As an EX cellular technician, I am curious as to which cellsite my phone happens to be connected to.

Back in the GSM days, I was able to watch my phone change from site to site as I moved around, and I found this to be interesting. This was called “cellsite broadcasting”.

Along came 3G and I was no longer able to find out which cellsite I was connected to any longer. But after much searching, I have found three Android apps that can work out the approximate location of the site to which I am connected.

The best App for me, is a widget that I have on my Android home screen. Called “Cell Widget” by Dieter Thiess, Ver 1.7.4 it can be found in the Android playstore.
(The other two apps I have used are "Netmonitor" ver 1.0.81 and "Network Signal Info Pro" ver 2.70.13).
Unfortunately, it can’t give pinpoint site accuracy, but instead it works out the approximate site address, and displays it as something like “24 Smith St, Auckland”.

There are however two problems, firstly accuracy – the actual site may be a kilometre or more from “24 Smith St, Auckland”, and secondly, I am unlikely to know where Smith St is anyway! The app can show on a map the location of “24 Smith St” hence you can work out the nearest suburb in which the site is located, and you can then allocate the cell ID concerned with a more meaningful name. In the example of “24 Smith St”, I would then allocate that result with a more meaningful name of say “Parnell” and in future when the phone acquired that same site (actually that cellID) it displays “Parnell” instead of ‘24 Smith St, Auckland”. This tells me with all the accuracy I need, and in a meaningful way, where my phone is connecting.

Over the last few months I have been updating the wiget's database (a text format .clf file) as I drive around, and now I get meaningful indications as to which site my phone is connected (Just like cellsite broadcasting did). In the suburbs this is mildly interesting, however, when I drive more rurally, I find it interesting to be on “Glenbrook” one moment and then “Glen Eden” the next. (EG, if driving along the Waitakeres).

The app can also display signal strength (dBm), MCC and MNC, Data speed connection, Cell ID and LAC info. Display font colour and background are all configurable. All in almost real time.

Has anyone else used this app, or created a database of Spark cell site locations, or better still, does anybody have a database of Spark sites, locations and cellID’s used. If so, I would be keen to share information. (I have already found .KML files on the internet giving site locations, but without cellID information also, I can’t use the data).

Otherwise, I hope my discovery of "Cell Widget" is useful to other 'like minded' and 'curious about their cellular signal' Android users.