Does iOS 10 & iOS 11 iPhone 7 Field Test Mode output femtocell unique cell id numbers & tower freqs

[sodiumflouride]

Does iOS 10 & iOS 11 iPhone 7 Field Test Mode output femtocell unique cell id numbers & tower freqs

This question has never been asked before (to my knowledge).

Every thread on the iPhone "Field Test Mode on the Internet is either about how to enter FTM or about what was dropped between releases (e.g., from 10 to 11 they dropped the decibel reading) or the FTM threads are about how to get the field strength from bars to decibels - but those common questions about FTM are not my question at all so my question is a new unique question.

I'm asking only if the Apple iPhone 7 field test mode reports the actual cell id of local femtotowers and cellular frequencies, which are never going to be in an Internet lookup database (since they're installed in people's houses, and they're managed by the carriers like T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc.).

(*3001#12345#*) > Serving Cell Info > {Cell Identity, Physical Cell ID}

If you don't know what a femtotower is, it's a usually free device that the carrier gives you if your signal is low, where the femtotower is a box that hooks to your router which turns into a low-power cellular tower, which is designed to cover your property and your house. The reason I care for the unique cell id and frequencies is because there are multiple femto-towers in my area for my carrier, and I want to know if the cell id is reported correctly in the field test mode screen.

Note that the field test mode screen reports something called "cell id" and "physical cell id", but they could easily be from an Internet lookup, which is always going to be wrong for a femto-tower (which will never be on the Internet databases like those from OpenSignal test reports).

Does the iOS 10 & iOS 11 iPhone 7 Field Test Mode output femtotower unique cell id numbers & tower frequencies? (How do you know that the number reported is the correct one for the femtotower and not just a number from an Internet database lookup?)

 

[sodiumflouride]

Does iOS 10 & iOS 11 iPhone 7 Field Test Mode output femtocell unique cell id numbers & tower freqs

Nobody knows anything about field test mode here?

 

[pungbricks]

Not sure if I have the same issue as you but I am on O2 and recently spotted some posts on the iphone field test facility and an app named “open signal”. The app apparently provides direction to the cell mast which is serving my iphone. It also shows local area code and tower / mast identity. However if I enter field test mode the resulting data does not seem to tally with tower / lac data provided by open signal app. Serving cell / cell id in field test is always different from open signal cell id, whereas lac is occasionally the same in both field test and open signal. I’ve tried this on an iphone 6s+ and 5S, both running ios 11.03 and get similar results, even if I have physically moved from one region to another. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[sodiumflouride]

Not sure if I have the same issue as you but I am on O2 and recently spotted some posts on the iphone field test facility and an app named “open signal”.

Thanks for trying to help because it seems nobody on this forum is all that technical so I appreciate that you tried to help.

I'm sorry to have to tell you though that the OpenSignal app is a bogus app for *this* purpose of accurate tower information.

That OpenSignal app requires the Internet because all its really doing is looking up what it can find out about the nearby towers on the Internet and then it reports what everyone who found the same tower reported, which is an average of approximately where the cellphones were in relationship to where the tower is in the Internet database - but the point is that OpenSignal is just guessing about everything.

OpenSignal will NEVER be correct because it doesn't report anything you can't look up yourself using a web browser. The data I'm looking for isn't going to be found in an Internet lookup database, so OpenSignal is just a toy app to make people think it's doing something useful.

The point is that any app that has to look up what tower you're connected to on the Internet is NEVER going to find the tower that is inside your own house because your tower is never going to be on the Internet.

The Android apps all report the actual tower correctly so I know it *can* be done.
Some iOS users say it can be done with Field Test Mode, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet.

That's two things it has to do:
1. Report the actual tower and frequency (not some guess by looking up things in the Internet), and,
2. The CORRECT tower ID (which is the question).

The app apparently provides direction to the cell mast which is serving my iphone. It also shows local area code and tower / mast identity.

That OpenSignal app is just guessing because OpenSignal does not report anything that isn't in the Internet database (which you can look up yourself and which will almost always be wrong for femtocells).

If you want the CORRECT tower ID, the phone *knows* exactly what tower it's connected to.

The question is only whether Field Test Mode can accurately report what the iPhone hardware has to know, which is the unique CORRECT tower ID that the phone is connected to.

However if I enter field test mode the resulting data does not seem to tally with tower / lac data provided by open signal app. Serving cell / cell id in field test is always different from open signal cell id, whereas lac is occasionally the same in both field test and open signal.

This might actually be *good* news!
Suffice to say OpenSignal is just guessing.

But the phone hardware *knows* what tower it's connected to (and the frequencies).
So the only question is whether the Field Test Mode can ACCURATELY report to the user what the hardware already knows.

I’ve tried this on an iphone 6s+ and 5S, both running ios 11.03 and get similar results, even if I have physically moved from one region to another. Any help would be appreciated.

I can't get anything useful out of the iPhone 7 Field Test Mode running 10.x so that's why I'm asking.

Are you able to confirm that the UNIQUE cell tower ID (and frequencies) are reported in Field Test Mode?

 

[pungbricks]

Thanks for trying to help because it seems nobody on this forum is all that technical so I appreciate that you tried to help.

I'm sorry to have to tell you though that the OpenSignal app is a bogus app for *this* purpose of accurate tower information.

