Mapping 3G, one handset at a time

Since officially launching its crowd-sourcing network mapping app at CTIA, Root Wireless has seen interest skyrocket. When Root Wireless launched its network performance mapping service last year, it had compiled detailed maps of the 2G and 3G networks of the big four carriers in eight of the country's largest markets. Now it aims to complete the map throughout the country -- with a little help.

At CTIA Wireless last month, Root launched a crowd-sourcing network monitoring app for the Android and BlackBerry smartphones, inviting mobile data users to compile the millions upon of millions of data points necessary to create a pervasive and timely snapshot of how the country's mobile networks performed. Other companies and even the FCC have released network speed testing and performance applications, but the data resulting from them is often a hodgepodge and reporting capabilities limited. Rather than being a user-initiated app, Root's crowd-sourcing software runs in the background, performing an automated series of tests every half hour and uploading the information to Root's databases. The result is hundreds of different data points from each user every day, testing the network at different times and different locations. Combined they not only create a very detailed map, but a very up-to-date one, as the conditions of heavily trafficked cells get updated within minutes, Root CEO Paul Griff said.