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Background

The Disaster Connectivity Maps concept was first launched at the Global Forum on Emergency Telecommunications (GET-19), which took place in Mauritius, in March 2019.

Disaster Connectivity Map (DCM).

Disaster Connectivity Maps is a mapping platform to help first responders determine the status of telecommunications network infrastructure, coverage, and performance before and after a disaster. The information contained in Disaster Connectivity Maps (DCM) can be used to support decision-making by first responders about where telecommunication network services need to be restored. Disaster Connectivity Maps is a joint initiative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), and with the support of the GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation programme. The Disaster Connectivity Maps platform is hosted by ITU.

Picture credit: South Ridge tower, Telecom Fiji. September 2016 Radio Communication Experience, Telecom Fiji Ltd. Mesake Tuinabua, Manager Network Operations, Telecom Fiji.

What information is displayed on Disaster Connectivity Maps?

Disaster Connectivity Maps display the following types of information:

  1. Network infrastructure: physical features such as terrestrial fibre optic links, microwave network links, submarine cables, mobile cell sites
  2. Mobile network coverage: projected and/or actual mobile network coverage
  3. Connectivity performance: metrics such as ping, latency, throughput (download/upload)

Information displayed in Disaster Connectivity Maps is gathered from different sources. Where data is available, network coverage and performance information will be dynamically updated in DCM using near real-time data.

Download the Disaster Connectivity Map User Guide (April 2022).

The Disaster Connectivity Maps platform is hosted by ITU and developed as part of the ITU Broadband Maps and ICT-data mapping platform

Map Layers

Choose base layers and overlay map layers:

Connectivity Indicators

Select which connectivity measurement indicator to display.

Disaster Events

Switch between DCM activations: filter by country and time


Press play or drag the slider bar to cumulatively add datapoints to the map, showing all datapoints received since the start of the measurement campaign, and therefore the baseline areas experiencing network outage since the campaign started. To show datapoints from a specific beginning time, drag the left hand slider bar to set the start date shown. For eg in Tonga, drag the slider bar to the 16 January to exclude datapoints received before the HTHP undersea volcanic eruption.

User defined time variables:

To override these bookmarked settings, select a new start time and end time using the controls below then click the Apply new start and end time button.

Select start date and time (local time)

Select end date and time (local time)

Apply new time interval

Apply new start and end time

Reset

Selected SpeedChecker connectivity performance data since January 2013. Each measurement record contains upload speed (Mbps), download speed (Mbps), latency (Ms), latitude, longitude and a datetime field.

Press play (pause) to run as an animation for each day. Press forward or backward to view all results forward or backward by one hour at a time. Adjust the second slider to increase the speed of the animation from 1 frame per second (fps) to 10 frames per second.

Active mode

When the DCM is in active mode, the map is being automatically updated with SpeedChecker connectivity performance data every hour. The dot in the bottom right hand corner of the map indicates if the DCM is in passive mode or in active mode . In active mode, the latest time is set to show the current time, in order to show the latest available results. Use the backward or play reverse buttons to scroll or play backwards in one hour time intervals.

About

SpeedChecker Data Collection Methodology

Data is collected from end user devices running Android and iOS systems. SpeedChecker partners with 3rd party app publishers which have popular apps in the stores. SpeedChecker offers a mobile SDK (https://github.com/speedchecker/speedchecker-sdk-android) that can be integrated into 3rd party apps. End users opt-in to providing accurate location to SpeedChecker. SpeedChecker anonymizes the results and all reports are built on aggregated data which does not reveal user identity or compromises user’s privacy.

All measurements are executed towards a CDN which has a large geographical footprint and hosts a significant part of the content that is being accessed by the users. This ensures the results are a good approximation of the user’s actual quality of experience. All measurements must contain accurate location information using GPS or wi-fi geolocation method. Measurements are considered only from the apps that have been approved by SpeedChecker. Submitted measurements are checked if they are within expected ranges and additional security precautions are implemented to ensure measurement data is not being manipulated.

The methodology is based on the concept of the ITU-T Q.3960 (2016), "Framework of Internet related performance measurements" and “Supplement 71 to ITU-T Q-series Recommendations”. This test methodology aims at delivering an accurate measurement of the maximum bandwidth available over a given internet connection. This is achieved by transferring multiple parallel data streams over separate TCP connections within a predefined amount of time. The transferred data consists of randomly generated data with high entropy.

