T-Mobile leads 5G at the gates and in Terminal B and Terminal C; Terminal A is a three-way tie. Verizon is the LTE network of record, with a 5G layer that does not reach the gates. AT&T is tied with Verizon at the 5G gate median, with the smallest 5G footprint. No gate is critical for any carrier: 0 of 240 gate-carrier pairs measure below −110 dBm.

LaGuardia Airport is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). Terminal B is operated by LaGuardia Gateway Partners (Vantage Group and Meridiam) under a public-private lease with PANYNJ and Terminal C by Delta Air Lines under a lease with PANYNJ cited. This report is a baseline of the terminal area as measured in the window. It measures 80 gates, 108 mapped venue points, 34,844 radio-frequency (RF) tiles, and 16,970 usage tiles over the 12-month window ending 2026-08-31.

Leads 5G at the gates and in Terminal B and Terminal C; Terminal A is a three-way tie. T-Mobile holds healthy 5G reference signal received power (RSRP) at 56 of 80 gates (70.0%; 14 gates within 1 dB of the line). Its venue gate median is −90.8 dBm, 7.5 dB ahead of Verizon and 7.8 dB ahead of AT&T. It is the strongest 5G carrier at 76 of 80 gates (Terminal A 6 of 6, Terminal B 32 of 36, Terminal C 38 of 38, counts) and reports 5G on 91% of its on-airport tiles, the widest footprint of the three. Its signal quality median is +13.3 dB (58 of 80 gates healthy). On the tile basis it leads Terminal B and Terminal C; Terminal A (Marine Air Terminal) is a three-way tie (medians −98.0, −98.0, −98.0 dBm; healthy shares 39%, 38%, 38%), and it is T-Mobile's lowest zone. Its LTE layer is the weakest of the three (gate median −95.0 dBm, 40 of 80 gates healthy).

The LTE network of record, with a 5G layer that does not reach the gates. Verizon is the strongest LTE carrier at 56 of 80 gates with an LTE gate median of −86.8 dBm (77 of 80 gates healthy). Its 5G gate median is −98.3 dBm, 3.3 dB below the healthy line, with 6 of 80 gates (7.5%; 11 gates within 1 dB of the line) healthy and a 5G signal-quality median of +5.5 dB (3 of 80 gates healthy), the lowest of the three. Verizon is the weakest carrier at 41 of 80 ranked asymmetry gates. Its weakest zone on the tile basis is Terminal B (32% of tiles healthy); its strongest is Terminal C (58%).

Tied with Verizon at the 5G gate median, with the smallest 5G footprint. AT&T's 5G gate median is −98.6 dBm, 0.3 dB from Verizon's and inside the 1 dB noise floor, so the two are reported as tied at the gate median. 14 of 80 gates (17.5%; 11 gates within 1 dB of the line) are healthy, 66 are at risk, and 0 are critical. AT&T reports 5G on 59% of its on-airport tiles, the smallest footprint; the other 41% carry LTE only. Its LTE layer is healthy (gate median −87.8 dBm, 75 of 80 gates). On the tile basis AT&T is ahead of Verizon in Terminal B and Terminal C (Terminal A 38% vs 38%, Terminal B 58% vs 32%, Terminal C 70% vs 58%). AT&T is the weakest carrier at 35 of 80 ranked asymmetry gates.

Terminal C gate medians: T-Mobile −84.8, Verizon −98.8, AT&T −101.3 dBm (n=38 gates). AT&T trails Verizon by 2.5 dB on the Terminal C gate median, and across gates 81 to 89B its per-gate means run −105.2 to −101.4 dBm (n=11 gates), within 8.6 dB or less of the critical line. Terminal B gate medians: T-Mobile −93.2, AT&T −96.3, Verizon −97.3 dBm (n=36 gates), with healthy 5G at 12 of 36 gates (33%) for AT&T against 4 of 36 gates (11%) for Verizon: in Terminal B the order of the two trailing carriers flips, AT&T ahead of Verizon.

Photo · Terminal B Level 3 ticketing and check-in hall, October 2025Wikimedia Commons

Terminal B Level 3 ticketing and check-in hall, October 2025. Photo: Silver Dovelet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative, resized only.

Provenance legend: measured values compute from the Ookla exports at build time. Facts marked "cited" come from public records (Port Authority releases and terminal pages, vendor and design-firm records, FAA statistics, press) and are not measurements. Section 16 defines every threshold and basis.

Photo · Apron-level night view of the Terminal C concourse, October 2023Wikimedia Commons

Apron-level night view of the Terminal C concourse from a taxiing aircraft, October 2023. Illustrative only. Photo: DiscoA340, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized only.

