Category: WEBSITE

The local wireless network landscape in the Reno/Sparks area has seen several notable shifts, site activations, and structural changes in the past year. They include:

Network Shutdown & Spectrum Sale

• Boost Mobile / Dish Wireless Decommissioned: The 4th major U.S. carrier – Boost Mobile / Dish Wireless – officially decommissioned its network on October 31, 2025. Its 45 local macro cell sites were shut down, and its radio licenses and spectrum are being sold to AT&T and SpaceX.

Macro Site Leaderboard & Midband 5G Expansion

The carrier leaderboard for active macro sites and 5G midband upgrades shows the following breakdown:

• Verizon Wireless:
  • 84 active macro sites and 5 active small cells.
  • 72 sites (86%) have been upgraded with 5GUW midband spectrum (n77).
• T-Mobile:
  • 71 active macro sites.
  • 65 sites (92%) are upgraded to 5GUC midband spectrum (n41), giving T-Mobile the highest percentage of upgraded midband sites in the area.
• AT&T:
  • 62 active macro sites and 15 active small cells.
  • 47 sites (76%) are upgraded to 5G+ C-Band spectrum (n77).

All 3 carriers have known plans to expand their 5G network with Verizon leading the way, followed by T-Mobile and AT&T.

Recent New Cell Site Deployments

Carriers have continued expanding coverage across the Truckee Meadows, heavily relying on co-locating antennas on existing structures and towers:

• AT&T:
  • September 1, 2026: Activated a new site co-located with Verizon on Design Place in northwest Spanish Springs.
  • August 1, 2025: Activated a site co-located with Verizon on a faux water tower at the Arrowcreek Golf Course in rural southwest Reno.
• T-Mobile:
  • January 7, 2026: Activated a site co-located with Verizon and AT&T behind the Reno Fire Station at Veterans Pkwy & Steamboat Pkwy.
  • October 8, 2025: Added a co-location with Verizon on Pacific Avenue in Sparks (southwest of I-80 & Rock Blvd).
  • September 30, 2025: Added a co-location with AT&T near Cold Springs Middle School.
  • May 8, 2025: Activated a site on Lakeside Drive near Bartley Ranch Rd.
• Verizon:
  • September 19, 2024: Added a new cell site on Bennie Lane near US-395 & Parr Blvd, co-located on a monopole with T-Mobile.

There are new cell sites in the planning and construction stages lead by T-Mobile, followed by Verizon with an approved site at North Valleys High School.

Deployed Download Bandwidth (Washoe County)

In terms of total deployed download bandwidth across low-band, mid-band, and 3 GHz TDD frequencies, the carrier totals stand as follows:

• T-Mobile: 270 MHz total
• Verizon: 255 MHz total (excluding low-power 3.6 GHz CBRS spectrum used at select sites)
• AT&T: 225 MHz total

Well, it’s been a few years since the last blog posting on this website. How ever we continue to update the following pages:

• Maps continue to be updated as new cell sites are added.
• We continue to participate on the website CellMapper.net as user rwi775.
• Follow us on Twitter for updates of new websites and cell site photos

Thanks for your interest!

Tweets by RenoWireless

Reno ranks 124th of the most populous 125 metro areas in the United States in testing of overall mobile network performance according to a recent RootMetrics report.

Data for the Reno metro area only shows a virtual three-way tie between T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T for overall network performance. Individual tests of Network Reliability, Call and Text are virtually tied between the 4 major carriers which include Sprint. According to the report Verizon is the Award winner in terms of Network speed and Data, while Sprint falls short of the other 3 carriers in those categories.

2009 was an uneventful year for new cell sites in the Reno area. T-Mobile was most active adding the most new cell sites and turning on their 3G voice & data network in 2009. Cricket added coverage in the Spanish Springs area. Otherwise, all other carriers did not add coverage via new cell sites this year according to our sources.

For 2010 Verizon Wireless has a new cell site planned for southwest Reno near the Washoe Golf Course. AT&T has a cell site planned to improve coverage in the Somersett area of northwest Reno.

In the new year posts to this website will occur as new cell sites are known, and other major carrier news is announced. For more frequent updates, check out our Twitter MicroBlog Updates in the left column of this website, or follow us from your Twitter account @RenoWireless.

I’ve just come across Cell Phones.org – a website which features comprehensive cell phone and carrier news and reviews.

Cell Phone Reviews and Free Cell Phone Information from Cell Phones.org combines timely information from sources such as The Boy Genius Report, Engadget, company press releases, as well as original content and commentary to deliver timely information about the latest cell phone news all on one website. Their carrier reviews give national coverage information for most cell phone service providers, mentioning the pros and cons of each provider.

New cell site construction in the Reno area has slowed to a crawl so far this year. Lately I’ve been listening to podcasts that cover the latest cell phone and wireless industry news and rumors. Check out the “Podcasts” I’ve added to the Links page.

With the swarm of earthquakes that have hit the northwest Reno area since February there has been heightened awareness of procedures to take to prepare for earthquakes.

After a major quake cell phone and land-line communications may be unavailable due to damage to cell sites, power failures and/or overloaded communication channels due to too many people trying to use their phones at the same time.

After a quake phones should be for emergency calls or brief calls to check the status of family and close friends. If you are unable to place calls, you may be able to communicate via text messaging as was common during the 9/11 attacks. An interesting National Communication System tech bulletin describes the use of SMS in times of disaster and otherwise.

After about 2 months of testing and configuring, the new website powered by WordPress is live.

The new website design will allow other wireless users to post comments and allow more interactivity between others. Features of the new site include:

• RSS feeds so you can easily monitor wireless news, website changes and comments

• Get e-mail notifications of comments and replies

• More features to come

I have just completed the “Dead Zone” pages that lists previously reported dead zone and drop-out areas. More importantly, anyone can now submit their own experiences with dead zones or drop-outs via our online form. See the Dead Zone link at the top of the page.

To prevent spam all submissions are moderated, but should appear on the web site within 24 hours.

Thank you for your participation. With the help of user reports, hopefully the wireless carriers will act quickly on this information and fill coverage holes where needed.

Added link to Santa Clarita Valley Wireless – photos and map of Cingular cell sites in that area.