T-Mobile launches "next-gen" coverage map, with real user experience

Today, T-Mobile's Neville Ray announced a new coverage map, which according to T-Mobile is the "industry’s first and only crowdsourced, customer-verified network coverage map." Like many of its Uncarrier moves, this new launch is aimed at eliminating another customer pain-point: Estimated and inaccurate coverage maps.

This new map shows near real-time customer experiences on the T-Mobile network based on "200 million actual customer usage data points every day." The map also includes usage data from third party sources, including Inrix, a company which specializes in network analytics. The updated map includes:

• "Customer-verified coverage" which is base on real-world customer usage. This results in a more transparent and accurate map which should show exactly where you can expect 4G LTE, 4G HSPA+, 3G or other coverage levels.
• "Verified Coverage" icon – This icon indicates areas where most of the coverage data is provided by T-Mobile customers reporting actual, real-life network experiences. T-Mobile hopes this will help add more confidence in the data on its coverage maps.
• Regular updates – T-Mobile will update the data on its map twice every month, so that it’s as up to date as you can expect. And will certainly be the most up to date coverage map offered by any U.S. carrier.
• Lastly – Speed test data from trusted third party apps will show average download speeds from customer speed tests over the last 90 days.

Recently T-Mobile updated its map with details on which network bands were available in specific locations. Prior to this update, the map would help you choose devices based on network compatibility. This was particularly useful in markets where the 1900MHz LTE band was used.

You can head over to T-Mobile.com/coverage for a look at the new map and let us know which differences you spot while you’re checking your regular locations which have a "verified" status.

source: T-Mobile