How Are Cell Phone Coverage Maps Generated?

Where Does AT&T Have 5G & 5G+ Coverage?

By committing to 5G requirements back in 2016, AT&T began running on a 5G network. Presently, with their low-band and millimeter wave spectrum network, they are already serving customers. The coverage map of AT&T 5G includes 190 regions of approximately 120 million individuals by April 2020. Of these, the low-band network encompasses 80 million individuals.

Verizon Has 5X More Lies Than AT&T

Verizon Dead Zones Map Showing Where They Lie

10 Reasons Why The FCC is a Joke

1) FCC evaluates competition locally and not Nationally. Are they stuck in the '90's?
2) FCC is funded by Verizon, AT&T & Comcast, and not taxpayers.
3) No transparency & FCC complaints go into a mysterious black hole

4) FCC thinks rural carriers have a fair competition with National carriers.
5) FCC violated our trademark and tried to replicate our dead zones service.
6) FCC trusts AT&T lies and propaganda.
7) It takes 10 years for FCC to force Verizon & AT&T to roam for regional carriers
8) FCC tried to ban cell phone signal boosters at the request of carriers
9) FCC refuses to acknowledge consumers getting screwed and our data.

10) FCC Staffers leaving to become a lobbyist for telecom companies.

AT&T & Verizon Control 85% of Total Wireless Industry Ad Spend

How can smaller regional wireless carriers possibly compete with the advertising giants of AT&T and Verizon who have historically controlled 85% of the advertising market?  Does the Obama administration take this into account when considering anti-trust issues or do they just consider whether there is access at the local level by other carriers?  The entire advertising market across TV, newspapers, and the Internet amounts to approximately $1.3B dollars according to Bernstein Research. Here is a breakdown of how the wireless industry spends advertising dollars amongst the top players.

4G False Advertising Lawsuits Are Coming

Where is Andy Rooney When you Need Him?

4G as we now use the term here in the US is a wireless speed marketing term. Today's 4G is actually only modified 3G and should be marketed as such and not 4G.  All of the carriers use the same term even though their speeds are different and have devalued it to the point where it simply doesn’t make sense to fight it anymore.  Just make fun of them and laugh.  These are lessons learned all of the theoretical coverage maps projected over the last decade.  4G is simply a marketing term wireless carriers use to distinguish new from old and slow from fast.

Here is an independent analysis of 4G speeds compared from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint.  These carriers are not held accountable for their speeds and won't anytime soon because the governing bodies are a bunch of puppet wimps.  Carriers will soon start suing each other and consumers will start suing the carriers for false advertising for the chaos.  These lawsuits should start popping up any day because our FCC and Consumer Groups are completely spineless governing bodies that can't regulate.  Ultimately lots of money will be made by aggressive lawyers and consumers will be left with holding a bag of shit.  It seems the planned obsolescence is the only way to sell ice to Eskimos and keep the industry alive.

I think we are at the tipping point of innovation and WiFi and this could change everything.  Our advice is to fight for free Wifi and more open public wifi hotspots.  Cutting out the carrier is the only option as this might be the final straw that breaks their back.

Where is Verizon Expanding Network Coverage?

What does this really mean for customers?  Is Verizon filling coverage gaps in areas where they previously have claimed to have coverage on their maps?  Is Verizon Wireless expanding network capacity to provide better data for its' customers?  Are they putting up new cell phone towers, adding wifi or allowing customers to finally use femtocells?

Carriers are sending out noisy press releases claiming to expand their network coverage in areas throughout the US.  Here is a great example of a press release that is just a waste of time, resources, money and effort.  Verizon Wireless Expands Network Coverage in New Jersey With New Ramtown Cell Site.  This press release is trying to convey a message to their customers explaining that they are adding one new cell phone tower in the state of New Jersey.  Do they really need to do a National press release explaining this to their 92 million customers?   This is a complete waste of time resources, money and just hype that is press release noise.  Here is a suggestion of how to better use your resources and make your media department convey a message that is useful to more people.

I have a suggestion for you Verizon Wireless.  Why don't you provide more transparency about where you are expanding coverage on a daily basis on a beautiful coverage map like we do on our Verizon coverage map (below)?  Is it because you want to make it virtually impossible for media and consumer advocacy groups like Deadcellzones.com to audit your coverage claims and expansion progress?  Your press hype is ridiculous and your lack of clarity of where you are expanding coverage is too confusing for any Verizon customer to understand the value of your daily regional press releases.

