4G LTE & 5G Coverage In Philadelphia

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

Network	4G Coverage	5G Coverage
AT&T	100%	100%
T-Mobile	99%	98%
Verizon	100%	98%
Dish	0%	94%

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

US Cellular And Dish Roaming Coverage

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

The 94% figure for Dish may understate what subscribers in Philadelphia experience after accounting for roaming agreements.

Millimeter Wave 5G

Parts of Philadelphia have millimeter wave 5G coverage. This novel celluar technology offers extremely fast speeds, but the coverage potential is limited. Millimeter waves aren't well-suited for traveling long distances.

Network	Millimeter Wave
Verizon	✓
AT&T	✓
T-Mobile	?

Millimeter wave coverage in Philadelphia is likely sparse (mostly limited to dense, outdoor areas like popular parks or sports stadiums).

Philadelphia Cell Signal Strength

There are 3,536 map hexes within the census-defined boundaries of Philadelphia. 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	28%	66%	6%	0%
T-Mobile	68%	27%	4%	1%
Verizon	55%	42%	2%	0%
Dish	5%	77%	12%	6%

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

Due to data-reliability concerns, 216 hexes in Philadelphia that fall in bodies water, along rivers, or near shorelines are excluded from the table above.

Crowdsourced Coverage Data In Philadelphia

Coverage Critic has 203,449 crowdsourced data points from 2,458 map hexes within the boundaries of Philadelphia. Data is available for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Network	Unique Hexes	Total Observations
AT&T	1,734	42,709
T-Mobile	2,116	121,931
Verizon	1,686	38,420

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

Pennsylvania State-Wide Coverage Scores

Network	Coverage Score
Verizon	8.7 / 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 Philadelphia is rated as medium-high confidence. Documentation is available elsewhere covering limitations of Coverage Critic's approach.