FCC Cellular Broadband Mapping

One of the most common complaints I hear from rural folks is the lack of good cellular coverage. Poor cellular coverage doesn’t seem to have gotten the same press as poor broadband, but not having access to cell phones might be more of a daily challenge than the lack of broadband. The Federal Communications Commission maps only ask a cellular carrier to show if it meets the FCC definition of cellular broadband, which is embarrassingly low: 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload is considered covered for 4G. According to Ookla’s nationwide speeds test, the national average cellular speeds at the end of the third quarter of 2022 was 148 Mbps download and 16 Mbps upload. What does it mean if a cellular carrier claims a 5G connection of 7/1 Mbps – that’s probably not even one bar of coverage. The FCC reporting doesn’t give me any idea if I can trust any of these carriers at my house. That’s because cellular coverage areas are incredibly hard to map. A more apt way to picture a cellular coverage area is as an amoeba with different length arms reaching in many directions. Because of the physics of cellular delivery, the claimed coverage by cellular companies has been badly overstated. The FCC is hoping to rein in the exaggerated coverage claims of cellular carriers.