Carriers and phone makers might only be talking about 5G lately, but when it comes to the infrastructure that keeps most of us online, day in and day out, the US is still running a lot on LTE. While such 4G coverage is incredibly strong in many places, it is still far from being the case everywhere, and it has not always been easy to get direct answers from operators on the type. reception you can expect and where. Fortunately, the FCC has just taken a big step towards solving this problem, releasing its first national standardized 4G coverage map.

“Haven’t carriers already shared this kind of information? You may be wondering. Yes, but this new FCC effort takes a few more steps to make that data much more useful. While the carriers themselves have provided their coverage data to the FCC, the agency is the one that decided how that information is presented. In this case, wherever it indicates the presence of LTE data, it means that users can expect at least 5 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. This prevents networks from inflating their coverage maps by including areas where only slower speeds are possible.

In addition to LTE layers, the FCC card also allows you to see where phone service is available, including text messaging. You also get the ability to directly compare coverage between major carriers, making it easy to see who has the best network in your area (* to be fair, coverage in the woods tends to be … not awesome).

While this is already a really cool tool to play with, the Interim President of the FCC promises that there is more to come. Maybe a 5G card? Maybe wired broadband speeds? Whatever happens next, we can’t wait to see it.