The logic behind the masts is naturally sound – mobile networks aren’t exactly sturdy so collapse really easily following a disaster. If you can get them up and running quickly then you can locate a phones, and hopefully its owner.

Two systems have been developed, one is simple to use and light but has a short range (300m). The other is the opposite and has a range of several kilometres.

The problem for me is I own a phone with exceedingly poor battery life. It’s been known to conk out after just one hour of calls. It rarely makes it through a day. So basically, I’d be slowly dieing an agonising death whilst my phone runs out of battery all the while it would be enjoying the schadenfreude of the situation – well I shouldn’t have written nasty things about it should I.