Request ID: FOI-3360-2324 Date published: 17 January 2024
You asked
Dear Transport for London,
On the TfL mobile coverage map, it states that coverage on the Elizabeth line will be 4G only, while other lines will gain 5G coverage.
Could you please provide me redacted copies of all emails between TfL employees to Boldyn Networks (previously BAI Communications) which relate to mobile coverage on the Elizabeth line during 2023.
If this request is unsuitably broad to fall within the required hours, and only if this is the case, please narrow the scope of the search to include any mobile coverage related email chains with the keyword "interference" to Boldyn/BAI instead.
We answered
TfL Ref: 3360-2324
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 20 December 2023 asking for information about the Elizabeth line mobile phone coverage. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. You asked: On the TfL mobile coverage map, it states that coverage on the Elizabeth line will be 4G only, while other lines will gain 5G coverage.
Could you please provide me redacted copies of all emails between TfL employees to Boldyn Networks (previously BAI Communications) which relate to mobile coverage on the Elizabeth line during 2023.
If this request is unsuitably broad to fall within the required hours, and only if this is the case, please narrow the scope of the search to include any mobile coverage related email chains with the keyword "interference" to Boldyn/BAI instead.
I can confirm we do hold the information you require. However, to provide the information you have requested, even in respect of your narrowed request, would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
We have carried out a TfL wide search for all emails in 2023 that involved @boldyn.com or @baicommunications.com that contained the word ‘interference’ and this produced 1,200 hits or matches. Had we carried out a similar search but used the initial parameters you refer to in your request, this would have clearly resulted in a much greater number of hits. All of of these emails / email chains would need to be individually reviewed to establish if they are directly relevant to your request and then we would need to extract and compile all of those that were relevant, noting that some of the emails are likely to be duplicates, due to emails being repeated within email chains or to multiple people, as well as emails being forwarded internally for discussion during this time period. Therefore the actual number of emails covered by your request will be a sub-set of these hits. As a result, we have therefore estimated that to manually locate, extract and collate all of the relevant emails caught by the search we have carried out would considerably exceed the cost limit. To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. For example, by focusing on one particular aspect of the subject matter or for a narrowed period of time, between specific individuals and a more specific keyword.
Additionally, by way of further advice and assistance. we have however prepared a short description of our approach, explaining in a little more detail than we have in our press release, which is attached for your review. Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal. Yours sincerely
Sara Thomas FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
