Ofcom is changing how mobile network incidents are reported. What should operators prepare for?
Ofcom is proposing changes to its guidance on how communications providers report security compromises under the Telecommunications Security framework. The consultation closed on 4 August 2026 and is currently listed by Ofcom as “Pending Statement (Closed)”, so the proposals discussed here are not yet final policy.
For mobile operators, one of the most significant proposals is a change in how Ofcom assesses the impact of network outages. Alongside customer-based thresholds, Ofcom wants to introduce new thresholds based on the number and location of affected cell sites, including a specific criterion for rural areas.
Why Ofcom wants to change mobile incident reporting
Ofcom says its experience of the security framework over the past three years has shown a need to improve the quality and consistency of incident reports, particularly for mobile services and rural areas.
A central issue is that customer numbers do not always show the geographical significance of a mobile outage.
Ofcom notes that estimating the number of customers affected by a mobile outage can be difficult because, once a network has failed, operators lose visibility of how many customers would otherwise have been connected at that point. It also states that customer numbers are “not always a true representation of the significance of the geographic impact.”
This matters because mobile networks behave differently in densely covered urban areas and less densely covered rural areas. Ofcom therefore proposes combining customer-based measures with an infrastructure-based approach using affected cell sites.
New cell-site thresholds for mobile operators
Under the draft revised Statement of Policy, the proposed mobile reporting thresholds would include:
- 10,000 customers, or 25% of the customer base, affected for eight hours or more;
- 100,000 customers affected for any duration;
- 25 or more cell sites affected for at least two hours;
- 150 or more cell sites affected for any duration;
- one or more rural cell sites affected for at least eight hours.
Ofcom defines a cell site as affected when the main functions of the network or service are unavailable to customers because of the security compromise. A rural site would meet the rural criterion when its physical postcode matches Ofcom’s rural postcode dataset.
The significance of this proposal is that operators would need to assess incidents using infrastructure and geographic information as well as customer impact.
Why rural sites are being treated differently
Ofcom gives a specific reason for introducing the rural threshold.
In urban areas, neighbouring cell sites are more likely to provide overlapping coverage. There is also a greater chance that another operator’s network remains available, allowing emergency calls to be made through emergency roaming.
Rural areas generally have a lower density of cell sites and therefore less overlapping coverage. Ofcom says the loss of service from a single rural site could leave a community without mobile coverage, including the ability to make emergency calls.
The Shared Rural Network adds another consideration. Ofcom notes that operators share some rural masts with common power infrastructure and, in some cases, common backhaul. Failure of one such site could therefore affect several MNOs.
To make the rural criterion workable, Ofcom has created a postcode dataset combining national rural and urban classifications. Operators would use the physical postcode of an affected site to determine whether it meets the rural reporting criterion.
More detail about affected sites and services
The proposals also change the information Ofcom wants operators to provide when an incident occurs.
The draft 72-hour incident reporting form asks providers to identify the services affected in terms that subscribers would recognise. For mobile incidents, this can include the affected mobile technologies, such as 2G through to 5G. Providers are also asked to give an overview of affected network assets, which could include access, backhaul or core network elements.
For bulk incident reporting, Ofcom proposes adding Global Cell IDs so it can better understand the effect of Radio Access Network outages.
That cell-level information would be supported by a further proposal: MNOs would provide Ofcom with a list of all their RAN cells each month using Ofcom’s cell data reporting standard. Ofcom intends to correlate Global Cell IDs from incident reports with this monthly RAN information to obtain accurate location data.
Ofcom is explicit about why it wants this. It says the location information currently supplied in MNO incident reports does not allow it to fully understand the impact of incidents, particularly in rural and remote areas.
What operators can do to prepare now
The final Statement of Policy has not yet been published, so the proposed thresholds should not be treated as settled requirements.
Operators can, however, use the consultation to examine whether they can readily produce the information Ofcom is proposing to collect.
That means checking whether incidents can be connected accurately to affected cell sites, whether those sites can be classified against Ofcom’s rural dataset, and whether the required service and RAN information can be produced consistently when an incident needs to be reported.
Where we support this process
We work with operators to bring network, location and operational data into a single environment. The Metricell network intelligence platform acts as a digital twin of the network, combining different network data streams, including crowdsourced and MDT data, with geospatial data and the exact locations of sites. This gives operators a clearer view of how network assets, performance and geography relate to one another and could be used to support the new requirements set out in Ofcom’s proposal.
The platform also supports resilience modelling, including tools to analyse the impact of a single site or cell going down. Operators can use these capabilities to test the resilience of their networks in advance, giving them an estimate of the likely outcome if an incident occurs.
This is particularly relevant in rural areas, where the loss of a single site may have a disproportionate impact on coverage. If modelling shows that an area is especially vulnerable, operators can take proactive measures before an outage occurs to reduce the potential effect on customers and services.
These capabilities could also help operators assess incidents against the type of site-level and geographic information set out in Ofcom’s consultation.
The consultation remains a proposal, and Ofcom has not yet published its final Statement of Policy. We will continue to monitor the consultation process and review the final requirements once Ofcom releases its update.
For more information on how Metricell supports operators with network resilience, talk to our team.
