Nottinghamshire UK gets new map of mobile network cover and performance
The Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) in England and consultancy firm FarrPoint have just completed their “most comprehensive survey of mobile coverage across the county to date“, which has resulted in the release of a new coverage map to help give residents a clearer picture of where mobile services are strong and where gaps remain. EE was found to deliver the “best coverage overall“.
The survey, which was conducted between March and July 2026, involved FarrPoint’s kit being sent to travel along 4,728 km of roads around Nottinghamshire, including motorways, main A&B roads, local roads and smaller rural routes.
“Rather than relying only on mobile operators’ predicted coverage maps that often don’t match reality, the survey measured actual mobile signal and resident experience on the ground,” said the announcement. FarrPoint then used the results from this to create an interactive online map for the public that can be found following the link below.
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The map allows residents to search by address or postcode to see what mobile network coverage is like in their area and compare the performance of different mobile operators, including EE, O2, Vodafone and Three UK. You can also pick specific locations to see what kind of mobile broadband speeds (download, upload and latency / ping) were recorded from each operator.
FarrPoint said they combined signal strength, download and upload performance and latency into a combined Coverage Performance measure, to better reflect the service a mobile user might experience. This showed that Three UK had the largest areas of “No Coverage” and “Poor Coverage“, followed by O2 and Vodafone, while EE recorded the best coverage overall.
Councillor Bert Bingham said:
“This map is vital as we want to make sure our residents and businesses are as well connected as possible and can access accurate information about which mobile phone operators perform best where they live, work and travel. Afterall, many residents need a strong mobile signal for things like accessing health care services, operating smart meters, electric vehicle charging and even on-line shopping, especially for those who may not be able to get out and about.
This project as a whole gives us a much clearer understanding of where coverage is working well and where improvements and action may be needed, especially in rural areas where there may be potential gaps in coverage.”
The map has also been designed to be more accessible, including a colour-blindness-friendly colour scheme, helping as many people as possible understand the information.
FarrPoint’s Map of Mobile Coverage in Nottinghamshire
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/5f3c1a0d8aa74c35b7198e55fba7a4fa/page/Checker
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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I checked the methodology: these are outdoor roadside measurements, not an indoor service guarantee. For someone choosing mobile broadband, I’d use the map to shortlist networks, then test at the actual router position during busy hour. I’d also check latency while uploading and try a video call with background traffic running. That’s closer to the connection someone will actually live with than a single speed test. Comparing the same devices and locations across operators would make that final check much more useful.
Interestingly I checked the coverage for two locations I know are problematic, my home and my parents house. At my home location I can only get reliable indoor coverage from EE which the checker has excellent coverage, this is correct. All the other networks have little to no coverage but the checker shows excellent or good.
At my parents there is no EE coverage but O2 is ok but not great. Again on the checker it shows as excellent!
I can only deduce from this that the readings have been taken outside with higher gain antennas or more sensitive receivers! Take these results with a pinch of salt!
Well I live in Kimberley and on three mobile in a pixel 9pro and can’t get a signal on most of the main road though the town, so I don’t understand the results that says excellent.
The only place that works is up towards the a610 which is higher ground.