About the data

Everything on this site is read from the FCC's Broadband Data Collection, the program under which every facilities-based mobile carrier files, twice a year, a map of where its network provides service at set minimum speeds. The FCC publishes those maps and its own summaries of them on the National Broadband Map..

What is on a page

  • The address lookup reads the carrier files at the FCC's own resolution: H3 hexagons of about 0.1 km². For the hexagon an address falls in, it shows every carrier that filed coverage, at which technology and speed tier, whether the carrier modeled service outdoors only or also inside a moving vehicle, and the minimum signal strength the carrier predicted.
  • County and state pages use the FCC's summary tables: the share of a county's land area each carrier files as covered, outdoors and in a vehicle, and the share covered by any carrier at each technology tier, split urban and rural.

What is left out on purpose

  • Measurements of our own. No speed tests, no crowdsourced signal readings, no drive tests. Those are useful, and the FCC runs its own; this site shows what the carriers filed, so you can hold it against what your phone does.
  • Plans, prices and recommendations. No plan comparison, no "best carrier" call, no links to sign up. A carrier that covers your house may still be the wrong one for the road you drive every day; the county pages exist so you can look at both.
  • Resellers. Carriers that run on another carrier's network do not file their own maps. Their coverage is the host network's map, with whatever limits the reseller's plan adds.
  • Indoor coverage. The FCC does not collect it. What the outdoor and in-vehicle flags mean.

How to read a figure

A covered hexagon means the carrier's propagation model predicts at least the tier's minimum speed at the hexagon's centre, under the FCC's standard assumptions. It is a prediction. The FCC's staff drive tests found that fewer than two thirds of their tests met the speed the maps promised, and the FCC runs a challenge process because of it. How to check and challenge a filing.

Who runs this

Is There Service is a small independent site. It has no relationship with any carrier and nothing on it is paid placement. Errors are corrected when reported: use the contact form, ideally with the FCC map page showing the right figure.