Vodafone customers collaborate to chart coverage

If you think network coverage maps are untrustworthy and always favour the supplier, here's a way to to put them straight. Vodafone has introducted a real-time UK coverage map, displaying the individual signals strengths of their customers. Vodafone Network Coverage Where's the best bars at? It requires punters to send in …

[Arnold Lieberman]

That's shit

There's no standardisation about what "1 bar" actually means therefore no value in this exercise. Of course, if someone has no signal they're not going to able to whine about it.

I'm sure if it wanted to, Vodafone could use it's own base station statistics to show what's really happening in proper units. But that would create customer involvement and therefore brand awareness, would it...

[Cylindric]

Why can't we all just get along?

On Android I use the "Sensorly" app to do this stuff for me automatically. Why can't all the operators kind of just chip in and use the same data? Oh wait... is it because they don't want us to know that their "awesome signal strength" maps are all made up?

[Nathan 13]

great

This is a beautiful idea, and will show the coverage is shit all over the place. OK voice are finally of an acceptable level after 20+ years of mobiles but mobile internet is appalling on ALL the networks.

My acid test for a quality "internet on my phone" service is an hours walk out and about streaming a 32kb radio stream without it disconnecting once. The best ive ever had was 6 disconnections so far.

[Frazer Mountford]

GPS Phones could do it automatically

Why havent they come up with an application that reads in the users position, records the current signal strength and current band, base station ID and then it sends the data to Vodafone.

But very scary for data protection so it would have to be opt in..