4G LTE & 5G Coverage In San Diego

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

Network	4G Coverage	5G Coverage
AT&T	97%	93%
T-Mobile	98%	91%
Verizon	100%	97%
Dish	0%	54%

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

US Cellular And Dish Roaming Coverage

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

The 54% figure for Dish may understate what subscribers in San Diego experience after accounting for roaming agreements.

Millimeter Wave 5G

Parts of San Diego 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 San Diego is likely sparse (mostly limited to dense, outdoor areas like popular parks or sports stadiums).

San Diego Cell Signal Strength

There are 7,364 map hexes within the census-defined boundaries of San Diego. 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	12%	61%	24%	3%
T-Mobile	33%	50%	15%	2%
Verizon	34%	58%	8%	0%
Dish	2%	33%	19%	46%

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, 319 hexes in San Diego that fall in bodies water, along rivers, or near shorelines are excluded from the table above.

Crowdsourced Coverage Data In San Diego

Coverage Critic has 245,886 crowdsourced data points from 3,322 map hexes within the boundaries of San Diego. Data is available for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Network	Unique Hexes	Total Observations
AT&T	2,609	95,359
T-Mobile	2,481	95,632
Verizon	2,329	54,150

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 Confidence

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