Mobile Coverage Checker

Mobile networks play a key role in ensuring that UK residents remain productive, safe and connected. However, mobile coverage is a poorly understood piece of critical national infrastructure due to its invisible nature. This often leads residents, businesses and government departments to make ill-informed procurement decisions due to a poor understanding of which networks perform best in the areas they spend time in.

Following coverage complaints from staff and residents, Caerphilly Council began working with Streetwave to measure mobile signal quality across the council in September 2023.

Streetwave permanently integrated its cutting-edge data collection equipment into Caerphilly’s waste collection vehicles. This has allowed Caerphilly to complete weekly mobile coverage surveys across every address in the council. These surveys have been groundbreaking in their innovative approach and the levels of data collected.

Network quality is being analysed across the four main mobile networks in the UK: EE, O2, Three and Vodafone. Throughput speeds, signal strength, and network generation information are all being collected in the surveys.

This methodology is an advancement from the drive testing surveys that are traditionally used to benchmark mobile signal, as it ensures Caerphilly retains the latest up to date view on mobile coverage. It also allows Caerphilly to save 457kg of CO2 emissions per month by removing the need for a driver to drive across all the roads in the county.

To help support residents and businesses to choose the best mobile networks - Caerphilly Council is now making this data available to the local community through the UK’s first ever council provided mobile coverage checker. This is a vast improvement compared to the coverage checkers provided by the mobile network operators, as mobile coverage hasn’t been estimated and has instead been physically measured outside of every resident’s house through Caerphilly’s surveys.

Residents can use the following link to see the exact download and upload speeds that EE, Vodafone, Three and O2 offer within a 30m radius outside of their homes/businesses. Residents only need to enter their postcode and select their address to see results. The data is updated monthly when the bin trucks repeat their rounds to ensure the latest throughput speeds are shown.

Check Mobile Coverage