During this challenging situation, it is concerning that certain groups are using the COVID-19 pandemic to spread false rumours and theories about the safety of 5G technologies. The mobile industry is putting 100% of its effort into ensuring that the UK remains connected and the Government has rightly recognised our workers and the mobile operators as critical to the national effort.

More worryingly some people are also abusing our key workers and making threats to damage infrastructure under the pretence of claims about 5G. This is not acceptable and only impacts on our ability as an industry to maintain the resilience and operational capacity of the networks to support mass home working and critical connectivity to the emergency services, vulnerable consumers and hospitals.

The Government has further updated and clarified its guidance (3rd April) to reiterate that the mobile industry and its workers are one of the critical sectors in new government regulations and legislation in response to dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. This means that work to repair and maintain the telecommunications networks must be allowed to continue at the current time. Gatherings of more than two people are permitted where this is essential for work purposes. We welcome this guidance, which will be of great help to our workforce who, while following strict NHS guidelines, are continuing to ensure that our mobile networks remain resilient and keep the UK connected.

The theories that are being spread about 5G on social media are baseless and are not grounded in accepted scientific theory. Research into the safety of radio signals including 5G, which has been conducted for more than 50 years, has led to the establishment of human exposure standards including safety factors that protect against all established health risks.

The consistent conclusion of public health agencies and expert groups is that compliance with the international guidelines is protective for all persons (including children) against all established healthrisks.

Notes to Editors

• Mobile UK is the trade association for the UK’s mobile network operators- EE, O2, Three and Vodafone.
• The Government’s guidance, updated on 2nd April, can be found here.