About
This website is dedicated to helping map the extent of cellular network coverage. This is done by crowdsourcing data using the CellMapper mobile application. Once the data is received, the coverage areas are calculated and cell phone tower locations are estimated based on available information.
An example of a thoroughly mapped network can be see on the map of
T-Mobile 3G coverage of Seattle, WA.
Get Involved
- Download CellMapper for your phone (Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile)
- Enable live upload and drive/walk/bike around
- Visit the map for your provider in a few hours to see your results
If you do not want to use live upload, use the
upload page to upload the CSV files CellMapper produces on your phone.
News
April 29, 2012
VisualCell 0.1.0 released
April 14, 2012
Now using CDMA tower location data (part of CDMA spec) when calculating tower location
Multiple tower that overlap at maximum zoom now moved apart once clicked
April 8, 2012
Many backend changes to fix LTE/CDMA issues
CDMA tower location is now very accurate if the phone returns the location of the base station (most Android phones)
Fixed an issue where LTE towers are never "accurate" on the map
April 7, 2012
Multiple CellMapper releases to fix CDMA/LTE bugs
Map has been updated to have move wiki links
Backend improvements to triangulation. Providers such as Bell/Telus UMTS are now much more accurate
March 27, 2012
Released CellMapper 1.2.1 with iDEN and LTE support
Map support for iDEN/LTE with proper signal to colour mappings
March 14, 2012
Added region toggle to filter by region
March 4, 2012
Launched new map layout (mobile friendly).
Lots of new changes:
- Database has been normalized, which has yielded a significant performance hit
- Cache tracking of individual towers and tiles to avoid regeneration unless there is new data.
- 2G/3G toggle
- Direction of cell is now calculated
- Many more zoom levels
- Cleaner layout/faster
February 12, 2012
ARFCN support is coming for Windows Mobile. It only works on certain Qualcomm based devices only.
The picture below shows an HTC HD2 and a HTC S520 (Maple)
Now released, see the Windows Mobile section
February 10, 2012
CellMapper 1.1.2 for Android released with CDMA support
February 5, 2012
Added support for Open Street Maps for areas where Google Maps has less detail
January 30, 2012
CellMapper 1.1.1 for Android has been released to the market/site.
January 28, 2012
New algorithm has been implemented. This should significantly reduce the amount of towers that end up being extremely far away from their actual location.
The site has moved to a new server.
Old: Intel Atom 1.6 GHz with 2GB RAM
New: Intel Xeon 5150 2.66GHz with 4 GB RAM
With this upgrade, it may be possible to do about 2-4 times more cycles per day to generate data.
A simple run of generating tower data for one tower with over 10k data points resulted in the calculation time going from 60 seconds to about 9 seconds!
January 24, 2012
Some backend maintainance completed and some slight tweaks for the map.
October 27, 2011
Added more filtering to remove invalid data. This should make the main region map more reliable.
October 22, 2011
Release CellMapper 1.1.0 (in Android market) to allow CellMapper to run in the background and keep the screen on all the time. Some phones may have issue when backgrounding CellMapper and locking the screen (may flash on/off)
October 10, 2011
Numerous small improvements for data filtering/weeding out invalid data
July 10, 2011
Fixed dates on some towers showing up as all zeros
Added ARFCN number when mousing over the frequency in base station details
July 5, 2011
CellMapper has been published to the Android App store due to many requests, see it
here.
archive
June 17, 2011
Alpha version of VisualCell released! Give it a try
here.
Please note this is not a new version of CellMapper, and should be treated as a demo.
June 2, 2011
Added last date tower was updated.
Added CDMA specific info.
Fixed an issue where BSIC would never get updated for a tower despite information being added.
May 11, 2011
Made clicking on regions without a set centre go to the first available tower.
May 2, 2011
Support for non-standard network layouts such as Orange Austria or Bell/Telus Canada, Claro Argentina. More will be update later to properly combine cells into towers.
