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A new smartphone app has been launched as part of a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ survey into UK mobile data coverage.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ intends to use the information from the survey to create a clickable map of 3G and 2G signal across the country.

With 12 million smartphone users in the UK, phone providers are keen to offer their customers mobile internet access and often use coverage maps to show that they can check their emails wherever they are. However, sometimes just going indoors can leave you without a data service and any commuter will tell you the points in a train journey where they have to wait a whole five minutes before being able to update their status about the noisy eater sat next to them.

The independent survey will be carried out over the next month and is similar to a project carried out by , which aims to provide a global picture of mobile internet coverage.

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ app is free to download and runs in the background without interfering with the phone’s other functions. It is only available to smartphones running on the Android operating system, which means that iPhone users are unable to take part due to reported issues with the app running in the background. Once installed, anonymous data on mobile phone coverage is retrieved by Epitiro, the network analysis firm behind the app.

Racking up over 33000 downloads in just a couple of days, initial take-up has been good, but some users expressed concerns that the app was a drain on battery life. Epitiro has since released a new version, which, rather than testing continually, does so for four hours at key points throughout the day, stopping when a phone’s battery life drops below 30%.

Ian Fogg, an independent telecoms analyst, told the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Technology team that with enough users taking part, the app could provide better information for operators, which could help improve data coverage.

Read the full story on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Technology:
/news/technology-13874818

Read more:
WebWise Guide - How do I access email on my mobile phone?
WebWise Blog - Smartphones: where telephony gets clever

Hajar is a regular contributor to the WebWise blog and has also made award-winning programmes for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio. In her spare time she loves reading, writing and singing.

UPDATE: The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's survey has now ended, with the results available here. You can still however download Epitiro's app and contribute to their own ongoing mobile coverage map.