Holiday Gift Guide »

Carrier IQ to let customers see their handset network stats

Categories: Carriers
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 10:07 PM
Carrier IQ

You  may recognize the name Carrier IQ – the company caused a stir recently when its mobile phone tracking software was found on select handsets. The software was collecting information from the phone and sending it back  to Carrier IQ’s servers. It turns out the software wasn’t nefarious, but was used by carriers to troubleshoot handset and network performance. Carrier IQ was a carrier-only product, but a report from the Verge suggests Carrier IQ is now opening itself up to consumers.

The company’s IQ Care product will soon include a portal that customers can use to monitor their phones. Customers will be able to see information about dropped calls, phone battery life, and network coverage. This consumer-friendly feature will be made available to everyone, but each carrier will be given the option to enable or disable it for their customers.

If Carrier IQ can prove that the service reduces service calls and helps the customer troubleshoot minor issues on their own, then the service may gain some traction. If it’s only a novelty that Carrier IQ introduced to repair its reputation, then it will likely sit on the back shelf unused.

[Via The Verge]

 

About The Author

Kelly Hodgkins

Kelly spent the last four years covering mobile technology at places like BGR, Gizmodo and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Before writing, she spent a few years working with and teaching others how to use Adobe Flash and Macromedia Director. Even earlier than that, she spent several years as a Ph.D student in Microbiology. When she's not writing, she can be found fishing the lakes and hiking the mountains of Western Maine with her husband and tribe of children. You can follow her on Twitter @kellyhodgkins.

  • Anonymous

    To Kelly Hodgkins,
    Only one or two minor corrections here. Information which is processed and sent back goes to the carriers servers, not Carrier IQ. The Carriers own the data and Carrier IQ doesn’t have ownership at all to it.
    Also I think the portal is a great idea, but it would be offered through the carriers, so AT&T as an example would host the portal on their support site. If it can reduce the number of calls coming in and could also be used by the CSR’s to reduce the time on call then it would be a great move for everyone. The last thing anyone wants to do is sit on the phone forever and play 20 questions with the CSR to troubleshoot their phone.