The nationwide race for 5G coverage is on, but who will win? While Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile boast their respective cards, the race is far from over. Sprint has withdrawn due to the merger with T-Mobile and its network is currently being revised. Let’s take a look at where 5G is available in the US and how quickly it could get to a city near you.
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First and foremost, the US is a huge country. As a result, 5G is far from being a nationwide option for every carrier. With that in mind, let’s break down the three main coverage maps to find the best choice.
The 5G card from T-Mobile
T-Mobile is currently the leader in the 5G race, thanks not least to the merger with Sprint. As a result, T-Mobile also has the most beautiful coverage map to showcase its nationwide network. However, there are actually two 5G networks – one that covers nearly 5,000 cities and 200 million Americans, and a millimeter-wave network that is only available in parts of six major cities. These lucky cities are as follows:
- Atlanta
- Cleveland
- Dallas
- Las Vegas
- los Angeles
- new York
The reason for the two different coverage maps is that T-Mobile is based on two separate technologies. It uses band 71 – its 600 MHz spectrum for nationwide coverage as it penetrates buildings more effectively and covers great distances. The mmWave technology mentioned above can’t go that far, but it’s a faster option than Band 71.
Verizon’s 5G card
Compared to T-Mobile’s coverage, Verizon’s map looks rather bare. However, this is partly due to the fact that Verizon only uses mmWave technology. Overall, this means that Verizon is a great option for top speeds, but is nowhere near as effective indoors. So far, Verizon’s 5G map has 35 major cities, which you can find below:
- Atlanta
- Boise
- Boston
- Charlotte
- Chicago
- Cincinnati
- Cleveland
- Columbus
- Dallas
- Denver
- Des Moines
- Detroit
- big rapids
- Greensboro
- Hampton Roads
- Hoboken
- Houston
- Indianapolis
- Kansas City
- Small stone
- los Angeles
- Memphis
- Miami
- Minneapolis
- New York City
- Omaha
- Panama city
- Phoenix
- providence
- Salt Lake City
- San Diego
- Sioux Falls
- Spokane
- St. Paul
- Washington, DC
While 5G may not necessarily be available in all cities listed, you can check out Verizon’s interactive map here. It offers a full breakdown of the coverage that you can expect anywhere in the United States.
5G card from AT&T.
Finally, we have the AT&T 5G coverage map. Like T-Mobile, AT&T uses two different technologies to provide coverage – an 850 Hz network for extensive coverage and an mmWave network for performance and speed. AT & T’s mmWave network is called 5G Plus and it’s faster, but you’ll struggle to get the most of it indoors.
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AT&T offers one of the best city-to-city coverage breakdowns with signals in parts of 46 states as well as Puerto Rico. Here are the selected cities that support 5G Plus for the highest speeds:
- AZ: Phoenix
- CA: Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Oakland, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Diego, San Francisco, San José, West Hollywood
- FL: Jacksonville, Miami, Miami Gardens, Orlando
- GA: Atlanta
- IN: Indianapolis
- KY: Louisville
- LA: New Orleans
- MD: Baltimore, Ocean City
- MI: Detroit
- NC: Charlotte, Raleigh
- NV: Las Vegas
- NY: New York City
- OH: Cleveland
- OK: Oklahoma City
- PA: King of Prussia, Philadelphia
- TN: Nashville
- TX: Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Waco
You can also head over to AT & T’s 5G page for a more detailed map of where coverage is available in each of the cities.