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The iPhone App Your Carrier Doesn’t Want You To See
@CNNMoneyTechApril 13, 2012
A screenshot of CarrierCompare, which measures the network quality of Verizon, Sprint and AT&T systems
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — A new app hit the iTunes store Friday morning that your carrier probably isn't too thrilled about.
It's called CarrierCompare. Developed by Boston-based startup SwayMarkets, it allows you to see which carrier offers the best service for your iPhone in any given location.
The crowd-sourced app is simple to use. After you touch the start screen, the app takes about 15 seconds to analyze your network for signal strength, response time and speed. It then compares your result with other nearby results on the other two national carriers' networks.
The display is intuitive, telling you where your carrier ranks compared to the competition.
Sounds pretty simple, right? But iPhone carriers Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500), AT&T (T, Fortune 500) and Sprint (S, Fortune 500) have successfully kept that information out of the public's view — until now.
Carriers rigorously test their networks and their rivals' networks, hiring third-party surveyors to perform comparisons. However, those surveys are almost always performed under non-disclosure agreements.
Each carrier provides its own coverage map to customers, and some even offer a street-level view. (Here are the maps for Sprint, Verizon and AT&T.)
But that still doesn't give users the kind of precise detail that CarrierCompare provides — and the carriers certainly don't offer up direct, pinpoint comparisons against the competition.
"There is an imbalance of information out there," said Amos Epstein, founder of SwayMarkets. "Each carrier knows its own network and hires people to drive around in trucks to measure its rivals' service as well. But they haven't gone as far to release data that's tangible and useful to the consumer."
