20 Oct

Coverage? – Why am I receiving different coverage than the app indicates?

All of our maps are derived from the carrier’s own maps at our last update. We can only report what they themselves report. And especially during a rapid roll out of a new technology – the carriers are turning on new services faster than even their own maps can keep up.

If you’re receiving different coverage than the app indications, here are the possible reasons why:

  1. The carrier just recently turned the service on in your area, and they haven’t even updated their own maps yet. We typically find it can take the carriers several weeks to update their own maps, ever after making a press release that they’ve turned on new service. We update based off of what is reported on their maps, not what they have announced.
  2. The carrier has updated their map, but it’s not yet reflected in our quarterly updated maps. It’s inevitable that as soon as we submit an update, a carrier updates their maps. Don’t worry, our next update will automatically capture the changes. We just simply can’t process an update every time  a carrier switches on a new tower.
  3. Carrier maps do not guarantee the coverage you’ll actually get – which can be impacted by your device, signal strength, surrounding buildings & geography, weather, your specific plan and tower load.

Please keep in mind, Coverage? is not intended to report the actual coverage received at a location – there are many other apps out there that take user submitted reports (we like the Sensorly app ourselves). However, these are generally only useful in populated areas with an active user base – not everywhere. We created Coverage? to give us an idea if our next travel destination or route has a chance of having signal.

Two Steps Beyond LLC is the partnership of Chris Dunphy & Cherie Ve Ard - the two technomads of Technomadia.