The RSPAWIR Mobile Coverage Study identified that Monmouthshire suffered from very poor mobile coverage with large areas of the county effectively complete not spots.
Staff at Monmouthshire County Council who were responsible for outreach work had complained of being uncontactable and / or having to move locations to find adequate signal to complete online forms. This created both safety concerns and efficiency issues within some of the most critical areas of the Council’s work. The waste team were also affected by the poor network connectivity as tablets that are part of the operational equipment installed in the county’s refuse vehicles were often out of service. When connected, these tablets support route navigation and help document bins that haven’t been presented by residents for collection.
During this trial, Virtuser provided Monmouthshire County Council with multi network data SIMs that could switch to an alternative network when the council’s primary network provider’s signal proved insufficient.