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Thanks to one of the biggest, continuous mobile signal collection exercises the county has ever seen, maps are now available to search for where the strongest mobile phone signals are at street level within the county.

Funded by the Local Government Association as a part of a programme known as Digital Pathfinders, Nottinghamshire County Council worked with the county’s seven district and borough councils as well as Birmingham City University to lead and deliver the project.

Comprehensively covering the county’s thousands of streets, local council bin collection lorries took it in turns to be fitted with a special monitoring device to help map out millions of sets of mobile phone signals, namely 4G and 5G. No personal data was collected, just the strength of the signals from different providers.

At the same time household waste and recycling was being collected, so were more than seven million readings of real-time mobile signals.

Current mobile phone coverage information doesn’t always accurately reflect the reality at street level, as there’s evidence that coverage can vary within the same village or neighbourhood.

Nottinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Asset Management, Councillor Keith Girling explains why these maps are so important. He said:

“We are very proud of this innovative, best value approach which offers a street-by-street picture of Nottinghamshire’s mobile phone network, while making the most of resources.

“As a county council we have a duty to ensure that Nottinghamshire is as well connected as possible, after all, most of us have a mobile phone and rely on having good signals.

“Many residents need a strong mobile signal for things like accessing health care services, operating smart meters, electric vehicle charging and even on-line shopping, especially for those who may not be able to get out and about.

“This project will help us to identify where improvements and action are needed, especially in rural areas where there may be potential gaps in coverage.”

Birmingham City University was selected as the academic partner for the project and designed the device and software used to track mobile phone signals.

Raouf Abozariba, senior lecturer in network and cyber security at the university, said:

"Through using advanced automation techniques, computer engineering, and effective collaboration with Nottinghamshire County Council and the local councils which oversee refuse collection, the project has shown that such digital mega-studies are financially, technically, and operationally feasible.

"Our monitoring devices, which were built from the ground up at the university’s 5G lab, were designed to perform accurate 4G and 5G coverage testing with no additional carbon emissions, helping to build state-of-the-art radio environment maps."

Cllr Alex Coley, the Local Government Association’s digital spokesperson, said: “We are delighted to have supported Nottinghamshire’s innovative project to map 4G and 5G coverage through our Digital Pathfinders programme.

“Supporting councils to create digitally-equipped places is one of three core missions in our recently launched Local Government Digitalisation Framework and is echoed in our call to establish a local government centre for digital technology.”

To search for the strength of mobile phone signals provided by UK’s four main mobile network operators, go to:
Nottinghamshire's mobile connectivity map | Nottinghamshire County Council Four county maps covering each operator are available to search by street level.

Mobile signal readings took place for two years between 2022-24. All information gathered was in the public domain and no personal data was collected.