Latest Calculations

Over the last couple of days, I have been posting up some reports based on more driving I have done around my local area.  

I am concentrating on RSRQ values the most right now for these reports. In the future, some more testing will be done to test data speeds, voice call completion/quality, and SMS testing for each of the carriers.

So far, T-Mobile appears to have the best median score for RSRQ.  This seems to be a good test based on my user equipment (phone) and how it detects the quality of the signal coming from the carrier(s).  Based on my research, it takes into account the signal-to-noise-ratio and closeness/range of the tower.  For LTE-based networks RSRP is a better calculation of signal power (as compared to RSSI) and RSRQ takes this into account.

The measurements I am currently making daily only take into the account the RAN network of these providers.  It doesn't take into account the core network.  A simplistic definition of RAN and core will be given for now.

The RAN is the part of the network from the user equipment and including the cell antennas and transmitters.  The core is everything after that including the equipment that connects to the backhaul network.  

Based on some of what I'm seeing, T-Mobile may have a strong RAN network but there is some issues with reliability.  I have been using my 5G T-Mobile phone for basic browsing and speed testing and notice intermittent loss of internet connectivity even when RSRQ values are good.  This may indicate a problem with the core network.  The next thing is to come up with tests that show these results.  I haven't seen these intermittent network issues with AT&T or Verizon but need to do more testing and analysis to make sure I'm putting all the carriers on common-ground.

Each day, my report is going to get a count of of the number of points that show green, yellow, orange, and red based on RSRQ.  

Green is equal to or better than or equal to -7 (best signal)
Yellow is between -8 and -11 (above average signal)
Orange is between -12 and -15 (average)
Red is worse than -15 (fringe area and bad quality)

Another statistic I am including in the daily reports (as of 8/4/21) is the number of unique base stations (towers) that I see during my travels and the unique base stations/cell ids.  A base station will have multiple cell IDs that correspond to different directions.  I think these two measurements are a great way to account for tower/cell density.

Over time, I plan to add more statistics showing the number of bands I am seeing from each carrier and also bandwidth and speed statistics.  New bands probably won't happen till later in the year with C-Band (all three carriers) and CBRS (Verizon).