Database Info

Crowd Sourced Coverage Maps

I've created an Android (for now - maybe other platforms in the future) application called Coverage Mapper (http://www.coveragemapper.com), available in the Market. It logs signal strength data while you're moving around, uploads it to my server, and generates maps.
It started in the WIND Mobile on hofo, because WIND is a new cell carrier, so their coverage isn't as broad or consistent as carriers that have been around for decades.
Take a look at the website and the maps, and if you want to try it out, download the app and turn it on the next time you go driving around.
Also, it only works for GSM-based phones for now.
Keep in mind, it's still what I would consider a beta application, but I think most of the serious issues have been eliminated.

There are several similar apps out there, none of them particularly fit into the same niche... This is pretty cool sounding though, I will run it.
As with most apps I assume that one needs to be on 2G for it to reliably work? I still don't understand this limitation, as I used several cell tracking programs in Windows Mobile on 3G, but 2-3 similar things in Android read weird data if on 3G.
I haven't used it yet, but is there any tracking of cell tower locations and estimations of those tower locations based on signal and GPS location? Ideally as it gets more data, the estimation is updated. I ask because there's a tower near my wifes old workplace that has eluded me and it drives me nuts not knowing where the thing is. Otherwise I know where all of the towers are in town from previous mapping, but back to your app would be interesting to see the actual coverage.
EDIT: So far in the maps I only see "road coverage", no interpolation of area coverage. And the terms? Tsk..

khaytsus said:
There are several similar apps out there, none of them particularly fit into the same niche... This is pretty cool sounding though, I will run it.
As with most apps I assume that one needs to be on 2G for it to reliably work? I still don't understand this limitation, as I used several cell tracking programs in Windows Mobile on 3G, but 2-3 similar things in Android read weird data if on 3G.
I haven't used it yet, but is there any tracking of cell tower locations and estimations of those tower locations based on signal and GPS location? Ideally as it gets more data, the estimation is updated. I ask because there's a tower near my wifes old workplace that has eluded me and it drives me nuts not knowing where the thing is. Otherwise I know where all of the towers are in town from previous mapping, but back to your app would be interesting to see the actual coverage.
EDIT: So far in the maps I only see "road coverage", no interpolation of area coverage. And the terms? Tsk..
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It works fine for me on 2G and 3G. I don't know why something wouldn't work on 3G.
I am logging the cell's LAC and Cell ID, but I'm not doing anything with the data yet.
For now, all you'll see are the paths people have travelled. The data is all accurate (i.e. no interpolation). I could probably add another layer to guess actual coverage, but one of the purposes of this app was to show carriers where dead spots are. There are definitely areas with a bad signal where a few hundred metres in all directions, you have a great signal. I don't want to interpolate a good signal in spots like that
Related to your tower issue, however, can you not get a list from the FCC? I know in Canada, all that data is public, and updated monthly, allowing things like http://www.candiancow.com/wind

Wow what an awesome Idea! Great way for us to get really accurate coverage maps! Thanks!

If you would consider making it store the data offline and sync it when in wifi range I'd probably install it.
I do not have a dataplan, so 2G/3G would be a bit too costly

minus30 said:
If you would consider making it store the data offline and sync it when in wifi range I'd probably install it.
I do not have a dataplan, so 2G/3G would be a bit too costly
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It does do that...

Does anyone use this now? Its been a year now.
I just found this app now (Late to the party) but have already started running it.
Only question i have is I am on Virgin mobile and not sure if my data will appear properly on the map (runs off Sprint Network)

ja5219 said:
Does anyone use this now? Its been a year now.
I just found this app now (Late to the party) but have already started running it.
Only question i have is I am on Virgin mobile and not sure if my data will appear properly on the map (runs off Sprint Network)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also replied to your email, but for the benefit of everyone else:
CDMA devices are notoriously bad at reporting their network ID. About half do it, and half don't. There are a bunch of hard-coded conversions to get it working for some devices/networks, but I'll try to get it working for yours later this week.

