You probably know by now that I’m doing an experiment with mobile broadband to see if I can use it as my primary internet connection, constantly for a week and whether mobile broadband is able to cope with the huge amounts of data that some applications and users consume.

Ofcom provide a mini map of base stations in any given area.

Today is my starting day and what better to do, than to find out where I can get a good signal around my area. Most carriers provide some sort of coverage map on their website, but in my experience they’re not always accurate. So what other tools are there available on the internet to find out how strong your signal is going to be, and whether you’ll achieve 3G speeds or not?

Back in 2001, the UK Government commissioned an online site finder tool. This tool allows you to locate all of the base stations in a given area. By doing this, you can see just how far away you are from a mast and then figure out by common sense what sort of service you’ll be expecting to get. The tool is now operated by telecommunications regulator Ofcom and can be found on their website, or by searching Google for “ofcom site finder”.

I stayed up last night before the experiment began to take time to see where all the Vodafone masts are located within Newcastle City Centre and the outskirts, I then put them all on one lovely Google map and saved it for future reference. The map can be seen below, it’s public, so anyone on Vodafone who lives in Newcastle – take note!

View Vodafone Hotspot Locations in a larger map

So, now that I know where I can go around Newcastle I shall be off to investigate and I’ll post my findings up tonight.  Catch you later!

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