Verizon leads Concourses A and B and the venue gate median. T-Mobile leads Concourse C on the tile basis; the Main Terminal is split between T-Mobile's stronger median and Verizon's higher healthy share. AT&T sits below the healthy line at 39 of 49 gates. No gate is critical for any carrier: 0 of 147 gate-carrier pairs measure below −110 dBm.

Strongest at the gates on the venue median and the LTE network of record. Median 5G reference signal received power (RSRP) of −86.1 dBm, healthy at 49 of 49 gates, best 5G NR at 34 of 49 gates, and best LTE at 46 of 49. Median signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is +16.4 dB, healthy at 49 of 49 gates. Verizon holds best 5G NR at all 13 Concourse A gates and all 11 Concourse B gates.

Healthy at 49 of 49 gates with a gate median of −89.1 dBm, 3.0 dB behind Verizon. T-Mobile holds best 5G NR at 15 of the 25 Concourse C gates, leads Concourse C on the tile basis, and holds the stronger Main Terminal median while Verizon holds the higher healthy share there (section 6). Its 5G footprint is the widest of the three carriers at 87% of its tiles. Its LTE median at the gates is −97.4 dBm, healthy at 6 of 49 gates.

The load-bearing finding of this report. Gate median −96.3 dBm, 1.3 dB below the −95 dBm healthy line; healthy at 10 of 49 gates, at risk at 39, critical at 0. AT&T is the weakest carrier at 47 of the 49 asymmetry gates and the weak carrier at all 39 one-carrier-weak gates (section 5). A 5G reading appears on 36% of its tiles; the other 64% carry LTE only, with an LTE median of −96.8 dBm at the gates. A hosted AT&T path is the largest measurable lift a neutral-host system could deliver at CLE.

CLE is owned and operated by the City of Cleveland through its Department of Port Control. The record we hold describes a medium hub with no in-building cellular system and a 2024 neutral-host solicitation whose current status this report does not hold. Measured facts in this report stand on the tile export alone; the knowledge graph (KG) record may corroborate them and never originates them.

Photo · Terminal complex from the air, October 2025Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative (Tier B), resized only.

Fig. 1 · Venue map · aerodrome, OSM buildings, 49 gates, 25,152 RF tilesSource · Ookla

Aerodrome = OSM way 181471348 plus 200 m clip. 25,152 RF tiles resolve to 14,273 unique centroids. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics tiles on OpenStreetMap geometry. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Carriers are ordered by descending gate median 5G RSRP throughout this report. Each gate value is the mean of tiles within 80 m of the gate point; the venue value is the median across the 49 gates. Every published gate-carrier pair has at least 30 tiles.

Healthy = gate mean ≥ −95 dBm. SINR healthy (≥ 10 dB): Verizon 49, T-Mobile 49, AT&T 37 of 49 gates. LTE healthy gates: Verizon 45, AT&T 17, T-Mobile 6 of 49. Full per-gate tables ship in the PDF appendices.

Photo · Main Terminal check-in hall, October 2025Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative (Tier B), resized only.

Fig. 2 · Venue medians across 49 gates · 5G RSRPSource · Ookla

Locked ladder: healthy ≥ −95 · at-risk −95 to −110 · critical < −110 dBm. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Fig. 3 · 5G NR RSRP by tile · terminal area · locked coverage classSource · Ookla

5G NR RSRP by tile, terminal area, locked coverage class; grey = no 5G reading. Reporting tiles: Verizon 1,693 of 2,288 · T-Mobile 2,309 of 2,652 · AT&T 816 of 1,938. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Fig. 4 · LTE RSRP by tile · terminal area · locked coverage classSource · Ookla

LTE RSRP by tile, terminal area, locked coverage class; grey = no LTE reading. Reporting tiles: Verizon 1,879 of 2,288 · T-Mobile 1,501 of 2,652 · AT&T 1,832 of 1,938. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Fig. 5 · SINR distribution per carrier at gate levelSource · Ookla

SINR healthy threshold ≥ 10 dB. AT&T's quality at the gates is healthy where it has a 5G reading; its gap is coverage, not quality. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Concourses hold fewer than 30 gates each, so zone results use the tile basis: every tile is assigned to the nearest gate or tenant point with a zone label within 500 m. Healthy share is the share of a carrier's zone tiles at or above −95 dBm. The smallest published cell holds 133 tiles.

Healthy share and median on the tile basis; n = tiles per carrier per zone. Best 5G NR counts are gate counts (fewer than 30 gates per concourse, reported as counts, never ranked).

Verizon holds the highest healthy share in A and B. T-Mobile holds the highest healthy share and the strongest median in C. The Main Terminal splits: T-Mobile holds the stronger median (−81 against −87 dBm) and Verizon the higher healthy share (86% against 82%). AT&T's healthy share stays below 70% in all four zones, its best zone is Concourse C at 65%, and its Main Terminal median is −101 dBm. Critical-band gates (< −110 dBm): zero, for every carrier.

