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Network analyst firm Streetwave has confirmed that they’ve been chosenb y Cornwall Council in England to survey mobile network coverage and 4G / 5G data performance across the region, harnessing 7,250km 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 survey will run throughout July and August 2026, providing “valuable insight into how tourism impacts mobile infrastructure across one of the UK’s busiest visitor destinations” and helping the local authority to identify connectivity gaps, support future digital connectivity interventions, and ensure staff working across the region can access the best-performing networks. The results should be available to the public a bit later in the year.