Data transfer speeds

I'm not sure what is going on with my phone.
Since the 16th of January, my phone's data service appears to have crashed out.
Prior, it was working fine. I was running an old version of Perception with Firebird, and Phoenix with Firebird (2), using the I9000UGJL2 modem. I got ~~5.0Mbps down, 1.6Mbps up consistently on HSPA, and the more meek 3.8Mbps down, 1.5Mbps up on UMTS. Both times around 100-250ms ping.
All of a sudden on the 16th, my phone has now hit the crapper. Speedtest no longer reports me at my location (instead in either central Florida or northern Texas). On the download test, the dial will slowly rise to .06Mbps, then on the upload test either just not work and flash a token gesture .1Mbps or sit at 0 and then do a rapid bounce back and forth between ~~3Mbps and 0, usually reading at one of those extremes. My ping has also skyrocketed to upwards of 600ms for no reason. This is also indifferent to whether I'm using HSPA or UMTS.
Since this time, I've flashed several different modems and several different ROMs. All produce the same result, as does CWMing to some really old backups. I have mastercleared in between some of these, but it has done nothing.
I know it's not an error with the Speedtest app, because I can still do it on Wi-fi and it'll read as my home PC reads. My phone's internet browser reflects the same cause, taking upwards of 20 seconds to load Google mobile.
Anyone encountered anything similar or can explain why? The slowness is becoming inexcusable, and I can't use my phone on the network anymore for internet. I have to leave it on Wi-Fi to my disdain. At this rate, I'm leaving ATT the moment I'm given the chance. I'm not even close to going over my data allotment, so I don't really know what could possibly account for this.

att is in the middle of updating to 4g. Some more terrestrial areas are going to be sol fire a bit sadly. Where do you live?
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

skatcat31 said:
att is in the middle of updating to 4g. Some more terrestrial areas are going to be sol fire a bit sadly. Where do you live?
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Bridgewater, NJ. But this happens no matter where I am. Even if I approach NYC, it's still crap. I can't tell whether this is a network cap issue, a "phone is broken" issue or a "network is bloody awful" issue. It doesn't seem to be terrestrial, because I've taken it to Philadelphia and NYC and both places have been awful. Meanwhile, going out into the more rural bits still puts me on EDGE, which still yields the same reading (but that's the norm for me on 2G networks).
The key aspect here, I think, is that the readings are EXACTLY THE SAME regardless of the network mode that I am in. It's really confusing me.

I've noticed a determent in my speeds and ping as well. Before, I used to be able to get 3.5+mbps down and 2mbps up with 200ms and now I struggle to get 1mbps down and always end up with 1.5mbps up. In real world, it's more like 300kbps down and 300kbps up :/
I shouldn't be complaining but I live in the DC-Metro area and this determent has been getting WORSE for about two or three months. My ping right now is 600+ms and Speedtest NEVER catches my location right, it keeps saying I live in Kansas.

Have u tried manually changing the server on the speedtest app? I get better ping results from a server that is 600 miles away than a server that is 80 miles away.. just wondering :/
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

born_fisherman said:
Have u tried manually changing the server on the speedtest app? I get better ping results from a server that is 600 miles away than a server that is 80 miles away.. just wondering :/
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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...Of course. lol That's the first thing you could do to improve it. AT&T Is shipping me a new Captivate (sucks that I have to reinstall all my apps on it :/) and i'm getting it by tomorrow. I can verify if it's a device problem or AT&T's network since I could assume if i'm having the same symptoms as OP and it's fixed by a device exchange...
Then the way to fix this problem is a call to AT&T (ask to be transferred to level 2 support)

born_fisherman said:
Have u tried manually changing the server on the speedtest app? I get better ping results from a server that is 600 miles away than a server that is 80 miles away.. just wondering :/
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Done it with my 2 local servers, the Kansas server, the Texas server, the Florida server and the Sydney NSW server (the last via my MobileAP tethered computer).
All the same uber-slow reading, ping generally gets worse as I go farther away. Nothing really out of the ordinary.

Aus_Azn said:
Done it with my 2 local servers, the Kansas server, the Texas server, the Florida server and the Sydney NSW server (the last via my MobileAP tethered computer).
All the same uber-slow reading, ping generally gets worse as I go farther away. Nothing really out of the ordinary.
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Have you considered it might be your modem? It really sounds like it's connecting via EDGE or even GPRS o_o even when it shows a nice pretty H or 3G in the top right corner.

I came on XDA to talk specifically about this also. I am near the NYC area roughly 35 min north and my HSPA speeds have dropped and thought it was my phone crapping out on me. Speeds have lowered similar to the OPs post and I am guessing it is because of the new towers they are putting up since how drastically i've lost bars I tried switching basebands and making sure i'm solely on 850 and 1900 and also tried 850 alone. Well i'm glad it's not only me =] i'll keep you posted if it fixes itself.

shishir95 said:
Have you considered it might be your modem? It really sounds like it's connecting via EDGE or even GPRS o_o even when it shows a nice pretty H or 3G in the top right corner.
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As said in original post, I've swapped through several modems and several masterclears. Both dialer codes and phone status show that I'm connected to the right networks relative to what it shows in the corner.

