[Tagging] [RFC] Feature Proposal - Cell Phone Reception

[Tod Fitch]

The reception you get depends on your phone: Android and iPhone use different algorithms to determine bars from signal strength. Phones vary on which bands they support, antennas, RF processing, etc., depending on manufacturer and age. So cell phones are not very good for detecting how good a signal is in the general case.

There are test devices specifically designed for determining mobile signal strength, direction of strongest signal, etc. for each possible band. People installing cellphone booster systems use these and while not super expensive they are not something I would expect a OSM mapper to buy.

> On Sunday, Aug 06, 2023 at 5:59 PM, Mike Thompson <miketho16 at gmail.com (mailto:miketho16 at gmail.com)> wrote:
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> On Sun, Aug 6, 2023 at 6:39 PM Evan Carroll <me at evancarroll.com (mailto:me at evancarroll.com)> wrote:
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> > While I don't disagree, that's not an argument for OSM. OSM's job isn't to mitigate real world safety issues caused by technology. It's to map generally useful geographically verifiable things.
> I don't understand how cell coverage isn't verifiable - visit the site (e.g. campground) in question, pull out your phone, note how many bars, try to make a call, send a text, use some data (perhaps run a speed test). Yes, it is only good for your carrier, but the carrier should be recorded. Yes, there could be network congestion, or a tower could be out, but we map roads, and they can be congested, or closed due to accidents, flooding, landslides, construction, etc. In some way, this is getting back to our roots, actually getting out and surveying, rather than just relying on satellite/aerial imagery.
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> Mike
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