What the Map Shows
This map shows the 4G LTE mobile coverage areas of the nation’s four largest mobile wireless carriers: AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, UScellular, and Verizon. Specifically, it shows where customers can expect to receive 4G LTE broadband service at a minimum user download speed of five megabits per second (5 Mbps) and a user upload speed of one megabit per second (1 Mbps) based on propagation modeling.
The map includes separate layers for each carrier’s broadband and voice coverage. Voice coverage areas represent where customers should expect to make and receive mobile voice calls and send and receive texts over the 4G LTE network, without regard to throughput speed. 4G LTE data service meeting a 5/1 Mbps minimum speed may not be available in areas where only voice coverage is shown on the map.
How to Use the Map
Consumers can enter in specific addresses or zoom in to locations to see where 4G LTE mobile data and voice service is available. Users can choose to view providers’ mobile data and/or voice service by clicking on a provider’s data or voice service layer.
How the Map was Prepared
The coverage map was created using data submitted voluntarily by the four mobile carriers using certain standardized propagation model assumptions or parameters that were established by the FCC as part of the Broadband Data Collection. These standard parameters are intended to create a more uniform and consistent comparison of coverage among service providers than has previously been available through the FCC’s Form 477 process. Because of this, this map is the first ever standardized look at 4G LTE mobile data and voice service availability.
Please note: The map depicts the coverage a customer can expect to receive when outdoors and stationary. It is not meant to reflect where service is available when a user is indoors or in a moving vehicle.
Because the coverage map is based on propagation modeling, a user’s actual, on-the-ground experience may vary due to factors such as the end-user device used to connect to the network, cell site capacity, and terrain.
The coverage maps on these service providers’ websites may be based on different parameters and assumptions, such as roaming, and may therefore differ from the information shown here.
Why the Map was Prepared
This map provides a sample of the type of granular, standardized information that will become available as part of the Commission’s Broadband Data Collection project and serve as a preview of that work. It is, however, only a subset of the full set of mobile broadband availability data that will be collected as part of the Broadband Data Collection, when mobile wireless service providers will also submit standardized coverage data for their 3G and 5G mobile broadband technologies and other details about their propagation models and technical assumptions underlying their coverage maps. For more information, see the Broadband Data Collection homepage.