Nightmare Bedlinog Mast

[NateClements]

So I live in South Wales, in a town called Bedlinog.

The mast here has been completely down since Last Monday, so a full week now.

EE have told me that they keep requesting access to this mast via the company Arqiva and keep getting denied. After speaking to OfCom, OfCom have said that Arqiva no longer deal with telephone masts.

 The landowner of where the mast is located has said that there have been no access requests. So they can’t even accept the work access as much as they’d love to.

Now I’m feeling completely in limbo because calling EE directly has been nothing but going in circles. 
Is there a number I can get in contact with to get this issue pushed along quicker? As it seems like EE is outdated with their mast access request information. 

(not so important stuff: I can’t use WiFi calling because I don’t have fixed line internet. We have an electrical line too close to our house fixture and BT/Openreach have fully denied resolution for this issue. Me and my partner work from home using a 5G WiFi box using EE, both of our phones are EE too.

even less important stuff: me and my partner previously worked for EE for many years, so we have contacted to our knowledge; the correct teams, including raising with OfCom) 

[CeriG2]

Absolute nightmare and has been the worst experience I’ve ever had with EE. Shambles. 

[bristolian]

Every EE radio site will have a legal agreement covering access to their equipment - both ground-level & at height.

Whilst customers rightly have no involvement in this process, by means of background - Arqiva are a tower management company who operate structures which host radio equipment, often those which also carry broadcast equipment. There are other similar companies whom EE will also have lease agreements with. There is no "one size fits all" here, so any comments may not be applicable to a specific site.

Edited to add that if the landowner is not receiving access requests from Arqiva, then that is a third-party issue outside EE's control - this would affect all operators with equipment on that tower.

Ofcom do not deal with individual customer complaints and will only ever offer general advice - the correct advice in this scenario is that all end users share the exact same point of contact - Customer Services. There will be teams within EE networks, and their contractors, whose responsibility it is to expedite fault resolution and manage all associated dependencies - including access requests. I'm sure this is borne out of frustration, but I'm not sure why you feel this should be part of your remit.

[NateClements]

Thanks for the explanation, but the issue here goes beyond standard procedure.

EE have told me access to the mast is being denied by Arqiva; yet Ofcom have confirmed Arqiva no longer manage mobile masts. Meanwhile, the landowner says they’ve had no access requests at all. That points to a breakdown in EE’s internal process or contractor communication, not a third-party issue outside EE’s control.

I’ve already spoken to the relevant EE teams and raised this with Ofcom. This isn’t about customers interfering in legal agreements — it’s about being without service for over a week with no clear answers, conflicting information, and no realistic resolution timeline.

So while I understand that this may seem like frustration from a customer wanting access to infrastructure information, this is about service accountability and timely resolution. If internal teams cannot verify whether the right access request is being made, to the right party, and in the right format, then that is indeed something customers should have a right to challenge — especially when we’re left without service and without a realistic timeline for resolution.

All I’m asking for is a point of contact beyond first-line support, who can confirm:

• Who currently manages access to the mast in question?
• Whether the correct access request has been sent?
• Why that request has supposedly been denied, when the landowner says otherwise?
• What the realistic timeline is for resolution?

If EE believe they’ve done their part, then someone should be able to clearly explain what those actions have been — not leave customers in the dark with contradictory information.

[CeriG2]

Arqiva sold its telecom infrastructure in the UK several years ago—a quick search confirms this on their site following notification from Ofcom. We’ve contacted all relevant customer service channels at EE, including daily phone calls seeking updates, as well as submitting formal complaints in writing. Like many others in the community, we’ve received no resolution.

Each day, we’re told “someone is going there tomorrow.” This morning, EE stated they were waiting on a permit from Arqiva. We reached out to Arqiva to understand why access to the site was allegedly being denied—but they redirected us to Freeview, which handles satellite broadcast infrastructure, not telecoms. Freeview referred us back to Ofcom.

Ofcom then informed us that Arqiva no longer runs telecom sites, having sold its tower business to Cellnex Telecom in October 2019, with the deal completing in July 2020  . The sale included approximately 7,400 owned sites and rights to market about 900  . Therefore the information provided by EE stating that they were trying to contact Arqiva and not Cellnex telecom for a permit shows error in their systems and could be why we are still yet to have a solution 7 days in. It’s not just a matter of issues with signal, there is absolutely no service, including no emergency SOS available,  which poses safety issues in an emergency. 

The point of the original post is to clearly express the frustration of having a failed signal tower for over a week as well as being told conflicting information daily by the EE technical support team. 

[bristolian]

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@NateClements wrote:

All I’m asking for is a point of contact beyond first-line support, who can confirm:

Your point of contact is EE-CS.

Your "right to challenge" as you put it, is via the formal complaints process. EE is a private company and is not subject to the FoI legislation that you allude to - they are quite entitled to disclose as much or as little as they deem fit.

You have been misinformed by Ofcom on the process, which is no great surprise. Much also depends on what you define as "dealing with telephone masts". My previous post touched on this.

If your comments on the landowner are correct, then they potentially have cause for complaint with their management company, agent or tenant. If EE or MBNL's access requests are repeatedly being denied, their escalation will be the landlord. Those two parties may or may not the same, where Arqiva and their spin-offs are concerned.

[NateClements]

Thanks for your input, but at this point, I’ll leave it to the professionals at EE to investigate and resolve. The facts speak for themselves and the speculation from yourself doesn’t move the issue forward.

[bristolian]

I'm not surprised that contacting Arqiva's public side led to the runaround in circles.

If only telecoms sites, and the whole Arqiva/WIG setup was as straightforward as a quick Google search would suggest...

[cje85]

Bedlinog is a television mast which also happens to house some telecoms equipment for EE. As a primarily broadcast mast, it is still owned and operated by Arqiva and they are responsible for allowing access. 

[Christopher_G · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone.

Our engineers have accessed the area and completed the work needed on the mast in Bedlinog. Full service has been restored, and we will continue to monitor performance in the area. 

If you have been affected by the mast being offline and would like to discuss your options, please get in touch with our tech guides. 

Thank you.

Chris