Somebody asked me recently for a list of the primary benefits of having good cellular coverage. I was surprised to find out that I had never thought about this before. Following are the benefits I could think of, and I’m sure I’m missing plenty more.

• Mobility. The original and still primary benefit of cellular coverage is mobility. Kids won’t believe this, but thirty years ago, it was virtually impossible to communicate with others if you were away from a landline. Family members did not communicate during the day. Business travel was massively challenging and there were long lines at payphones. Cellphones introduced the reality of ‘communicate anywhere’ that revolutionized the way that people live and work.
• It’s the Newest Utility. I think cellular coverage is the newest utility because everybody expects it. In 2023, 98% of adults had a cellphone. The average American connects to the Internet just over 7 hours per day, with the usage split almost evenly between cellphones and other devices like computers or tablets.
• It’s How We Talk. Cellular has displaced landlines. In the 2000 U.S. Census, 97.6% of homes had a landline. At the end of 2023, home landline penetration was under 30%. People don’t just talk using cellular phone calls. We use cellphones for talk-to-text, for one-on-one video connections like Apple’s FaceTime, or for group discussions on apps like Teams. People can also talk directly through various apps.
• Public Safety. The ability to locate a 911 caller on a cellphone was a huge technology breakthrough. Public safety got even better when 911 centers began accepting texts. 80% of all calls to 911 in 2023 came from a cellphone.
• Payments. Money has moved to cellphones for many people. Some interesting statistics for the U.S. from 2023. 48% of consumers used a digital wallet. 73% of consumers use mobile banking. 45% of all payments to another person were made using a mobile device. 27% of all bills were paid using a mobile device. Contactless payments are estimated at $220 billion.
• Health Monitoring. Millions of people routinely monitor sugar levels, blood pressure, and sleep issues with their smartphones. It’s now routine medicine to send people home from surgery with devices and an app to monitor vital signs.
• Back-up for Home Broadband. While roughly 90% of homes have broadband, people scramble and use cellar broadband any time there is a glitch or outage in the broadband connection.
• Back-up for Communities During and After Disasters. During and after disasters, the cellphone often becomes the only broadband.
• For Some, it’s the Only Form of Connectivity. Depending on the community, between 5% and 10% of adults have no access to landline broadband at home or the office, and the cellphone is their only source of connectivity.
• Fewer Dropped Calls or Service Interruptions. Good cellular coverage means a higher quality of connection, meaning fewer dropped voice calls and less interruptions of broadband connections.
• Better Battery Life. Cellphones expend a lot of power looking for a stronger signal when coverage is poor. My experience after Hurricane Hellene was that my phone lasted only three hours on a charge when the only cellular was one bar of 4G.
• Businesses / Landlords want Good Coverage. Landlords need good cellular coverage to find and keep tenants. Businesses of all types say they lose customers if cellphones won’t work inside their business.
• Employees Expect It. Employers with poor indoor cell coverage report they have a harder time finding and retaining employees.
• Apps Have Revolutionized the Economy. Entire new industries like Uber and DoorDash only exist because of cellphones. Practically everybody has become reliant on GPS to navigate when driving. A large percentage of smart farming and smart farm machinery rely on cellular connectivity. People who build infrastructure rely on geolocating to document the exact position of objects.
• Paperless IDs. One of the newer applications is to use a cellphone app to prove identity and age. This got a jumpstart during the pandemic to prove people were vaccinated but has expanded greatly for other identity purposes.
• Entertainment. A huge percentage of entertainment is consumed on cellphones. This includes things like streaming music, gaming, and streaming video. A huge percentage of social media is consumed on cellphones. People now document everything they do with pictures and video clips. There is seemingly an app for everything – you can use a smartphone to identify a constellation, a bird call, a song, or a flower.
• FWA Cellular is Now Home Broadband. For the 10 million households using FWA broadband, cellular now also brings the many benefits of home broadband – an entirely other list.