Re: 5G map

On 4/4/2022 7:38 PM, Hank Rogers wrote:

> That would go a long way to convince people you are an intelligent 
> adult. I look forward to it.

Andy Burnelli/Arlen Holder/Dean Hoffman/more is wrong of course™.

We all hope that he can be educated and then convince people that he is 
an intelligent adult. We are all looking forward to that eventuality.

The reality is that the choice of carrier matters a lot to most people.

In the early days of cellular too many people were naive about the 
differences between carriers in terms of coverage and reliability and 
often made their decision based solely on price and on what kind of free 
or discounted phones the carrier was offering. Now consumers are wiser. 
Many have experienced the big differences between carriers and are smart 
enough to look at more than just price and free phones, and are less 
likely to fall for false claims in marketing.

It's nice that the NAD has stepped in to try to get carriers to stop 
false advertising, i.e.:
<https://www.phonearena.com/news/t-mobile-5g-home-internet-misleading-advertising_id139134>, 
<https://bbbprograms.org/media-center/news/tmobile-most-reliable-5g-umlaut-claims>, 
<https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/national-advertising-division-challenges-t-mobile-s-network-claims-siding-verizon>, 
<https://www.nexttv.com/news/t-mobile-pulls-brady-stefani-ads>.

As we all know, the three U.S. networks were not created equal. AT&T and 
Verizon, the two top-tier networks, evolved from legacy networks and 
built out large networks, acquiring smaller regional and rural carriers 
along the way. T-Mobile, the second tier network, was a PCS (1900 MHz 
only) network with mainly urban coverage. AT&T and Verizon have 
leveraged their coverage advantage of being in the game early before 
cities and counties began regulating the placement of cell towers.

All three networks work acceptably in flat urban areas. While no carrier 
has 100% geographic coverage if you plan to travel to more remote areas, 
like National and State Parks, or if you’re going to drive through rural 
areas, or if you’re visiting the outskirts of urban areas (often called 
the “greenbelt” or “exurban”), then you’ll want the coverage of AT&T or 
Verizon.

A PC Magazine article from 2021 
<https://www.pcmag.com/news/fastest-mobile-networks-2021> summed it up 
well: "And if you’re out in the countryside and don’t often head to the 
city, T-Mobile might not be the best carrier for you. The carrier is 
doing great in the nation’s biggest metro areas, but when we look at 
small cities and areas away from interstate highways, especially in the 
western US, it's clear that T-Mobile has to do more work to get better 
coverage."

You can see the vast differences in nationwide coverage here: 
<https://i.imgur.com/irqFqyP.png (data is from 
https://www.fcc.gov/BroadbandData/MobileMaps/mobile-map>). While these 
are 4G maps, based on cell tower locations, 5G is a subset of 4G 
coverage (except in the case of mmWave 5G-only small cells intended for 
home broadband (AT&T and Verizon are putting in networks of streetlight 
powered 5G cells).

You can also use the interactive map at 
<https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/Coverage>. These are the 
maps for each networks’ native coverage, and you can distinguish between 
4G and 5G with the check boxes. If you look solely at 5G coverage, 
T-Mobile has much more 5G coverage than AT&T or Verizon. If you look at 
4G+5G coverage, T-Mobile has much less total coverage than AT&T or Verizon.

As I like to say, "Data Not Dogma." Helping people make good decisions 
about which carrier to choose is reliant on independent data, not 
marketing blurbs from a carrier.

Andy Burnelli/Arlen Holder/Dean Hoffman/more can learn more by studying 
the following documents:
1. Prepaid Phone Service for Foreign Visitors to the United States 
<https://tinyurl.com/us-prepaid-foreign>.
2. Coverage Differences Between AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon
<https://tinyurl.com/ATVCoverageComparisons/>