Cell Coverage Hole Detection

Cell coverage hole detection refers to the process of identifying areas or locations with poor or no cellular network coverage. These coverage holes can result in dropped calls, slow data speeds, or complete loss of connectivity in certain areas.

Detecting cell coverage holes is essential for telecommunication companies and network operators as it helps them identify areas that need improvement in terms of network infrastructure and signal strength. By identifying these coverage gaps, network providers can take necessary actions to enhance coverage and improve the overall user experience.

Here are some common methods used for cell coverage hole detection:

Customer Feedback: Network operators often rely on customer complaints and feedback to identify areas with poor coverage. Customers may report dropped calls, weak signals, or data connectivity issues, which can help pinpoint potential coverage holes.

Drive Testing: Drive testing involves driving or traveling through various areas while monitoring signal strength, call quality, and data performance. Specialized equipment or mobile apps can be used to collect data on network performance, allowing operators to identify coverage gaps.

Signal Mapping: Signal mapping involves creating detailed coverage maps by measuring signal strength and quality at various locations. This can be done using specialized tools or crowdsourcing data from users through dedicated apps or services.

Network Performance Monitoring: Network operators continuously monitor network performance metrics, including signal strength, call drop rates, and data throughput. Anomalies or patterns indicating poor coverage can be detected through data analysis.

Site Surveys: Network operators may conduct physical site surveys in areas where coverage issues are reported or suspected. These surveys involve evaluating the signal strength and quality on-site, assessing the surrounding environment, and identifying potential obstacles or interference sources.

By utilizing these methods, network operators can gather valuable data and insights into areas of poor coverage, enabling them to plan and implement solutions such as adding new cell towers, adjusting antenna configurations, or deploying signal boosters to improve coverage in those areas.

Why Did AT&T Acquire Carrier IQ?

Back in 2011, data collection developer Carrier IQ caused a firestorm of criticism after a security researcher discovered its kernel-level software could be used to track smartphone users without their consent or control. Four years later, the company has been swallowed up by one of the telecoms that used it. TechCrunch reports that AT&T has acquired the assets and some staff from the startup, effectively shutting Carrier IQ down.  It's been over four years since the company's data-logging mobile phone software was revealed, resulting in accusations of privacy violations, lax security, lawsuits both from and against the software maker and its partners, and eventually the removal of Carrier IQ code from phones via security patches. The months-long scandal basically killed Carrier IQ as a company... but now its corporate assets are owned by a carrier AT&T.

The fallout from the Carrier IQ discovery was swift and widespread, foreshadowing the privacy debate that Edward Snowden's NSA leaks would later engender. The tracking software was revealed to be on 150 million smartphones at the time, leading to numerous telcos and handset manufacturers like Apple, HTC, T-Mobile, and Blackberry either admitting to their installing CIQ or categorically denying that they did. Sprint went on to remove the software outright. After the imbroglio, the Mobile Device Privacy Act was introduced in Congress to prevent this exact kind of data collection. However, the legislation never passed.

It sounds like AT&T will continue to use Carrier IQ’s software to troubleshoot wireless signal issues and improve its network. And since Carrier IQ talent is jumping on-board, we can all assume will continue using the technology on AT&T phones.  See articles  Article 2

Why Are Mobile Phones Mysteriously Dying

Cell Phone Industry Conspiracy Theory 

I am growing skeptical of an wireless industry that could be using shenanigans to make smartphones die.  Why would a carrier install a bug or make your software fail for a few select customers?  Because your phone is likely out of a contract and they want you to upgrade and need the revenue.  We have no idea or control over the software that is being installed on our phones.  Automatic updates happen frequently and have no control over it.  Therefore, we would never know if T-Mobile or Verizon in particular are purposely causing our phones to die with corrupt software and calling it a hardware failure.

I am a conspiracy theorist when it comes to carrier fraud and there is not reason why my laptop can last for 8+ years and my phone continually craps out after 18 months.  This has happened repeatedly and I am beginning to think that there is corruption within the industry to drive sales.  It happened to my wife who has a Verizon Droid and now me how has T-Mobile G2 Android phone.

