Ranlytics announces the successful deployment of its mobile network measurement equipment on select United States Postal Service (USPS) mail delivery vehicles near Seattle.
All AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon 3G, 4G and 5G networks are now being accurately and regularly measured at almost every address within the select area. The resulting mobile network coverage maps are the most detailed available, are refreshed multiple times per month, and locate all areas impacted by lack of coverage, and by poor quality voice calls and data connectivity.
The measurement data can help wireless carriers locate every coverage hole, determine what is impacting coverage, and improve mobile network performance and user experience.
Both the FCC and Congress have identified accurate coverage mapping as an urgent problem that must be addressed to bridge the digital divide, and this revolutionary approach to coverage mapping is providing the most detailed and extensive insights into wireless service quality ever seen in America. With the Postal Service delivering mail 6 days a week, changes in coverage are quickly and precisely identified.
Understanding mobile network coverage and quality on every street and road has been a goal of the telecommunications industry for decades. But prohibitive costs, complexity, and technical challenges have prevented this goal from being achieved. So, wireless carriers have had no option but to rely on limited measurement, desktop projections and poor-quality crowd-sourced data. The inevitable result has been incomplete understanding of coverage & quality, persistent coverage holes, and inaccurate coverage maps.
Ranlytics has solved these challenges with the only fully-automated mobile network measurement and mapping solution in the world, which is also being deployed with other postal and fleet operators globally, including Austrian Post.
Ultimately, Ranlytics aims to accurately measure and map mobile coverage nationwide.
In another first, detailed mobile measurement data is accessible to telecommunications engineers, and non-technical users can access easy-to-understand summary information using the intuitive Ranlytics browser-based ranmaps tool.
All measured data is stored long-term, which means that changes in coverage that happen over time can be easily identified, and root causes of problems quickly understood. Investments in network coverage or state funded initiatives to bridge the digital divide can therefore be better targeted, and resulting network improvements verified.
Chief Executive Officer of Ranlytics, Keith Sheridan said that the collaboration with the US Postal Service delivers a quantum leap in understanding mobile network coverage.
“As the economy digitizes, communities and many industries throughout the country depend more and more on reliable mobile access to the internet.
Everything from remote health & education delivery and online self-servicing, to smart farming, precision manufacturing remote sensing, and autonomous vehicles depends on the availability of high quality mobile connectivity.
Yet we all know from personal experience that coverage holes still exist, and it can be hard to establish or maintain a quality connection in some locations, especially in rural communities. This isn’t just making digitization harder, but it can worsen the digital divide, with people in areas with good coverage enjoying access to products and services that are difficult or impossible to access where mobile coverage is poor.
The only way to truly understand mobile network coverage at a given location is to measure it using specialized equipment at that location. But making these detailed measurements over large areas has been a huge challenge for wireless carriers. And coverage holes can’t be improved if a provider doesn’t know exactly where they are.
We’re honored to be collaborating with USPS to solve these problems, and help to improve mobile network coverage and access to the digital economy for communities across the United States”.
