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posted by mrpg on Friday January 18 2019, @10:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the in-six-weeks dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Man drives 6,000 miles to prove Uncle Sam's cellphone coverage maps are wrong – and, boy, did he manage it

A Vermont state employee drove 6,000 miles in six weeks to prove that the cellular coverage maps from the US government suck – and was wildly successful.

In fact not only did he prove conclusively that reports delivered to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by mobile operators aren't worth the paper they're printed on but also swung a spotlight on just how bad bureaucracy can get when it comes to Washington DC.

Corey Chase, a telecommunications infrastructure specialist who works for the Vermont Department of Public Service (PSD), undertook the monster road trip with some specialized equipment: six phones, each connected to a different mobile nework, and a custom piece of software, G-NetTrack, that carried out constant measurements of download speeds.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by esperto123 on Friday January 18 2019, @03:48PM (2 children)

    by esperto123 (4303) on Friday January 18 2019, @03:48PM (#788267)

    I know you were being sarcastic, but there is an app called opensignal (at least in android) that collects data on cell quality and location to create a map of coverage, and you can manually do speed tests that I think are considered also.
    It gives you a heat map that you can select by type of network and network provider, can be very useful.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DavePolaschek on Friday January 18 2019, @04:47PM (1 child)

    by DavePolaschek (6129) on Friday January 18 2019, @04:47PM (#788292) Homepage Journal

    Yeah, OpenSignal exists on iOS too. But according to the reviews, it will only show you data for "All Carriers" rather than letting you see data per-carrier. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opensignal-speed-test-maps/id598298030?mt=8 [apple.com]

    It might do a great job of collecting data, but if it doesn't give me some benefit in return, I'm not going to install it.

    • (Score: 2) by datapharmer on Saturday January 19 2019, @10:18AM

      by datapharmer (2702) on Saturday January 19 2019, @10:18AM (#788600)

      You can actually toggle to a specific carrier or even technology. The maps are limited or inaccurate in some areas due to lack of use but you can fill them in pretty quickly. I posted results to twitter vs a Verizon map and a new tower was installed within 6 months or so after complaining to Verizon for years and being told essentially that they didn’t care. Could be a coincidence but it felt like vindication (corporate account so couldn’t just switch providers at the time). Running the speed test Andy posting results gets attention because even if the signal is technically fine there are still minimum bandwidth requirement (which in this case was the issue - 4 bars of amplified garbage but couldn’t send a text or load a website)