Comparing Cell Phone Coverage in University Hills, Irvine, CA Christian Kurdahi Vista Verde Middle School Mr. Lobato December 14 th, 2012
Table of Contents Section 1: Table of Contents Page 1 Section 2: Investigative Question Page 2 Section 3: Introduction Page 3 Section 4: Background Research Page 4 Section 5: Hypothesis Page 6 Section 6: Materials List Page 7 Section 7: Procedures Page 8 Section 8: Observations Page 9 Section 9: Data Tables Page 10 Section 10: Data Graphs Page 13 Section 11: Conclusion Page 20 Section 12: Future Research Page 21 Section 13: Applications Page 22 Section 14: Acknowledgements Page 23 Section 15: Bibliography Page 24
Investigative Question Does the reception of Samsung for Sprint, T- Mobile, and AT&T, APPLE for Verizon change reception brought from the UCI neighborhood.
Introduction In 2010 my brother, Michael Kurdahi did a cellphone coverage comparison around UCI between AT&T and Verizon. A lot of residents were very happy to see his reports. Since then more towers were built and people were asking to compare all 4 cell phone companies. Everybody is asking us it is time for a recount of the cellphone reception coverage? In this report we did the 4 cellphone companies. The 1 st one is Sprint, 2 nd is T- Mobile 3 rd is AT&T and last but not least, Verizon.
Background Research I have always asked myself how a cell phone works? Well now I know. It all started when Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone in 1876, which transferred voice through wires. The radio was invented by two people: Nikola Tesla in the 1880 s and Guglielmo Marconi in 1894. However it was not until a hundred years later that millions of people could talk to each other without using wires. Before cell phones, people could talk by radio using radio telephones in their cars. But, there were some problems. First of all there was one antenna tower in each city and only about 25 channels per tower which meant that at most 25 people could be talking at the same time in each city! Also, the radio telephone needed a strong transmitter incase one drove far from the tower. Powerful transmitters require a lot of electrical power. Therefore, they needed a large and heavy battery to operate. The great change introduced cellular systems is to divide the city into small cells. Each cell has one tower to cover that cell. With these cells it is now possible to use the same frequencies throughout the city. This way, many more people can use their cell phones at the same time. Also, now instead of having a heavy battery and a big phone, a small phone with low power can work well because there is always a cell tower nearby.
With millions of users wanting cell phones today, there are many companies competing for the business. The major companies are AT&T, Verizon, T- Mobile, and Sprint. Each one of them has its own network of cells and towers. These companies compete with each other by providing better phones and better coverage. Good coverage needs more towers and better location because sometimes the signals can be blocked by hills and buildings. It is also very expensive to build too many towers so they don t do it too much. At our neighborhood, many people have been complaining about having bad reception and wondering which companies has better reception around their house. One straightforward way to find out how good a coverage there is, is to look at one of the phone companies websites. However ever company shows that they have full coverage throughout University Hills and this does not agree with what we heard. This is the reason we wanted to test out the cell phone coverage in Uni. Hills.
Hypothesis I predict that Verizon will have the best cellphone coverage.
Materials List 1.) 1 AT&T Samsung SGH- A157 2.) 1 Verizon Apple IPhone 4 C8QH2CXPD0V 3.) 1 Samsung T- Mobile SGH- TI39 4.) 1 Samsung Sprint SPH- M270 5.) 1 Tablet 6.) 1 composition book 7.) 1 car+ driver 8.) 1 computer to input final drafts of data
Procedures 1. Take one reading of Verizon, AT&T, T- Mobile, and Sprint phone reception at my home. Record readings onto an Excel spreadsheet and a tablet. 2. Drive through every street in Uni. Hills 3. Take 1 reading of reception from each phone approximately every other house 4. Enter readings onto the spread sheet(tablet) 5. Covert the data on excel to place marks on Google Earth using Keyhole Markup Language (KML) 6. Display data onto Google Earth
Observations 1. Quantitative Observations Carrier Number of Signal strength Number of measurements 0 1 2 3 4 5 Mean Dead spots Verizon 152 0 0 2 17 97 36 4.10 0 AT&T 152 0 49 40 43 17 3 2.24 0 Sprint 152 0 3 16 39 80 14 3.57 0 T- Mobile 152 36 48 35 16 11 6 1.58 36 2. Qualitative Observations Only T- Mobile had dead spots Verizon has the best coverage Verizon has more 4 and 5 bars than all the other provides T- mobile has the least coverage Sprint has better coverage that AT&T
