In a blog post this morning, T-Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer – also known as Grand Master Wizard of networks – Neville Ray announced a new coverage map. Like many of its Uncarrier moves, this new launch is aimed at eliminating another customer pain-point: Estimated and inaccurate coverage maps. T-Mobile is introducing this as the “industry’s first and only crowdsourced, customer-verified network coverage map.”

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 new 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 data 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.

It wasn’t long ago that T-Mobile updated its map to include details such as 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.

It’s worth noting that, as of right now, the coverage map seems to be running a little slow. I’ve been having a few issues in getting it to load any locations. But, head on 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 for that “verified” status.

Source: T-Mobile