I can't wait until the day something like this is uncovered by a techie similar to the Carrier IQ monitoring software that was being installed on our phones.  If anyone has any evidence to substantiate my claims I would like to know in the comments below or send me an email.   I can see a class action coming very soon if someone uncovers evidence.

The only evidence I have is that our phones have died on Friday or Saturday each time.  Anyone else experience this on similar days?  Super convenient for you to just run into a T-Mobile or Verizon store to boost their business.   SCAM!

I have not experienced or heard of these problems with Sprint or with AT&T.

Carrier IQ Sued in Delaware Federal Court

Apple, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Carrier IQ Sued in Delaware Federal Court in Cell Phone Tracking Software Scandal.

WILMINGTON, Del., Dec. 2, 2011- The law firms of Sianni & Straite LLP of Wilmington, DE, Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy LLP of Edison, NJ, and Keefe Bartels L.L.C. of Red Bank, NJ, have today filed a class action complaint in Federal Court in Wilmington, Delaware related to the unprecedented breach of the digital privacy rights of 150 million cell phone users. The complaint asserts that three cell phone providers (T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T) and four manufacturers of cell phones (HTC, Motorola, Apple and Samsung) violated the Federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Electronic Communications Act, and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The carriers and manufacturers were caught last month willfully violating customers' privacy rights in direct violation of federal law. A technology blogger in Connecticut discovered that software designed and sold by California-based Carrier IQ, Inc. was secretly tracking personal and sensitive information of the cell phone users without the consent or knowledge of the users. On Nov. 30, 2011, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary said in a letter to Carrier IQ that "these actions may violate federal privacy laws." It added, "this is potentially a very serious matter."

David Straite, one of the attorneys leading the action, noted "this latest revelation of corporate America's brazen disregard for the digital privacy rights of its customers is yet another example of the escalating erosion of liberty in this country. We are hopeful that the courts will allow ordinary customers the opportunity to remedy this outrageous breach." Steve Grygiel, co-counsel for the proposed class, agreed: "anyone who cares at all about their personal privacy, or the broader constitutional right to privacy, ought to care and care a great deal about this case." Barry Eichen added, "today's comment from Larry Lenhart, CEO of Carrier IQ, that his software is somehow good for consumers starkly demonstrates what is at stake."

A copy of the Class Action Complaint in Pacilli v. Carrier IQ, Inc. can be viewed on the Firms' websites at www.siannistraite.com, www.keefebartels.com, and www.njadvocates.com.

Plaintiffs are represented by Sianni & Straite LLP, a Delaware-based litigation firm with a branch office in New York, Keefe Bartels LLC, a New Jersey-based plaintiffs' rights trial law firm, and Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy LLP, a leading plaintiffs firm with three offices in New Jersey.

Carrier IQ Claims to Ignore Personal Info

Connecticut-based systems administrator Carrier IQ has found itself in hot water of late. Gizmodo recently broke the story that revealed how the company tracked information on most Smartphones without users’ knowledge or ability to opt-out. This revelation came to light via the YouTube video posted by Android developer Trevor Eckhart which demonstrated that Carrier IQ circumvents web encryption to pick up on passwords, Google queries, and other web activities.

Predictably, wireless customers have been outraged, and carriers themselves have sought to distance themselves from the company. Furthermore, Senator Al Franken sent Carrier IQ CEO Larry Lenhart a stern letter warning of possible legal action and demanding an explanation by December 14.

CIQ has recently come to its own defense, however. They are insisting that their intentions are altruistic rather than malevolent. The company released a statement assuring the wireless community that they do not store SMS messages, e-mail, photos, audio, or video recordings. "We measure and summarize the performance of the device to assist Operators in delivering better service," they explained. Additionally, CIQ has claimed that the monitoring operations they undertake are totally on the behest of the carriers.

Andrew Coward, CIQ’s VP of Marketing told The Wall Street Journal’s All Things D that, while the software listens for specific, keystrokes to send diagnostic information to the carriers, they are not privy to the actual message.  They claim to ignore your personal information but still have access to it.