Data Tables Address T-mobile Verizon Sprint ATT 15 Virgil, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 4 19 Virgil, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 3 2 27 Virgil, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 3 1 26 Virgil, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 2 16 Virgil, Irvine,CA,92617 3 4 1 2 12 Virgil, Irvine,CA,92617 2 3 4 2 4 Virgil, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 1 1 Zola, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 2 9 Zola, Irvine,CA,92617 0 3 4 1 15 Zola, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 1 23 Zola, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 4 2 22 Zola, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 3 14 Zola, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 3 1 8 Zola, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 1 2 Zola, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 1 35 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 1 3 4 1 39 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 3 1 47 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 2 55 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 3 4 4 2 46 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 3 36 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 1 30 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 2 2 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 3 10 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 3 18 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 3 4 4 3 26 Urey, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 1 8 Young, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 2 16 Young, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 2 26 Young, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 2 1 5 Whitman, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 3 14 Whitman, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 1 24 Whitman, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 3 2 32 Whitman, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 2 40 Whitman, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 1 55 Whitman, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 1 1 80 Whitman, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 3 1
72 Whitman, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 3 2 69 Whitman, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 2 1083 California, Irvine,CA,92617 4 5 5 1 1 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 1 5 3 2 9 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 2 14 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 5 4 22 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 2 30 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 4 36 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 1 5 4 3 46 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 1 5 4 2 54 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 5 1 62 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 4 1 72 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 4 1 80 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 3 1 88 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 1 96 Murasaki, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 2 44 Twain, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 4 2 36 Twain, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 4 2 28 Twain, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 3 18 Twain, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 3 1 Twain, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 1 2 Okeefe, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 3 7 Frost, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 1 17 Frost, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 1 24 Frost, Irvine,CA,92617 1 3 3 1 32 Frost, Irvine,CA,92617 1 3 4 3 42 Frost, Irvine,CA,92617 0 3 2 1 29 Fuertes, Irvine,CA,92617 0 3 2 1 39 Fuertes, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 1 16 Fuertes, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 1 6 Fuertes, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 1 700 Russel, Irvine,CA,92617 3 5 4 3 6 Russel, Irvine,CA,92617 2 5 5 2 14 Russel, Irvine,CA,92617 2 5 4 3 20 Russel, Irvine,CA,92617 3 5 4 3 6 Thompson, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 3 16 Thompson, Irvine,CA,92617 3 4 5 3 8 Schubert, Irvine,CA,92617 2 5 4 2 21 Schubert, Irvine,CA,92617 2 5 4 3 45 Schubert, Irvine,CA,92617 5 4 5 4 51 Schubert, Irvine,CA,92617 3 5 5 4
75 Schubert, Irvine,CA,92617 4 5 5 3 11 Gabrielino St., Irvine,CA,92617 0 5 2 2 25 Gabrielino St., Irvine,CA,92617 1 5 4 1 41 Gabrielino Drive, Irvine,CA,92617 1 5 3 1 2 Owen, Irvine,CA,92617 0 5 3 1 10 Owen, Irvine,CA,92617 1 5 3 1 19 Owen, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 2 2 Perkins, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 3 10 Perkins, Irvine,CA,92617 3 4 4 3 18 Perkins, Irvine,CA,92617 2 5 3 2 30 Perkins, Irvine,CA,92617 3 5 4 2 2 Mendel, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 1 12 Mendel, Irvine,CA,92617 2 5 4 3 24 Mendel, Irvine,CA,92617 2 5 4 3 1 Newton, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 3 17 Newton, Irvine,CA,92617 3 4 4 3 11 Dickens, Irvine,CA,92617 0 5 3 2 24 Dickens, Irvine,CA,92617 0 5 4 1 2 Dickens, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 3 1 10 Dickens, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 3 12 Curie, Irvine,CA,92617 3 4 4 4 20 Curie, Irvine,CA,92617 1 5 4 2 6 Curie, Irvine,CA,92617 2 5 