Aus_Azn said:
As said in original post, I've swapped through several modems and several masterclears. Both dialer codes and phone status show that I'm connected to the right networks relative to what it shows in the corner.
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I have also, when did your problems start btw? mine have started today with the speed issue.

I had this issue a few weeks ago. I got a new captivate, and after a day of use it happened to my new phone. I called again and was sent to a store for a new SIM card. Problem solved. My SIM card was from 3 years ago, and I don't know how many phones. I thought they couldn't go bad, but that fixed my issue, no problems since.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

quarlow said:
I had this issue a few weeks ago. I got a new captivate, and after a day of use it happened to my new phone. I called again and was sent to a store for a new SIM card. Problem solved. My SIM card was from 3 years ago, and I don't know how many phones. I thought they couldn't go bad, but that fixed my issue, no problems since.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
It happened to me also when I got a new captivate and tried using my sim and after getting a new one it worked flawlessly but this situation is different. I keep running speedtest and i'm getting erratic speeds sometimes i get 2mb/s down and then other it's barely 60kb/s, I feel like it definitely is a network issue near NYC. Only time will tell what it really is.

s1l3ntk1ll said:
I have also, when did your problems start btw? mine have started today with the speed issue.
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Click to collapse
As stated in original post, January 16th, aka last Sunday.
quarlow said:
I had this issue a few weeks ago. I got a new captivate, and after a day of use it happened to my new phone. I called again and was sent to a store for a new SIM card. Problem solved. My SIM card was from 3 years ago, and I don't know how many phones. I thought they couldn't go bad, but that fixed my issue, no problems since.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
I have a new SIM from my phone's activation because my old one looked like there was quite a bit of wear on the contacts (4 years old, mind you, from the dawn of ATT's mainstream 3G release)... If this keeps up, I'll try to pester them for a new SIM again.

I have been having speed issues also but not sure it's related to your issues. I loaded Cog 3.03 on my phone to try it out. Prior to the load I was getting 1300 - 2500 up and 154 - 386 down. After I loaded Cognition it dropped to about 84 up and 40 down. I was going to go back to stock but thought I'd give it a try for a bit. It has slowly gone back up. Last night I got 2928 up and 314 down. The last 3 tries were all over 1300 up and 300 down. Not sure if it is phone or network related but I'm going to keep watching. Just tried a speedtest and got 1061 down and 73 up but I'm also on the 1st floor in the middle of my building. I'm going to let it go for a few days and see if I need to try tweaking anything or if the speeds settle out some. So far I'm pleased with Cognition. Thanks for the dev work.

I noticed all the 3g towers near me recently switched from 1900 to 850. Could it be that your non-us modem doesn't handle 850mhz band well and internally switched to edge? With stock modem, I can barely reach 200k upload speed.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

CatFan said:
I have been having speed issues also but not sure it's related to your issues. I loaded Cog 3.03 on my phone to try it out. Prior to the load I was getting 1300 - 2500 up and 154 - 386 down. After I loaded Cognition it dropped to about 84 up and 40 down. I was going to go back to stock but thought I'd give it a try for a bit. It has slowly gone back up. Last night I got 2928 up and 314 down. The last 3 tries were all over 1300 up and 300 down. Not sure if it is phone or network related but I'm going to keep watching. Just tried a speedtest and got 1061 down and 73 up but I'm also on the 1st floor in the middle of my building. I'm going to let it go for a few days and see if I need to try tweaking anything or if the speeds settle out some. So far I'm pleased with Cognition. Thanks for the dev work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That could just be your phone getting "used" to ATT's network. I remember, when I first activated service with ATT, it took a long time for my phone to authenticate with the network, gradually shortening over time. Working under the assumption that you're doing this in Kbps, those speeds are actually disgusting. Your down speed is ridiculously low, and your up seems so variable. I think it's beyond a ROM issue; I've never experienced significant differences in ROM use and download speed, except when I first upgraded to HSUPA.
foxbat121 said:
I noticed all the 3g towers near me recently switched from 1900 to 850. Could it be that your non-us modem doesn't handle 850mhz band well and internally switched to edge? With stock modem, I can barely reach 200k upload speed.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Nope, don't think so. I have GSM radios disabled on my phone: I forced WCDMA only via *#2263#. Forcing WCDMA 850 alone still produces the same result. As I had said, even after master clears (forgot to mention via OCD to JF6), I still came up with these lousy readings. Checking radio status via *#0011# tells me most of the time that I'm on 1900, so...
As an update to the situation, I've permanently switched to I9088ZNKP1. Still no change, other than marginally better ping. As this is nearly marking a week, I'm becoming very tempted to just drop ATT a line and ask them what the hell is going on and how I can fix it. I refuse to send my phone back though, proud 1007 owner, and the phone is in impeccable condition. Though I doubt they'll be able to help in any other capacity since us blokes here on XDA don't seem to be aware of what's going on here.
EDIT: Just got off the phone with ATT, surely enough they could not come up with a reason or an explanation; they removed and reinstated me on the network and still no change. Ah well, time to CWM backup and OCD back to JF6. Bringing my phone into the store.