Fig. 6 · Healthy 5G tile share by zone and carrierSource · Ookla

Fig. 7 · Median 5G RSRP by zone and carrierSource · Ookla

Fig. 8 · Coverage-class distribution by zone and carrierSource · Ookla

V = Verizon, T = T-Mobile, A = AT&T. Tile basis; n per zone on the axis. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Fig. 9 · Building-masked view · 5G NR class for tiles inside the OSM footprintsSource · Ookla

Tiles inside the pinned OSM building polygons: Verizon n=427 · T-Mobile n=431 · AT&T n=393. Building-polygon mask is ours; the Ookla Indoor layer is queued. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics on OpenStreetMap footprints. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Healthy = tile 5G RSRP ≥ −95 dBm; median over tiles inside the polygon. n counts tiles, not scans.

This view is our building-polygon mask: tile centroids that fall inside the pinned OpenStreetMap footprints. It is not Ookla's Indoor layer, which is queued for the next revision. Inside the buildings AT&T is healthy on 27% of Main Terminal tiles and 9% of Concourse A tiles, against 77% to 98% for Verizon. The carrier ranking in section 3 does not change.

This split decides what a neutral-host system would fix. A gate weak for all three carriers points to the building, its geometry, or propagation. A gate weak for exactly one carrier points to that carrier's path.

By concourse: A holds 13 one-carrier-weak gates, B holds 11, and C holds 10 all-healthy gates plus 15 one-carrier-weak gates. The tiles show no gate-wide propagation problem. The weakness is AT&T-specific. A neutral-host system would address it as a hosted AT&T path. The concordance does not by itself demonstrate a building problem.

Fig. 10 · Carriers below the healthy line per gate, by concourseSource · Ookla

Gate counts. Healthy = gate mean 5G RSRP ≥ −95 dBm. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Concourse C is the largest zone (25 gates; United, American, JetBlue, Air Canada) and the one zone where the carrier order changes. T-Mobile holds best 5G NR at 15 of 25 gates and Verizon at 10. On the tile basis T-Mobile's median is −84 dBm against Verizon's −88.5 dBm, and T-Mobile is healthy on 89% of tiles against Verizon's 76%. AT&T's healthy share reaches 65% here, its highest of the four zones, and all 10 all-healthy gates in the venue sit in C.

Fig. 11 · Per-gate 5G RSRP · 25 Concourse C gatesSource · Ookla

Each bar is a mean over at least 30 tiles within 80 m of the gate. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Photo · Concourse C, United seating areaWikimedia Commons

Photo: Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative (Tier B), resized only.

Photo · Concourse C, gate C28Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative (Tier B), resized only.

The Main Terminal holds no gates, so it is read on tiles only. The two leading carriers split the zone: T-Mobile holds the stronger median (−81 dBm against Verizon's −87 dBm) and Verizon the higher healthy share (86% of tiles against 82%). AT&T is healthy on 42% of Main Terminal tiles with a median of −101 dBm, its weakest zone median and the one zone where its critical share rises. The zone carries the highest unique-device density in the venue (median 22 per tile, p95 66) and ranks first on the density-weighted weak share (section 10).

Verizon holds best 5G NR at all 24 A and B gates. AT&T is healthy on 46% of Concourse A tiles and 43% of Concourse B tiles, and the five largest carrier spreads in the venue sit at Concourse A gates (section 11).

Fig. 12 · Per-gate 5G RSRP · 24 Concourse A and B gatesSource · Ookla

Frontier in A; Delta and Southwest in B (Tier B). Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Photo · Concourse moving sidewalkWikimedia Commons

Photo: Cards84664, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative (Tier B), resized only.

This proxy compares each carrier's median 5G RSRP over tiles near terminal-category points (retail, food, lounge, admin, services) with tiles near periphery-category points (transport admin, lodging, other). A large positive periphery-minus-terminal delta is the macro-spillover signature. A flat delta is ambiguous between a close-in macro site and an unrecorded in-building asset.

Fig. 13 · Median 5G RSRP · terminal vs periphery tenant categoriesSource · Ookla

Proxy: category-based masking on 82 mapped points (Google Places + OpenStreetMap, pinned 2026-09-08), not Ookla's building-polygon mask. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Photo · RTA Red Line station entrance, a periphery-category pointWikimedia Commons

Photo: Jacob G., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative (Tier B), resized only.

The record we hold lists no in-building system at CLE, yet two carriers reach the gates with flat terminal-to-periphery deltas and healthy readings at 49 of 49 gates. The tile export cannot say what carries them.

Verizon (−2.0 dB) and T-Mobile (0.0 dB) show flat deltas. Each is consistent with a close-in macro grid reaching the terminal, and each is also consistent with an in-building asset that the reconciled DAS master does not record. AT&T's +1.0 dB delta is slightly periphery-stronger, consistent with but not proof of macro spillover; its 39 at-risk gates point the same way. This report converts the ambiguity into an attestation question: each carrier states the source of its terminal coverage before any DAS design freezes.

