Travel Technology - Any good sites to compare cell phone coverage areas between carriers?

Are there any Web sites which allow you to look at a reasonably small area and see which cell phone carriers get the best service there?

For example, at my sister's house, my Verizon coverage blows. Her husband's Altel coverage is so-so. Her coverage--not sure of the carrier off the top of my head--is decent. (These are with comparable model phones, so it's not the difference in phone itself.)

Moving this to the Travel Technology Forum...

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United Mileage Plus Forum

Moving this to the Travel Technology Forum...

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United Mileage Plus Forum

Thanks--realized I'd posted in the wrong forum as soon as I went looking for any answers. "Wait, where's that thread I started?" And of course, it was over in UA instead of here. :o

As far as I can tell, Alltel does not publish address specific coverage, but here are the others:

http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pcc.aspx
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLocatorController
http://coverage.sprint.com

Search for "dead cell phone coverage". There used to be 2 or 3 sites (I haven't looked at them in a while) with detailed google maps that list the dead coverage areas by carrier, as reported by real users.

You can look where you live, or if you drive a certain route, you can see where the coverage drops out. I don't recall any of them having a signal strength listing.

As far as I can tell, Alltel does not publish address specific coverage, but here are the others:

http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pcc.aspx
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLocatorController
http://coverage.sprint.com

Thanks--I'll take a look at those.

I know Verizon lies like a dog regarding some of the locations; for example, the neighborhood where my wife and I are looking at buying a home gets awful Verizon coverage (typically 1 bar of signal strength on either my LG or my wife's Motorola phone), but Verizon's site shows complete digital coverage of that area. I guess they do have "coverage," just not very good coverage. ;)

I did find www.cellreception.com, but the problem with that is that people report widely differing signal strengths at basically the same location for the same carrier, making their results difficult to parse.

I may have to drag several of my friends who have different carriers out to a few locations and see what signals they get.

I did find www.cellreception.com, but the problem with that is that people report widely differing signal strengths at basically the same location for the same carrier, making their results difficult to parse.


Yet that's the way it actually is more than not. The coverage will change, particularly if you get a bit further than not from the tower(s). The carrier maps are generally a waste of time, unless they show no coverage at which point odds are you'll have no coverage. They often ignore topography and other details making their maps look much better than they really are.

The best way, in my opinion is to simply ask people around you. Or borrow a phone and check it out. Some operators (like T-mobile) have a pretty reliable mapping system while others lie through their teeth.

Pogue had a recent post (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/dead-zones-and-the-iphone/)about dead zones, and this site came up in the comments a number of times:

http://www.signalmap.com/

User-generated content, but it seems reasonably good and would fit the bill, I think.

The only real way is to try it with a phone from that carrier. Everywhere in the country you can open a line with any carrier and cancel with no penalty within 14 days, paying for just the airtime you use. (In California, it's 30 days)

Verizon and AT&T's maps show where they are licensed to operate (or what technologies they've deployed/plan to deploy in the area), but not necessarily an interpretation of what coverage will be like there.

T-Mobile does try to give you an interpretation of what coverage will be like. It tends to be fairly accurate, but YMMV.

GSM World has coverage maps of most GSM operators:
http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml

Also, don't forget that the quality of a single carrier's signal can vary wildly even in the same location based on the phone you're using.

For instance, I could never figure out why my wife's Motorola got dramatically better AT&T service in our apartment than my Samsung until I spoke to a friend who explained the relative merits of each phone.

Also, don't forget that the quality of a single carrier's signal can vary wildly even in the same location based on the phone you're using.

For instance, I could never figure out why my wife's Motorola got dramatically better AT&T service in our apartment than my Samsung until I spoke to a friend who explained the relative merits of each phone.

Indeed. Supposedly my LG VX9800 is pretty good at pulling in weak signals, but I dunno. I do know that it's the same deal with my wife's Motorola Razr, though, at the same location. I'll have my sister try her crackberry, among other phones, to see if there's enough of a difference to look into a new phone vs. changing carriers.

Also keep in mind that some operators have ways of filling in the blind spots.

T-mobile has hotspot@home and Sprint recently started offering the Airrave.

The Airrave is a true CDMA basestation.

Carriers maps may not be updated frequently. AT&T maps show no HSUPA coverage at my house or its neighborhood yet it exists in real life.