[Q] 3g issues

Anyone else having 3g connectivity issues starting around 5est today. I was in my normal service area and things started to go really really slow. When running the "radio" ping test it would find the IP address quickly, and the last test of the three quickly (sorry dont have my phone in front of me) but when trying to connect to google it would take forever. Then I just noticed (11:30 pm est) my home screen location widget was a blank location. So i tried running the ping test again (i have the 3g icon) and was getting zero results. Wifi works fine, and a battery pull did nothing. This reminds me of the issue last month, but it could be isolated. I live just north of NYC.

Mine has been fine here in Indy.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Mine is out here in North Jersey. Cant get a data connection but says 3g.

[Q] Data towers selection?

so i noticed in the speedtest.net app there is a option to change servers before or after you run the test, the app auto selects the closest server, im useing ninja 0716 with Lords kernel 6.2, anyways i run the test several times with the closest server selected automatically its in my city 10 miles away i consistently get very very poor data speeds, i then switch to the next closest server which is 55 miles away and run the test several times and get very consistent results with amazing speeds 4X what i get with the close server??? anyways what im hoping is that there is a way to make my phone ignore that close server so that i can always connect to that server that is further away, then i will have the data speeds that i pay for??? maybe edit the build.prop or something i hope someone here can help me

The speedtest app is very inaccurate if you want more reliable speedtests you should navigate in the browser to a something like speakeasy. The server you speedtest to has nothing to do with the tower your connected to. There are tweaks you can do to get better speeds.
Sent from my INSPIRE 4g using XDA App

any one else?
so server or tower either way the accuracy of speedtest dosent matter to me consistency is consistency, i have great speed every where but my neighborhood, because of this local tower or server that my phone sticks too, i want to bypass this so that im connected to one thats further away, by the way i tested this with other apps and got the same results every time.

now i get you, you want specify which tower you connect to. It would be hard to trick the phone into connecting to a weaker signal. Have you tried speedtests late at night to see if your speeds are better. if its slow all the time the tower might not have the backhaul done yet. or it may have issues, some towers are slow due to misconfig. there is one in the next town over from me thats always 1.5 meg down 24/7 just so happens to be the one that the at&t store is near the store told them multiple times that its slow and they wont do anything to fix it. you would think they want that tower to have good speeds but thats at&t for ya.

The ATT corporate store where I live is in a spot with horrible coverage and is also unable to get u-verse. Their wi-fi is from dsl. 1.5 mbps d/l speed. LOL.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using the power of the dark side.

biglittlegato said:
The ATT corporate store where I live is in a spot with horrible coverage and is also unable to get u-verse. Their wi-fi is from dsl. 1.5 mbps d/l speed. LOL.
Some of them put microcells in the store, so when your checking out the phone the speeds fly, but when you goto the parking lot they drop to normal speeds.......sad.
Sent from my INSPIRE 4g using XDA App
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i hope someone can help
i have tested at night and it is better but still very very poor in comparison...d

Chances are you're connecting to the same cell tower when you run that test w/ varying speeds on speedtest, it just so happens that the server in which you're testing against is either 1)highly congested or 2) having issues. You're getting the speeds you pay for when testing on each of them but one ST.net server is able to reflect it more accurately than the other.

