The strange case of Ofcom's 3G coverage maps

Ofcom won't be releasing any updates to its 3G coverage maps this year, a spokesperson told ZDNet UK on Thursday.

In one of the stranger exchanges this reporter has experienced this week, the spokesperson said Ofcom would not be doing the maps because it is, this year, "focusing on not-spots". Which would be the sort of thing you'd expect to see represented in, say, a map, but there you go.

Apparently some research about not-spots — areas where coverage is poor or non-existent — is underway and more will be revealed later this year, but when and in what form remains a mystery.

All of which is particularly odd since the ASA just made Orange take down ads in which it boasted of its allegedly superior mobile broadband coverage, and it used Ofcom's apparently one-off coverage maps to aid the adjudication.

So why is Ofcom so cagey about updating those maps?