That OpenSignal app requires the Internet because all its really doing is looking up what it can find out about the nearby towers on the Internet and then it reports what everyone who found the same tower reported, which is an average of approximately where the cellphones were in relationship to where the tower is in the Internet database - but the point is that OpenSignal is just guessing about everything.

OpenSignal will NEVER be correct because it doesn't report anything you can't look up yourself using a web browser. The data I'm looking for isn't going to be found in an Internet lookup database, so OpenSignal is just a toy app to make people think it's doing something useful.

The point is that any app that has to look up what tower you're connected to on the Internet is NEVER going to find the tower that is inside your own house because your tower is never going to be on the Internet.

The Android apps all report the actual tower correctly so I know it *can* be done.
Some iOS users say it can be done with Field Test Mode, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet.

That's two things it has to do:
1. Report the actual tower and frequency (not some guess by looking up things in the Internet), and,
2. The CORRECT tower ID (which is the question).


That OpenSignal app is just guessing because OpenSignal does not report anything that isn't in the Internet database (which you can look up yourself and which will almost always be wrong for femtocells).

If you want the CORRECT tower ID, the phone *knows* exactly what tower it's connected to.

The question is only whether Field Test Mode can accurately report what the iPhone hardware has to know, which is the unique CORRECT tower ID that the phone is connected to.



This might actually be *good* news!
Suffice to say OpenSignal is just guessing.

But the phone hardware *knows* what tower it's connected to (and the frequencies).
So the only question is whether the Field Test Mode can ACCURATELY report to the user what the hardware already knows.


I can't get anything useful out of the iPhone 7 Field Test Mode running 10.x so that's why I'm asking.

Are you able to confirm that the UNIQUE cell tower ID (and frequencies) are reported in Field Test Mode?

Thanks for trying to help because it seems nobody on this forum is all that technical so I appreciate that you tried to help.

I'm sorry to have to tell you though that the OpenSignal app is a bogus app for *this* purpose of accurate tower information.

That OpenSignal app requires the Internet because all its really doing is looking up what it can find out about the nearby towers on the Internet and then it reports what everyone who found the same tower reported, which is an average of approximately where the cellphones were in relationship to where the tower is in the Internet database - but the point is that OpenSignal is just guessing about everything.

OpenSignal will NEVER be correct because it doesn't report anything you can't look up yourself using a web browser. The data I'm looking for isn't going to be found in an Internet lookup database, so OpenSignal is just a toy app to make people think it's doing something useful.

The point is that any app that has to look up what tower you're connected to on the Internet is NEVER going to find the tower that is inside your own house because your tower is never going to be on the Internet.

The Android apps all report the actual tower correctly so I know it *can* be done.
Some iOS users say it can be done with Field Test Mode, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet.

That's two things it has to do:
1. Report the actual tower and frequency (not some guess by looking up things in the Internet), and,
2. The CORRECT tower ID (which is the question).


That OpenSignal app is just guessing because OpenSignal does not report anything that isn't in the Internet database (which you can look up yourself and which will almost always be wrong for femtocells).

If you want the CORRECT tower ID, the phone *knows* exactly what tower it's connected to.

The question is only whether Field Test Mode can accurately report what the iPhone hardware has to know, which is the unique CORRECT tower ID that the phone is connected to.



This might actually be *good* news!
Suffice to say OpenSignal is just guessing.

But the phone hardware *knows* what tower it's connected to (and the frequencies).
So the only question is whether the Field Test Mode can ACCURATELY report to the user what the hardware already knows.


I can't get anything useful out of the iPhone 7 Field Test Mode running 10.x so that's why I'm asking.

Are you able to confirm that the UNIQUE cell tower ID (and frequencies) are reported in Field Test Mode?

T
[doublepost=1509802609][/doublepost]Thanks very much for your detailed response. - as you can probably tell I have very little experience of Field Test - it does yield data but without having anything reliable to compare the data against it is not possible for me to confirm whether the UNIQUE cell tower id is shown correctly. Thanks once again.

 

[sodiumflouride]

Thanks. I'm pretty surprised that I know more than anyone about this Field Test Mode for cell tower IDs, because I know almost nothing. LOL.

But sometimes that's the situation, especially with iOS (it's far less likely on Android).

 

[C DM]

Thanks. I'm pretty surprised that I know more than anyone about this Field Test Mode for cell tower IDs, because I know almost nothing. LOL.

But sometimes that's the situation, especially with iOS (it's far less likely on Android).

You might also want to factor in that not as many people visit this particular sub-forum (as opposed to the main iPhone forum or the iOS forums, for example).

 

[sodiumflouride]

You might also want to factor in that not as many people visit this particular sub-forum (as opposed to the main iPhone forum or the iOS forums, for example).

Thanks for that advice, which I greatly appreciate.
Maybe I just asked it in the wrong forum then, because it's something everyone would want to know accurately.

 

[sodiumflouride]

I was hoping there was at least one user on the entire MacRumors web site who is technical.

 

[eyoungren]

I was hoping there was at least one user on the entire MacRumors web site who is technical.

There are lots of users here who are technical users and who have been around these devices for a long time.

I have yet to meet anyone here who is an RF Engineer or works in the wireless industry (other than as a CSR).

If there is no answer to your question it's because no one knows. The forum also has a mix of just average Apple users.

Many people here don't even know what a femtocell is.