How Good is Rural Cellular Coverage – Part II

Maps of cellular internet coverage by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon show a typical rural story of cellular coverage in a rural county in Illinois. Cell carriers rarely share towers, and each carrier is on different towers and has different coverage. All three carriers have areas where they have no 5G coverage, and somebody subscribed to any one carrier in this county would find a lot of dead zones. All three carriers have little or no coverage in the northwest sector. These maps show something that every rural delivery driver knows—to work in rural America means carrying multiple cellphones subscribed to different carriers. When Federal Communications Commission Chairman Carr says that 96.8 percent of households have 5G coverage, we have to put that into perspective. Over 80 percent of Americans live in cities and suburbs and likely have good cell coverage. Another substantial percentage live in smaller towns that happen to have at least one cell tower. If the FCC ever decides to finally launch the 5G Fund for Rural America, this county will likely not be a candidate for a grant to build new cell towers. That’s unfortunate, because I estimate that 30 percent of the residents of this county would say they have poor cellular coverage. They will say that they don’t have good coverage indoors, and no matter which carrier they subscribe to, they hit dead spots when they drive around the county. The FCC’s assertion that 96.8 percent of homes have good 5G coverage can be supported by the FCC maps—but those maps don’t show the reality of the way that people judge cellular coverage.