Nottinghamshire's mobile connectivity maps
Digital Pathfinders project - mapping mobile signal strength
We were awarded funding from the Local Government Association (LGA) to survey 4G and 5G mobile network coverage across the county, covering all seven districts: Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Broxtowe, Gedling, Mansfield, Rushcliffe, Newark and Sherwood.
We worked with Birmingham City University and the district waste teams to collect signal strength data using a special device which no personal data was collected.
Check your area’s signal strength for the four mobile network operators in the UK
Nottinghamshire suffers from widely varying levels of mobile signal connectivity. Within our towns, and especially across our widespread rural communities, mobile coverage varies between high speed 5G and poor or non-existent 2/3G reception, often within the same village or neighbourhood.
Current data on signal strength and the availability of 4G and 5G connectivity is unreliable. It is mainly provided by predictive modelling techniques and low-quality crowdsourced data which leads to discrepancies in what mobile operators say is available versus what is actually available to the customer.
This is all the more relevant and necessary considering the ‘copper switch off’ which is set to happen by January 2027. This involves phone companies withdrawing their landlines and switching to digital calls.
Digital services will be provided by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems instead, whereby customers can make calls via broadband or mobile data rather than on the traditional copper phone lines.
The aim of this project is to identify areas of poor or no coverage that require improvement. This will be represented in a colour-coded mobile connectivity map, displaying which streets across the County have poor, moderate or excellent signal strength for both 4G and 5G connectivity.
Birmingham City University developed a device with a mobile application installed, which, when active, logged signal strength data for each of the four mobile network operators in the UK – EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three.
They also developed a web application which enabled live monitoring as well as an historical view of the network coverage. The device was installed into the waste collection vehicles – as the waste teams went about their collection routes, we were able to collect signal strength data. No personal data was collected.
The data was collected for each district individually, and after we had completed the routes, we transferred the device to the next district. It took approximately 3 months to collect the data from each district (between August 2022 and March 2024) This was due to the fact that there was only one device.
The device only measured the radio signal strength transmitted from mobile network operator’s masts and the geographic location at which the signal was measured. It did not collect mobile phone data relating to network users or any users’ calls or other personal information.
Over the survey period we collected more than 7 million 4G and 5G data points covering more than 2000km2 of built and rural environments. The results have been mapped to showcase the distribution and intensity of signal strength and network performance metrics across a geographic area.
A Nottinghamshire mobile connectivity map was generated through real-world measurements and provides valuable insights for network planning, optimisation and troubleshooting.
We have also been able to identify the underserved regions in the county and coverage gaps, also known as ‘not spots’. These are areas where there is a lack of sufficient coverage. Residents and businesses in these areas cannot reliably make phone calls, send text messages or access the internet through mobile networks. These areas require improvement and investment – something we can support and promote to the mobile network operators.
