📡 Carrier Coverage Explainer
Look up wireless network types and find out which parent network any MVNO runs on.
Select a network technology to see speeds, range, and real-world use cases.
Select an MVNO to see which major carrier's network it runs on and what that means for coverage and data priority.
Understanding Network Coverage
When you use an MVNO, you connect to the exact same cell towers as the parent carrier's own customers. Coverage maps are identical. The difference is data priority — during congestion, the parent carrier's postpaid customers get bandwidth first.
In practice, most users never notice deprioritization. It primarily affects you during large events (concerts, stadiums) or in densely populated urban areas at peak times (lunch hour, rush hour).
For 5G, most MVNOs now support at least Sub-6 GHz 5G, which covers the vast majority of 5G deployments and provides a meaningful speed improvement over LTE. True mmWave 5G remains limited to flagship postpaid plans and specific urban locations.