P3’s crowdsourced data finds LTE coverage gaps
Interstate highways are often one place where people assume they will have solid cellular coverage — and that’s mostly true, but there are still “white spots” where coverage isn’t available or where only devices will only have weak 3G signals, according to network design and testing company P3 Group.
“There is still a huge difference in the degree to [which] the main U.S. carriers cover the Interstates with 4G/LTE technology,” P3 said in its report. “Not all of them provide satisfactory coverage on the interstates even with legacy 3G, let alone with 4G/LTE technology.”
Verizon had the most extensive LTE interstate highway coverage across the country, P3 concluded, with “nearly full 4G/LTE coverage on the whole interstate system.” 3G coverage areas or blank coverage spots were most likely to show up in areas in the middle of the country and the Mountain West, including the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming. P3 found that T-Mobile US has strong East Coast coverage, but its network along interstates in the Midwest and the Plains states had many areas of 3G coverage rather than 4G. AT&T also had strong East Coast interstate highway coverage, but some areas of 3G coverage in the Plains states. Sprint “broadly lacks LTE in the center of the country” along interstate highways, P3 said.
P3 relied on crowdsourced data collected from an app operating in the background and integrated with more than 800 Android applications to compare the networks and “analyzed where smartphone users could use data services on 4G and alternatively on 3G in the different networks on the U.S. interstate system,” the company said. Data was collected between March and May of this year and included more than 2.3 million measurements, and P3 said that its data set geographically covered 90% of existing interstate highways. The full report is available here.
In other test news:
-IoT company Senet has expanded its support for LoRaWAN-based low-power wide-area network planning with new platform features including a portal with network and capacity planning tools, as well as streamlined service provision and application monitoring. Full story here.
-In Rootmetrics‘ latest round of testing in Houston, Texas, Verizon had outright wins in five of six categories and a tie in the sixth. Verizon’s median download speed in the Houston market was 22.4 Mbps, with T-Mobile US also clocking a comparable median download speed of 21.2 Mbps. T-Mobile US had the fastest median upload speed of 17.3 Mbps in Houston.
Testing in Houston was conducted from May 7-12 using off-the-shelf smartphones; Rootmetrics conducted 3.349 miles of drive-testing in the market as well as indoor testing at 171 locations.
-U.K.-based millimeter wave component designer Blu Wireless said that its new WiGig baseband IP was successfully tested on the Bristol is Open testbed. The Hydra1.X IEEE 802.11ad baseband IP is designed for point-to-point or point-to-multi-point transmission for uses such as wireless backhaul and is part of IDT’s RWM6050 RapidWave modem integrated circuit (which is what was tested); that IC is already designed into multiple customer products, Blu said.
–GL Communications has added new tools for testing SMS services over LTE/IMS, UMTS and GSM networks, as well as a simplified web-based network surveillance system for multiple T1 and E1 lines.
–Accedian has introduced a new partner program as it expands into new markets and verticals after its acquisition of network and application performance company Performance Vision earlier this year. The new SkyLight 4X partner program will allow partners to resell the company’s full portfolio.
Sergio Bea, VP of global enterprise and channels for Accedian, said that partners in the program can “embed our unique technology into their current offerings and/or expand their traditional resell business. Accedian offers [a] subscription-based/software as-a-service (SaaS) business model starting with a one-month subscription.”
–Hanon Systems has expanded its anechoic and electromagnetic testing for vehicles at its Asia Pacific Innovation Center in Daejeon, South Korea. The two-story anechoic building has three new anechoic chambers for component, system or vehicle testing for noise, vibration and harshness testing; the company already has five anechoic chambers at the center. Meanwhile, Hanon added a 300-square meter EMC testing facility for assessing interference and electromagnetic noise at the component and vehicle level.
“The amount of electrical and electronic componentry in today’s vehicles is increasing at a rapid pace, which makes the potential for electromagnetic interference a key concern for automakers and suppliers alike,” said In-Young Lee, president and CEO of Hanon.