Here is a suggestion.  Provide a map of where you are expanding coverage would allow customers, employees, service providers, consumer groups and cell phone tower operators to understand where you have invested your resources to improve capacity and connectivity.   Your Verizon coverage maps are completely worthless to the average consumer now that dropped calls and data congestion are more common than it was ten years ago in 2000.  Your senior management team needs to wake up and stop be paranoid about your competition because your lack of clarity and transparency is appalling.

Related Posts:
Where is AT&T Wireless Expanding Mobile Coverage?
Where is T-Mobile Expanding Coverage?

Where is MetroPCS Expanding Coverage?

Verizon's Arrogance Now Rules the Air
False Advertising of Cell Service Availability
Identifying Dropped Call Locations
Verizon Has 5X More Lies Than AT&T
Verizon Wireless Plans and Coverage Review

Femtocells for Rural Customers

It looks like femtocells may soon be used to serve sparsely-populated rural areas that are conventionally thought of as uneconomic to install a cell phone tower.  Femtocells can now serve as "instant economical infrastructure" to help emergency services or rural residents who are just fed up getting the run around from their local carrier or cell phone tower companies.  Getting the attention of carriers to install new cell phone towers has been the frustration of many wireless customers who live in remote areas.  Femtocells can now provide an economic alternative to to ugly and expensive cell phone towers that often require multiple carriers piggybacking upon a new development site.

Roke Manor Research a Siemen's company has developed the world's first 3G Wide Area Coverage Femtocell capability. Using picoChip's technology as the development platform, Roke's reference design has a 40km range which delivers more than 40,000 times the area covered by most other femtocells. It is also the first to support full mobility at speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour, allowing mobile users to travel while connected to the 3G base stations. The femtocell will support up to 12 simultaneous users, with Release 5 HSPA and a software upgrade to Release 6.

Femtocell basestations offer a low cost and low power solution for implementing a WCDMA network. However, they are only suitable for short range communications of around 200m and as such are ideal for home networks. Roke, however, can now offer all the benefits of a femtocall (small size, weight and power consumption) with an enhanced range of up to 40km.

Roke has demonstrated a reference design on a picoChip PC202 platform. The Physical Layer code has been modified to extended the coverage area by 40,000 times whilst maintaining full mobility. In essence, the Roke modifications permit a macrocell performance in terms of range and mobility within a fetmo hardware platform. The modified solution has been tested on-air at ranges up to 25km and vehicle speeds up to 120km/hr.

Benefits of Roke's modified femtocell base-station include:

• Small Form Factor
• Low Power Consumption
• Range up to 40km
• Support of 16us Delay Span
• Mobility up to 120km/hr
• Up to 12 users
• IP Connection to Network
• Circuit Switched Voice Support

Related Stories:

How to Get Cell Reception on Your Property

Rural Wireless Customers Have Fewer Choices

Rural Wireless Carriers Have Better Coverage

False Advertising of Cell Service Availability

Stuck in Dead Zone During an Emergency - Dial 112

What Are Femtocells?

False Advertising of Cell Service Availability

David (deadzones.com) vs. Goliath (carriers)

After some increased blogger and social media exposure in rural areas of the US, we have started to notice a groundswell data from customers located in smaller US cities who are falling victim to continued false advertising from mainly the bigger carriers Verizon and AT&T.  We have decided to focus our efforts and begin exposing these areas more prominently in our blog and on Twitter @deadzones to show where consumers are getting screwed.  Our goal is to raise the level of exposure in these neglected smaller cities in order to help improve service in the local area.  The following towns and cities are just some of the areas listed on dead zones map in the last 90 days that specifically highlight that Verizon's Coverage Map is making false claims.

Where Do Verizon's Coverage Maps Lie?
Olinda, California - "No service Verizon even though the coverage map says excellent coverage"
Gresham, Michigan - "Dead zone your coverage maps are a lie"
Bridger, Montana - "Map shows coverage, the whole town is a dead zone."
Madison, North Carolina - "How does Verizon get away with their coverage maps that certainly do not reflect actual coverage???"
Lake Mack Forrest Hills, Florida  - "Bad inside and outside. It was the same with Sprint, but Sprint's coverage map showed I would have trouble Verizon's coverage map shows I should have a full signal. Verizon wants to blame the phone I am using they are FOS."

Verizon Consumer Generated Coverage Map

Why have we picked on Verizon? Because they are the most aggressive about hyping their coverage maps and someone needs to make them accountable to their claims. We will get to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and others as well in due time. Here are links to other carriers coverage maps that we recommend you check before claiming their coverage maps lie on our site: AT&T Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, Tracfone, Alltel, US Cellular, Cricket Comm, Qwest Wireless, Metro PCS