greentrees89 said:
so i noticed in the speedtest.net app there is a option to change servers before or after you run the test, the app auto selects the closest server, im useing ninja 0716 with Lords kernel 6.2, anyways i run the test several times with the closest server selected automatically its in my city 10 miles away i consistently get very very poor data speeds, i then switch to the next closest server which is 55 miles away and run the test several times and get very consistent results with amazing speeds 4X what i get with the close server??? anyways what im hoping is that there is a way to make my phone ignore that close server so that i can always connect to that server that is further away, then i will have the data speeds that i pay for??? maybe edit the build.prop or something i hope someone here can help me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried Open Signal app from the market? It at least indicates which tower you are connected to by CID and such, and provides a map of it's general location using Google maps. Also logs the pertinent signal stats. I've mapped out my environs pretty good using it...and now know what to generally expect from the network. I live in a virtual forest of towers, so knowiing which tower I'm connected to and knowing it's general performance over time..well I'm just into that I guess. ... Along with knowing by CID and location a couple of really kick azz towers that are good for the ego to run a test and get a kick butt number.

WTF?
Tx Redneck said:
Chances are you're connecting to the same cell tower when you run that test w/ varying speeds on speedtest, it just so happens that the server in which you're testing against is either 1)highly congested or 2) having issues. You're getting the speeds you pay for when testing on each of them but one ST.net server is able to reflect it more accurately than the other.
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ok let me make this clear IM NOT A FUC**** IDIOT when i run the test im not connected to the same tower with varying speeds OMG! consistent speeds all through out the day on every test, the accuracy means NOTHING, ive used all speed tests so yes i have Open Signal installed and guess what i get the SAME results, when i switch towers either by using speedtest and manually switching or by leaving my town, i get great i mean great speeds consistently once again ACCURACY MEANS NOTHING FOR THESE TESTS!!!

greentrees89 said:
ok let me make this clear IM NOT A FUC**** IDIOT when i run the test im not connected to the same tower with varying speeds OMG! consistent speeds all through out the day on every test, the accuracy means NOTHING, ive used all speed tests so yes i have Open Signal installed and guess what i get the SAME results, when i switch towers either by using speedtest and manually switching or by leaving my town, i get great i mean great speeds consistently once again ACCURACY MEANS NOTHING FOR THESE TESTS!!!
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Well gee you know it all. Why did you come on here and ask anyway?...it's was hard to understand what kind of help you want to be honest...and now that I do, go find your own answers.

Dude, Texas Redneck answered your questions correctly. Quit being such a NOOB! Evidentally you don't know the difference between a tower and a server or have any idea of the concept. The tower is where your phone gets connection from. It is that big antenna close to you with the dishes on the top. Most likely you are using the same tower when you run the test if you stay in the same place.
When you connect to speednet you are connectiong to one of their servers. So your signal may go from your phone > tower > server A > speednet server A. If you change speednet server it may go phone > tower > server A > server B > speednet server B. There could be numerous servers in between or none. The closer you are the less there should be so as to say giving you the fastest test connection. But there are many factors. The tower can be congested and so can the servers. So depending on the time of day or which servers are congested your connection speed could be fast or slow.
But you cannot switch servers or towers to use your phone on. They are determined by what ip address you are accessing and your location. So if your town has a capped tower and connects to a slow server then you get slow speeds. Or move.

LOL
OK your funny i know what a tower is you make me laugh, this and ACCURACY make no difference to me, it dosent matter what test i use or what server they use, all that matters to me is connecting to a tower that is further away, the phone selects the closest tower for me, someone out there knows how to change this, im am hopeing they will reply here and share this info, and everyone else that being you! can mumble the obvious to them selves and not waste my time, lol your funny there are very smart people that occasionally poke there heads in here to laugh at NOOBS like you, if im lucky one of them will stop by and chat with me about tricking my phone into connecting to the tower of my choice, since you obviously have no idea what im talking about FU** off, lol thanks for the laugh

[Q] 3G speeds and whats with Wichita, KS

Have you used speedtest.net on your triumph? When the test is running have you noticed that it displays the server it is testing against? I live in California and mine says Wichita, KS. What is up with that. Seems like a long way to go to get to the internet. Is it possible that all VM traffic goes through one point?
When you run speed test what is the server location? Are we all going to Wichita, KS?

davidfig said:
Have you used speedtest.net on your triumph? When the test is running have you noticed that it displays the server it is testing against? I live in California and mine says Wichita, KS. What is up with that. Seems like a long way to go to get to the internet. Is it possible that all VM traffic goes through one point?
When you run speed test what is the server location? Are we all going to Wichita, KS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can change which server you are testing through. I don't think it makes much of a difference what that says. I think that is just the server the app happens to be running on at that time, but I could be wrong.