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Does anyone else have trouble with T-Mobile reception in office buildings? In particular concrete block buildings.
The reason I ask is because I have good reception most places in town. However, when I go in one of our office buildings, that is primarily concrete, I have no service. But always had AT&T service on my iPhone. In my office (different building) I get good signal, but I have a lot of windows.
T-Mobile has just added coverage in this area in the past 6 months and just launched 3g in December.
Same problem for me.
TMO + N1 = serious problems with 3G right now. checking out the google phone support forums says that they are aware of the problem, and are looking for a fix.
Even if other TMO phones have good signal using the same SIM in a separate phone, the N1 is experiencing issues.
No problem at all in Chicagoland. I was all over the place today and yesterday. Only lost a spot in one pace. Known issue with ALL carriers. In between 2 lakes in the middle of forest preserve. No cell towers around. No complaints. No more drop calls like AT&T.
Every phone I've had on T-Mobile has had low reception in certain stores like Target or Macy's.
timothydonohue said:
TMO + N1 = serious problems with 3G right now. checking out the google phone support forums says that they are aware of the problem, and are looking for a fix.
Even if other TMO phones have good signal using the same SIM in a separate phone, the N1 is experiencing issues.
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I am not actually having the 3g issue that seems to be going around. My problem is that I loose all reception in buildings.
LOL, well, that's just the way it's gonna go with radios. some companies have bouncers inside certain facilities that facilitate reception, other's wont. the hospital in which i work has sprint relays all the way through it. most other devices wont' work, because it's inside of a big metal and brick structure. just the way radios work
timothydonohue said:
LOL, well, that's just the way it's gonna go with radios. some companies have bouncers inside certain facilities that facilitate reception, other's wont. the hospital in which i work has sprint relays all the way through it. most other devices wont' work, because it's inside of a big metal and brick structure. just the way radios work
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Most older facilities just act as huge Faraday cages. Its fun when you work for a wireless engineer and your building was built in the early 40s and everything is just screwed up when you want to do large scale tests.
timothydonohue said:
LOL, well, that's just the way it's gonna go with radios. some companies have bouncers inside certain facilities that facilitate reception, other's wont. the hospital in which i work has sprint relays all the way through it. most other devices wont' work, because it's inside of a big metal and brick structure. just the way radios work
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Read all the way through to see if somebody was going to mention repeaters and how generally cell's shouldn't work in big building without 'em. Looks like you beat me to it. lol
iVisionX01 said:
Every phone I've had on T-Mobile has had low reception in certain stores like Target or Macy's.
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They want you to buy more and talk less lol.
david1171 said:
They want you to buy more and talk less lol.
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Well I found out how to talk more for free. Thanks to sipdroid, gizmo5, and google voice. Now when I am in this office I receive my calls on the sipdroid client, which integrates very nicely.
My G1 was great @ my job, but the nexus is kind of a hassle when it comes to having extended conversations there. Keeps cutting in and out. I have so much trouble making clear calls, although 3G works great...
Nope. No problem here in NYC. I work in an old renovated factroy building and those are pretty solid buildings with plenty of concrete and even going into the service elevator I still have 2-3 bars and 3G. Not sure where eople who are complaining about their reception but traveled to several major cities and never had a problem...San Fran, Boston, Chicago, Santa Fe...I can still hear ya.
I am in east Texas where T-Mobile's footprint is small. When the G1 came out I ordered one, but had to return it and cancel service with T-mobile because of their service. They only had gprs in town and absolutely nothing outside of town. Before ordering the N1 I double checked all of T-Mobiles coverage maps and it indicated that there had been vast improvements in coverage, and they launched 3g just before Christmas. So I bought the N1. I get good coverage in most areas of town, but there are a lot of dead spots. If I have 3 bars or less outdoors, walking indoors completely kills my signal. I have noticed that for some reason T-Mobile's signal does not penetrate buildings as well as AT&T's signal. I came from an iPhone 3g, and always had full signal in these buildings.
Also, there is absolutely no Edge on T-Mobile's network in East Texas. It is either 3G or gprs. And the 3g is quite slow (300k max) compared to AT&T 3g speeds (avg 1Mb). In the first 14 days I did not go any where but my main office, which is a stone's throw from a tower, and home, so I did not notice the coverage issue. I saw Edge once while roaming the other day, that is it.