Fig. 1 · Venue map · aerodrome, OSM terminal buildings, 80 gates, 34,844 RF tilesSource · Ookla

Venue map: aerodrome outline, OSM terminal buildings, 80 gates, and the 34,844 on-airport RF tile centroids. North up; scale bar in meters. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Diagram · FAA airport diagram for LGA, January 2025 editionWikimedia Commons

Photo: Federal Aviation Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Reproduced for orientation. It is the FAA's drawing, not this report's geometry; runway and taxiway labels come from the FAA.

Every cellular number in this report is an aggregate of crowdsourced background scans from consumer Android devices (about 3% of handsets; iOS devices are not sampled), binned by Ookla to map tiles of about 8 m by 11 m, then joined to gate and tenant points. The numbers describe where devices were over a 12-month window. They are not drive-test measurements. Every n counts tiles, and every table carries its n so thin cells are visible.

Healthy = gate mean ≥ −95 dBm. SINR healthy (≥ 10 dB): T-Mobile 58, AT&T 20, Verizon 3 of 80 gates. LTE healthy gates: Verizon 77, AT&T 75, T-Mobile 40 of 80. Strongest LTE reading: Verizon 56, AT&T 24, T-Mobile 0 gates. Full per-gate tables ship in the PDF appendices.

5G footprint and conditional medians (tile basis). Each 5G median is conditional on the tile reporting a 5G reading; the last column combines presence and level.

Fig. 2 · Venue medians across 80 gates · locked threshold ladderSource · Ookla

Locked ladder: healthy ≥ −95 · at-risk −95 to −110 · critical < −110 dBm. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Fig. 3 · SINR distribution per carrier at gate levelSource · Ookla

SINR healthy threshold ≥ 10 dB. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Fig. 4 · 5G NR RSRP by tile and carrier · terminal area · locked coverage classSource · Ookla

Terminal-area map of 5G NR RSRP by tile and carrier, colored by the locked coverage class. Grey tiles carry no 5G reading. Each tile is about 8 m by 11 m; n is the tile count per panel. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

T-Mobile delivers the strongest 5G at the gates: 56 of 80 gates (70.0%; 14 gates within 1 dB of the line) in the healthy band, a venue gate median of −90.8 dBm, and the strongest 5G reading at 76 of 80 gates. SINR is +13.3 dB at the median (58 of 80 gates healthy). It reports 5G on 91% of its on-airport tiles (12,733 of 14,024); Verizon reports 5G on 68% and AT&T on 59%. Its LTE layer is the weakest of the three: LTE gate median −95.0 dBm, healthy at 40 of 80 gates, and the strongest LTE reading at 0 gates.

On the tile basis T-Mobile leads Terminal B and Terminal C: healthy on 71% of Terminal B tiles (n=5,437) and 83% of Terminal C tiles (n=3,746). Terminal A is a three-way tie at 39%, 38% and 38% healthy (n=2,449 T-Mobile tiles), inside the noise floor. Inside the pinned building footprints (section 4.7) it is healthy on 95% of Terminal B headhouse tiles and 86% of Terminal C tiles. Fig. 4 shows the pattern: green across the Terminal B headhouse and concourses, Terminal C, and the roadway spine. Its terminal-vs-periphery proxy is +5.0 dB (section 5.2), which the export cannot resolve between close-in coverage and an in-building or small-cell source. The public record names no carrier on the Terminal B system cited.

Verizon's 5G gate median is −98.3 dBm, 3.3 dB below the healthy threshold and 7.5 dB behind T-Mobile. 6 of 80 gates (7.5%; 11 gates within 1 dB of the line) are healthy, 74 are at risk, and 0 are critical. Its 5G signal quality is the lowest of the three: SINR median +5.5 dB, healthy at 3 of 80 gates. It reports 5G on 68% of its on-airport tiles (7,535 of 11,138). Verizon is the weakest carrier at 41 of 80 ranked asymmetry gates (section 10).

Verizon's LTE layer is the network of record. It is the strongest LTE carrier at 56 of 80 gates with an LTE gate median of −86.8 dBm (77 of 80 gates healthy). On the tile basis Verizon is healthy on 58% of Terminal C tiles, 38% of Terminal A tiles, and 32% of Terminal B tiles; Terminal B is its weakest zone. Inside the footprints, Verizon's 5G is healthy on 24% of Terminal B headhouse tiles and 37% of Terminal C tiles, against 72% in the Eastern Concourse (section 4.7). Verizon's 5G is C-band (NR3700 on 70% of its band-reporting 5G tiles), so strong LTE with weak 5G over the same buildings is first the expected macro propagation picture for a large building (section 1); the second hypothesis, an in-building or close-in source that carries Verizon LTE but not Verizon 5G, is what the Recommendation 1 attestation tests. The export cannot separate the two. Its terminal-vs-periphery proxy is +5.0 dB (section 5.2).

