If you are moving home soon and want to see if you’ll get solid mobile signal there, or if you want to check your provider’s claims of just how good coverage really is in your current area, there’s a new tool that lets you do just that.
UK regulator Ofcom has just launched Map Your Mobile, an online service that shows the quality of mobile phone signal from all four of the country’s providers: EE, O2, Three and Vodafone.
You can enter any British postcode into the system and it’ll display a map of that area. You then click on a drop down box to select one of the four mobile providers, which overlays a colour-coded map to explain phone signal quality.
A dark purple colour denotes “Good in-home and outdoor” mobile signal, with lighter purple and blue colours showing worsening signal both indoors and out. Ofcom also provides a percentage performance ranking for all four mobile providers to help Brits see if they could benefit from switching networks.
Notably, this new tool does not delineate between 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G as other similar services have done in the past. The four mobile networks are shuttering their 3G signals by the end of this year to be completely replaced with 4G and 5G, with 2G networks still maintained to support voice calls in areas with particularly bad access to the newer 4G and 5G technology.
“Map Your Mobile launches as the UK enters its busiest annual period for home moves, with more than half a million moves expected to take place over the summer,” Ofcom said. “The tool means that buyers taking the keys can check in advance which network best serves the area in and around their new property.
“It also allows people to explore which networks offer the best coverage at their place of work or commuting route – and local communities to assess the quality of service across their area.”
Ofcom is using crowdsourced data from mobile monitoring firm Opensignal that’s “based on people’s real experiences”, in addition to “predictive data” from UK operators.
“Our partnership with Ofcom shifts the focus to real-world experience, using independent analysis of over 20 million tests across the UK,” said Tom Luke, Vice President (Innovation) at Opensignal. “By putting this data directly into consumers’ hands, we’re helping them make smarter choices about which network truly delivers consistent quality where they live and work.”
Ofcom also said it has applied “a new threshold for what constitutes a good mobile signal strength, to reflect mobile users’ changing habits and expectations.
“People increasingly need a highly reliable service for data-hungry activities such as gaming, streaming videos and working on the move. This means the new checker gives different results than the previous tool, but more accurately reflects users’ modern needs.”