OS digital data for telecommunications planning

The OS supply 1:50000 scale digital contour data and grid digital terrain models covering the whole of Great Britain. These may be (and are) used in line-of-sight and area-coverage modelling of radio communications links. Digital vector data are available at the 1:250000 scale, describing built-up areas, woodland, water features and communications links. Such data may be draped over the underlying digital terrain model, to give an indication of those areas in which further signal interference may occur. 1:50000 scale raster data may be used in a similar manner, as a backdrop to the vectors. A large proportion of England and Wales, especially the urban areas, has now been digitised at the basic scales of 1:1250, 1:2500 or 1:10000, and is available as the Land-Line product. This digital data set includes features such as building outlines, vegetation cover, water, roads and railways. These are stored planimetrically, but individual buildings and other features can be assigned heights from stereo photographs archived in the OS photogrammetry division. Such photogrammetrically heighted data may be used in urban and suburban microcell prediction models