CellViz

Your Cell Network - In 3D.

Your Cell Network - In 3D.

Unfortunately, the evolution of the Android platform and devices has made it difficult to gather data on cell tower locations on many devices. I'm keeping this app on Google Play for people that still find it useful on their device.

Known limitations:

• Cell tower locations are not available on GSM devices (AT&T, T-Mobile)

• LTE signal strength may not be supported, depending on your device and Android version

• CDMA cell tower locations come from your CDMA cellular provider. If you see wrong tower locations, please email us at [email protected] and we'll try to work with them to get it fixed!

• Verizon, in particular, seems to often provide bad data for tower locations, which CellViz will filter out. In this case, you'll see cell signal quality info on the mobile map and in Google Earth (i.e., same as GSM), but not tower icons or lines.

CellViz turns your phone into the ultimate cell network analyzer tool. With a few taps, CellViz records cell signal information to build a high-definition view of your cell network. CellViz is the only app on Google Play that allows you to visualize your data in 3D in Google Earth desktop.

On supported devices, CellViz shows your real-time position, the cell tower you’re connected to in real-time*, as well as your history of cell towers your phone communicated with from when you started a test*. By using CellViz, you’ll not only know where you can’t get good cell signal reception, but you can also share this data with your cell carrier to help them troubleshoot your problems.

In Google Earth, see the number of bars that you cell phone had at a location, and track cell tower handoffs as you move from one area to another*. See CellViz data in 4D by using Google Earth’s timelapse feature, which shows you moving around on the map as the data was collected.

** How do I use CellViz? **

CellViz lets you visualize your cell network in two easy steps:

1. Record data using this app

2. View the results in Google Earth desktop

In Google Earth desktop, you can see 3D columns that represent the quality of your cell signal at that location (like the number of bars you see in your status bar). Signal quality is indicated by the color and height of the column – bad signals are red and short columns, while good signals are green and tall bars. Medium signals are somewhere in between. You can see raw data for a particular cell tower or cell signal strength by clicking on the item.

** Why is this better than the cell signal map my carrier has on its website? **

1) CellViz uses the GPS technology in your phone to make a fine-grained map of cell signal levels, which gives you a very high-resolution view of your network. Carriers typically provide maps that label several city blocks with the same cell signal level, since they aren’t collecting high-resolution data.

2) CellViz uses YOUR DEVICE to collect data. Carriers typically use expensive and customized cell signal equipment to record signal levels - this is the data that they show on their website and that they use represent all devices on their network. Mobile devices are all unique, due to things like antenna configuration and interference with other system components - CellViz reflects this uniqueness.

Please let us know what you think of CellViz by leaving ratings and comments!

If you'd like to help us improve CellViz, email us your data at [email protected].

*Cell tower locations and cell tower handoffs are only available on CDMA devices (e.g., Verizon, Sprint). However, GSM devices (e.g, AT&T, T-Mobile) are still able to collect raw cell signal information and visualize this in Google Earth.

** The location of the CDMA tower marker may indicate either the physical location of the cell tower, or the center of a sector of cell tower coverage, depending on how your cellular provider has their network configured.

*** WiMAX support is currently experimental and may not work on your device.

What's New in the Latest Version 2.1.4

-v2.1.3 - Better filtering of bad tower locations (e.g., Verizon devices, Samsung Galaxy Nexus).

Please let us know if you still see bad tower locations by emailing us the data at [email protected]

Sluggish performance? Turn off lines and squares by unchecking “Settings->Show Mobile Polygon/Line History”, or increase the distance between mobile squares via “Settings->Min. Dist. Mobile Map” (doesn't affect Google Earth output).