New Map of UK Cellular Coverage Goes Live to Help Examine Mobile Masts UPDATE
A group of friends in the UK cellular (mobile networks) community have launched a new interactive map – UKCellNet RF Map – that allows hobbyists and professionals to access public cellular data (e.g. location and data on mobile phone mast sites etc.) for free – sourced from places like SiteFinder, Ofcom, planning applications and council FOI / EIR requests etc.
The map, which has taken months of development, is still somewhat of an early stage work-in-progress project. The goal seems to be to provide a free and accessible alternative to paid services like Mastdata and the team are planning to implement more data, as well as features, as they go.
The map already has a few tools, such as different map layers, range of datasets, measuring tools and a Line-of-Sight (LoS) tool to draw basic coverage maps. But it’s still in beta and more futures are coming soon. For example, the website mentions future plans for “comprehensive technical data including roaming agreements, SIM information, band configurations, and operator specifications“.
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Ryan D, Founder and Developer of UKCellNet, told ISPreview:
“UKCellNet, specifically the UKCellNet RF Map, is a free alternative to various paid platforms. It allows hobbyists and professionals to access public cellular data including SiteFinder and Ofcom WTR data all in one centralized map at no cost.
Our map currently features basic tools that allow users to change the map source, filter datasets, measure distances and azimuths, and generate Line of Sight (LoS) overlays for a general idea of a cell’s coverage in a 360° radius.
We plan to improve the mobile experience and add further map tools. We are also developing a street cabinet guide for the main UKCellNet page – including their respective model numbers – covering both CTIL and MBNL infrastructure.”
We think this looks like a very promising project and are keen to see how it evolves over the coming year(s), although you do have to sign up on the website before being able to view the map.
UPDATE 10:53am
We’ve had an update from Ryan: “There is currently an issue with email verification, iCloud (that manages the verification emails) decided to block my account due to the mass amount of automated emails from users signing up. I plan to remove email verification later today to resolve this issue and comply with the community’s requests. If you need an account, I may create you one without an email if you PM me via – Discord: ericssonran or Telegram: daviesryan35 or ISPreview Forum: daviesryan35.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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And harvesting user data to view the maps
Companies that insist on account creation are usually not worth trusting in the first place
I’m certainly not creating an account just to view mast data
Hello, this is to prevent our API being flooded with bots and crawlers and to revoke access to people that abuse the map.
@daviesryan35
Then do the proper WAF, or hire proper people to do it.
It would be nice to see what you get before signing up, at present going to the map just takes you to a “sign in” page! Perhaps a limited view of just one small area, or limited time, or something as a preview before you register.
Maybe a blurred version of the map behind the login screen?
I’d have to agree with that personally too! Can’t say I like signing up to a random website straight away tbh
I’d be very cautious before giving any data to those behind this.
Hmm, Cellnet. Interesting choice of name!
Indeed!
Unable to create an account with my email of choice (contains the word ‘spam’). Please don’t try and tell me what my email address should be.
There is currently an issue with sending confirmation emails to @hotmail, @live and @outlook. Working on rectifying it later today. Pop me a email and I will create you an account manually without an email. ryan.d@ukcell.net
@daviesryan35 I think there may be a larger issue as it says it couldn’t send a confirmation email to my .com address.
The privacy policy is incomplete. Not compliant with GDPR. No clear information on what data is being collected.
This site screams data harvesting. Avoid at all costs. Mark – I hope you did your due diligence on this one?
Hi, I plan on removing email verification soon. It was to limit bots and scraping.
what was wrong with
https://www.cellmapper.net/map
worked well, works, and will be working
Consistent issues with captchas is one of the main issues and this aggregates from a variety of sources (Sitefinder, microwave links, shared access license permits, some data from O2’s website and then data that a community member has gathered) rather than tower locations that Cellmapper has picked up.
Insertfloppydiskhere – what? Members map the towers? What are you on about. It’s a community project based on trust and local people finding their local mast.
If you are having a captcha issue… it means your traffic is suspicious. I don’t have an issue. And others I know don’t either.
@Concerned member my traffic is not suspicious and I see a lot of complaints about captchas in Cellmappers official spaces. It happens to some but doesn’t happen to others.
I don’t know what you’re going on about for the first part of your message, if that’s talking about the fact that Cellmapper has a much wider range of community-contributed towers, then yes it does (I’ve located around 1200 myself at this point). The dataset used in the UKCellNet project is very limited, but you might find that there are sites and cells that currently aren’t listed on Cellmapper or aren’t displayed correctly over there.
Insertfloppydiskhere – I guess that’s what happens when you scrape O2s data without consent. Yes, they are aware what has been done. It’s against their terms to use the data in this way. Really would consider your next steps if I were you.
I tried to sign up but was told to contact support as the verification email could not be sent to me. After searching for a support link I found I had to go to Discord and register for that and although I tried repeatedly the captcha would not let me through. I’ve wasted enough time on this but hope that when things settle down I’ll be able to have astraightforward registration as UKCellNet does look promising for absolute beginners such as me.
Hello, there is an update on the article. The email server is having problems due to the mass amount of signups. PM me on ISPreview or Telegram as `daviesryan35` and I can create you an account manually. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Boycott this. You need an account for no reason.
Data is very old.
Hi, there is a Layers button allowing you to load more onto the map. The project is at early stages and more datasets are coming soon.
There is absolutely no way I am giving anyone my details just to view a map.
PM me on ISPreview or Telegram as `daviesryan35`. I can create you an account without a email.
Visit site. Provided with a create account demand. Leave site and will never return. Use Better Internet Dashboard site instead
I’m sorry I’ve just read email verification was done through iCloud? That is not a business solution. How can you guarantee our data is safe?
Respectfully – please disclose what data you collect on this site and how you store it.
The privacy policy does not have the relevant, legally required, information. This is shocking. Absolutely Ridiculous.
Hello, we are removing email verification. We store your username, display, email and password. Passwords are encrypted. IPs and Computer data is not stored. The iCloud Server was only for verifying your email. All data is stored on a remote server using SSH Keys.
As per daviesryan35 replies, it looks like it is very poorly designed in terms of security. No WAF to block API scrappers, etc. Data leak is a matter of time.
Realistically, none of the data is unique to begin with. Sitefinder is easily downloadable, Ofcom publishes the information for microwave backhauls already (and that should be the same for SAL permits I would assume), the O2 data is literally just taken from data on their coverage checker and I assume the Mobile Infrastructure Project stuff is public.
It just packages it in a nice user interface I guess?
Insertfloppydiskhere – user data is unique, no? Are you advocating for a data breach of members data? Those account emails and passwords are personal.
And that o2 data on the coverage checker – it’s protected for a reason. You’re in breach of their terms by using it in this way.
Wonder if they’ll add ID checks to this site as required by the online safety laws, so they can harvest even more personal data
Despite all the usual paranoid neurotics in the comments, I thought this was actually quite a useful resource. Looking forward to seeing how it develops.