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.
This topic seems to pop up time and time again. Our original story from back in 2011 has received a HUGE amount of interest and is still one of our most visited pages. Sadly the Ofcom Sitefinder was taken offline after mobile operators stopped voluntarily updating it. We then published an online database created by Bob Hannent from the old Sitefinder database, so you could still find mobile transmitters.
The problem? All that data is from 2012, so it’s a bit out of date now.
Today I’ve stumbled across Mast Data, which lets you perform free searches and locate your local mobile mast. Yes, even those hidden ones that masquerade as telegraph and flag poles.
The company is also offering unlimited searches and further access into projected new mobile network deployments for a yearly or monthly fee. They’ll give you a month free to try that extra functionality but you can do a limited amount of searches without registering.
For those who want to use it regularly and get more detailed maps, it’s £12.50 per month or £135 per year. What I should mention though is that some of the data seems to have come from the Ofcom Sitefinder database and it still lists legacy masts that don’t exist, such as Orange and T-Mobile masts that have since merged and updated to EE masts. The Ofcom Sitefinder database is the same source that we use here for free from 2012.
That said, there is a lot of new detail in this one, and I’ve tested it with a local mast which I know has just been re-positioned. It’s gone from an old Orange mast to a newly-erected EE mast a few feet away. Although the old site is still listed (it’s gone now and they’ve plonked a McDonalds on top of it), the new one shows correctly..
Click on a mast to get further information, such as whether it’s moved recently (under the same operator name) and – if available – whether the site is 3G / 4G plus (sometimes) the power output too.
I mentioned those “hidden masts” earlier, and it’s definitely worth having a look through the Mast Data website because there could be a lot more masts in your local area than you think. For example, telegraph poles like this are actually mobile masts too (the one below is owned by Three)..
..and these flag poles? Yep, the one on the left is actually an O2 base station, but people living close-by might not be aware..
See this petrol station sign in Croydon? Well, as you can see in the data, there’s a transmitter inside the sign, 7 metres up inside it to be precise.
There’s another one in this sign, only 5 metres up this time. I wonder if the people living across the road know?
