We have previously looked at the birds eye view of 4G LTE coverage within the US. We know that Verizon 4G services are now available to more than 50% of the US population. However, geographically, the service is only available in very small islands of population. Now, we take a closer look at 4G LTE coverage within California.
- LTE Coverage in CA
We see that the coverage is available in most of the population centers such as Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Fresno and Bakersfield. Further south the coverage is also available in areas around Los Angeles and San Diego. But what is not shown on this map is that there is no coverage in many smaller cities such as Stockton, Modesto, Santa Rosa and Visalia. Also there is no coverage on the highways connecting these cities e.g. there is no coverage on I-5 which runs along the length of the state.
Bottomline: You may get very good LTE coverage when you are at home but don’t expect the same when you are on the highway. You will most probably have to fall back to 3G.
Author: Yasir
More than 20 years of experience in various organizations in Pakistan, the USA, and Europe. Worked with the Mobile and Portable Radio Group (MPRG) of Virginia Tech and Qualcomm USA and was one of the first researchers to propose Space Time Block Codes for eight transmit antennas. Have publsihed a book “Recipes for Communication and Signal Processing” through Springer Nature.