Network analysts Streetwave have completed a survey of mobile phone signal strength across Cornwall that was carried out using food waste bin lorries.
During the summer months, the trucks carried a box containing four off-the-shelf mobile phones running network analysis software, which carried out detailed network tests as the lorries moved from one property to the next, covering each of the four major networks.
Cornwall Council, which commissioned the project, said it would help identify areas that might need additional intervention to improve mobile coverage or network capacity.
Mobile clarity
It said coverage predictions were often “inaccurate” and that the scheme would help provide “a better picture”.
“This will give people the information to see who is doing a good job and who is ripping them off,” Tim Dwelly, the Cornwall councillor behind the project, told the BBC.
The data has been made available online in the form of an address-based network coverage checker, as has been done in several other areas across the UK.
The mapping tools were deployed during the summer months of July and August, giving insight into how tourism impacts mobile infrastructure in the area.
The data collected includes throughput speed, signal strength, network generation and frequency band information.
Dave Anderson, operations manager at Biffa’s site at Bodmin, told the BBC that in isolated coastal areas such as Port Isaac and Boscastle, limited coverage can make it difficult for employees to report any accidents or incidents.
‘Complex realities’
The company, contracted by the council for waste collections, transported the briefcase-sized boxes behind the seats of its food waste trucks.
The £25,000 project was funded by the European Superfast Cornwall programme, which aims to provide 95 percent high-speed broadband coverage across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Mobile UK, which represents the major network providers, said in a statement that Streetwave’s snapshot “does not capture the complex realities of deploying mobile infrastructure across steep valleys and rugged coastal topography”.
It said it was urging the government to ease planning restrictions to create a better environment for mobile infrastructure deployments.
