- October 10, 2024
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Only a fraction of Palm Coast has reliable cell phone coverage.
That data comes from representatives of Diamond Communications, LLC, which has built several cell towers in the city. Chief Technology Officer Tony Sabatino told City Council members on Sept. 12 that a location has reliable coverage if it has a signal level equal to or greater than minus 100 decibel-milliwatts, or dBm.
The decibel-milliwatts decrease the further you get from the "cell edge" — the edge of a broadcast radius, Sabatino said.
“[Negative] 100 is pretty fair,” he said. “It's cell edge, and you should be able to be in good shape with that.”
The larger the magnitude of the negative number, Sabatino said, the worse the coverage gets. Sabatino said Diamond looked at Palm Coast’s coverage under AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, which are the top three carriers in the United States.
Around 14-15% of the total land area in Palm Coast has reliable coverage ratings, he said.
“It looks like less than 50% of the residential dwelling units in the city of Palm Coast have what you would call reliable coverage,” Mayor David Alfin said, referencing a map showing the 14-15% reliable coverage areas.
On average, T-Mobile has minus 105 dBm in Palm Coast, Verizon Wireless minus 102, and AT&T minus 105, according to data from the presentation.
FirstNet U.S., which maintains nationwide wireless broadband for first responders, operates at an average of minus 94 dBm in Palm Coast.
“You're not much different than some of the smaller communities [in Florida],” Sabatino said.
Best-in-class coverage is minus 95 dBm, he said. Kissimmee, which has been planning the development of cellular coverage for a while, Sabatino said, has a minus 96 to minus 90 dBm average across the three major carriers.
Palm Coast will need to begin thinking about its wireless coverage areas as it begins expanding westward in order to lay down the correct infrastructure, he said.
