How Does CoverageMap.com Work?
What is CoverageMap.com?
CoverageMap.com is a website that creates crowdsourced maps of cellular coverage.
It was launched on March 20th, 2023, by co-founders Stetson Doggett and Trevor Mann.
We started CoverageMap.com because we were frustrated with misleading maps from major carriers. The carriers often exaggerated their coverage areas, showing more coverage than was actually available. The maps would also show that new 5G service was available in an area, but when you got there, the service was missing.
Plus, you could never tell how good your connection would be. It's one thing for a carrier to say they cover an area. It's an entirely different thing to have a fast connection in that area. Your phone may show two bars of service, but that is useless if speeds are too slow to load a web page.
We wanted to change that.
We wanted to make accurate, real-world coverage maps available for everyone.
So, we created CoverageMap.com. Our goal is to help people compare real-world cellular coverage and performance between carriers worldwide. We want to make it easy for people to understand which carrier has the best service in their area.
You can watch our original launch video below:
How does CoverageMap.com get its coverage data?
We get our coverage data from four main sources:
- The built-in speed test in the free Coverage Map app
- People uploading speed test results taken with third-party apps, such as SpeedSmart, Ookla Speedtest, or nPerf
- Deals we make with vendors to purchase speed test data
- The FCC Broadband Data Collection Program
The first three data sources all contribute to our crowdsourced Speed Test Map.
The Speed Test Map is a map of cellular data speeds. It updates in real-time as users collect and contribute results. It shows the real-world performance of the cellular networks, including download speeds, upload speeds, and latency.
It also show areas with confirmed no coverage, thanks to the no coverage mapping feature in the Coverage Map app.
The fourth data source, the FCC Broadband Data Collection Program, is used to power our Signal Strength Map.
The FCC mandates that each mobile network operator in the U.S., aka all the big carriers, submit coverage data to the FCC. The MNOs are required to provide map files of their current coverage areas and signal strength for each of the network technologies they are currently using, including 3G, LTE, or 5G. This data is made publicly available.
We download the data, apply our correction algorithm to it to normalize the data between carriers, and then publish it as our interactive Signal Strength Map.
Our map gives you a more granular look at the signal strength data than the FCC's map, and we think it has a better experience.
How can I contribute data to CoverageMap.com?
The easiest way to contribute data is to download the free Coverage Map app for iPhone or Android.
Open the app, turn off Wi-Fi, and run a speed test on cellular.
That's it!
Each cellular test you run will show up on the map in real-time and will help build more accurate coverage maps for everyone.
You are also welcome to download a third party speed testing app. You can export your results as a CSV file and import them directly into the Coverage Map app. Here is a video on how to do it: