4G LTE & 5G Coverage In San Jose

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

Network	4G Coverage	5G Coverage
AT&T	98%	96%
T-Mobile	92%	90%
Verizon	97%	95%
Dish	0%	55%

Don't be alarmed by Dish's lack of 4G coverage in San Jose. 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 Jose. However, some US Cellular subscribers may still have coverage in San Jose thanks to roaming agreements.

The 55% figure for Dish may understate what subscribers in San Jose experience after accounting for roaming agreements.

Millimeter Wave 5G

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

San Jose Cell Signal Strength

There are 4,227 map hexes within the census-defined boundaries of San Jose. 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	9%	65%	25%	2%
T-Mobile	46%	40%	6%	8%
Verizon	23%	66%	9%	2%
Dish	1%	41%	13%	45%

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

Crowdsourced Coverage Data In San Jose

Coverage Critic has 101,389 crowdsourced data points from 1,904 map hexes within the boundaries of San Jose. Data is available for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Network	Unique Hexes	Total Observations
AT&T	1,457	41,732
T-Mobile	1,443	40,850
Verizon	1,039	18,567

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 San Jose is rated as medium-high confidence. Documentation is available elsewhere covering limitations of Coverage Critic's approach.