Top 5 Competing Websites With Deadcellzones.com? (According to ChatGPT)

Here are a few websites that were active as of my last update:

Why Your Home Cell Phone Signal Has Stopped Working

Cell Towers vs Distributed Antenna Systems

If you live in a rural area of the United States it is likely that your cell phone signal strength has been fluctuating or might have dropped entirely in recent years as carriers move from 3G to 4G LTE.  Wireless carriers are increasingly moving services in areas from the very tall cell phone towers to the smaller distributed antenna systems as you see in the picture above.  Why?  

These very tall cell phone towers can provide 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE coverage of 1 to 2 miles and service several thousand people and homes from a single tower.  Carriers are increasingly dealing with capacity issues on these tall towers and have to turn wireless signals down or off in areas on antennas where there are congestion problems (too many users) or not enough customers (not profitable).  

This could result in your home that previously had several bars of cell phone signal suddenly not having any signal at all.  The wireless carrier may put up a DAS system in your neighborhood to fix the problem if you complain enough.  DAS or Distributed Antenna Systems are essentially smaller and lower power cell towers that are installed on top or inside of buildings or utility poles most commonly.  DAS antenna systems will provide service to a smaller number of people.  The theory is that your signal will be more reliable and faster.  

Unfortunately, the FCC or FTC has no mandate for the wireless carrier they have to inform you of changes in signal strength in your neighborhood.  Carriers might not even reflect this coverage accurately on their coverage maps for several years.  Deadcellzones.com has been operating for the last 18 years collecting complaints on a map of where customers have trouble getting cell phone signals.  

The complaint latest trend in the industry seems to be carriers optimizing their networks in markets and dropping coverage for "unprofitable" markets.  There is no guarantee that coverage will be provided at your home and this is the biggest portion of customer traffic adding data to the dead zones map.  

I am curious what some homeowners have done to remedy this problem with carriers.  Please comment below if you have any feedback or suggestions on how to solve this problem with each carrier.  These carriers have gotten so big that bureaucracy is probably the biggest obstacle to getting solutions for customers who have lost good home cell phone signals.  

Verizon Says OpenSignal Data Is "Not Valid"

Why Does Verizon Think RootMetrics Data is More Valid Than OpenSignal?  

They both stink & don't deal with the real problems!  Fixing coverage!  

Verizon dismissed OpenSignal’s data as “limited and non-scientific” after a new report said rival T-Mobile US was “within a stone’s throw of matching” the market leader on 4G availability.

OpenSignal’s Q4 State of Mobile Networks: USA report, based on 4.6 billion network measurements for the period, said its testers found a Verizon LTE signal 88.2 percent of the time. T-Mobile, meanwhile, closed the gap, reaching 86.6 percent. It also said the companies were neck and neck on overall 4G speed metrics.

Verizon, in a post on Twitter, questioned the validity of OpenSignal’s data.

OpenSignal said in the report its availability metric measures the proportion of time users can access a particular network, rather than tracking geographic coverage.

Verizon said: “OpenSignal provides crowdsourced data. Crowdsourcing favors downtown areas – that’s where the majority of the tests come from – so it doesn’t reflect the depth and breadth of the 2.4 million square miles of our 4G LTE coverage, by far the most in the industry.”

The company continued: “In addition to limited, non-scientific testing, with OpenSignal not getting a signal – the inability to perform a test is not counted against the results.”

Verizon then pointed to other studies from third-party testers including RootMetrics, J.D. Power, and Nielsen, which it said “do a better job of reflecting the actual customer experience.

“And in those tests, there is no real comparison”. RootMetrics, for example, ranked Verizon top in every category they tested in the first half of 2016, including speed.

Unsurprisingly, T-Mobile’s reaction to OpenSignal’s latest report was more favorable. The company released a statement hailing the results.

“When you combine T-Mobile’s value with great speeds and a coverage map that’s virtually indistinguishable to the big guys, well, let’s just say ‘it's on’,” said Neville Ray, the company’s CTO.

Does RootMetrics measure MVNO's like Tracfone? 

Does Rootmetrics & OpenSignal Drain Battery Life & Memory?

Sensorly, OpenSignal, MyMobileCoverage, or Rootmetrics apps basically turn your cell phone into a signal meter so you can measure your 4G & 5G cell signal strength.  These apps run in the background of your phone and send data to the provider.  They all aggregate the data and provide a theoretical coverage map.

Does The Sensorly App Drain Your Battery?

Do any of our readers use the Sensorly, OpenSignal, MyMobileCoverage or Rootmetrics signal measure apps the run in the background on a regular basis? I have been reading some blog posts that indicate that these apps drain the battery.  Would love your feedback on the added benefit if you like it or not?

Apparently they have getting a lot of user feedback and have updated the app. Here’s what you can expect in the newly updated Sensorly 3.9.6: On the Sensorly blog post they stated the following.

- Added Refresh Map Cache button to the settings page
- Fixed bug caused by switching networks on the map
- Tweaked max battery settings
- Fixed issue with the periodic wake timer resetting
- Improved Battery life

"User feedback centered around two main aspects of the app: battery life and the map. Some devices were not displaying mapped coverage and speed tests correctly, so we added a clear cache setting to reload map data and address this issue. Other map related changes will ensure that all map buttons function properly. We’re confident that these changes will provide a better overall map experience to our community."

"The team also made improvements to help optimize battery life, including making sure that maximum battery discharge for passive mapping keeps values set by the user. Changes to the way Sensorly performs check-ins and background tasks were also tweaked to aid battery longevity."