Apr 27, 2011
Combined a number of regions. Please send me an email or post in the forum if you feel that certain ones should be grouped/ungrouped.
Tweaked the map layout a bit and included more links to the wiki
Apr 24, 2011
New map display and almost complete backend rewrite. Tiles and tower should appear instantly.
New server should be significantly faster and have better uptime
Wiki now up, so you can add information about specific towers (link is shown when you click on a tower on the map)
Apr 6, 2011
New CellMapper for Android is progressing nicely. It will make use of Google Maps to display the information on this site directly on your phone
Apr 6, 2011
Combined lots of regions in Russia.
Apr 3, 2011
New Android version is available. Its a small update to fix some bugs/gitches/UI issues.
Feb 16, 2011
Uplink/downlink frequencies for GSM are now displayed if available.
Feb 16, 2011
Uplink/downlink frequencies are now displayed if they were recorded (check Mobilicity - Toronto for example). They are on a per tower basis and only work on UMTS networks for now
Feb 15, 2011
- The (U)ARFCN is now recorded from the BlackBerry client, which will in turn allow the tower info to display the actual frequency that it uses (coming in the next few days)
- There is quite a backlog of region naming/combining, which I hope to get sorted out soon.
- I hope to have a nicer Android client, re-written from the ground up, very soon. It will solve having to keep the app in the foreground and make data visualization easier via Google Maps.
Unfortunately, the new Windows Mobile client will most likely be scrapped unless there is demand for it.
Feb 10, 2011
Released a new Android version with numerous bugfixes.
Jan 11, 2011
System subtype now displayed (i.e EVDO/HSDPA). This will be displayed for data submitted as of yesterday with the latest version Android/WM.
Jan 9, 2011
Working on a complete re-write for the WinMo version for touchscreen devices. You can see a preview
here
Jan 2, 2011
Android version 0.3.3 is up. I know there is a big backlog of naming/combining regions, I will get onto that as soon as I have some spare time.
Dec 19, 2010
- Android version 0.3.2 is up with a few bug fixes/new features.
Dec 5, 2010
- CellMapper for Windows Mobile 0.4.3 has been released! See the WM section for more details.
Nov 22, 2010
- Update *many* place names and combined various regions to make the region list smaller/more useful
Nov 18, 2010
- Fixed a bug where cells without towers were not being displayed when clicking the coverage button.
- Cells are now retrieved automatically when there are no towers detected.
Nov 11, 2010
- Cell towers now grouped by the shortCID and not the full CID.
- Cell coverage is now retrieved per tower when you click it, and not at once. You can also see all the coverage areas by clicking "coverage" in the top-right corner. This should make pages load faster and browsers more responsive.
Nov 7, 2010
- Added a BSIC (Base station identity code) for tower/cell info.
Nov 6, 2010
- Some new, major, changes made to the BlackBerry client. It fixes an issue with some network information not being displayed on certain types of networks.
Nov 5, 2010
- Two methods of signal display are now available. Signal blocks display the more precise dBm reading, while signal trails just show a colour from green (best signal) to red (worse signal)
Nov 3, 2010
- A new month and some great news. The BlackBerry client is here! Give it a try and let us know if you have any issues with it.
Oct 31, 2010
- Signal tiles should load faster.
- Tower approximation algorithm changed to be more accurate when signals only farther away from the tower are available.
- Android version now verified to work properly for CSV writing/uploading (thanks to poldo for testing both the Windows Mobile/Android and mapping the area around Gorizia, Italy)
Oct 26, 2010
- Android version a0.3 is up. Now uploading can be disabled and CSV files are now generated if you have an external media card installed.
- See the Android version page for more changes.
Oct 24, 2010
- Tower detection algorithm can now distinguish between two basic CellID naming schemes.
- World map markers now open in new windows, so you don't have to find the location on the map you were on previously.
Oct 22, 2010
- Android version a0.2 is up. This build has only been tested on the emulator, but it fixes a couple of obvious bugs.
