New cell & plan according to local cell coverage.

[Chuckcell]

There is a cell tower less than 3 miles from our home. But we only get so-so signal strength.
I've tried a couple of signal strength apps and gave them up as a bad idea. I couldn't get a clear idea of signal quality. (How could a decibel be a minus amount.)
Is it at all possible, or even worthwhile, to select our local provider by IDing the tower and then who is primary on it?
FWIW my phone is Android/Verizon and wifie is Apple/AT&T. We will be looking at one plan if possible.

 

[belodion]

Re: New cell & plan according to local cell coverage.

It's possible to find where providers have masts in the UK, and I daresay elsewhere. They are mapped, though I don't recall exactly how I did it when I did do it.

 

[me just saying]

I just did a search and found several websites that will give tower information. not going to recommend any but just do a search for cell tower map

 

[ManiacJoe]

For coverage indications, these two apps seem to give good results:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.staircase3.opensignal
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootmetrics

 

[Chuckcell]

One Cell Tower mapping app I tried showed a tower nearby but on the south side of a 4 lane road when it is actually on the north side (wtf). Open Signal I have looked. The other I have not.
I did find a web page, from my desk top that showed the local towers _and_ their antenna coverage. According to it we are using a cell tower directly to the south of us about 2x as far () as the nearest (!) tower and if that's true this would explain my weak Verizon signal.