Bar Wars

Which cell phone providers offer service where is important for road trippers -- but how can you tell?

While driving through eastern Colorado not long ago, my husband and I occasionally opened our cell phones and compared how many bars we had. Mindful of tedious television commercials that I've seen about coverage, this seemed like an informative diversion. I assumed that a specific number of bars means the same thing on all phones and with all providers.

Not so, reports technology reporter Tom Simonite in a blog posting on New Scientist. He wrote that there are no industry standards for signal bars, and one bar, two bars, three bars, etc. don't always mean the same thing, as we found out. In La Junta, my husband's cell phone showed an impressive array or bars, while mine displayed just one. Yet I received a call -- in a restaurant where we stopped for lunch. Simonite has some ideas on how to improve the system, as do some of the visitors to the New Scientist blog. It makes for an intersting technie read.