18/10/2016 – A lot of you have been in touch about this article. It’s five years old now and sadly Ofcom have taken the decision to remove their Sitefinder system. However, we’ve managed to get all the data viewable here so head to our newer article to find your local mast.
06/03/2017 – We now have an even newer version of this data, complete with updated information, on our updated article, so click here for the very latest!
21/02/2020 – The best solution to finding your local mast is now located within this recently updated article. A lot has changed over the years, and this is now the best place to go.
Ever wanted to know where your mobile signal comes from ? For a while now Ofcom – the communications regulator here in the UK – have had a tool for showing your local transmitters. Problem was, it was rubbish. It’s now been given a huge facelift and, with the help of Google Maps, shows your local masts in Map view or Satellite View. You can then switch to Street View and see the mast yourself.. corr.. 😉
Here I’m looking in Birmingham for masts. It pin-points several. There’s many more than you think, especially in highly populated areas. I can switch to satellite view to see them. Unsurprisingly, a lot are on high buildings.
Click on the mast and it’ll tell you who operates it, how powerful it is, what frequency it operates on and whether it’s doing 3G (UMTS). This last bit of information is particularly useful if you’re thinking of switching providers and want to know if your place of work is really covered by 3G (I tend never to believe coverage checkers) 🙂
This particular mast is GSM only, so glorious GPRS .. boo hiss.. Finally I can switch to Street View and… ta-daa !!!
The site also lists the o2 TETRA masts, which are described here and here.
Link – Ofcom Sitefinder
That is fascinating, shows why I’ve got a bloody horrendous signal at home and in my office!
Excellent map, however big deal of shame goes to T-Orange for not updating its locations. See “How up to date is Sitefinder?” in their FAQ.
And of course, let’s cross fingers that we’ll see all underlying data released free at some point so independent Google Maps mashups like that one in Poland – see http://mapa.btsearch.pl – can be done 🙂
shame they cant give this to the mobile operators, the amount of times the company i work for get called out to these and the addresses & locations they give us bear no representation to where they actually are
Amazing how close the o2 mast is to my flat but i still get 2 bars reception, now i hear you say, it is the building construction of the block of flats, nope, even walking up my local road, i loose reception.
I live in central london….
At last….
Theres also an Android app and a supporting web site for Open Signal Maps….. a user generated mapping system. The Android app allows you to see what cells your connected to live ( http://opensignalmaps.com/ )………
May be worth a full time link Gears as this app was one you found a while back before they rebranded….. I’ve used it ever since.
T