GNSS Network Rovers – reliant on the web!
If you own or frequently hire GNSS SmartRovers, dialing into SmartNet, VRS-Now or TopNet, it is often worth checking the 3G/GPRS coverage of your next work site. A link to the UK’s main mobile-network providers is attached, highlighting the variability of 3G coverage across the country, and between companies. As manufacturers push for “Net-Rovers” over ‘Base & Rover’ equipment, the reliance on mobile internet has never been so prominent, as highlighted at Leica’s Network RTK day, hosted last month at the OS headquarters in Southampton.
If you are connected to the NTRIP Caster, but the corrections just refuse to come in, check the latency on the received RTCM message; anything higher than 2-3sec could suggest a lack of bandwidth in the area, or a complete lack of mobile internet comms. Note, some sites such as the Olympics and the M25 suffer at peak commuter periods, as voice-calls (more profitable to network-providers) may squeeze us data-only users down to a negligible proportion of 3G; not enough to sustain real-time RTK info messages (1Mb/hr).