Oct 19, 2010
-
Improved tower calculation algorithm significantly for providers that use non-standard CellID naming schemes. This may result in multiple towers being displayed in an area for providers who use the standard scheme and have more than 4 cells per site.
I will compile a list on providers who do/don't do this, and the double towers should disappear once that is complete.
- As a bonus, on places where there are multiple towers on the map, the tower will be right between the two markers
- CellMapper 0.4.2.0 is out, download it
here.
Changes:
- Added settings dialog to change upload/recording interval
- Fixed an issue of invalid CSV files being generated by some phones in Europe
- Added options to change upload/record interval
- Added option to display metric/imperial units
- Made the upload much more reliable, with retries if the upload fails
- The first download link I posted was wrong, so download this again if the program doesn't work (or this one if your browser cached the old one)
Oct 18, 2010
- Fixed CDMA display tiles to have the correct number of bars (different dBm to bars mapping than that of GSM/UMTS). A good example is
Kalamazoo, MI
Oct 16, 2010
- Updated the map layout again for better visability
- Clicking on a coverage area now bring up the info about the cell tower (if it was detected). Hovering over them will tell you details about that cell (even if a tower isn't detected)
- Made cities and towers with multiple location codes work properly once a tower or region is clicked
- Added theoretical coverage (only accuarate in flat terrain)
- Updated signal tiles to make them easier to read
Oct 13, 2010
- Updated the map layout to make it a bit easier to interpret while still retaining the same functionality
- Tower detection algorithm was slightly improved
Oct 12, 2010
- A new, cleaner, layout is now used! You may need to use the refresh button to get it to show up properly.
- Forum was added for support/requests/questions
Oct 11, 2010
- Regions/Providers are now added right away (with a temporary name)
- Added world map to make searching easier
- Added a
forum for support. No registration is required!
Oct 9, 2010
- Released version 0.4.1 of CellMapper. This fixed the issues of CDMA phones not reporting the proper country/provider code. Likewise, Force GPS is now selected by default.
Oct 8, 2010
- Fixed the backend to warn you when you discover a new region and the delay that will happen before it is added. If the region already exists, it is updated instantly without any delay
- Lots of new regions/countries/providers were added. Thanks to everybody who contributed! Keep the data coming!
- A new interface for the list was integrated, along with cell phone tower accuracy now being displayed.
Oct 7, 2010
-
Some people using CellMapper in Europe might have received an error message when uploading. This has now been fixed (the issue was a comma used instead of a period to denote decimal points)
- Lots of new locations and countries added!
- Fixed reports not working in some places or showing providers that were far away
Oct 5, 2010
-
CellMapper 0.4 Beta has been released. It can now upload data directly to the server as well as store the CSV file for later submission. See above for the link!
- System type now displayed on map
Oct 4, 2010
Some minor changes:
- Added last update date to each map
- Decreased accuracy of cell tower location triangulation to detect more towers.
Sept 29, 2010
Some minor changes:
- Coverage areas are now true convex hulls (withhout tearing)
- Layout has been cleaned up and a bit easier to use
- Site is now a bit faster
- Clicking on a tower now highlights the cells coverage areas
Sept 28, 2010
Some major backend work was done on the site. The change you will notice is the new buttons on the top right corner of the maps to enable/disable various features. The signal blocks are now off by default in order
for the interface to look less cluttered. You can enable it by using the Signal button.
A new feature was added called "Click Report" which generates a report of the closest signal when you click in an area. You will need to click this button in order to enable the features.
For feature requests, please e-mail me at the address on the bottom of the page.
Privacy Policy and License Agreement
This application is free to use for personal use only and I assume no responsibility for any damage this application may cause inadvertantly.
This application generates a CSV file that stores your current location, cell phone tower, and signal strength. Likewise, live upload will send this information directly to the site.
This web site stores your IP address and any requests you make or files you submit. This information will not be made publically available in an identifiable manner.
Contact: contact /at\ cellmapper.net
