All mobile phone signals will be shut down in the Vatican City on Wednesday as the conclave starts the election of a new pope.

Citing the governorate of the Vatican City State, Italian broadcaster RAI reported that mobile phone networks will be shut down by 3.00 p.m. on Wednesday.

One and a half hours “before the start of the cardinals’ procession to the Sistine Chapel,” RAI reported, “all mobile phone telecommunications signal transmission systems in the territory of the Vatican City State, excluding the area of Castel Gandolfo, will be deactivated.”

It said the signal would be restored after the announcement of the election of the “Supreme Pontiff”, pronounced from the central Loggia of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, “as quickly as the technology of the mobile operators allows”.

The mobile phone signal shutdown is to block any disruptive surveillance or external interference during the new pope’s election.

Last week, the Vatican announced that the new pope’s election will commence on May 7.

This followed the burial of Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who died on Easter Monday morning at 88.

For a new pope to emerge, 133 cardinals below the age of 80 from across the world will converge on the Sistine Chapel tomorrow, Wednesday, to elect a successor.

A new pope will poll a two-thirds majority to emerge during the election process that would commence on Wednesday, as earlier announced by the Vatican.