How can I get an accurate idea of cellular network status inSan Francisco?

Spammay Blockay wrote:
> I'm an ATT (ex-Cingular) subscriber in San Francisco. In my neighborhood (Haight Ashbury)
> about a month or so ago, my service suddenly got pretty bad. Almost no connectivity at
> all near my home.
>
> I called ATT support, and after an hour talking my way up the chain, they told me that
> they had recently stopped partnering with another company who had a tower in this area,
> so that may have led to the sudden signal loss in the neighborhood.
>
> This weekend, signal loss was pretty much complete within a several block radius of
> my house.
>
> I'm wondering if there is *any* way to get some kind of true, accurate picture of
> signal strength and support in any given area. It takes hours to find someone who
> knows what's going on, if at all, and there doesn't seem to be any kind of network
> status page for ATT that shows a real-time idea of what areas have outtages, what kind
> of fiddling they're doing with the network, who's towers are being used and who's
> are no longer being partnered with, etc.

I find the AT&T maps to be pretty accurate, though their definition of
"moderate" coverage usually means "no coverage." Around my house their
are areas of "Best," "Good," and "Moderate," coverage, and it's all
true. Up on Skyline Boulevard there are areas of no coverage, and the
map shows them. They also have a color code for "partner coverage," so
if that's disappeared from your area you'll have a good idea of the
coverage (or lack of it).

"http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/"

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Spammay Blockay wrote:

> Thanks much - last time I looked (admittedly quite awhile ago), the
> coverage maps weren't as detailed as they are now. I just checked,
> and see that my house exists right in the armpit (as it were)
> of a "Moderate" coverage area. i.e. almost no coverage, as you
> mention. It's an oddly shaped area that has this coverage
> profile -- kind of like a shadow... possibly there's a hill in
> the way somewhere. I wonder if there's any chance of a planned
> tower to take up some of the slack in these "moderate" areas
> someday. :-/

You should check the T-Mobile coverage and see if they cover your area.
This would confirm what AT&T said about dropping a roaming partner. I
though that on post-paid that you could roam onto T-Mobile from AT&T.
Unfortunately, in many parts of the bay area T-Mobile coverage sucks,
but there's occasionally an area where they have better coverage than
AT&T. Of course Verizon has the best coverage in the bay area by a large
margin, at least according to all the independent surveys.