Southwestern US road trip report

Last week I went on a family trip across parts of the southwestern US and thought I'd document T-Mobile's coverage along the way in case anyone was curious. I have an iPhone SE.

Trip route: http://i.imgur.com/YRJhCtq.png

Phoenix, AZ

We landed in Phoenix and spent part of the day there. Coverage and speeds were great from what I saw.

20x20 B4 LTE: http://i.imgur.com/GUEgAfR.png

Field test: http://i.imgur.com/rSdBRZR.png

We left Phoenix and drove up to Sedona next. Coverage along I-17 was strong most of the way, and was 10x10 B2 LTE most of the way:

Speed test: http://i.imgur.com/Ky1BC2F.png

Field test: http://i.imgur.com/RNU5t12.png

Sedona, AZ

Coverage in Sedona was strong and pretty fast. It was 15x15 B4 LTE everywhere that I saw.

LTE speeds: http://i.imgur.com/yXZhzBa.png

HSPA+ speeds: http://i.imgur.com/tSJ7sdJ.png

Field test: http://i.imgur.com/may4RJW.png

Valle, AZ

After Sedona, we headed up towards the Grand Canyon. Our last area with native T-Mobile coverage for a while was Valle, along AZ-64 on the way to the Grand Canyon. There was 10x10 B2 LTE and EDGE.

LTE speeds: http://i.imgur.com/noLaNDq.png

EDGE speeds: http://i.imgur.com/3tQI3Ht.png

Field test: http://i.imgur.com/A2H8Ueg.png

Grand Canyon, AZ

We stayed at the south rim of the Grand Canyon in the village. Coverage was strong (I could see the cell tower from our hotel), but it was 3G roaming on Commnet, capped at 200MB and throttled to 64kbps. Unfortunately, our cabin didn't have Wi-Fi, so we were stuck with slow roaming.

Speed test: http://i.imgur.com/3Ll0nzb.png

Tuba City, AZ

On our way to our next stop, we got hungry and stopped for lunch in Tuba City. T-Mobile has native coverage here, but it's only "3G", which is HSPA with T1 backhaul. Voice/text worked fine, but data was completely unusable. Not even Google would load.

Speed test (fail): http://i.imgur.com/OWz7Tif.png

Page, AZ

Between Tuba City and Page was a mix of Commnet and CellularOne roaming. Once we got to Page, there was native T-Mobile coverage, but it barely worked. It was 10x10 B2, but must've been really congested.

Speed test: http://i.imgur.com/6nFdAwu.png

Field test: http://i.imgur.com/ZCbp3Ku.png

Zion National Park, UT

On the way to Zion, we roamed on AT&T almost the entire way in southern Utah. It counted towards the 200MB cap and was throttled to 128kbps.

Speed test: http://i.imgur.com/9T6FakI.png

We had no service inside the park. Based on what we heard, only Verizon has 1x coverage inside the park, and none of the other carriers have any coverage. (Though I guess Sprint would roam on Verizon there.)

Kanab, UT

On our way back from Zion, we stopped for lunch in Kanab. T-Mobile has native coverage there. It's 5x5 B4 LTE which worked surprisingly well and HSPA+.

LTE speeds: http://i.imgur.com/rKVwhiH.png

HSPA+ speeds: http://i.imgur.com/fw9GY6C.png

Field test: http://i.imgur.com/OWJYplE.png

Kayenta, AZ

On our way to New Mexico, we stayed a night in Kayenta. Coverage here was LTE and HSPA from either CellularOne or Commnet.

CellularOne was full-speed and didn't count towards the roaming cap, and Commnet was throttled to 64kbps and did count towards the cap. I briefly got full-speed LTE on Commnet, but I suspect this was a glitch, since it went back to 64kbps after doing another speed test.

Both CellularOne and Commnet were using 5x5 B17 LTE.

CellularOne LTE: http://i.imgur.com/Oy0U2HX.png

Commnet LTE (throttled): http://i.imgur.com/byFAwVq.png

Commnet LTE (full-speed/glitch): http://i.imgur.com/tRthPF1.png

Field test: http://i.imgur.com/kV2o74k.png

Network selection menu: http://i.imgur.com/5Qjblce.png

Four Corners, AZ-UT-NM-CO

We briefly stopped at the four corners on the way, and got 3 bars of CellularOne 3G there that was pretty slow (below 1Mbps). It didn't look like Commnet had any coverage there.

Gallup, NM

T-Mobile coverage and speeds in Gallup were awful. I barely saw LTE, and was mostly on extremely slow HSPA. Oddly, the coverage map shows excellent LTE coverage in Gallup, so I'm not sure what's going on.

Speed test: http://i.imgur.com/I9zqm2r.png

Santa Fe, NM

Coverage and speeds in Santa Fe were great. It was only 10x10 B2 LTE, but I was really surprised at how well it performed.

Speed test: http://i.imgur.com/9fka9VO.png

Field test: http://i.imgur.com/4E8pNce.png

Overall, coverage and speeds were decent, though there are definitely areas that need major improvement.