Connectivity Assessment for Digitisation of Public Services

Mapping connectivity in the Glasgow City Region to enable a thriving digital economy

Glasgow City Region is the fourth largest city region in the UK and Scotland's economic powerhouse. Glasgow City Region has a population of 1.84 million people, a population which is growing, and which is roughly one third of Scotland.  Glasgow City Region is a collaboration of 8 local authorities with urban and rural environments with differing landscapes of fixed and mobile connectivity available.  The Region, an area of 3,346 square kilometres, features extensive greenspace and many areas of natural outstanding beauty, a number of local towns and a sophisticated urban centre

What is the problem to be solved?

Digital technology is now a key part of most people's personal and work lives, as well as how we access services.  The adoption of mobile connectivity in Smart Social Housing and Digital Health and Care services means that we must have ubiquitous and fit for purpose connectivity, including fibre, 4G, 5G and LoRaWAN.  A lack of good mobile coverage information causes residents, businesses and councils to often procure the wrong mobile networks - damaging productivity. This can also be a costly mistake to switch for people as they generally need to pay 95% of the lifetime value of a contract to switch.

Our Region must be future proofed for any upcoming innovation within this new digital age to ensure a thriving digital economy.

We have accurate maps of current and planned fixed connectivity available to local authorities through the UK and Scottish Governments.  However, the mobile data publicly available to local authorities is limited to forecasted coverage data direct from the mobile network operators.  This data is often not an accurate measure of the real time coverage available to customers and does not include upload and download speeds, quality of the network or capacity of the network in high density areas.  There is also no planned coverage data publicly available from mobile network operators.

What is the solution to the problem?

What we’re doing

To understand the current mobile coverage and quality of the network, Glasgow City Region have commissioned an independent mobile mapping exercise with Commsworld and Streetwave.  This work is being funded through the UK Government 5GIR programme called Smart and Connected Social Places. 

The mobile network mapping will visualise data for every address within the City Region on an interactive map.  It will show the strength of signal for all 4 Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), EE, Vodafone, VM02 and Three UK.  It will answer practical questions like can I make a phone call? Can I send and receive email?  Can I browse the internet?  Can I work away from the office? Can I do HD Streaming?  It will also include upload/download speeds and latency of the network.

Streetwave will undertake two on foot surveys in the Glasgow City Centre and around key stadiums within Glasgow City at peak times.  This exercise will analyse the performance of the network in high density areas of the city during major events.  

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Coverage mapping will also be carried out across the eight Glasgow City Region Local Authorities using data capture devices in Refuse Truck.  The devices are mobile and plug into the USB point in the cab of the Refuse Truck.  The devices can therefore easily be moved between Refuse Truck fleets within the Region.  An additional proof of concept trial is also being undertaken for LoRaWAN coverage across the region.  These small devices will also be placed in the bin lorries.

Glasgow City Region have leased 20 mobile network capture devices from Streetwave and plan to have all 8 local authorities coverage mapped by 31/3/25.   

Our chosen survey with Commsworld/Streetwave

The Streetwave survey uses portal data collection units within Council vehicles to gather readings at every address in a council. Consumer handsets (Samsung Galaxy S21 5G phones) are used to collect the data.  This ensures that results are representative of the user experience in the area.  An additional proof of concept device to collect LoRaWAN data will also be deployed.

The portable data collection units are leased for 12 months.   These can be configured for placement inside bin trucks, on trains or for walk testing depending on the location.  It is the responsibility of the Glasgow City Region to move these devices between council vehicles to collect data as required.   A Coverage Checker will be made publicly available to Local Authorities, SMEs, Organisations and Citizens on a free to use basis.  This will show the exact download and upload speeds for each of the 4 MNOs at each postcode and at a premise level.

Out of Scope

Our survey will not gather data on any 5G Private networks, Private or public WIFI.
 

Commercial model (Business Case)

What will we do with the data

We will use the survey data to identify mobile and LoRaWAN ‘not spots’ across the region. 
We will combine the coverage and asset data, fibre and potentially power datasets as these are also needed for any new deployments.  The data will inform conversations direct with the MNOs and policy makers to address the not spots.

Glasgow City Council have a Telecoms Unit which engages directly with operators to encourage investment in connectivity and support investment through Council policies and processes.  The Telecoms Unit will use this survey data in conversations with MNOS to address these not spots.

Survey data will be combined with Social Housing and Health and Social Care building asset data across the City Region.  This will allow the programme to forecast where future network requirements will be in relation to the Smart and Connected Social Care Programme.  We will share this data with MNOs to include in their future network plans.  

Health and Social Care Services are critically important and require secure, stable and resilient connectivity. The advance of 5G Network Slicing is an option which could provide this level of mobile network service to Health and Social Care Services.  This however will require ubiquitous 5G across the Glasgow City Region.   
 