“If there’s a dropped call, the carriers want to know about it,” Coward clarified. “So we record where you were when the call dropped, and the location of the tower being used. … Similarly, if you send an SMS to me and it doesn’t go through, the carriers want to know that, too. And they want to know why — if it’s a problem with your handset or the network.”

Coward also maintained that CIQ does not share the data with any 3rd party operators, and thus consumers have nothing to fear.

Senate Investigation of Carrier IQ Spyware

U.S. Senator Al Franken just sent Carrier IQ a nasty letter. Today Franken fired off a letter to Carrier IQ CEO Larry Lenhart raising questions about the company's practices and demanding answers by December 14.  Earlier this week a story was launched by Gizmodo that Carrier IQ is Secretly Recording your Mobile Phone Actions.

It appears the Carrier IQ software captures a broad swath of extremely sensitive information from users that would appear to have nothing to do with diagnostics—including who they are calling, the contents of the texts they are receiving, the contents of their searches, and the websites they visit. These actions may violate federal privacy laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This is potentially a very serious matter.  Read the letter below.  Click to enlarge.

Carrier IQ is Secretly Recording Your Phone

If you have a newer Android phone, everything you do is being recorded by hidden software lurking inside. It even circumvents web encryption and grabs everything—including your passwords and Google queries. Worse: it's the handset manufacturers and the carriers who—in the name of "making your user experience better"—install this software without any way for you to opt-out. This YouTube video, recorded by 25-year-old Android developer Trevor Eckhart, shows how it works. This is bad. Really bad.  See details of this article first posted by Gizmodo.

 

The spying software is developed by a company called Carrier IQ. On their site, the company says they are "the only embedded analytics company to support millions of devices simultaneously, we give Wireless Carriers and Handset Manufacturer's unprecedented insight into their customers' mobile experience."

Is this the best way to track user experience, dropped calls, and coverage problems?  I think there is a better way and Deadcellzones.com has demonstrated that consumers are capable of reporting problems directly to a web site if given the resources to do it.  Carrier IQ is a well funded VC backed company that tracks billions of anonymously reported coverage problems and dropped calls by passing along this data directly to the carrier.  They receive millions of dollars per year from carriers to track this.  However, does the carrier even do anything with the data despite the reported issues?  Is this the classic "deer in headlights" problems with billions of reception problems reported?  Isn't there a better way to prioritize the problems people are experiencing? How about trying crowdsourcing coverage problems from actual customers.  Deadcellzones.com is certainly a model to start thinking about.

Related Stories:
U.S. Senate Investigation of Carrier IQ
Carrier IQ: Mobile Service Intelligence ?'s 

Carrier IQ: Mobile Service Intelligence ?'s

Why are wireless carriers unwilling to look at open data source solutions (ie. deadcellzones.com) to solve problems and would rather spend 1000X more on a solution that might not return any more value than free solutions. Is it a control issue?

When I speak with telecom industry insiders about the value that Carrier IQ providers to their customers (who?) it isn't clear.  The only things I have heard from people who know the company is that they have "issues" and their data is "too expensive".  I have tried to reach out to the company several times unsuccessfully to see about building a mutually beneficial relationship.  One of my biggest "pet peeves" being a telecom industry outsider is the incestuous nature of protected carrier business relationships.  As I see it the carriers are unwilling to look at open data source solutions to solving the problem and would rather spend 1000X more on a solution that might not return any more value than we do.  In my view, the RF engineers are trying to protect their jobs at all costs and continue to create complicated stories that the marketing / business people can't comprehend.

From what I hear about their fancy mobile handset intelligence solution is that it provides quantifiable data that their customers can act on but are they really solving the problem better than we are?  What is wrong with having actual customers log complaints where the network stinks for free.  Carrier IQ probably thousands of handsets on the market that are generating data on their behalf that the consumer doesn't even know about. Its impossible to fill in all of the billions of places that have coverage gaps so shouldn't a smart carrier purchase data where their customers WANT it most.  As you can see I am a reluctant supporter of applications that sit on the handset and eat up bandwidth, battery life and network bandwidth.

