Cellular network coverage maps have always been questionably accurate in the US, and even the ones released by the FCC in 2021 come with a ton of asterisks. A company called Ranlytics hopes to paint a much more accurate picture by hooking up equipment to some of the mail trucks that are already driving to many places in the US to deliver packages and letters (through light reading). The data you collect will provide information about the quality of coverage “in a given city, on a given road, even in a given direction,” says the company’s CEO, Keith Sheridan, in an interview with the edge.
In a press release earlier this week, Ranlytics says it is working with the US Postal Service to measure AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon’s 4G and 5G networks in Seattle and is already producing the “most detailed available” coverage maps for select areas of the city. (He says the equipment he uses is also capable of mapping 3G networks, but they are largely defunct in the US anymore.) The company also says that USPS vehicles that repeat routes multiple days of the week allow it to track coverage changes over time, finding both locations. where there is no coverage and where there is coverage but a lackluster user experience.
Nationwide coverage mapping can be difficult, even for the cell phone carriers that run the networks and the government. He FCC Cellular Maps rely on data from carriers, which historically have not been the most reliable sources. They also do not include information on how fast those networks will be in any given location, and currently only show information for LTE networks, a big limitation in the 5G era.
According to Sheridan, the detailed data Ranlytics collects could help operators diagnose and optimize their networks, in ways that even their own data couldn’t. (He says the company’s equipment captures 800 metrics on all radio bands in use, 50 times per second.) a relatively small fleet of vehicles and other test equipment. “They are not measured. And that’s why coverage maps remain inaccurate.”
Sheridan says that Ranlytics has an agreement with the USPS to “go beyond Seattle,” but that it won’t unless clients like government agencies or carriers are interested in data from other areas. “We will not speculatively implement it on US mail vehicles, but rather in response to market needs.”
There are potential limits to the Ranlytics approach. For one, the equipment attached to USPS vehicles will obviously only collect data about roads and where mail is delivered, which could exclude large tracts of land like national parks or rural homes where mail can’t be delivered directly to the country. home. Sheridan says that in other countries, Ranlytics has worked on ways to collect data that “pleases where postal vehicles travel,” and that the devices could be attached to all types of vehicles, including those traveling to parks and catchment areas. of water, if necessary. be. (The company also works with Austria Post and will soon implement equipment on Portugal Post vehicles.)
As for rural areas, Sheridan says the company’s ultimate goal is to “cover as much of the country as possible, if not all of the country,” and that it is “aware that postal vehicles don’t travel everywhere.” He also says the company understands that data collection in rural regions is “critical, as this is where poor coverage issues are greatest.”
Given the company’s plans to expand into areas after customers demand data for them, as well as the potential additional effort required to obtain signal data that reflects coverage in real homes rather than mailboxes in rural areas, it appears that the goal of mapping the entire country could take a while. However, data on internet availability in less densely populated places is essential to address the digital divide that exists between places that have good enough internet to work or learn from home and those that don’t.
Update February 10, 7:49 pm ET: Added information from Ranlytics CEO Keith Sheridan about the company’s expansion plans, data collection details, and how it intends to deal with rural areas.
