Cell Phone Networks

I was talking to a few coworkers yesterday about cell phone network quality. I told them that I just want to know who has the better network. We know that either AT&T or Verizon is lying on their commercials and this is a disservice to consumers. How can we make an educated decision if we are not getting the truth?

We brainstormed for a bit and someone threw out the idea that there should be a company that offers a phone that switches to the strongest carrier in the area. This is a great idea. I don't know how exactly the financials would work in this deal and how much a plan would have to cost. Maybe this is something that an upstart like Google could accomplish in their war with the iPhone. What better way to kill the iPhone than offer something that Apple cannot offer, the absolute best coverage available.

I don't know if something like this is even possible since each cell phone provider has their own network. I don't know if they would even allow something like this to happen. It is a great idea, but this is something for someone else to figure out.

My idea was that there should just be one cell phone network in the United States. All of the carriers could jointly own the network including maintenance and upgrade costs. The network would have to be substantial to handle all of the cell phone and media traffic. It would need to be on the leading edge technologically. That is what we should have anyway. The networks in other parts of the world are much better than ours.

A nice result of one cell phone network is that there would not need to be as many towers as we have now. If each carrier is installing their own towers there is overlap in areas that does not need to be there. There is environmental clutter that can be avoided. This would be the best all around solution for consumers, but if the cell phone carriers will not go for it I hope someone does come up with a phone that will automatically switch to the strongest network in the area.