Show HN: Coverage Critic Map – Combined Coverage Map for US Cell Networks

[chris-smith]

Hi HN!

I built a map that shows cell coverage from the major US networks. It draws primarily on data from the FCC, but that's supplemented/calibrated with a bunch of crowdsourced data from the DIMO project (dimo.zone).

My goal is to make comparisons between networks super easy--one click to toggle between networks or technologies.

I'm never sure how much to trust networks' self-published maps. I'm still in the early days of incorporating the crowdsourced data, but I'm hoping all the on-the-ground data can lead to a map that's more reliable than network operators' maps (those are largely based on RF modeling).

Couple notes: -Toggle options from the settings menu, like adding Dish & US Cellular or switching to exclusively crowdsourced data -Map shows native (non-roaming) coverage -Coverage info is most detailed while zoomed in

Would love any feedback!

Cheers, Chris

[samson-delilah]

Super cool, thanks for posting this! I don't know if it's included in the original dataset, but would be really neat if the technical tab had any info on latency / network congestion.

[chris-smith]

Thank you!

I don't have that info in the current datasets, but I could imagine down the road having a data source with latency information.

Network congestion is another beast. It's unfortunate, because I'm with you that it's really important. Only the network operators can measure congestion directly, and they don't share those metrics. I've wondered if I might be able to roughly guesstimate congestion levels in different areas, but I haven't come up with any terribly satisfying approach for that yet.

It's a bummer. Congestion is super important to the customer experience & super hard to assess short of actually buying and trying out a plan.