I can’t hear you now

Dropping a mobile-phone call, then reconnecting with the other party, usually sounds something like this:

Caller 1: What happened?
Caller 2: I don't know. I just lost you. It went dead.
Caller 1: Well, I have full bars. It must be your phone.
Caller 2. Hey, I have full bars, too. It must be YOU!
Caller 1: Well, I wasn't moving, and I still have full bars, so it has to be you.
Caller 2: Whatever.

And the call resumes. Nothing is settled, aside from both callers being frustrated.

I think the debate over which mobile phone carrier has the best service in any particular location will never end. Some customers swear their service is the strongest, only to be frustrated by having more calls drop unexpectedly.

I know where the dead spots in my AT&T coverage are and can count on having to redial whenever I sit in the wrong spot in my kitchen. I also know where dead zones exist in certain parts of town, and there seem to be more and more of them lately.

So, which service is the best?

Root Wireless uses an application on off-the-shelf smartphones to determine signal strength, data speeds and network reliability, right down to specific street intersections. The company surveyed mobile phone service in 20 U.S. cities. Here's what it found for Las Vegas:

— AT&T provides the market’s fastest data service.
— Sprint’s service provides the strongest signal, but also reports the most dead zones.
— T-Mobile’s data service is the slowest, but its network connection is the most reliable.
— Verizon’s data service is only third-fastest when downloading, but nearly as fast as AT&T’s when uploading data.
— Verizon and AT&T record similar network-reliability numbers, recording significantly fewer dead zones than Sprint.

Each carrier has its share of dead spots. You can get more information on the carrier survey at the Root Wireless site.

Root is also conducting a crowdsourcing experiment, putting the power of its software in the hands of smartphone users. The new "Root Mobile" crowdsourcing app for BlackBerry and Android smartphones is a free beta application using smartphones as network-monitoring devices to help consumers determine which wireless service is best for them.

Look for more details on the Root site Monday.