AT&T's 5G gate median is −98.6 dBm, 3.6 dB below the healthy threshold, 7.8 dB behind T-Mobile, and 0.3 dB from Verizon (a tie under the noise floor). 14 of 80 gates (17.5%; 11 gates within 1 dB of the line) are healthy, 66 are at risk, and 0 are critical. SINR is +8.4 dB at the median (20 of 80 gates healthy). AT&T is the weakest carrier at 35 of 80 ranked asymmetry gates.

The 5G footprint is the smallest of the three: AT&T reports 5G on 59% of its on-airport tiles (5,687 of 9,682); tiles with an LTE reading but no 5G reading are 39% of its tiles. The LTE layer is healthy: LTE gate median −87.8 dBm, healthy at 75 of 80 gates, strongest LTE reading at 24 gates. On the tile basis AT&T is healthy on 70% of Terminal C tiles, 58% of Terminal B tiles, and 38% of Terminal A tiles, ahead of Verizon in Terminals B and C and behind T-Mobile in Terminals B and C and tied in Terminal A; Terminal A (Marine Air Terminal) is its lowest zone. AT&T's 5G is C-band and 3.45 GHz (NR3700 or NR3500 on 87% of 319 band-reporting 5G tiles, a small cell-resolved sample), so the same macro propagation reading as Verizon's applies first, with the in-building hypothesis second. On Fig. 4, AT&T's panel shows amber and grey across the Terminal B headhouse and the Terminal C piers; the building-masked view (section 4.7) quantifies it per building.

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

Share of each carrier's on-airport tiles that report a 5G NR reading (5G footprint). Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Fig. 6 · LTE percent-low-band per carrier · mean, share above zero, p90Source · Ookla

LTE percent-low-band per carrier: mean, share of tiles above zero, and p90. Higher means more attachment to sub-1 GHz coverage bands. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

The percent-low-band statistic describes LTE coverage-band attachment. A tile that attaches to sub-1 GHz spectrum is using a coverage-grade band, which propagation, carrier idle-mode priorities, and site geometry all drive. T-Mobile mean 4.8% (tiles above zero: 24% of n=13,924; p90 19%) · Verizon mean 4.2% (tiles above zero: 24% of n=10,916; p90 15%) · AT&T mean 10.3% (tiles above zero: 37% of n=9,513; p90 30%).

The LTE metric does not see 5G low band. On the 5G side: T-Mobile: NR600 on 1,688 tiles, 13.9% of its 12,120 band-reporting NR tiles. Verizon: NR850 on 875 tiles, 20.6% of its 4,253 band-reporting NR tiles. AT&T: NR850 on 37 tiles, 11.6% of its 319 band-reporting NR tiles. Section 9.1 lists the bands.

RSRQ medians: T-Mobile NR −11.0 / LTE −14.0 dB; Verizon NR −12.0 / LTE −11.0 dB; AT&T NR −13.0 / LTE −12.0 dB. Every carrier's median sits below the -10 dB line on both technologies. Medians of −11 to −14 dB are ordinary loaded-network values, and the line is a generic reference, not a venue-specified threshold, so this is a venue-wide observation to read together with SINR, not a failure call. RSRQ degrades as subframe utilization rises, so a weak RSRQ on a strong-RSRP network is consistent with a loaded serving layer. This is an inference; the export carries no load field (section 16).

CQI medians: T-Mobile median 9.0 (n=2,859); Verizon median 9.0 (n=4,289); AT&T median 9.0 (n=3,461). CQI is the closest throughput proxy in an export that carries no throughput fields. Ookla's LTE optimization priority is the vendor's own index for tiles where signal is strong but quality is poor. Venue medians: T-Mobile median 63 (n=8,220); Verizon median 60 (n=9,001); AT&T median 62 (n=8,302). The discriminating signal is in the distribution tails. The RSRQ, CQI, and optimization-priority distributions (Figs. 7 and 8) ship in the PDF.

Where the strongest cell at a tile is not the most-frequent serving cell, the network is handing over between competing cells. Measured churn: T-Mobile LTE 44% (n=9,727) / 5G 49% (n=12,119); Verizon LTE 43% (n=9,852) / 5G 20% (n=4,252); AT&T LTE 42% (n=9,276) / 5G 5% (n=319). Cell, PCI, and band fields populate only where Ookla resolved a serving cell, which is why AT&T's 5G n is 319 here against 5,687 for RSRP (field population table, section 16). AT&T's 5G churn therefore rests on 319 cell-resolved tiles and is not representative; its bar is hatched and is not compared with the other two. Churn blends macro-sector overlap with any in-building system's handoff to the macro layer. This is a proxy; the export carries no handover trace. Fig. 9 ships in the PDF.

