Streetwave UK Launch Map of Mobile Coverage and Speeds in Brent

Network analyst firm Streetwave, which is currently conducting various UK surveys to study the coverage and speed of 4G and 5G mobile broadband networks using bin lorries and private vehicles, has published another free and interactive visual map of their results – this time for the London borough of Brent.

Just to recap. Streetwave have spent the past year harnessing waste (bin / refuse) collection lorries to map mobile network / broadband coverage and speeds in various parts of the UK, particularly Wales (here, here, here, here and here). In this setup, refuse trucks are installed with several off-the-shelf Smartphones using software from Streetwave on top, which run continuous network tests (once every 20 metres in rural areas and 5m in urban areas) as the vehicles go around their routes.

The data they collect is then being used by local authorities to help identify areas that may require additional intervention in order to improve local mobile coverage and or network capacity. In addition, members of the public have also been given access to some of this data via an address-based coverage checker (more will become available as the studies are completed) and interactive map.

The latest area to benefit from this is the London borough of Brent – https://app.streetwave.co/coverage-checker/70. The example picture on this article shows a zoomed-out view of Brent with O2 selected, but you can also get more specific results and speeds by entering an address.