Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

internetworkers - Re: [internetworkers] cellphone deadzone map

internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Ilan Volow <listboy AT clarux.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] cellphone deadzone map
  • Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 19:15:53 -0500


On Tuesday, October 28, 2003, at 06:04 PM, Sil Greene wrote:


.:> Man, would I love to have one of these for this area:
.:>
.:> New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has set up a system that allows
.:> citizens to report dead zones in wireless coverage throughout the
.:> city. He plans to publish a map of the dead spots on November 24, the
.:> first day for wireless local number portability.
.:
.:How hard could it be? We could set up an SMS or WAP interface so that
.:people could use their cell phones to... oh, wait... nevermind.

Nononono, that would work. Umm. You'd just have to wait until you were
out of the dead zone before sending.





Probably the easiest solution that non-geeks would actually use (because it requires no activity on their part) would be the cell phone automatically recording when and where it hit a dead zone, and then at some point when it gets in contact with a working cell to automatically transmit that data to the cellular provider.

To evade the catch-22 of needing a signal to record the location of a signal that doesn't exist, you'd either have to rely on the cell phone's GPS (which most phones don't yet have) or have the phone record the last location it had a viable signal. With enough people's phones automatically sending in data on the last location where their phones had a decent signal, the cellular providers can average that data out and get a rough idea as to the shape of the dead zone.

--Ilan

--
Ilan Volow
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page