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Benefits

How this will support our Smart Connected Social Places Programme

The 5GIR Smart and Connected Social Places Programme is focused on Social Housing and Health and Social Care.  It is leveraging digital connectivity solutions to keep people safe, well, and socially connected in their own home and in their local communities.  It aims to enable right-time and right-place interventions to promote wellness and prevent illness.

The programme is using IOT and mobile sensor technology in social housing to ensure a safe and healthy homes for residents.  Housing providers will also be able to utilise the data insights to make better informed decisions around property maintenance and empty properties.  

The programme is deploying Telecare connected Alexa devices in a trial that will see some of the biggest innovation in the Telecare Service for 30 years.  The Alexa devices will make use of a home hub developed by CENSIS that requires 4G or 5G to connect to the alarm receiving centre (ARC).  It is therefore important that we have good 4G or 5G Service for these devices.

Making the data we collect using the Streetwave devices publicly available will allow citizens, businesses, local authorities and Government to decide on the best mobile network for their needs. This could lead to boosted productivity for council employees working in the field, as the procurement teams can switch them to the best mobile networks in the areas they work in,  Citizens could have a better connectivity experience by using the data to choose the best available mobile network in their area.
 

benefits

Lessons Learnt 

Why did we choose this type of survey?

Before embarking on the mobile coverage mapping project with Commsworld and Streetwave, a number of channels were explored to obtain the mobile and LoRaWAN data for the Region. 

OFCOM mobile availability checker was accessed in the first instance.  However, results for 4G and 5G on their app are predictions and not a guarantee of service.  The data also does not include any upload/ download speeds, quality of service or planned coverage.

Data direct from MNOs

Mobile Network operators were also approached directly for the information.  This information is commercially sensitive for MNOs and therefore they are reluctant to share this data.  Two MNOs were only willing to share the data under a non-disclosure agreement which restricted our use of the data.  We would not be able to share this data with other organisations, SME’s or citizens.  The data we received was predicted coverage data and some planned data.  There was no upload/download speeds or quality of service data.  Data compatible with GIS was also not available.

Crowd Sourced mobile data

Crowdsourced data is gathered from software developer kits that are hidden in the background of free to use mobile apps. The person who is using that app will (generally without their knowledge) give a signal reading for their network/location to the crowdsourced dataset.   Crowdsourced data is relatively cheap to collect, and you can get data points across a wide area where people use these apps.  Operators use this as part of their marketing efforts as they can make coverage claims across large regions such as the whole of the UK. 

 

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However, crowdsourced data does not provide readings from different networks at the same time to make comparisons. There are also large gaps between data points (especially in rural areas) which make it difficult to see how the mobile networks are performing on a local basis.  Some data points are as much as 1km apart.  The environment for crowdsourced data is unknown. Anyone can contribute to the data sets. 

Readings may include outdoors, indoors, in cars, buses, trains and this makes it difficult to use to compare networks as the environment each reading is collected from is so variable. 

LoRaWAN data

For LoRaWAN coverage we contacted North who deployed the IOT Scotland network.  However, maps of the IOT Scotland gateways and coverage data were not available. Data compatible with GIS was also not available.

Fixed Data

Current and planned fixed connectivity is well mapped throughout the Region and is available via the UK and Scottish Governments.

Challenges

  • Costs and Funding - Mobile coverage surveys are costly.  Glasgow City Region or any other local authority is not able to undertake this type of survey without external funding.  
  • Repeat Surveys - This is a one-time data collection survey.  There is no plan to repeat this survey to see any future changes to coverage across the Region.  
  • Data management - Local Authorities do not have the resources to maintain mobile coverage data on an ongoing basis.  OFCOM currently advertise publicly a predicted level of coverage which is not reliable.  This data set could be improved with mobile collection surveys such as Streetwave’s.
  • Not Spots - There is no understanding of the current mobile or LoRaWAN not spots in the Glasgow City Region.
  • Interventions - Currently there is no coordination at a UK or Scottish Government level to address not spots directly with MNOs or provide interventions in a similar way to the R100 or Project Gigabit projects.
  • Data Sharing - Data provided direct from MNOs is not able to be shared with local organisations and Housing Associations.  This data could be used to inform their IOT, Telecare and Digital projects.
  • Resourcing - Local Authority resources are required to move the mobile collection devices between the vehicles/bin lorries.  Not all Local Authorities have these resources available to assist the project.  Commsworld have agreed to provide the resources where necessary.
  •  Stakeholders and Champions - Not all local authorities have Digital Champions.  It can also be difficult to find the right stakeholder to engage with to get access to the bin lorries within the local authority. 
  • Procurement - Procurement of survey supplier within the timescales of the project can be difficult.  We chose to utilise the existing Commsworld and Glasgow City Council Connectivity framework to engage Streetwave for the survey.  Minimising time to engage and effort across legal and procurement teams.


For further information on this case study please contact the Glasgow Telecoms Unit by emailing Telecoms@glasgow.gov.uk


 

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