I like to think I’ve got a healthily cynical outlook on these sorts of things, so I’m not sure why this never occurred to me:
The custom-rolled firmware from the US cellphone companies is also, of course, likely to tell fibs about signal strength. The telephony companies quickly realised that it’s much cheaper to sell phones that show lots of signal all the time than to actually bother putting up more of those expensive cell towers. And, once again, the signal strength is not the same as the call quality. Lots of signal plus lots of noise is not as good as a little bit of signal plus almost no noise at all.
That’s from the inimitable Dan Rutter, who, if you’re interested at all in technology, you really should be reading.
Why am I not surprised that cell phones and battery level indicators are generally worthless? Maybe it’s because I drive an automobile, and the gasoline tank gauge on most cars is completely bogus as well. You can drive for a week on a quarter tank of gas, then it races for empty over the next 20 or 30 miles. I don’t think there is much hope. Automobiles have been around for 100+ years now, and it is still impossible to tell how much gas you have left. In 100 years our descendants will be dealing with bogus power level and signal level displays, and most likely using the same swear words we use today.
Dan talks about that a bit, too, but points out that gas gauge inaccuracies are actually designed to provide an advantage for car owners, while the inaccurate battery and signal gauges just provide advantages for the mobile carriers.
[...] Let’s be clear: I hate this misfeature of my phone. I understand that it’s to be found generally. [...]