answer text |
<p>I can confirm there will be c.75 new EE sites and 17 Extended Area Service (EAS)
sites located in the constituency of Argyll and Bute.</p><p> </p><p>All new EE sites
are being built and delivered to agreed Home Office timeframes and where possible
will go live earlier to support commercial coverage. Of the 75 sites, 59 have planning
permission. 7 of the new sites are commercially available.</p><p> </p><p>In respect
of EAS sites I can confirm that there are currently 17 sites proposed in Islay, Jura,
Mull and the Kintyre Peninsula and 3 have planning permission approved (or 3 HoTs
signed – as none have yet entered the build phase).</p><p> </p><p>Of the c.500 new
sites EE is building, 291 will transfer over to the Home Office at the end of the
contract term. EE is making available details of all shareable new sites to other
mobile network operators proactively both directly and through an existing website
used by the industry to arrange site sharing. EE has made available the details of
350 sites. EE is confident that the 291 sites will transfer to the Home Office will
be selected from this portfolio, and the Home Office and EE have now agreed 104 of
these sites (and are working on confirming on which of the remainder will make up
the rest of the 291). These will be shareable in accordance with the terms of the
EC Decision in relation to State aid for this Programme.</p><p> </p><p>Separately
the Home Office, through the EAS project are delivering circa 292 individual sites.
I would also like to reassure you that the Home Office has been proactive in seeking
to build masts that support multi-operator use where practicable.</p><p> </p><p>Finally
I thought it helpful to remind you that the Emergency Services Network is designed
to, first and foremost, deliver a ‘blue-light’ communications service.</p>
|
|