We wanted to reassure you that the health and safety of our employees, partners, the general public, and not least yourself remains our top priority. Our key workers and partners adhere stringently to all national and regional government guidelines regarding COVID-19 when visiting your site for essential repair and upgrade works. We will also try to schedule site visits at times that work best for you whenever possible in order to minimise the impact on your daily routine.
Read more about the new national restrictions coming into effect from 5 November: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november
Help us to support the nation’s fight against COVID-19 and post-pandemic recovery
Please continue to keep us updated on your arrangements to facilitate access to the telecommunications apparatus, particularly any changes arising out of the COVID lockdown and restrictions in your area. This information is vital for us to be able to implement crucial network repair and upgrade works in order to support the country to get back to normal life. Please email site.access@mbnl.co.uk (stating the premises name and postcode in the subject heading) to tell us of any changes to your “call out” procedure. We sincerely thank you for your continued support to help us keep the UK connected as we persevere with the fight against COVID-19 and work together towards recovery. We will continue to monitor government guidance and inform you of any further update regarding site
access at these challenging times. Stay safe and enjoy the Autumn season!