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Which Cell Phone Carrier Is The Best In California

How are the Coverage Scores calculated?

The Coverage Scores are calculated for each of the carriers by looking at three key metrics:

  1. Coverage
  2. Data Speeds
  3. Reliability

Coverage

The Coverage Score is on a scale from 0 to 10.

To calculate the coverage score, we look at two key metrics: 1) the total area covered and 2) the tower density.

The total area covered comes from the signal strength data from the FCC. Any area that has signal is counted toward the total the total coverage area. A higher coverage area means a higher score. A lower coverage area means a lower score.

The tower density metric is also calculated using the FCC signal strength data. We estimate a carrier’s tower density by looking at how many areas have high signal strength compared to low signal strength. Lots of areas with great signal indicate a higher tower density, and thus a higher score.

Data Speeds

The Data Speeds score is on a scale from 0 to 10.

We calculate the score by looking at a carrier’s median download and upload speeds in a given area. Faster speeds means getting a higher score. We weigh the median download speed at 70% of the total score and the median upload speed at 30% of the total score.

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To score a perfect 10/10, a carrier would need to get median speeds of 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload.

Reliability

The Reliability Score is on a scale from 0 to 10. The goal for the Reliability Score is to estimate how likely you’ll have a usable connection when you have service.

To calculate the Reliability score, we look at the bottom 10%, 5% and 1% of data speeds in a given area. The download speeds are weighted at 50% of the score. Upload speeds are weighted at 20% of the score.

We also look at latency to calculate the Reliability Score.

Latency is a measurement of how long it takes a data packet to travel from the sender to the receiver. You can think of latency as answering the question, “how much delay is there in the network?”

If there is high latency (30ms to 100ms), it takes a long time for data packets to be sent and received by your phone. Your connection may feel slow or “laggy.”

If there is low latency (under 30ms), your connection will feel fast and responsive.

Latency is weighted at 30% of the Reliability Score.

Overall Score

The overall score looks at the Coverage, Data Speeds, and Reliability Scores and weighs them as follows:

  • Coverage Score: 70%
  • Reliability Score: 23%
  • Data Speeds Score: 7%

Where does CoverageMap.com get its coverage and speed data from?

CoverageMap.com gets different data from different sources.

The overall coverage and signal strength data comes from the FCC’s mobile broadband map.

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The information about data speeds and network performance comes from community members contributing speed test results to our crowd-sourced coverage map. If you are interested in contributing to the project and helping to build better, more accurate coverage maps for everyone, you can learn more here.

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