Smartphone Crowdsourcing and Data Sharing Towards Advancing User Experience and Mobile Services

Abstract

Recent advances in IT have offered people the opportunity to have powerful ultramobile devices in their pockets incorporating a plethora of capabilities which, in most cases, require Internet connectivity. This constant need for Internet access though, especially when a wireless hotspot is unavailable requires connection via network data. The fixed cellular data packages offered by carriers usually do not come for free and to a large extend cannot be adapted to the dynamic needs of users who sometimes need more than they own, while in other cases under-use their network data.  This issue, in combination with the fact that signal quality in many areas is not even fair for one or more carriers has led to the development of a novel android application that aims at allowing users in general and tourists to “foresee” bad signal coverage at places of their interest, as well as to share their cellular data via mobile tethering.