Streetwave Set to Survey Mobile Broadband Coverage Across West Yorkshire

Network analyst firm Streetwave has revealed that they’ve been chosen by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England to conduct a real-world study of mobile network coverage and 4G / 5G data performance across the region, harnessing 12,000km of the county’s road network and testing all three of the primary mobile networks – EE, O2 and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK).

Just to recap. Streetwave works by harnessing waste bin (refuse) collection lorries to map mobile network coverage and data speeds across various parts of the UK (e.g. here, here, here, here and here). In this setup, refuse trucks are installed with several off-the-shelf Smartphones using special software, 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 often then used by local authorities to help identify areas that may require additional intervention in order to improve local mobile coverage and or network capacity, while also giving locals access to some of this data via address-based coverage checkers and interactive maps (https://app.streetwave.co/coverage-checker/).

The region-wide mobile coverage monitoring programme for West Yorkshire will include the areas covered by Leeds City Council, Bradford Council, Calderdale Council, Kirklees Council and the Wakefield Council. Suffice to say this is a large area and, over the next 12 months, StreetWave will need to conduct two full surveys of each local authority area (road network) – passing masses of homes, businesses and public sector sites etc.

“This will help identify connectivity gaps, monitor improvements over time, and support future digital infrastructure investment across the region. The results will also be shared with the region’s 2.4 million residents through Streetwave’s free to use coverage checker. Together, the surveys will provide the evidence needed to improve digital connectivity across one of England’s largest combined authorities,” said the company.