In Houston Downtown I have trouble with reception in buildings. AT&T had issues too, but it doesnt seem like they were as bad.
What pisses me off is when I am in a phone call and the N1 switches from 3g to edge I lose the call.
What are the forum's opinions on Verizon's network? Especially those of you who changed to Verizon from another network for the Incredible.
I'll be honest. The network has not been bad, I have service most places and 3g is decently reliable and fast. Not really digging that antenna indicator that makes up the bars on it's own, but performance was pretty good.
However, I didn't expect 'ok.' I expected 'The Network.' I expected moving from tmobile, the smallest carrier, and the n1, a phone with horrible antenna problems for alot of people, to get reception anywhere other people had reception. But in my area [suburb of Dallas TX] ATT seems to actually have more reliable coverage. In my house Tmo gets no reception [my house is a dead zone apparently.] ATT gets full reception. So in changing to verizon I checked their coverage map.... full 3g everywhere in my area. 1 bar in my house. 3g in my garage. Better than Tmo but ATT is 5 bars 3g!
And as far cities or major areas... never had a probl with Tmo there, always good HSPA. But leave a city and roll the dice.
Overall I rate Verizons network a 4 for North Texas Area. Tmo 3 Sprint 2 Att 5.
For Boston, my TMobile phones had much better call quality/clarity. I have not dropped any Verizon calls yet, but it is sometimes hard to understand what the other person is saying on the far side of the line.
On the other hand, the 3g speed and coverage has seemed good.
I have noticed the greater 3G coverage. I came from AT&T and this weekend I traveled across the country and spent some time in 6 different states, CA, IL, TX, NY, NJ, PA. Some were just driving through, others were airports. Never once did I notice a lack of 3G coverage. However most of the time I was at 1 or 2 bars, although that didn't seem to effect my experience.
It even worked in the plane at 30k feet, but only when I was above a major city. Gave me enough time to download an app. (yeah I know they don't want you to do that, I'm bad)
Coming from AT&T I do miss one thing, Data+Voice at the same time. More than a few times I was on a call with the hotel or car rental and they asked me for information I did not have handy. It was in my emails, but I couldn't access data to get them while on the phone. So I was put in a position where I had to anticipate what information I needed before a call and pull it up first. Another time I was talking to a friend about where we were going to meet, and I couldnt access Google Maps. It's kinda annoying.
I switched from T-mobile and while I'm gonna be missing my nexus once that 2.2 update comes out, my coverage is amazingly better, and my service overall wasn't that bad to begin with. Verizon has far surpassed my expectations.
Verizon user here who left Big Red, went to Big Orange, and then back to Verizon.
In my experience (here in central and western Pennsylvania), AT&T is hands down faster. This is simply the case with GSM as opposed to CDMA. However, 3G coverage with AT&T is spotty, whereas Verizon is awesome.
I have also noticed a misconception that # of bars is best indicator of performance. A better measuring tool is to check the following:
Menu > Settings > About Phone > Network
Take note of the Signal Strength. Somewhere around 50 dBm is almost excellent coverage while the closer you get to 100 dBm is borderline questionable coverage.
I am back with Verizon after less than a year with Sprint, and I am glad to be back. I had left VZW because of their crippled phones (reduced memory - disabled features - etc.), and not because of their service, which was fine.
I was quickly reminded that no matter how good a phone is, it's not worth a damn when paired with lousy service. Obviously YMMV, but where I live, near the edge of town but supposedly in a perfectly normal coverage area, Sprint is seriously lacking.
Average signal at my desk with Sprint was -95db or worse, and maybe as good as -92 if I went upstairs. Calls would drop fairly often, but even worse were the ones that *didn't* drop completely, and instead just went all flaky with audio cut-outs (with both phones I had on Sprint, the Touch Pro & the Hero). I was always running upstairs anytime an important call came in, just for the few db less signal loss, in the hopes that Sprint wouldn't ruin the call and make an ass out of me again (I can do that just fine on my own, thanks). Data throughput was also pretty inconsistent on Sprint. Sometimes it would work great while I was at some other location such as onsite with a client, but that just wasn't good enough. I need my phone to work where I live.
