Frustration for residents as phone signal buckles after 5G mast arsons

A series of arson attacks on 5G masts in west Belfast have left people feeling like they are "going backwards" in terms of mobile phone signal, residents and businesses in the area say.

A mast that police said was deliberately set on fire at an industrial estate in Dunmurry on Saturday has been extinguished.

Between January 2023 and December 2024, there were 13 incidents involving masts in the area, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service has said.

The vandalism has resulted in sporadic, unreliable phone signal in some areas, with one man who lives on the Glen Road saying it is "very frustrating" when it "fades out completely".

Attacks include phone masts being deliberately set on fire on the Andersonstown Road and Stewartstown Road.

"I'm on work calls and I have to try to second guess the exact spot in the house to stand in, so that I can continue a conversation," Jim Deeds told BBC News NI.

His mother is housebound and recently had a fall. He said she "relies on the mobile phone, just to check in through the day".

"There are times when I'm on a call with her and it sounds like she's underwater.

"Sometimes she feels that she's to blame, that maybe she's not mastering the technology when it isn't that at all," he said.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media O2 said five west Belfast sites have been the target of arson attacks in the last 12 months, affecting "the coverage and capacity of the network".

It said its team was "working hard to get these damaged masts working again and has carried out optimisation work to improve the coverage whilst repairs take place".

Other network providers are also affected by the mast attacks.

While the masts carry signal for a phone network, the actual physical infrastructure is owned and operated by the firm Cornerstone - it said it was aware some people have concerns about mobile phone base stations.

"The strong consensus of expert groups and public health agencies, such as the World Health Organization, is that no health risks have been established from exposure to the low-level radio signals used by these base stations," Cornerstone said.

"Without network coverage, west Belfast will miss out on the kind of opportunities that will make the area a better place to live."

The Police Service of Northern Ireland "believe it is one anti 5G activist individual carrying out the mobile phone base station arson attacks," Cornerstone added.

BBC News NI asked the PSNI about this, and they said that "officers keep an open mind to reports of this nature" but added "potential links are explored" and "each case is reviewed on its own merit".

The PSNI was also asked for the number of 5G phone masts that have been burned but it said it does not hold that information.

The MP for the area, Sinn Féin's Paul Maskey, wants Cornerstone and network providers to do more.

He is due to meet those companies at Westminster on Wednesday, when he said he will ask them to find locations for masts "which are out of the way".

Maskey described the signal in west Belfast as "pretty bad for a long time" and he recently conducted a survey to gauge the scale of the problem.

He said, from the 2,602 people who responded, 87% described phone signal as poor or very poor, with only 3% saying it was good or excellent.

He described the results as "staggering", adding: "People are very unhappy."

The deputy lord mayor of Belfast Paul Doherty, from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), runs a food bank and community hub in Andersonstown. He said they have had to "change and adapt" the way they work because of poor signal.

"We have to bring in extra volunteers for a call-out service to knock on people's doors.

"In some cases we've found that people are very much isolated, unable to pick up the phone to ask for help, so that's kind of stretched us," he added.

On the streets of west Belfast, people and business owners told BBC News NI of their connectivity issues.

"There's no signal in the house," said Bridget Mongan, who lives in the Andersonstown area.

Her daughter, Mary, added: "It cuts off.

"The weather could be bad, but you stand out in the rain."

A staff member at McGrath's Pharmacy on the Glen Road said the signal "can come on and off".

Noleen recalled "one incident, whenever our phones were down, we couldn't actually call out to the company to get in contact to say to them that we're having problems".

"Also with customers too we can have problems if they're missing their medication; to get through to their surgeries and GP can be a bit of a problem," she added.

Debbie Adams, manager at Gransha Dental, on the Glen Road, said: "I don't think at this rate that we're even getting 2G.

"We're going backwards, instead of forwards, in terms of the connectivity."

She said sometimes when customers need to make a payment towards treatments, "they need to then transfer from their phone to bank account to bank account, and with lack of signal it makes it difficult to do that and it causes undue stress."

Meanwhile, Paul Doherty welcomed two masts being erected on the Turf Lodge and Glen Road area, but said he's "pushing" for a mast on the Andersonstown Road to be reinstalled after it was set on fire in November 2024.

"There's been cases were someone's fallen at home, a person has suffered a health emergency and they could not call for help."

"Imagine the fear; imagine the loneliness."