Terminal zone gate counts (Terminal A 6, Terminal B 36, Terminal C 38): Terminal A holds 6 gates, below the 30-point floor, so its gate tallies appear as counts and are never ranked. Terminals B and C clear the floor, so their gate shares are shown as percentages. For one consistent basis, every zone comparison in this section runs on the tile basis: a tile belongs to the zone of its nearest gate or tenant point within 500 m, which gives hundreds of tiles per carrier per zone.

Healthy share and median on the tile basis; n = tiles per carrier per zone. Healthy = tile 5G RSRP ≥ −95 dBm.

Zone leader on the tile basis (a lead under 1 dB on the median or under 1 point on the healthy share is a tie): Terminal A three-way tie (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon), Terminal B T-Mobile, Terminal C T-Mobile. Second place where there is a leader: Terminal B AT&T (−93.0 dBm, 58% healthy); Terminal C AT&T (−88.0 dBm, 70% healthy). Lowest zone per carrier on the healthy tile share: T-Mobile in Terminal A (39%), Verizon in Terminal B (32%), AT&T in Terminal A (38%). The lowest zone differs by carrier: Terminal A is the low zone for T-Mobile and AT&T while Verizon's low zone is Terminal B.

Fig. 10 · Healthy 5G tile share by zone and carrierSource · Ookla

Fig. 11 · Median 5G RSRP by zone and carrierSource · Ookla

Tile basis; minimum n per carrier on the axis. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Fig. 12 · LTE RSRP by tile and carrier · terminal area · locked coverage classSource · Ookla

Terminal-area map of LTE RSRP by tile and carrier, colored by the locked coverage class. Grey tiles carry no LTE reading. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Critical-band gates (below −110 dBm) by carrier: T-Mobile 0, Verizon 0, AT&T 0 of 80 gates (counts). On the tile basis the critical share peaks at T-Mobile 4% in Terminal A (n=2,449); Verizon 3% in Terminal B (n=3,349); AT&T 8% in Terminal A (n=1,114). T-Mobile's healthy share does not drop below 39% in any zone.

Fig. 13 · Coverage-class distribution by terminal zone and carrierSource · Ookla

T = T-Mobile, V = Verizon, A = AT&T. Tile basis. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

The PCI picture in each zone reflects which sectors reach it, macro or in-building. Higher diversity with healthy SINR means several sectors serve the zone cleanly. Higher diversity with poor SINR means they compete. Verizon's low 5G SINR median (+5.5 dB) alongside its PCI count is the pairing to read here. AT&T's 5G PCI counts rest on 319 cell-resolved tiles and are not representative (hatched). PCI counts accumulate over 12 months across every 5G carrier layer, so PCI reassignment and multi-carrier layers inflate them. Fig. 14 (unique strongest-serving PCIs per zone per carrier) ships in the PDF.

This split shapes the infrastructure question. A gate weak for all three carriers points to a gate-area problem for that gate's 80 m circle, which can include apron. A gate weak for exactly one carrier points to that carrier's path.

This is not a single-carrier path problem. Two carriers are below the healthy 5G line at 64 of 80 gates, and the pair is almost always Verizon and AT&T. Read with the LTE result (both healthy at the same gates), the gap is a 5G NR layer gap for two carriers over the same buildings, which is what an in-building system that carries 5G NR for every carrier would address. The concordance does not by itself say whether the Terminal B system in the design record carries those carriers' 5G; Recommendation 1 asks for that attestation.

Fig. 15 · Carriers below the healthy line per gate, by terminal zoneSource · Ookla

Gate counts. Healthy = gate mean 5G RSRP ≥ −95 dBm. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Terminal B is operated by LaGuardia Gateway Partners (Vantage Group and Meridiam) under a public-private lease with PANYNJ and hosts Air Canada, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Porter Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines cited. It holds 36 of the 80 measured gates across headhouse plus the Eastern and Western concourses linked by two pedestrian bridges. Best-5G counts: T-Mobile 32, Verizon 4. Healthy 5G gates: T-Mobile 23 of 36 gates (64%), Verizon 4 of 36 gates (11%), AT&T 12 of 36 gates (33%). Gate-basis 5G medians: T-Mobile −93.2, Verizon −97.3, AT&T −96.3 dBm. Tile-basis healthy shares: T-Mobile 71%, Verizon 32%, AT&T 58% (n ≥ 2,611 tiles per carrier). Boingo's Terminal B neutral-host DAS and Wi-Fi system was designed for the headhouse and the 18-gate eastern concourse; the Western Concourse is not stated in that record cited. The design record's 18-gate eastern concourse corresponds to 19 Eastern Concourse gates in the OpenStreetMap inventory (gates 40 to 59), one more than the record states. The measured split between the headhouse and the two concourses is in section 4.7.

Fig. 16 · Per-gate 5G RSRP · 36 Terminal B gatesSource · Ookla

OpenStreetMap inventory. Each bar is a mean over the tiles within 80 m of the gate. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Photo · Terminal B food hall, October 2024Wikimedia Commons

Terminal B food hall, October 2024. Photo: Jim.henderson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative, resized only.

Terminal C is operated by Delta Air Lines under a lease with PANYNJ and hosts Delta Air Lines (the only airline listed by PANYNJ); the former Terminal D is part of the consolidated Terminal C cited. It holds 38 of the 80 measured gates. Best-5G counts: T-Mobile 38. Healthy 5G gates: T-Mobile 30 of 38 gates (79%), Verizon 2 of 38 gates (5%), AT&T 2 of 38 gates (5%). Gate-basis 5G medians: T-Mobile −84.8, Verizon −98.8, AT&T −101.3 dBm. Tile-basis healthy shares: T-Mobile 83%, Verizon 58%, AT&T 70% (n ≥ 1,479 tiles per carrier). The top of the asymmetry atlas (section 10) sits here: the 5 largest carrier spreads of the top five are Terminal C gates. No public source names the in-building cellular partner for Terminal C cited.

Fig. 17 · Per-gate 5G RSRP · 38 Terminal C gatesSource · Ookla

OpenStreetMap inventory. Each bar is a mean over the tiles within 80 m of the gate. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Photo · Apron side of Terminal C at gate 86, September 2025Wikimedia Commons

Apron side of Terminal C at gate 86 with a Delta A321, September 2025. Photo: Nielsoncaetanosalmeron, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative, resized only.

Photo · Terminal C gate 89A hold room, October 2023Wikimedia Commons

Terminal C gate 89A hold room, October 2023. Photo: DiscoA340, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative, resized only.

Photo · Terminal C concourse at the Delta gates 70 to 79, May 2024Wikimedia Commons

Terminal C concourse at the Delta gates 70 to 79, May 2024. Photo: Myotus, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative, resized only.

Terminal A holds 6 gates, below the 30-point floor, so its gate figures are counts. Spirit Airlines was the sole commercial lessee of the six gates until Spirit Airlines ceased all operations on 2026-05-02; the terminal then closed to the public for the rest of the window cited; the window therefore blends eight months of scheduled operation with four months of closure. JetBlue acquired Spirit's LGA operating authorizations at auction in July 2026 and has said it wants to use the Marine Air Terminal, not before 2027 and subject to approvals (intent, not an operation in the window) cited. On the tile basis Terminal A is a three-way tie inside the noise floor. Healthy 5G gates (counts): T-Mobile 3 of 6 gates (count), Verizon 0 of 6 gates (count), AT&T 0 of 6 gates (count). Tile-basis healthy shares: T-Mobile 39%, Verizon 38%, AT&T 38% (n ≥ 1,114 tiles per carrier); medians T-Mobile −98.0, Verizon −98.0, AT&T −98.0 dBm. Terminal A is the low zone for T-Mobile and AT&T on the tile basis. The zone's 2,449-tile pool includes parking and roadway; the Marine Air Terminal building footprint itself holds 25 Verizon and 24 AT&T 5G-reporting tiles, below the 30-tile floor (section 4.7). The 2026 to 2035 Port Authority capital plan (approved December 2025) funds a rebuild of the non-landmarked gate areas of the Marine Air Terminal; the dollar figure and schedule are not published cited, which makes this zone the acceptance zone for whatever comes next: section 14 writes its criteria as at-reopening criteria on the rebuilt gate-area footprint.

Photo · The Marine Air Terminal, November 2025Wikimedia Commons

The Marine Air Terminal, November 2025, during the final months of Spirit Airlines' scheduled service; the terminal closed to the public after Spirit Airlines ceased all operations on 2026-05-02. Photo: Epicgenius, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative, resized only.

Fig. 18 · Building-masked view · 5G NR class for tiles inside the OSM footprintsSource · Ookla

Tiles whose centroid falls inside a pinned OSM building polygon (Marine Air Terminal, Terminal B headhouse, Eastern and Western concourses, pedestrian bridges, Terminal C), colored by 5G NR class. This is our OSM building-polygon mask, not Ookla's Indoor layer. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Healthy = tile 5G RSRP ≥ −95 dBm; median over tiles inside the polygon. n counts tiles, not scans. Cells with n < 30 are counts.

The mask is a point-in-polygon test of tile centroids against the pinned OpenStreetMap footprints, so it selects tiles over the buildings rather than tiles measured inside them (section 16). It replaces nothing in the ranking; every ranked cell clears the 30-tile floor and agrees with the zone view. Inside the footprints, T-Mobile is healthy on 95% of headhouse tiles and 86% of Terminal C tiles. Verizon's healthy share is lowest over B: headhouse (24% of n=173) and highest over B: Eastern Concourse (72%); AT&T's is lowest over B: pedestrian bridges (31% of n=45). The public Terminal B record names the headhouse and the eastern concourse cited; the measured Verizon contrast between the Eastern Concourse (72%) and the headhouse (24%) is a question for that attestation, not a finding about the system. Ookla's own Indoor layer is not used here (section 15).

The 108 mapped points come from an OpenStreetMap capture pinned 2026-09-15 (points only). Category point counts sit below the 30-point floor. Category comparisons therefore run on the tile basis behind each category's points: tiles within 80 m of any point, deduplicated. Point counts appear on every axis.

Ranked categories clear the floor for every carrier: transport_admin, retail, food, services, other, lodging. Leader by category on the tile median: transport_admin T-Mobile, retail T-Mobile, food T-Mobile, services T-Mobile, other T-Mobile, lodging T-Mobile; trailing carrier: transport_admin AT&T, retail Verizon, food Verizon, services Verizon, other Verizon, lodging Verizon. Read the chart as a pattern; the point counts are small. Figs. 19 and 20 (median 5G RSRP and SINR by tenant category) ship in the PDF.

Periphery minus terminal median 5G RSRP, tile basis.

Terminal categories cover the concessions and services inside the terminal footprints; periphery categories cover the parking structures, the hotel and lodging points, and roadside businesses. A large positive periphery-minus-terminal delta is consistent with macro spillover. A flat or negative delta is ambiguous between close-in macro coverage and an in-building source. Distance to macro sites confounds both readings, and the Site Finder layer (section 15) is queued to resolve it. Deltas: T-Mobile +5.0 dB, Verizon +5.0 dB, AT&T +5.0 dB. Tile RSRP is integer-valued, so medians and deltas quantize to whole dB.

Fig. 21 · Median 5G RSRP · terminal vs periphery tenant categoriesSource · Ookla

Proxy: category-based masking, not Ookla's building-polygon indoor mask (queued, section 15). Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

An airline reads its exposure through its terminal and the passenger's carrier. In this window T-Mobile leads the Terminal B and Terminal C clusters on the tile median and the Terminal A cluster is a three-way tie; the Verizon and AT&T order within a cluster is read from the table with the margins shown.

Tile basis; n = tiles per carrier per terminal. Airline assignments transcribed from PANYNJ terminal pages (transcribed).

Multi-location brands are a cross-zone consistency check. Point counts are small (4 at most), so this table is a count-only view. Each point value is a mean over the tiles within 80 m of the point (per-point tile n in Appendix A of the PDF).

Count-only view (fewer than 30 points per brand); never ranked.

3 lounge points are in the pinned capture: Centurion Lounge, Sapphire Lounge, Delta Sky Club. These are single-point aggregates over the tiles within 80 m of each point, reported for scope and not ranked.

Density is this dataset's demand signal. Ookla's User_Density field counts the unique Android devices observed per tile over the window, deduplicated. It does not count simultaneous users and it does not measure time spent.

User_Density = unique devices over the window, deduplicated. Tile basis. Density-weighted ranking = worst-carrier below-healthy 5G tile share × median density.

The density-weighted ranking multiplies each zone's worst-carrier below-healthy 5G tile share by its median density, so it points to where weak signal meets the most devices. Terminal B leads the ranking (Verizon below healthy on 68% of tiles, median density 4). The worst carrier is Verizon in Terminal B; Verizon in Terminal C; AT&T and T-Mobile and Verizon tied in Terminal A (a below-healthy margin under 1 point is a tie).

Fig. 22 · Unique-device density by terminal zone · density-weighted weak-share rankingSource · Ookla

Median and p95 per tile; tile basis. User_Density = unique devices over the window, deduplicated. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics All Networks usage export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Fig. 23 · Observed data volume by terminal zone and bearerSource · Ookla

GB over the 12-month window. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics All Networks usage export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Usage volume shows where bandwidth is consumed, by bearer and by zone. It is observed sample volume from the crowdsource panel. It is not total traffic.

Wi-Fi presence (a different figure from the offload share): Wi-Fi usage is observed on 62.1% of the 13,363 on-airport usage tiles that report the Wi-Fi field. A non-reporting tile means no measurement and is excluded from the denominator; it is not evidence of no Wi-Fi. The augmentation opportunity is largest where the worst-served carrier is weakest and Wi-Fi presence is high. Fig. 24 (worst-carrier healthy share vs Wi-Fi presence by zone) ships in the PDF.

On tiles assigned to a terminal zone, 58.6% of observed data volume moves over Wi-Fi (Σ Wi-Fi MB ÷ Σ all MB on the All Networks panel, n=15,326 tiles); over the whole clip the figure is 60.9% (n=16,970).

Scope decomposition: the 1,644 usage tiles outside every zone run 81.0% Wi-Fi and lift the whole-clip figure above the terminal-zone figure. The 200 m buffer around the aerodrome captures curbside, roadway, and some roadside property across the Grand Central Parkway (hotel and rental lots); those are not terminal tiles, which is why the terminal-zone figure is the one on the cover. The clip itself is unchanged in this issue.

Fig. 25 · Wi-Fi share of observed data volume by terminal zoneSource · Ookla

Wi-Fi share of observed data volume by terminal zone, with the venue reference line. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics All Networks usage export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Wi-Fi presence and observed volume peak where passengers spend time. The public network is _Free LGA WiFi cited; the Wi-Fi figures here come solely from the Ookla usage layer. Controller telemetry (section 15) would convert presence into capacity. Fig. 26 (Wi-Fi observation rate and intensity across tenant categories) ships in the PDF.

Boingo Wireless is the Port Authority's neutral-host cellular (DAS) and Wi-Fi provider at LGA under the agreement announced October 14, 2025 (2026 to 2038, option to 2043; Boingo has operated the Port Authority's airport wireless since the 1999 New York Telecom Partners agreement); the agreement contemplates private network infrastructure across Port Authority facilities, and no LGA-specific private LTE, 5G, CBRS, or public-safety radio project is public cited. The one open item on the cellular side is the Recommendation 1 attestation of which terminal buildings ride on Boingo's network and which carriers are on the DAS in each building. The public Ookla layer does not characterize private networks. Whether a Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) private-network layer is scoped for LGA under the agency-wide agreement is a design question for the Port Authority and its terminal operators. On the public-safety side, the Port Authority 2026 to 2035 Capital Plan lists LGA public-safety radio lines: PAPD Radio Network Backhaul Infrastructure Upgrade CA02-606 ($2.5 million, design), Relocation of P25 Network Switching Center Equipment CA02-605 ($1.5 million, construction), and Building 137 Radio Coverage CA02-X03; no LGA-specific DAS or Wi-Fi capital line appears at FY-2026 grain Imagine knowledge graph · cited. Typical large-hub workloads:

Legend: Ookla band labels are technology plus approximate frequency in MHz, printed verbatim from the export. For example, NR2500 and NR2600 are both 2.5 GHz spectrum, and LTE800 and NR850 are both 850 MHz cellular spectrum. LTE700PS is FirstNet Band 14, the public-safety broadband band. Cell, PCI, and band fields populate only where Ookla resolved a serving cell, so band n is smaller than RSRP n (section 16).

The bands a tile attaches to most often show which spectrum each carrier puts to work at the venue. Sub-1 GHz attachment implies coverage-grade bands. Mid-band attachment implies strong penetration or an in-building source. AT&T's 5G band mix rests on 319 cell-resolved tiles and is not representative of its 5,687 5G-reporting tiles. LTE1800 rows are an Ookla band label as exported, not a United States band allocation. Fig. 27 (strongest-serving band distribution per carrier) ships in the PDF.

Labels are Ookla's, printed verbatim. Share = band tiles ÷ the carrier's band-reporting tile footprint (PDF Appendix B).

On reporting tiles, all three carriers show near-universal LTE service availability, the graceful-degradation floor. Basis disclosure: availability fields are not populated on every tile (general-LTE reporting share: T-Mobile 86%, Verizon 84%, AT&T 80%). The mean is over reporting tiles only. Fig. 28 (own-network and general-LTE availability; the general-service field reads 100% for every carrier and is not drawn) ships in the PDF.

The top 20 gates by best-minus-worst carrier 5G RSRP spread are where a passenger's experience varies most by carrier (spreads of 17 to 23 dB). The best carrier at every one of the top 20 is T-Mobile. Worst-carrier tally across all 80 ranked gates: Verizon 41, AT&T 35, T-Mobile 4. The top five sit in Terminal C (5): gates 87, 85, 89A, 88A, 89B. They serve two purposes: worst-case examples for the stakeholder narrative, and the validation-point list for post-deployment monitoring (section 14). Verizon and AT&T 5G on an in-building path should compress this spread.

