Map Your Mobile – mobile coverage checker update

Summary

We have recently launched our new ‘Map Your Mobile’ coverage checker to better reflect the experience consumers are likely to get for data hungry services such as streaming. This update sets out what we have done to make these improvements and how it will help consumers choose the mobile provider which is best for them in the locations they want to use it. However, this is only a first step. We set out the further work we aim to do to improve the new checker and also play our part with Government and industry in the drive to give consumers better mobile coverage and performance where they need it most.

Context

Mobile coverage is essential to modern life. As people use phones and tablets to watch video, listen to music, communicate or work on the move, they expect to have a mobile network with a good signal wherever they live, work and travel.

People rely upon mobile as part of their everyday lives more than ever before. This has been the catalyst for Ofcom, the Government and industry to prioritise high-quality services and information for mobile users.

Progress to date

We have seen UK wide 4G coverage[1] increase from 91% in 2019 to 96% in 2025. In the countryside this has been driven by the Shared Rural Network (SRN), a project agreed between the Government and mobile companies, making 4G mobile broadband available to over 95% of the UK landmass. Around 30,000 square kilometres of the UK have gained coverage through the initiative bringing significant improvement to coverage in rural areas.

Meanwhile, mobile technologies continue to develop and evolve. The latest generation of mobile technology is 5G, which offers more capacity for large numbers of devices to be connected in busy, concentrated areas. 5G coverage is growing at pace, and 5G now accounts for a fifth of all mobile traffic. Around half of mobile handsets are 5G-capable.

What is different about our new tool

This new version of our tool reflects that people expect to be connected everywhere, all of the time. It uses predictions of signal strength, provided by the mobile network operators (MNOs), to determine whether coverage is likely to be available in any given area. We have used higher thresholds of predicted signal strength to portray where customers can be more confident of getting a reliable service. The thresholds we previously used introduced 10 years ago, at a time when consumers’ data demands and expectations of mobile networks were much less.

These previous thresholds are still useful in predicting where most consumers are likely to get a connection outdoors for basic, but important, services such as voice and texts, and lower quality video. Now, consumers also need to know where they can use their mobile devices to enjoy the full range of apps and services, including streaming. These newer services require a stronger signal strength so we have added a more stringent threshold to indicate where people can more confidently access these services.

People also want more granular information about the quality of mobile services where they live and work, and our new tool provides it. Coverage information is provided at a local level of 50 metre squares where we have this data, compared to 100 metre squares everywhere before.

How the new thresholds work

Coverage is not an absolute and many factors can affect the quality of the service you experience including more people using the network around you or being in a car which blocks some of the signal. One of the most significant factors is whether you are indoors or outdoors. Inside buildings your signal strength is likely to be weakened to varying degrees based on a range of factors, such as building materials and where you are in the building. For this reason, our new Map Your Mobile tool gives separate predictions for indoor and outdoor coverage. 

The information available in the new Map Your Mobile tool shows where you can expect to get ‘variable’ outdoor coverage – usually enough for voice and texts and lower quality video – and ‘good’ outdoor coverage, where you can be more confident that the network will support streaming and other similar services. The thresholds for more data-intensive activities are described as either ‘variable’ or ‘good’, with ‘good’ being the new threshold.

Similar to our changes for outdoor coverage, we are also increasing the indoor ‘variable’ signal strength threshold to better reflect consumers’ lived experience. However, we have not changed the ‘good’ indoor threshold as this is already set at a level likely to represent where people can more confidently expect to experience good coverage indoors. We will review this approach in phase two of our work, informed by consumers’ feedback.

The table below outlines the old and new signal thresholds we apply to MNOs signal strength predictions.

Given the probabilistic nature of signal strength predictions provided by the mobile networks, regardless of the threshold used to determine the area with coverage, there will be some consumers outside that area who will get the service they need as well as some who won’t.

Nationwide coverage metrics

Introducing these new thresholds provides an additional layer of information about UK wide coverage. By aggregating the areas with predicted signal strength above these thresholds we can see the overall coverage picture for both basic voice and SMS services and lower quality video (‘variable’) and where coverage is likely to be available for streaming-like services (‘good’).

We have analysed the March 2025 4G and 5G combined coverage predictions from MNOs using these thresholds, and the 50 metre square granularity, our latest figures for UK coverage are[2];

We will publish updated coverage figures in Connected Nations 2025.

Improving the information available to consumers through crowdsourcing

Consumers need better information to make more informed choices about their services and their mobile provider. Map Your Mobile allows mobile users to enter their postcode and see a local map of network and service availability.

There is no signal strength threshold at which coverage and connectivity can be guaranteed 100% of the time, nor at which predicted coverage data will be 100% accurate. A stronger signal should result in a better connection, but other factors such as congestion on the network, signal interference from nearby users and buildings or trees, and even the handset being used also affect whether that connection is reliable or can be used for more demanding services.

We have therefore added more information to Map Your Mobile based on crowdsourced data.  Map Your Mobile shows a performance score in the consumer’s postcode district[3] for each of the mobile networks based on actual user experience. The score is derived from the percentage of times a successful connection achieved 5 Mbit/s download speed for each MNO network and therefore the probability of there being a connection for a more reliable service. 

We want to keep improving the information available to consumers. We welcome feedback on Map Your Mobile and we will be moving to the next phase of this work shortly.

We will work with industry and government to make further progress

Map Your Mobile is only one tool to improve mobile performance. In our role as the spectrum regulator, we are making more spectrum available. This year we will award more than 5GHz of ‘millimetre wave’ spectrum, which can improve mobile network capacity in areas of high demand such as train stations, high streets and sporting venues. We are also planning to release additional spectrum at 1.4GHz and we are leading discussions across Europe to facilitate access to the upper 6GHz band for both mobile and Wi-Fi.

Emerging ‘direct-to-device’ technology means satellites can beam signals straight to standard smartphones. This could provide basic services where coverage is more challenging, for example in remote villages and mountainous areas, and be used for vital emergency calls and backup during network outages. We announced, in March 2025, measures that would allow all mobile phone users to access this type of service.

Lastly, the recently completed merger between Vodafone and Three has legally binding commitments to upgrade the network and significantly improve coverage and quality. We expect competition will positively respond to these changes and increase quality across the UK. We expect to see this increased quality reflected in our ‘Map Your Mobile’ in future data updates.

Footnotes

[1] In some cases, where we have insufficient crowdsource data we show the performance across the wider postcode area.

[2] These figures use a 50mx50m pixel resolution with the exception of Vodafone data which is currently provided at 100mx100m and until their 50mx50m data is available. We've scaled Vodafone 100mx100m data to 50m×50m pixel resolution to enable consistent calculation of overall nationwide figures.

[3] From at least one Mobile Network Operator