Developers

3 UK Network - 3G Data Coverage API

This API is used to check 3 UK Network 3G data coverage information using postcode.

Charges

This API is free for everyone, all you need to have is an account with aql. Please contact us or fill in our free trial form to obtain an account.

Connection Details

The 3 coverage API is available via our HTTP POST interface:

https://gw.aql.com/three/data_coverage.api.php (or http)

Although we do offer the standard HTTP gateway, we do prefer that your application uses the HTTPS gateway as it prevents sensitive details being “sniffed” across the internet.

Gateway Parameters

The gateway expects the following parameters:

Parameter Name	Presence	Values
username	mandatory	Your aql username
password	mandatory	Your aql password
postcode	mandatory	The postcode to lookup. In a whitespace-less format, eg: LS101JQ

Gateway Return Values

On success, the gateway will return the following parameters

Parameter Name	Value Description
status	200
desc	OK
postcode	Formatted postcode from the query parameter by removing all whitespace characters.
congestion	Congestion band category. Possible values: Blue: no congestion area. Green: insignificant congestion area. Amber: congested area. Red: heavily congested area.
indoor_type	Indicate if an area has a good indoor/outdoor coverage. Possible values: out-and-indoor: coverage available outdoor and indoor outdoor-only: coverage is available outdoor only.

The default format of the retuned data is:

<status>: <description>. <postcode>: <congestion> - <indoor_type>

where the items in angle brackets will be replaced with their actual values.

If the return-mode or return-format parameters are set in the original request, the returned string will be different depending on the format you choose.

Gateway Error Values

If the call was not successful, the gateway will return the following parameters

Parameter Name	Value description
status	Status code for the type of error (see Below)
desc	A string with a short description of the error

The format of the retuned data is:

<status>: <desc>

where the items in brackets will be replaced with their actual values.

If the return-mode parameter is set to 'url', the format of the returned data will be different. See below for details.

Status Codes

Status Code	Description
200	OK
401	Authentication error
6200	Invalid postcode parameter
6201	No coverage data available

Note: *status code 6201 means 3UK 3G Data coverage databases do not contain any information on this particular postcode.

You can view the return-mode and return-format descriptions here.