Mobile Coverage Maps Are Lying About City Centres

newborough

Across the UK, mobile coverage maps (including the MSE checker using Ofcom data) often show excellent coverage in city centres. Phones back this up by displaying strong 4G/5G signal — so everything appears fine.

The real issue is congestion. In busy areas, mobile data can become effectively unusable even though the signal indicator remains high. Messages don’t arrive, apps don’t load, and mobile payments can fail, all while the phone suggests there’s no problem.

York city centre is a good example of this. Coverage looks excellent on the maps, but when demand is high, data throughput collapses. The same pattern shows up in other crowded locations and events, which suggests this isn’t a local fault but a wider issue with how coverage is measured.

Signal presence alone isn’t the same as usable service. If capacity and congestion aren’t factored in, coverage maps give a misleading picture of real-world mobile performance.

oldernonethewiser

They are not lying they are showing the areas of coverage, no more.

matelodave

AS above, they tell you where there is coverage, what they cant tell you is the service quality or network congestion which can vary greatly depending on the time of day and location. It can be pretty dire around schools and school chucking out times, the same when people come out of work in the evenings. I bet its fine at 2am

badmemory

It iisn't just in cities.  I find my mobile signal is much better after 5 or 6 than it is during the day & also better at weekends.  It is still better than it was with 3G though.

JSmithy45AD

newborough said:

Across the UK, mobile coverage maps (including the MSE checker using Ofcom data) often show excellent coverage in city centres. Phones back this up by displaying strong 4G/5G signal — so everything appears fine.

The real issue is congestion. In busy areas, mobile data can become effectively unusable even though the signal indicator remains high. Messages don’t arrive, apps don’t load, and mobile payments can fail, all while the phone suggests there’s no problem.

York city centre is a good example of this. Coverage looks excellent on the maps, but when demand is high, data throughput collapses. The same pattern shows up in other crowded locations and events, which suggests this isn’t a local fault but a wider issue with how coverage is measured.

Signal presence alone isn’t the same as usable service. If capacity and congestion aren’t factored in, coverage maps give a misleading picture of real-world mobile performance.

Have you ever tried calling or texting around midnight on new years eve from anywhere in the world?

Calling it lying is silly really.

newborough

Thanks for the replies. I take the point that 'coverage' is technically just the presence of a signal, but my argument is that for the average consumer, these maps are the only metric we have to go on when choosing a provider.

If a map tells a user they will have 'Excellent 5G' in a city centre, there is a reasonable expectation that they can actually use that data. Showing five bars of signal when the throughput is 0.01Mbps is a bit like a petrol station having a sign saying 'Open' but the pumps are all empty—technically the lights are on, but the service isn't there.

To make these maps actually useful for 2026, they should arguably include 'Busy Hour' performance reports.

Instead of a static 'Yes/No' for signal, we need:

• Congestion Heatmaps: Showing where speeds typically drop during peak times (08:00–18:00).

• Minimum Guaranteed Throughput: Rather than 'up to' speeds, a 'Busy Hour' minimum would be far more honest.

• Latency Indicators: Because in a city centre, a 500ms ping makes 'Excellent 5G' feel like dial-up.

Until the maps factor in capacity, they remain a very thin representation of reality. If the industry wants us to rely on these checkers, they need to measure what actually matters to a smartphone user: the ability to move data, not just the presence of a radio wave

joeypesci

Yes. I think the same. At work we ordered a SIM based router for a site because the provider claimed "The coverage there is excellent in and out of the building, my responds "Are you sure, I've been there, its not, its awful".

The SIM and router arrived, as predicted, the signal in the building is none existent, yet the provider still promotes the area as being strong.

tinker411

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81861373#Comment_81861373

Hmm, I see what you're getting at - coverage maps provided by the networks are often fairy stories. Ofcom's own is a little generous sometimes too (although for years it said here Vodafone had suitable coverage for calls but nothing else was likely to work, which was the truth at the time).

Having said that - congestion heat maps would, in fairness, be horrific to manage, even if live. Just for example, here (again) the congestion time changes for each network (I've hopped several times over the years and, other than O2, they haven't really changed too much) are broadly as so:

EE - 0800-2200

O2 - 1200-2000

Three - 1100-2230

Vodafone - 1100-2130.