A Rural Cellular Story

I was looking through the Federal Communications Commission cellular map in Buncombe County (NC), where I live. For those not fully familiar with the FCC broadband maps, the agency publishes two maps: the more familiar one that shows broadband coverage and a second that shows cellular coverage. You can toggle between the two maps at the FCC’s map website. It struck me while looking at the details in the maps that rural cellular coverage is changing, and not in a good way. I started by looking at a small section of the county that is on the outer fringe of where the Asheville outer suburbs turn rural. This is the story I got from the data:

• The folks who live here don’t have a lot of options. The only carrier that might work in the way people need cellular to work is AT&T, but this neighborhood is outside the AT&T 5G coverage, and the 4G coverage is likely weak.
• It looks like decent coverage was finally becoming available from EchoStar, but that’s now gone.
• The speeds shown in the table are for outdoor coverage, and speeds inside homes are typically half of outdoor speeds.
• When you look at the details in the FCC cellular map you quickly understand how the advertised national footprints of the big carriers are exaggerated.
• The bad news is that the FCC considers this neighborhood to be served by cellular. That means if the FCC finally launches the 5G Fund for Rural America, this neighborhood will not be considered for funding to add a new cell tower.