The 5G footprint is the share of a carrier's on-airport tiles that report a 5G NR (New Radio) reading. T-Mobile 87% (7,749 of 8,892 tiles), Verizon 70% (6,158 of 8,840), AT&T 36% (2,663 of 7,420). The remaining 64% of AT&T's tiles carry LTE only, which is why its LTE median at the gates (−96.8 dBm) matters more than it does for the other two carriers.

Fig. 14 · 5G footprint · share of tiles with a 5G NR readingSource · Ookla

Footprint counts tiles with a non-null 5G reading. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

The percent-low-band statistic is the share of a tile's LTE observations on sub-1 GHz bands. A carrier whose tiles lean on 600, 700, or 850 MHz spectrum is using coverage-grade bands where mid-band is not reaching the tile reliably. T-Mobile's distribution sits near zero; Verizon and AT&T carry a wider tail of low-band tiles.

Fig. 15 · LTE percent-low-band distribution per carrierSource · Ookla

n = tiles reporting the field: Verizon 8,645 · T-Mobile 8,834 · AT&T 7,152. Macro-site geometry is queued for the next revision.

User_Density is Ookla's count of unique Android devices observed in a tile over the 12-month window, deduplicated. It is a device count over the window and nothing else. Zone medians and 95th percentiles (p95) locate where observed devices concentrate.

Density-weighted weak share = worst-carrier below-healthy tile share × median density. AT&T is the worst carrier in 4 of 4 zones. Offload = Σ Wi-Fi MB ÷ Σ (Wi-Fi + mobile) MB on the All Networks panel.

The Main Terminal ranks first: AT&T is below healthy on 58% of its tiles, and the zone's median density is eleven times the highest concourse median. Concourse A ranks second on a similar weak share and a far lower density.

Fig. 16 · Worst-carrier 5G class per tile and unique-device density per tileSource · Ookla

Left: worst-carrier 5G NR class per tile where all three carriers report (n=531). Right: User_Density per usage tile, unique devices over the window, deduplicated, log scale (n=3,715). Source: Ookla Cell Analytics. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Fig. 17 · Unique-device density by zone · density-weighted weak-share rankingSource · Ookla

User_Density = unique devices over the window, deduplicated. Tile basis. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

Venue-wide, 46.0% of observed data volume moves over Wi-Fi (n=14,065 usage tiles). Zone shares run from 29% in Concourse B to 50% in Concourse C. Wi-Fi is present on 53% of the 10,518 tiles that report the field.

Fig. 18 · Observed data volume by zone and bearerSource · Ookla

Fig. 19 · Wi-Fi share of observed data volume by zoneSource · Ookla

Per gate, the atlas names the weakest carrier and the spread from the strongest carrier's mean to the weakest. AT&T is the worst carrier at 47 of 49 ranked gates; Verizon at 2. All 49 gates clear the 30-tile floor for every carrier, so none are excluded. The five largest spreads sit at Concourse A gates and are the named compression targets in section 12.

Fig. 20 · Carrier-asymmetry atlas · top 20 gates by spreadSource · Ookla

Spread = best minus worst carrier mean 5G RSRP at the gate. Every published pair n ≥ 30 tiles. Window 2025-08-01 to 2026-07-31.

1. Confirm the status of the 2024 neutral-host solicitation

   No award appears in the record we hold. If the procurement proceeds, adopt this baseline as the design input: the gate suite, the zone table, and the asymmetry atlas define what the system must change.

   Owner · Department of Port Control

2. Have each carrier attest its terminal coverage source

   Verizon and T-Mobile show flat terminal-to-periphery deltas that the record cannot explain; AT&T is slightly periphery-stronger, consistent with but not proof of macro spillover. Obtain each carrier's statement before any DAS design freezes, so an unrecorded asset is not designed around or decommissioned unexamined.

   Owner · Department of Port Control + Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T

3. Name the first acceptance zones

   AT&T in Concourses A and B (46% and 43% healthy tiles), Concourse C, and the Main Terminal (density-weighted rank 1). These zones carry the largest measured lift for a hosted AT&T path.

   Owner · Department of Port Control + neutral-host provider

4. Re-measure over a like-for-like window after go-live

   Same instrument, same window length, same thresholds, for the before/after comparison. Use per-carrier commissioning walk tests, not the crowdsource panel, as the acceptance test.

   Owner · Imagine Wireless (re-measure) + neutral-host provider (walk tests)

5. Obtain Wi-Fi controller telemetry to size the offload layer

   Venue offload is 46.0% of observed volume and reaches 50% in Concourse C. The tile export cannot separate CLE_Public_WiFi from tenant and personal networks; the controller can.

   Owner · Department of Port Control IT

6. Decide the CBRS and private-wireless question alongside the DAS build

   Decide it with the neutral-host design and the CLEvolution program, since retrofitting Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) or operational spectrum into a commissioned system costs more than designing it in.

   Owner · Department of Port Control

Gate-named criteria depend on the gate inventory; reconcile the OSM inventory (A 13, B 11, C 25) against the airport's current gate plan before adoption.