Spread = best minus worst carrier mean 5G RSRP at the gate, as printed in the section 14 criteria. Every published pair n ≥ 30 tiles; 0 gates sub-floor.

Fig. 29 · Carrier-asymmetry atlas · top 20 gates by spreadSource · Ookla

Among the 80 gates where every carrier's per-gate n is at least 30 tiles. Bar color is the worst carrier at that gate. Gate refs follow the OpenStreetMap inventory. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Fig. 30 · Worst-carrier 5G class per tile and unique-device density per tileSource · Ookla

Left: each terminal-area tile colored by the worst carrier's 5G NR class where all three carriers report. Right: User_Density per usage tile (unique devices, deduplicated) on a log scale over the same extent. Source: Ookla Cell Analytics per-carrier RF tile export and All Networks usage export, 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31.

Fig. 30 pairs the two questions an operator asks first: where is the weakest carrier weak, and where are the devices. Amber covers the Terminal B headhouse, the Terminal C piers, and the roadway loop, and the density panel shows the terminal frontages and the roadway carrying the highest unique-device counts.

1 operational-critical point is identifiable by name in the pinned capture (Port Authority Police); no other federal or operational-critical point is identifiable by name in the capture. AT&T's FirstNet Band 14 (LTE700PS) appears on 280 AT&T LTE tiles (section 9.1); public-safety coverage posture is a section 15 layer. These readings are single-point aggregates, reported for scope and not ranked.

Translation method: LGA recorded 16,715,567 revenue enplanements in calendar 2024 (FAA cited) and 32,800,000 total passengers in 2025 (Port Authority, both directions cited); the two bases are not interchangeable and only the FAA enplanement figure belongs in any translation. Per-gate volumes are not available, so the only translation this report offers is illustrative and stays in prose: distributing annual enplanements uniformly across the 80 measured gates (including the six Terminal A gates that closed in May 2026) would place the share of gates below healthy 5G onto the same share of enplanements.

1. Attest the in-building inventory

   Which terminal buildings ride on Boingo's network and which carriers are on the DAS in each building is not held; the owners named here hold that inventory between them and should attest it. The measured pattern (Verizon and AT&T LTE healthy at 77 and 75 of 80 gates; their 5G NR healthy at 6 and 14) is consistent with more than one explanation, and the answer decides the design.

   Owner · Port Authority of New York and New Jersey with LaGuardia Gateway Partners, Delta Air Lines, and Boingo Wireless

2. Bring Verizon and AT&T 5G NR onto Boingo's in-building systems, headhouse and Terminal C first

   Subject to the Recommendation 1 attestation. Acceptance is the per-carrier commissioning KPI set (walk test and scanner survey); section 14 stays a monitoring plan and is not written into the scope of work.

   Owner · Boingo Wireless with Verizon and AT&T; LaGuardia Gateway Partners; Delta Air Lines

3. Treat the Marine Air Terminal rebuild as the acceptance zone

   The capital plan funds a rebuild of the non-landmarked gate areas; specify multi-carrier 5G NR in-building coverage in the design and adopt the section 14 at-reopening criteria before the first tenant returns.

   Owner · Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

4. Treat Wi-Fi as a coexisting capacity layer in the design

   Terminal-zone offload 59%, section 7.1. Obtain controller telemetry for the public network to size it.

   Owner · Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Boingo Wireless

5. Decide the CBRS and private-wireless question under the agency-wide agreement alongside the 5G NR work

   Decide it alongside the 5G NR work (section 8), not after it.

   Owner · Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

These are monitoring criteria for the before-and-after comparison, not the acceptance test for any system. Acceptance itself is per-carrier commissioning (walk test and scanner survey) against the same thresholds. Thresholds are the locked ladder (section 16). Gate refs and counts come from the OpenStreetMap inventory (Terminal A 6, Terminal B 36, Terminal C 38; the Port Authority publishes 35 gates at Terminal B and 37 to 38 at Terminal C). Gate-named criteria must be reconciled against the operators' gate plans before adoption.

Re-measurement uses the same instrument as this baseline (Ookla Cell Analytics, identical thresholds). The window is like for like: the same 12-month length, or a matched shorter window that is disclosed alongside the result. Ookla's date-range comparison renders the before and after directly. Imagine Wireless re-measures over that window after any in-building change goes live; the crowdsourced tiles serve as the before-and-after comparison and acceptance itself is per-carrier commissioning.

Cell, PCI, and band fields populate only where Ookla resolved a serving cell, so their n is smaller than the RSRP n for the same carrier. The table shows the number of on-airport tiles that populate each field.

All photographs via Wikimedia Commons; used unmodified except for resizing. Photographs are illustrative material and are not measurements.