Anyways, back with Verizon things seem pretty steady for me. I get an average of -90db or better at my desk, sometimes as good as -85db, and if I go upstairs I have seen signals as good as -78db hold for a while. I have only had a single dropped call, and I saw no sign that it was a signal issue at the time. All of my calls have been clear, with no detected or reported audio cut-outs. Real-world data throughput is also much better for me than it was with Sprint. Web pages load consistently where they used to be sporadic, downloads don't stall anymore, and videos buffer just fine that I couldn't even touch on Sprint. No complaints about service here.
I wish Sprint all the best, but they won't be getting any more $$$ from me anytime soon. As for Verizon...well...what can I say except "Hey baby, thanks for taking me back! I missed you."
trevorwhopkins said:
Overall I rate Verizons network a 4 for North Texas Area. Tmo 3 Sprint 2 Att 5.
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Att 5, lmao
Try this get speedtest from the market, have your friend get speedtest from the app store, whenever you have the chance post run the test 3 times simultaneously and see how bad att network is. att network is like a ford fiesta, nobody wants it, but some are forced to endure it.
my conclusion on vzw is i am ususlayy getting 1.5-1.75 Mbps down and 600-1000Kbps up all the time at different locations. My friends iphone has never hit more than 1.2 , usually its 400-800Kbps down and up 200-500Kbps
i know different areas have different speeds, but in my area and most areas i have been to, mostly west coast, these results seem to be the norm
VZW coverage has always been great for me. Everywhere I go I ubersexual great reception in voice and 3g. I work in the Nevada desert sometimes and had data coverage where I wouldn't have expected it. And voice coverage was nearly always there. Can't wait for LTE.
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Sent from HTC Incredible via XDA Tapatalk App
Once I exchanged my phone for another because of something unrelated to signal I have noticed a difference. Before my phone would stick on 1x but now sitting in the exactly the same spot I only get as low as Rev-A. So there was an obvious problem with the radio on my last Incredible.
I've seen a few places where ATT could get out and VZW can't. Usually on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Having said that VZW is always crystal clear where ATT is garbled. I drop a VZW call about every 6 months.
I don't know what the Incredible's deal is with bars for the signal indicator, hut its not accurate. With the MOTO Droid sitting side by side, the DI always have less bars but is you watch the actual dbm, its the same or slightly better. I given on using bars at all. I just check that I have signal. I've done a lot of travelling and I have not lost service yet. some of my travel is in rural Mississippi.
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I had to go with a 4. VZW service is the best I've ever had, but coming from T-Mo, I got spoiled by the voice+data simultaneously. If that somehow became possible on CDMA networks, VZW would be perfect in my eyes.
I live 20 miles out in the suburbs in SC and I get 2 bars and 3G all day long. VZW has the coverage.
I came from AT&T to Verizon last month in NJ. It's one of the states where it's just blanketed in every cell service. Verizon is the best network I have ever seen. AT&T's network was unusable at times. Their data network was complete and utter garbage. I browse faster with Verizon on one bar than I ever did with AT&T with full bars. I'll never, ever go back.
I to am in NJ (NY Metro Area) Signal strength at home is a constant -71dbm, and at work a phenomenal -64dbm, had Sprint(my work),ATT(wifes work),TMobile (Son's current) all were "ok" but data by far is much faster with VZ, and I don't recall any dropped calls.
Super fast 3G outside...Tmobile's was MUCH slower. But seems like T-mobile signal in Atlanta could penetrate any building and the second I walk indoors with Verizon I am jumping around on 1x all the time. Cant get a 3G signal at work and spend 9 hours of my day there. T-mobile full bars of 3G goodness. 1 dropped call so far in 3 weeks so thats really good.
Verizon network is good here in Washington D.C. Metro area and surrounding areas. Ive only seen one dead zone while riding VRE train, its between stafford and quantico. Ive never had dropped calls or bad call quality. Only complaint i have is 3g speeds seem to be a lot slower in the city dunno if its maintenance or just too many people on the towers or w/e. Not even able to stream internet radio sometimes while in the city. speedtest.net app shows between 80kbps and 200kbps while in city. I get up to 4000kbps at my house outside the city in Fredericksburg.
Cycling from 3G to 1X
Data service will not lock into 3g but every few minutes jumps between 1X and 3g with attendant decrease and increase in data rates: 1x - 60 to 90 kbps down, 40 to 80 kbps up, 3g - 240 to 400 kbps down, 180 to 320 kbps up, all are average and sometimes much better on 3G during non peak periods. VZ reports no data problems at location and said to contact HTC.
