Monday, January 28, 2008

Mapping Cell Phone Coverage and Failures



Technorati Profile

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

I seem to recall that The Union or somebody took a crack at this a while back. I just located a site called www.cellreception.com which has a convenient but somewhat buggy reporting and listing capability. Make sure you check every box, or it erases everything and you have to start over. I always CTRL C, so I saved having to retype. You do not have to register at all to post. Having just recently graduated to a tethered cell phone for an internet connection, and after 30 days, having run into some problems with my Verizon Wireless XV6800 reception out here, I posted the following:

Typcially I get 3 to 4 bars. You have to go down Sweetland Road about 1/2 from the center of North San Juan on hiway49. We have acreage, and the phone works everywhere except in the deepest and most sheltered canyons. Our house is 3.8 miles from the tower on Oregon House Peak, across the Yuba river canyons.

The data side (1x, not full EVO) worked beautifully for the first 30 days, and then began pooping out. Three service calls, and now it would appear that the tower is conked for some reason, or else they've figured out how to fap me just when I'm at home. If the latter is the case, I will drop the service. It throttles down to 1/2 of dial up speed, or useless. If they do not get it up and running soon, I will report back. When it is running, I only see 1x, not full EVO. 1x is still two to 4 times faster than good dialup. Lat 39, 22 Long 121, 7.

The phone works fine at full EVO speeds just 25 minutes away in Nevada City, so the problem is not in the phone. I drive there, it works great. I drive home, it runs at 1/2 dialup speed.



***********************************************************************************

If enough people use this, then we can all get a better idea of what the companies are offering, and we can keep tabs on their "Fair Access Policies." I'm nowhere near the supposed 5 gig limit for Verizon. I did notice that the Oregon House Peak tower had an exceptionally bright strobe on it a couple of nights back, but is now back to the nice dim red bulb of yesteryear. Maybe Verizon's tower blew over ?

No comments: