When Liberty Lake residents take a break from debating golf cart etiquette on Facebook, they often ask for helpful feedback and recommendations from their neighbors. One recurring question is about cell phone coverage in Liberty Lake and which carrier offers the best mobile phone service.
As someone with service for three of the major providers, I thought I would share some data from my home office in Liberty Lake. Before I get into the results, we need to address a few things.
- Let’s get the images of Breaking Bad out of your head. The reason I have three phones with three different carriers is that I like to travel, but always need to be available to support my clients. Glad we cleared that up.
- I am not a network engineer and this test was not exactly scientific. The location was from sitting at my desk inside my home on the northwest side of Legacy Ridge on a clear day (04-14-19 9:30 am). The devices were all different; which impacts the results. Each phone features a different radio and antenna configuration.
- “Best Service” is subjective. For this test, we are measuring signal strength from one location. We are not measuring signal noise, signal consistency, or customer service. The strongest signal doesn’t always make it the best. This test was just from one point on earth and mobile phones are mobile. Conditions are always changing.
- A larger number (lower negative digits) is better. We are measuring RSRP (Reference Signals Received Power) in dBm (decibel-milliwatts). A “good” signal is usually between -76 to -90 dBm. Click here to learn more about signal strength.
Here are the results of my non-scientific test:
- Verizon -104 dBm using a Nokia TA-1136
- AT&T -109 dBm using an Alcatel Tetra 5041C
- T-Mobile -114 dBm using a LG V30
with steroids
- T-Mobile -65 dBM using a LG V30 with a T-Mobile Signal Booster
Summary
All three were in the fair to weak range. Verizon had the best signal strength from my house and T-Mobile had the worst.
However, I have used T-Mobile as my primary phone for the past 15 years. I have preferred the plans T-Mobile offers and has provided the best customer service experience. To make T-Mobile provide the strongest signal when I am at home, I utilize the T-Mobile 4G LTE Signal Booster; which they provide at no charge. If this booster was not available, I would likely be forced to choose another carrier.
If you want to compare coverage for other parts of the country; click here for an interactive map.
