AT&T's marketing chief told The Wall Street Journal today that improving the company's network is "priority one," words that should lift the spirits of AT&T customers who have suffered from dropped calls, delayed text messages and lost service over the years. And while AT&T tries to patch its network to handle increases in mobile data usage, a Seattle area company will be watching and reporting on how it does.

Root Wireless -- which maps the network performance of the four major wireless carriers -- today announced that it plans to expand the network coverage maps to eight new markets including Atlanta, Boston and Philadelphia.

Root already had announced service in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Dallas, LA, Orange County and Seattle. It plans to unveil maps for five other cities later this year.

A Root Wireless coverage map for Seattle

One of the new cities that Root is adding in this latest group is Las Vegas in part because of the large number of technology conferences that occur in Sin City. (The company believes that geeks will want to know how their wireless networks compare). The Consumer Electronics Show is taking place in Vegas right now, and we've heard reports of spotty cell phone coverage in some of the locations.

We asked for a detailed report from Root on the various networks in Vegas, but the company's engineers are still working on the tests and numbers. (It does plan to issue a report next week).

Founded by former Bsquare executive Paul Griff, Root raised some cash last fall and we profiled them when they came out of stealth mode last October.

The company's wireless network maps are currently available through CNET. Later this winter, the startup plans to unveil its Root Mobile application -- which taps the power of individual's cell phones to report network gaps and other problems -- for RIM, Android and Windows Mobile phones. An iPhone version will be coming later this year.

John Cook is co-founder of TechFlash. Follow on Twitter @johnhcook