About & method
Cell Service - Verification System
Real-world mobile usability, measured by the people who pay for it. Bars are not service: your phone can show full signal while nothing loads. This app records what actually happened, so you have a plain, time-stamped record instead of an argument about signal bars.
App developed & provided for Trent Hills and Northumberland County by Steven Haylestrom.
How the measurements work
- A connection is not treated as good simply because the phone stays connected or shows LTE/5G. What matters is whether the service people pay for can actually be used, so connection reliability, data performance and responsiveness are reported separately.
- Cell Service - Verification System measures app-layer usability: whether small web requests actually complete, how long they take, and roughly how fast data moves. Connection checks run about every 2 seconds, a download check about every 30 seconds and an upload check about every 60 seconds on a road trip; a stationary spot test measures far more densely.
- Speeds are measured in kbps and stored that way as raw evidence; they are shown in Mbps (kbps / 1000) for readability. Only genuinely independent speed checks are counted - values carried forward onto later measurements are never counted again.
- Data-performance bands (Very Poor / Poor / Fair / Good / Excellent) and the data-impaired threshold are Cell Service - Verification System beta usability thresholds, not regulatory standards, and will be recalibrated.
- A data-impaired observation means the phone WAS connected but an independent speed check measured under 2 Mbps download or under 0.5 Mbps upload. This is deliberately separate from a dead zone, which means nothing got through at all.
- Web and iOS browsers do not expose cellular radio measurements, so those reports contain no dBm/RSRP/RSRQ/SINR signal-strength readings. The optional native Android build may include additional raw radio diagnostics, but these are clearly marked and never treated as proof of usable service on their own.
- A suspected dead zone is 10 seconds or more of continuous failed checks with no app interruption in that window. It stays 'suspected' until several independent trips on separate days see the same area - only then is it centrally described as confirmed.
- Periods where the app was backgrounded or the screen locked are logged as interruptions and excluded from scores, so a paused test is never reported as a dead zone.
- Location comes from the browser's own geolocation, so accuracy varies. Indoor spot tests describe a building or place, never a specific room position.
Your device
Recorded as Something else (laptop or desktop) (web_other). Change it if that's wrong.
Where your results go
Community reports - both the good service and the bad - are sent to the CRTC on behalf of the community to show how inconsistent cell service really is in Trent Hills and Northumberland County. Your anonymous results become part of that evidence.
Privacy
Your tests are saved on this phone first. Real tests are also shared anonymously to build the community picture, tagged with an anonymous install ID only - never your name, number, contacts or account. Feedback you send carries no location or route.
Anonymous install ID: 00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000
Version
- App: v1-beta.4 (beta-1/report-3)
- Method: beta-1
- Report format: report-3