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The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) has announced that they’ve appointed network analyst firm Streetwave to harness fleets of bin lorries to help “accurately” map 4G and 5G mobile broadband coverage and performance, which will focus on the North of Scotland (i.e. Moray, Aberdeenshire and Highland Council areas).
Streetwave has already spent the past few years harnessing waste (bin / refuse) collection trucks to map mobile network coverage and 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 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. In addition, members of the public have often also been given access to some of this data via address-based coverage checkers and interactive maps (example), which is the plan here too.
The results will help identify areas where there is limited coverage and guide improvements and the roll-out of future solutions, especially in remote communities where digital exclusion is a significant issue. The mapping exercise will be carried out using the Councils’ fleets of bin lorries together with other Council vehicles travelling along approximately 10,000 miles of roads to ensure thorough coverage of addresses in the three Council areas.
Neil Rutherford, Leader of the SFT Digital Connectivity Team, said:
“Using bin lorries that already travel across our roads into all communities is a practical way of collecting reliable mobile data.
By working with Streetwave and the local authorities to build our understanding of coverage across the country, in both rural and urban areas, we are establishing a strong understanding of mobile connectivity issues. It’s only by having the right data and the right digital tools can we work together to truly connect all of Scotland.”
The project, which is being part-funded by the Scottish Futures Trust, is expected to run for a full year across the Moray, Aberdeenshire and Highland Council areas. This should also allow the local authority to track seasonal changes, such as around holiday periods and during big events, where network congestion can become an issue.