Carrier Coverage Private Beta [DOWNLOAD]

• Rob Jackson
• 13 years ago

What carrier is best? That question depends on a LOT of elements, but it’s a question that a new Android App – Carrier Coverage – hopes to answer. By non-intrusively collecting real-time data from it’s community of users, Carrier Coverage hopes to create the largest independent source of carrier coverage data on the planet, thereby helping consumers make important decisions.

The app is in private beta, but we’ve got Phandroid readers inside access to the download URLs:

• Carrier Coverage Download Link
• Carrier Coverage Forum

I’m not sure how long the private beta will remain open and the download links live, so if you’re eager to participate/contribute, head over there now.

The Carrier Coverage project is uniquely Android for two reasons:

1. Android’s community has the power to make it happen. The project can’t succeed without users contributing data and we all know Android has a tightly knit community of people who like to help other people. Android- simply put- is the ideal birthplace for this project.
2. Android’s source code is open enough to allow for the collection of data making this app possible. A compareable app on iOS would lack many features and capabilities.

If Carrier Coverage gains momentum, it could truly become a resource that makes actual carrier performance transparent and holds carriers accountable. It could help consumers identify the best carriers/devices at their home, at work, on vacation, when they’re moving, on road trips and more. It could also be used to identify industry trends and metrics. For example: custom Carrier Coverage reports could verify whether or not a certain carrier was experiencing an “outage” in a city or if a Carrier had switched on 4G connectivity in a given region.

Right now the app focuses solely on signal strength but the growth plan includes evaluating network types (2G vs 3G vs 4G), data transfer speeds (speed tests), various time periods, and more.

Head over to Download the Carrier Coverage Private Beta and be one of the first to contribute! We’ll keep you posted regarding developments.

[Via CarrierCoverage.com]