best cell phone coverage

Let's face it, nothing drives you more nuts then a cell phone cutting out in the middle of your conversation. Worse yet, when you attempt to call them back, you have no coverage. All of this on top of the fact that your provider shows, according to their coverage map, that your area 'should' easily be covered by a strong signal.

No matter how much we fight it, until we get the technology, there is always going to be dead spots. However, now you can find out where they're going to be with Signal Map. Signal Map is a user generated, cellular phone coverage map.

Once you jump onto the site, you will see exactly how it works. There are already a few thousand entries on the site including all major providers, their coverage details, the model of phone being tested and the exact location, via a Google Maps Mashup.

best cell phone reception

As you can see in the above screen shot there are only a few entries for Ankeny, but you get the general idea of how it works. Once you click on a user's entry, you have the ability to 'Flag it Inaccurate' and enter the proper signal strength in.

The below screen shot is an example of adding your own signal. You simply drag the red marker to your approximate location, enter provider details, phone details, and signal strength, and you've added your entry to the world.

cell phone coverage maps

Signal Map is in extremely early beta, so it does lack some features you may want to see with future releases. Such as a combination of all user entries into a site generated coverage map. However, for as simple as it is to view and enter data, this really could be a handy website, especially for smart phone users, and frequent travelers.

What do you think of the idea? Do you think this is something you'd use regularly?