4G LTE & 5G Coverage In Merced

The table below shows the proportion of Merced with coverage from different cellular technologies.

Network	4G Coverage	5G Coverage
AT&T	100%	100%
T-Mobile	100%	100%
Verizon	100%	71%
Dish	0%	89%

Don't be alarmed by Dish's lack of 4G coverage in Merced. Dish has a newly-built network that's 5G-only.

US Cellular And Dish Roaming Coverage

US Cellular does not have native coverage in Merced. However, some US Cellular subscribers may still have coverage in Merced thanks to roaming agreements.

The 89% figure for Dish may understate what subscribers in Merced experience after accounting for roaming agreements.

Merced Cell Signal Strength

There are 538 map hexes within the census-defined boundaries of Merced. The table below shows the proportion of hexes at various levels of signal strength. Where both 4G and 5G coverage is available, data is drawn from whichever technology offers a stronger signal.

Network	Strong	Decent	Weak	None
AT&T	16%	82%	2%	0%
T-Mobile	34%	56%	10%	0%
Verizon	26%	73%	1%	0%
Dish	7%	67%	14%	11%

For most purposes, decent signals are perfectly sufficient. Weak or non-existent signals cause far greater degradation in user experience.

Crowdsourced Coverage Data In Merced

Coverage Critic has 524 crowdsourced data points from 61 map hexes within the boundaries of Merced. Data is available for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Network	Unique Hexes	Total Observations
AT&T	45	189
T-Mobile	20	68
Verizon	39	267

Click here to toggle to the map's crowdsourced data layer.

California State-Wide Coverage Scores

Network	Coverage Score
Verizon	8.8 / 10
AT&T	8.6 / 10
T-Mobile	8.2 / 10

Data Sourcing

Coverage maps draw on data from the FCC's Broadband Data Collection and Coverage Critic's crowdsourcing.

The coverage information for Merced is rated as medium-high confidence. Documentation is available elsewhere covering limitations of Coverage Critic's approach.