‘These maps are bogus’: US lawmakers tear into telecom execs over spotty rural coverage

Members of Congress are fed up with the state of cellphone coverage in the United States and they weren’t afraid to lodge their complaints personally — with the leaders of some of the country’s biggest wireless networks. As Sprint and T-Mobile went to Capitol Hill to defend their $26 billion proposed merger, lawmakers buttonholed T-Mobile’s chief executive, John Legere, and Sprint’s executive chairman, Marcelo Claure, on the frustrating inability to get a cell signal in many parts of the country, particularly in rural areas. Waving a coverage map of his state in the middle of a congressional hearing, Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) said that despite flashy promises to build a dazzling 5G network, wireless carriers can scarcely manage to serve Vermont with regular 4G LTE. “In a lot of Vermont, we have no-G,” said Rep. Welch. “These maps are bogus.”  When Claure tried to shift the blame to AT&T and Verizon, saying Sprint’s network often relies on those companies’ infrastructure in many areas, Rep. Welch interrupted. “These are no good! These are phony maps!” he bellowed.