onX Will Now Show Cell Coverage in the Woods, Making It Easier to Stay Connected

I can see you can hear me now.

Photo by: onX

By: Jonathon Klein

Mar 27, 2025 at 8:33am ET

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One of the oddities about doing things in the woods is that you both want to get away from it all, but still have enough connection to the outside world when you need it most. It's a safety thing, as the world can hit the fan real fast when there aren't that many people around. But at the same time, the peace and quiet of the woods is why we leave civilization to begin with.

And apps like onX have made that task pretty simple, with straight-forward mapping that helps you get out into the unknown and adventure to your heart's content, giving you a bird's-eye view of your surroundings and where you want to go. The company's even made in-roads into giving you that view when the internet or cell coverage is non-existent with offline maps.

But even that only gets you so far, as there are times where you absolutely need cellphone coverage to either get out of a bad situation or make the next call on which trail to take.

Well, apart from carrying a sat comms device, onX is making it easy to figure out your next waypoint with the brand's new cellphone coverage layer, telling you exactly where you need to head to get reception. And that sounds good to me.

"Knowing that cell phone service exists gives many off-roaders peace of mind,” says onX Offroad Senior Product Marketing Manager, Andy Zielinski, adding, "They can stay in touch with family members, check in at the office, and if something unexpected happens–they can call for help. On the other hand, intrepid off-roaders can use these new layers to get away from it all and find places to fully unplug. These layers are another way for onX Offroad to provide App users with the most accurate, reliable, and relevant information for their adventure at hand."

What's cool about this feature is what Zielinski, it allows you to go places where there is cellphone coverage, as well as choose where to go where there absolutely isn't. I know there have been times in my life where I absolutely don't want an ounce of service, so that's definitely a benefit to me.

What do you think?

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The new feature will be included with onX Off Road for both Premium and Elite members, and will be able to show them cellphone coverage for Verizon, AT&T, and T Mobile, the three main cell carriers across the nation. Likewise, the new feature works both while connected to cell coverage or through the software's offline maps, allowing you to go deep with the knowledge of where coverage remains.

At this time, however, it'll only be available for onX's Off-Road system, and not its others like onX Hunt. Though, I'd suspect that you'd find this feature coming to those other versions soon.