T-Mobile’s next-gen coverage maps pull data from real-time customer usage

T-Mobile's strange-looking coverage maps used to be the inside joke of the wireless industry, but the company has made significant strides to improve their network in the past couple of years. With LTE, much-improved coverage, a forward-looking approach to network design and overall better network stability they've set themselves up for a nice future, and now they're looking to flaunt it with their "next generation" coverage map.

The map uses crowd-sourced real-time data points to give users a clear — and, more importantly, accurate — idea of how strong T-Mobile's network is in their area. They also use public speed test results to show you an average of the types of data speed users experience in any given area. Here's the full breakdown of what their new coverage map brings:

• Customer-verified coverage based on actual customer usage, resulting in a vastly more transparent and accurate map, showing, for example, exactly where you can expect 4G LTE, 4G, 3G or other levels of coverage.


• A Verified Coverage icon indicating where the majority of data is provided by T-Mobile customers reporting their actual network experience, providing an added layer of confidence.


• Data that's updated twice monthly − compared to data presented on the carriers' maps, which is already dated by the time it's printed and published and may be months or even years old.


• Speed test data from trusted third party apps showing average download speeds from customer speed tests over the last 90 days.

It's nothing other apps haven't been trying to do for years to help customers make informed decisions about finding the right carrier for them. Carrier Coverage is one app that looks to fill that need. But this is the first time a carrier has taken it upon themselves to create a coverage map based on crowd-sourced data and provide more than just pretty colors on a meaningless map. We'd love to see the other big 3 follow suit. You can check it out for your area right now by heading to T-Mobile's coverage website here.

[via T-Mobile]

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