To download the SpeedChecker app to your smartphone:

iOS https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/speed-checker/id658790195

Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.broadbandspeedchecker&hl=en

https://www.speedchecker.com

Settings

Legal notice and Copyright

The infographics - including any accompanying documentation - are provided "as is" without any warranties of any kind. ITU and the other entities cooperating in this project do not warrant, guarantee or make any representations (implied or expressed) regarding the use, or the results of use, of the infographics, in terms of correctness, completeness, accuracy, adequacy, reliability, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. ITU and the other entities cooperating in this project expressly disclaim any liability for errors or omissions in the content of the infographics, and shall not be held liable for any direct, indirect, consequential or incidental damages arising out of the use of or inability to use the infographics. The collection of data for the infographics as well as their validation is currently a work in progress. For more information regarding the sources of data, please visit this page.

ITU holds copyright in the information available on this Web site, unless otherwise indicated. Copyright in any third-party materials found on this Web site must also be respected. Request for permission to reproduce information available on this Web site which are owned or jointly-owned by ITU should be sent to jur@itu.int

Sources

OpenStreetMap (OSM)

Base map and data from OpenStreetMap and OpenStreetMap Foundation. © OpenStreetMap contributors. The OpenStreetMap Gray and OpenStreetMap Dark map layers are created using the Leaflet.TileLayer.Colorfilter plugin to apply CSS color filter on map tiles, to be able to more clearly show other information on the map.

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOTOSM)

The humanitarian OSM map style is one of the featured tiles available on openstreetmap.org. To see it click on the right icon "Layers" and select "Humanitarian". It can also be browsed at map.hotosm.org . The servers for tile rendering and storage are provided by OpenStreetMap France. The stylesheet was designed by Yohan Boniface and others in the Humanitarian OSM Team, and is available on github with a CC0 license. This map style is focused on resources useful for humanitarian organizations and citizens in general in emergency situations, highlighting POIs like water resources (water wells, manual pumps, fire hydrants...), light sources, public buildings, social buildings, roads quality, etc. The colors used are light, so people can print them and then draw and write on top of the map easily without getting confused too much (this is a useful feature for humanitarian organizations to update the information on the printed map in situations like a earthquake, for example).

ITU Interactive Transmission Map

The data for building the ITU Interactive Transmission Map have been collected through: Primary sources: Reply to an official request for information (RFI) document has been sent to all Regions outlining the purpose of the project for operators, indicating what level of detail is required, and what format the data is to be published. Secondary sources: On average, around 25 to 40% of the data was readily available in the public domain, from operator websites, annual reports, company presentations, and presentations at industry conferences. Partnership: A number of organizations do already research and produce transmission network maps for particular countries or regions, for various technical reasons. Wherever possible, partnerships with these organizations were established, to seek permission to display their network maps work through the ITU world transmission map.

ITU holds copyright in the information available on this Web site, unless otherwise indicated. Specifically with respect to the Asia Pacific region, copyright on the relevant information is jointly owned by ITU and ESCAP. Specifically with respect to the Africa region, copyright on the relevant information is jointly owned by ITU and ECOWAS. Copyright in any third-party materials found on this Web site must also be respected. Request for permission to reproduce information available on this Web site which are owned or jointly-owned by ITU should be sent to jur@itu.int

TeleGeography Submarine Cable Map

TeleGeography's submarine cable map is based on its authoritative TeleGeography'sGlobal Bandwidth research. The map depicts active and planned submarine cable systems, their landing stations, cable length, ready for service (RFS) date, owners, suppliers, and website. Visit https://www.submarinecablemap.com

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Speedtest® by Ookla® Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps

Global fixed broadband and mobile (cellular) network performance, allocated to zoom level 16 web mercator tiles (approximately 610.8 meters by 610.8 meters at the equator). Data is provided in both Shapefile format as well as Apache Parquet with geometries represented in Well Known Text (WKT) projected in EPSG:4326. Download speed, upload speed, and latency are collected via the Speedtest by Ookla applications for Android and iOS and averaged for each tile. Measurements are filtered to results containing GPS-quality location accuracy.

Speedtest® by Ookla® Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps. Based on analysis by Ookla of Speedtest Intelligence® data for [DATA TIME PERIOD]. Provided by Ookla and accessed [DAY MONTH YEAR]. Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission.

https://registry.opendata.aws/speedtest-global-performance/

https://github.com/teamookla/ookla-open-data

Population density: Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4) 2020

The Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Count, Revision 11 consists of estimates of human population density (number of persons per square kilometer) based on counts consistent with national censuses and population registers, for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. A proportional allocation gridding algorithm, utilizing approximately 13.5 million national and sub-national administrative units, was used to assign population counts to 30 arc-second grid cells. The population density rasters were created by dividing the population count raster for a given target year by the land area raster. The data files were produced as global rasters at 30 arc-second (~1 km at the equator) resolution. To enable faster global processing, and in support of research communities, the 30 arc-second count data were aggregated to 2.5 arc-minute, 15 arc-minute, 30 arc-minute and 1 degree resolutions to produce density rasters at these resolutions.

Center for International Earth Science Information Network - CIESIN - Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). https://doi.org/10.7927/H49C6VHW.