Bridgescale Partners recently led a a $12M series D round of financing for CarrierIQ a provider of mobile service intelligence solutions that use the mobile phone to give detailed metrics on service quality and usage. Mohr Davidow Ventures, Accel Partners, Charles River Ventures, Nauta Capital, and Intel Capital also participated in the round.  If anyone can share customers or revenue history please post on the comments section below.  However, here is a summary of their funding history which seems very elaborate considering the simple problem they are solving.

Total Funding - $42M

Series A, 8/06 $10M

Mohr Davidow Ventures

Accel Partners

Benchmark Capital

Series C, 1/09 $20M

Intel Capital

Presidio Ventures

Sumitomo Corporation

Series D, 6/10 $12M

Bridgescale Partners

Related Stories:

Cell Phone Coverage Hole Detection

Can You Drive Testing Indoor Coverage?

The Best Sales Job in The World

Is Working for a Virtual Company Who is Improving the Wireless World

Job Location - Anywhere in World
Type - Full time or Part Time Contractor for Sales / Business Development  

Job Description - Looking for a sales executive who has relationships with wireless operators, cable operators & regional telecom infrastructure service providers. Full-time or part-time executive will be responsible for licensing our database of cell phone reception problems (dead zones, dropped calls, data congestion locations). Custome data sets are sold on a volume, regional and carrier basis. Target customers include companies who provide regional drive testing, RF testing, network optimization, cell tower installation, distributed antenna systems, cell tower operators and femtocell manufacturers. The executive should have familiarity with competitive data offerings such as Groundhog Tech, Carrier IQ, Nielsen (Telephia), GWS Wireless, AT&T "Mark the Spot" and Root Wireless.
 
Skils
•  At least 5 years experience in the wireless industry
•  Understanding of cellular industry, either from the operator or system vendor side
•  Excellent presentation skills
•  Project management skills is a plus
•  Marketing sense is a plus
•  Fluent in English or one of the major languages
•  Computer Skills: Microsoft Office Applications (Word, PowerPoint)

Company Description - Deadcellzones.com is a consumer-generated map of outdoor and indoor cellular coverage problem locations. The website is dedicated to identifying cell phone dead zones in buildings, homes and outdoors. These are locations where cell phone service is not available, calls are dropped or where network data congestion is frequent.  The website was founded in 2001 and has become the central hub for consumers and wireless to identify network coverage problems.  It is our mission to report coverage complaints efficiently to wireless carriers and mobile retailers through our mapping API.  The company licenses data to the following telecom infrastructure firms for both marketing and operations:  wireless operators, cable operators, distributed antenna, femtocell, repeater, VoIP, broadband and cell phone retailers. The map has a searchable map database of in-building and outdoor coverage problem locations and has been EBITDA positive since 2001.

Send resume, phone contact information and available time for a phone interview to jeff@deadcellzones.com

Walmart & Target Indoor Reception Problems

Does Your Local Walmart or Target Store Have Cell Reception Problems Indoors?

I was shocked to learn after doing some database mining this week that Target and Walmart had some of the most complaints listed in our dead zones database.  Walmart (4,000 US stores) has over 20 locations listed as dead zones and Target (1,700+ US stores) has 15 locations listed as having poor reception in our consumer-generated coverage database.  This can't be a good thing especially for Walmart who recently announced a partnership offering TracFone pre-paid wireless plans.  These retailers are going to sell millions of cell phones yet many of them do not have good cell phone reception indoors.  I am sure we are not even scratching the surface of other Walmart and Target stores that also have horrible coverage.  Ironically, there was only one Best Buy store (1,000 US stores) listed in the database so they must be doing something different with their in-building coverage. 

To submit a coverage problem in a store, first, search our database and find out if your store is listed.  If not, submit the reception problem by dragging a pin into the location of the store on the map.  Cell phone reception can be improved indoors but someone needs to be informed that it doesn't work first!