• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Carrier Coverage

U

UncleMike

Android Expert
Is anyone using this app? I installed it over 4 months ago and have been contributing data ever since, making my chosen carrier (AT&T) look good, since the only other data points in my area were 3 points from a single user. For many weeks, AT&T and the Galaxy Nexus (mine) were the top carrier and device in my area. Suddenly, all my contributions seem to have disappeared form their database, leaving Verizon's lesser coverage, and whopping 3 data points in my area.

I send an email to their support over two weeks ago, and to date have gotten no response.

My device is rooted, but my data doesn't show up even when I allow rooted data to be used in the report. So I'm wondering if anyone else is using the app and seeing the same lack of results.
 
UncleMike: Ive been using it since before I purchased my Galaxy Nexus and moved over to T-Mobile (the app helped me choose a new carrier). 3 or 4 months later and I'm still using it, and have not noticed anything like what you've described. Have you tried posting on their official forums?

http://carriercoverage.com/forum/


Mike, the app only works for the US. :(
 
I was about to say that their official forums are littered with spam, making them virtually useless, but decided to click on your link first before doing so. They look fine now, but I swear there was nothing but spam appearing yesterday.

Regardless, I resent my email to their support and got a quick reply. The issue is apparently with MVNOs (I'm using Straight Talk / AT&T). MVNOs like Page Plus or Virgin Mobile are pretty straight forward in that they use a single underlying carrier; every customer for a given carrier should see the same coverage. But for a MVNO like Straight Talk, the underlying carrier could be any one of the big 4, and could be based on your chosen device for CDMA devices, or the SIM for GSM devices. There is no single Straight Talk coverage map.

Even the maps Straight Talk provides are misleading, indicating that all Android devices receive the same (Sprint) coverage. Most Straight Talk branded Android devices do operate on Sprint, but the Galaxy Proclaim operates on Verizon, and a customer-provided Android phone on their BYOD (bring your own device) plan will operate on either AT&T or T-Mobile, depending on the customer's choice (or they can allow Straight Talk to decide).

Developing independent coverage maps is not as straight forward as some might think, and apparently Carrier Coverage isn't sure yet how they want to present data collected from MVNO customers, so they are excluding it for now.
 
Did they just recently begin excluding info from MVNO carriers? Or did I misunderstand? Just wondering as Cricket and Boost are both showing under my list.
 
They auto detected my device as a Galaxy Nexus (correct) and my carrier as AT&T (I'm using Straight Talk on AT&T). About 6-8 weeks ago the app started showing "no approved data for AT&T".
I'm not sure why they suddenly stooped considering my data "approved".

I think the issue is primarily with MVNOs with multiple underlying carriers. I realize that Boost fits this description, so I guess I'm still not clear on this, but they assured me that they are working on how to include data like mine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom