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Tools of the Trade
December 29, 2005
I RECENTLY STUMBLED ONTO two very interesting online tools offered by Sprint PCS and T-Mobile. Both provide some great insight into their coverage and where their antenna sites may be found. While useful for their customers, I can see how these tools may be helpful for site acquisition professionals, too.
The Sprint PCS tool, dubbed Tower Maps, shows its tower locations across the United States and those belonging to its largest affiliates (i.e. Alamosa PCS, iPCS Wireless, Ubiquitel, and US Unwired). The user-friendly database seems very accurate, but the web site does offer the following obligatory disclaimer: “Tower Maps sets forth the approximate location of some, but not all of our towers. These maps are NOT coverage maps and are not in any way intended as a guarantee of coverage or service availability.”
The T-Mobile tool is a bit different than the Sprint PCS tool, but it is nonetheless interesting. Called Personal Coverage Check, this tool does not show the exact location of T-Mobile’s antenna sites, but it does offer a much more detailed look at T-Mobile’s coverage areas. Verizon Wireless has a similar coverage tool, but it is not nearly as robust as T-Mobile’svery own Personal Coverage Check.
Looking a lot like a propagation study provided by an RF engineer, the Personal Coverage Check tool allows the user to enter an exact address or intersection to find out where T-Mobile offers service and how good it is likely to be. It is clearly (no pun intended) the most honest and detailed coverage tool available to consumers on the Internet today. ■
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