4 2 2 Blake, Irvine,CA,92617 1 5 4 3 14 Blake, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 2 24 Blake, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 5 4 10 Alcott, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 3 5 Alcott, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 2 22 Los Trancos, Irvine,CA,92617 4 4 5 2 1 Gibbs, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 3 1 6 Gibbs, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 1 12 Gibbs, Irvine,CA,92617 0 5 3 2 26 Los Trancos, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 3 6 Harvey, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 1 10 Harvey, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 2 4 14 Harvey, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 1 1 64 Harvey, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 2 1 44 Harvey, Irvine,CA,92617 0 3 2 1 22 Harvey, Irvine,CA,92617 1 3 3 2 2 Locke, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 1
6 Locke, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 3 1960 California, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 3 3 1 Bartok, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 3 3 10 Bartok, Irvine,CA,92617 1 3 4 2 3 Eliot, Irvine,CA,92617 1 3 4 1 14 Eliot, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 1 4 Handel, Irvine,CA,92617 0 2 4 1 12 Handel, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 4 1 18 Handel, Irvine,CA,92617 2 4 4 5 2 Joyce, Irvine,CA,92617 1 3 4 3 10 Joyce, Irvine,CA,92617 0 2 4 4 18 Joyce, Irvine,CA,92617 0 4 3 3 5 McClintock, Irvine,CA,92617 2 3 4 3 15 McClintock, Irvine,CA,92617 3 3 4 4 25 McClintock, Irvine,CA,92617 4 4 4 3 4 Wharton, Irvine,CA,92617 1 3 5 5 8 Wharton, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 4 4 11 Wharton, Irvine,CA,92617 2 3 4 4 21 Wharton, Irvine,CA,92617 3 3 3 3 31 Wharton, Irvine,CA,92617 3 4 4 4 2 Whistler, Irvine,CA,92617 4 4 4 4 25 Whistler, Irvine,CA,92617 1 4 3 3 20 Whistler, Irvine,CA,92617 3 4 4 3 2 Mistral, Irvine,CA,92617 4 4 4 3 16 Mistral, Irvine,CA,92617 4 5 4 2 40 Mistral, Irvine,CA,92617 4 4 4 3 56 Mistral, Irvine,CA,92617 4 4 4 5 10 Pauling, Irvine,CA,92617 4 5 4 2 2 Vega, Irvine,CA,92617 3 5 4 2 12 Vega, Irvine,CA,92617 5 5 4 4 27 Vega, Irvine,CA,92617 5 5 5 4 6 Mayer, Irvine,CA,92617 4 5 4 3 14 Mayer, Irvine,CA,92617 5 5 5 3 22 Mayer, Irvine,CA,92617 5 5 5 3 34 Mayer, Irvine,CA,92617 5 5 4 4
Data Graphs 120 100 80 60 Verizon AT&T Sprint T- Mobile 40 20 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 Signal strength Comparison of Signal strength between Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T- mobile
Conclusions My Hypothesis was correct; Verizon was the winner but two years ago. AT&T was the winner and this year T- Mobile was terrible around Uni. Hills. Sprint was surprisingly 2 nd best and really close to Verizon. AT&T was in 3 rd place this year because this they had a bit more dead spots this year than 2 years ago. T- Mobile was in last place because it was having way to many dead spots. I think that I should tell T- Mobile to try to put up more cellphone towers to increase their chance in getting better next time. On the other hand, Sprint happens to go either to extreme such as 4 or 5 bars, never to get dead zones or 1 bar. Also, we noticed on the map there is a large region near Murasaki Street where T- Mobile has no coverage (dead zones). This was also supported by emails by residents on that street. When we look at the geography of that region we see a hill that blocks the view of AT&T s tower on Bonita Canyon Drive. It could be that this hill blocks the signal from arriving in these homes. In fact one of the residents on Murasaki reported that they have some reception on the second floor of there house but no reception on the first floor, which tends to support my argument. In conclusion, I believe that based on all the experiments, data, and observations that Verizon, and Sprint covers a bigger part of Uni. Hills than AT&T, or T- Mobile. However Verizon and Sprint provides better quality service in those areas that it covers.
Applications The data that I collected was distributed to Uni. Hills residents. It will help them decide whether or not to switch to Sprint or Verizon. This will also help new residents who just moved to our neighborhood. The Uni. Hill s Associations has offered to put me in touch with the AT&T reprehensive for our area. I hope that my report can be of use to help both carriers establish better service where I live.
Acknowledgements I am very grateful to the many residents of Uni. Hills who commented on my experiment and provided me on additional data, advise, suggestions, and encouragement to my experiment and report. Fadi Kurdahi, who drove me around, and helped me with the data analysis and the formatting of this report. Mr. Lobato, for giving me with advise and directions on how to do this Science Fair project. Michael Kurdahi, for helping me with this project.
Bibliography UCI. (2010) Uhills mailing list archives. Internet@ http://uhills.org Brain, Marshall; Tyson, Jeff; Layton, Julia.(2010). How Cell Phones Work. Internet@ http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell- phone.htm