Somehow, no one had mapped Maracaibo and Coro, along other parts. I am glad to have contributed the following.

I’ve entered through the Maicao border, to Maracaibo. Used eSIMS from Qrispy (Digitel) and Airalo (Movistar). I’ve then kept the Qrispy eSIM and a physical Movistar SIM once I arrived in Maracaibo, since it was cheaper than just continuing using the travel eSIMs.

Venezuela still operates 3G UMTS/HSPA and 4G LTE. There is no 5G on Movistar and Digitel yet, at least in the locations I were.

I did not map Movilnet, so I do not know how the network performs. My phone would occasionally connect to it in emergency mode only when the other 2 lost coverage.

From my 2-week experience, Movistar has the best network in Maracaibo. There were no dead zones, while Digitel did had dead zones. Movistar also did 3CC (5, 10 and 15mhz), which was welcomed. I believe max I reached was about 50mbps.

The main problem is no network except Movilnet has truly unlimited data, so I did not did speedtests and relied on the Internet Speed Monitor meter. The Movistar app does not allow screenshot to show prices, but the plans are very cheap and the 25GB plan which is the max is about $16-18 dollars or so depending on the Bs price. The app dynamically changes this since Venezuela uses USD as a reference price and places converts this to the current Bs trade value.

The other area mapped was around Coro, and the way up to Villa Marina.

MCC-MNC codes:
734-2: Digitel
734-4: Movistar
734-6: Movilnet

I’ll post pictures of the towers later. Movistar were the easiest to identify and locate. Those are white cells, either because they are new or they do not get yellowish…

Below are the maps of the mapped areas for Digitel and Movistar:

Mapping Maracaibo

Mapping Coro and surrounding areas

Mapping Colombia-Venezuela Paraguachón border to Maracaibo

This was a great experience and hope to travel again to continue mapping more areas.