Plymouth Sound, a bay in England, lost mobile phone signal during a naval exercise last week. The navy said it was testing new ‘communication equipment’ when a mobile phone black spot occurred in the PL1 and PL2 postcodes.
Local residents made numerous complains to mobile network operators and as a result, Ofcom, the communications regulator in the United Kingdom, is investigating the outage. The Ministry of Defence, a partner of Ofcom, said this interference could indicate the usage of radio equipment that is unauthorized in the United Kingdom.
Many don’t believe the navy was testing communication equipment; a local business owner believes that ‘war games’ caused the outage. Every Thursday, Plymouth hosts ‘Thursday War’ which is when warplanes simulate attacks against ships – thus testing its defense. The outage could be a result of these exercises.
“At first I didn’t believe them. It is just about the best excuse I’ve heard in 30 years of working in the city. But I had a confirmation call from EE, apparently there is nothing they can do. They have called Ofcom in due to the high number of complaints and it is true, they are testing communications and interfering with domestic signals. Luckily I find this quite funny. Like EE I am not sure who to complain to, but I gather it is causing some distress. I would like to know what it is about my front room that the Navy interested in, as the signal is fine in the city centre,” a local business owner told the Plymouth Herald.
