How does cell phone coverage work? I don’t think any carrier is close to 100% coverage in the US. Are the parts of the US where my cell phone won’t work at all depending on my carrier? Are cell phones able to connect to other carriers towers?
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Coverage does depend on your carrier. In the US the FCC requires carriers with a greater coverage to provide roaming to smaller carriers but it allows to charge very high prices. T-Mobile for example includes only 5-200 MB of domestic roaming data with its plans https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/domestic-roaming-data The areas where roaming is available are marked on the map as “Partner” coverage. You can see them for example in Western Kansas.
Regional carriers such as US Cellular may have been able to negotiate better deals. In any case that’s reflected on the carrier coverage map. If the map says no coverage that means no data and call coverage. The FCC requires all carriers to provide 911 call service to all phones of competitors, tourists, and even to phones without a sim card.
Towers have a range. The higher the bandwidth, the shorter the range. It is not practical to cover the entirety of the massive, mostly empty parts of the US.
Your phone will still work, just won’t be connected to the outside world. However very importantly, even if your phone says you have no signal, you can still phone the emergency services, it allows your phone to use reserved military satellites and bandwidths to make the call. So always try to call 911 even if it says no signal.
It works in cells, hence the name, small overlapping regions with a radio tower in the middle.
Correct, there is no 100% coverage of the US by cell phone, only sat phones can do that.
Yes, there are many part of the US where cell phones don’t work. Go into a rural area and drive 20 miles from a highway and there is very little chance your cell phone will work.
Sorta. Many carriers use the same frequencies and respect each other’s customers. This gives better coverage. A few companies choose separate frequencies, and their towers only handle their customers.
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