Maps to Compare AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular, & Verizon Mobile Coverage and US State of the Mobile Union 1H 2021

There are now three (at least) maps that let you quickly compare 
coverage between networks.

FCC Map: 
<https://fcc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6c1b2e73d9d749cdb7bc88a0d1bdd25b>

RootMetrics Map: <https://webcoveragemap.rootmetrics.com/en-US>

WhistleOut Map: <https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/Coverage>

US State of the Mobile Union 1H 2021; Carrier performance at national, 
state, and metro levels: 
<https://assets.ctfassets.net/ob7bbcsqy5m2/5RH6DcqWKrNjbfGDPkfWkb/677aec385a91e8f1859703242aff739e/RootMetrics_US_State-of-Mobile-Union-1H_2021-FINAL.pdf>

The coverage maps and analysis confirm my own experiences. Over the 
years I've had cellular service from many different carriers: GTE 
Mobilnet, Cellular One, AT&T (old), Pac Bell Wireless, Cingular, AT&T 
(new), T-Mobile, Verizon, and several MVNOs or carrier-owned prepaid 
services: Page Plus (Verizon), Consumer Cellular (AT&T), Cricket (AT&T), 
and Total Wireless (Verizon).

Pac Bell Wireless was by far the worst. It was the first GSM network in 
my area, and operated at 1900 MHz so in-building coverage was worse than 
networks using 850 MHz bands. They offered very attractive pricing when 
they launched, but were over-subscribed and unable to provide sufficient 
capacity. Pac Bell Wireless was acquired by Cingular when SBC acquired 
Pacific Bell, then sold to T-Mobile when Cingular bought AT&T.

T-Mobile was not good because of coverage issues in the western U.S., 
and the maps and the Rootmetrics report confirm that these coverage 
issues still exist outside of urban areas.

Consumer Cellular and Cricket, both on AT&T worked fine but Consumer 
Cellular, at the time, had no data plans with a sufficient amount of 
data for family plans. Now Consumer Cellular is very expensive for plans 
with sufficient quantities of data, plus they now limit the number of 
lines on an account to only three.

Cricket worked fine but at the time did not offer hotspot, and also they 
throttled data to 8Mb/s. Cricket now offers unlimited, unthrottled, 
data, and includes 15GB of hotspot data per line, but the price has gone 
up to $33 per line on a four line plan (they originally offered 5 lines 
for $100, ($20 per line)).

I’m currently using Total Wireless with 100GB of shared data per month 
on four lines, with 10GB of hotspot data per line, for a little under 
$100 per month including taxes and fees. Downsides of Total Wireless are 
a) no international roaming, not even to Canada and Mexico, b) no eSIM 
support (most MVNOs lack eSIM support), and c) no Apple Watch support 
(which requires eSIM support). Verizon is in the process of trying to 
buy all the América Móvil brands in the U.S., including Total Wireless 
<https://www.lightreading.com/ossbsscx/verizon-to-broaden-out-prepaid-offerings/d/d-id/772053>.