Area's best phone coverage found by bin lorries

Dorset phone users can use new coverage data to choose the best provider

An area's best mobile phone coverage providers have been found in a street-by-street survey by bin lorries.

Dorset Council is the latest authority to use devices on waste vehicles to check signal strength.

The results have been published in an online checker, where users can enter their postcode to find data for the four main networks.

The council said a previous tool promoted by communications regulator Ofcom was not accurate, while mobile phone company websites could not always be relied on.

Thirty-two food waste collection trucks surveyed 2,400 miles of roads, the council said.

The vehicles carried equipment from technology firm Streetwave to check coverage by EE, O2, Three and Vodafone, as well as download speeds.

Streetwave found less than half of the area had good signal strength, whereas Ofcom put the figure at 90%, the council said.

Dorset's fleet of food waste trucks tested signal strength during their rounds

The BBC checked data for its office in Dorchester.

Ofcom rated coverage as "likely" for all four companies, while Streetwave described the signal strength from two providers as "poor".

Dorset Council's project leader Gary Littledyke said Ofcom used data from computer simulations, whereas Streetwave took a snapshot of actual signal strength on the day of testing.

He said: "It's not foolproof, but it gives an indication of likelihood. We will continue to gather data during the pilot.

"If you go on to the coverage checker of any provider's website, it will largely tell you everything is fine, whereas we know that's not the case in Dorset."

Dorset councillor Richard Biggs, in charge of economic growth, said: "We have known for many years that the mobile coverage data provided by Ofcom does not give an accurate picture for Dorset.

"This checker... will help us lobby the government and suppliers for better coverage in areas we know are currently struggling."

Ofcom said: "We're working to overhaul our mobile coverage checker, which we will relaunch very soon with new and improved data to better reflect what people can expect."

The Streetwave postcode coverage checker can be accessed via this link, while Ofcom's tool is available here.