We've all experienced the dreaded signal fade, where our cell phone or smartphone connection peters out in the middle of a conversation. Not only is this frustrating, it can hurt business.

This is truer today than ever before, as many individuals and businesses no longer use wireless handsets just for voice communication. These devices also serve as essential tools to connect to all different types of information, including e-mail, other forms of messaging, and corporate data.

DeadCellZones.com aims to help you prepare ahead of time when traveling to weak coverage areas. The open database lets you contribute and search for information about poor cellular areas in large metro areas throughout the United States.

Originally focused on dead zones in the outdoor network, the site recently launched a section devoted to the problems surrounding indoor cellular coverage, where the technology is increasingly being put to use.

You see, because building materials like concrete and tinted glass and buildings located in shadowed areas can frequently stop wireless signals from penetrating into a location, prohibiting wireless devices from working reliably indoors—an obvious problem for those who use cellular technology to increase productivity and accessibility, not to mention operators implementing these services.

According to DeadCellZones.com founder Jeff Cohn, “enhancing in-building coverage to ensure that voice and data applications work indoors, where they're being used more and more, will give the carriers an opportunity to generate more business and subsequent revenue, while addressing important factors such as salesforce automation and improved customer response time for enterprise customers."