Not a signal strength or reception problem and does not happen on two other phones sitting side by side with INC. INC: -87 to -89 db, Samsung Omnia II: -86 to -88 db, BB 8330: -87 to -89 db. All other phones have solid 3g signal and data rates all the time.
I really hesitate to exchange this phone because everything else appears to be working fine after doing the EVRC-B change to improve voice quality and I don't want to get another one with some other problem. Guess I'll wait as long as possible in the 30 day trial in hopes that either a fix is put out or a later batch of phones won't have the problem.
Re: Cycling from 3G to 1X
Replying to my own message: I now know why I am seeing this behavior. I got a free app "Real Signal" from the Market which displays the CDMA and EVDO signals in db separately. If this app is accurate my INC has a 10 to 20 db difference between the two with the CDMA -87 to -89 and the EVDO -95 to -118. So it looks like my INC has an antenna problem or a radio front end problem for the 1900 MHz band.
Also it seems that the change from EVRC to EVRC-B has not improved my voice quality as much as I thought as all day yesterday I had several calls that were muffled and dropping syllables. I do wish that HTC would get its act together as this is a great device otherwise.
I had iPhone 3G on AT&T in northern VA now with Incredible on Verizon I see huge upgrade in terms of speed and covarage. Its great!! also incredible is far better phone than iPhone.
At my home in Haverhill, MA it works like a charm outside....full boat signal and it flies speed wise.
Walk in the house and the signal drops to a fragile connection.
Assuming it was just a fluke at my house, I tried it this morning in Boston as well while going to a project meeting.
Same thing...wonderful signal outside with great up and down speeds....walk indoors and POOF...it's gone.
What good is it if it only works OUTDOORS?
Are others finding this issue as well?
I have started a thread on the SPRINT website about this as well since it seems that SPRINT actually does monitor those threads and gives them attention...
http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/44204
That's because WiMax operates on a 2.5GHz band, which is terrible for penetrating structures and solid materials. This has to do with the wavelength being used -the waves are more likely to be blocked/absorbed by particles in the material than to diffract around them.
APOLAUF said:
That's because WiMax operates on a 2.5GHz band, which is terrible for penetrating structures and solid materials. This has to do with the wavelength being used -the waves are more likely to be blocked/absorbed by particles in the material than to diffract around them.
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QFT - they should have used a licensed band of radio spectrum. Oh well, I'll never see 4G at my house anyway.
Here in Las Vegas, the Clear 4G market has been active for over a year. I have full 4G bars at home, inside and out. I have 1-2 bars of 4G at work, inside and 3-4 bars, outside. I had the Clear service until Sprint came out with these Epic 4G phones.
Have you used the Sprint tool to monitor 4G coverage for your area? The green cloud is pretty accurate in showing exactly where you get only outside coverage and where you get inside building coverage as well. I can attest to it's accuracy. My home in Texas is barely in the outside green coverage and no inside coverage at all. My son verified that he cannot get the signal indoors, but can get it outdoors.
As the market matures in MA, you will see more towers "turned on" to provide better 4G coverage. That did happen here in Vegas!
Kcarpenter said:
QFT - they should have used a licensed band of radio spectrum. Oh well, I'll never see 4G at my house anyway.
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2.5 Ghz is licensed spectrum. Perhaps you're thinking of 2.4 Ghz?
Ditto on Vegas being great on 4g coverage... I was out there for a week... stayed on the 12th floor and all the way down to the casino I had screamin fast internet... I just wish sprint would pick up the pace on LA - OC coverage... suppoedly wimax towers were going to be put on every walmart, wonder if that's still gonna happen
Awkwardly, the evo never had the issue.. I did notice one thing, the power of the signal is weak but that's cause it might not be an official band.
Sent From The Moon...
I live in a "4G" city, and I am disappointed. According to Sprint's coverage maps I'm supposed to have 4G inside my home, but I don't. Also, driving even on freeways has dead pockets.
That forces me back to 3G, which on the Epic has well-documented poor performance, especially on uploads.
I do get decent 4G indoors in a downtown office. When 4G is hot, it's hot -- about twice the 3G speeds I got with T-Mobile's HSPA+ on a Vibrant. But T-Mobile's 3G service is more consistent, with better infill coverage and indoor penetration. Overall, I think I got better real-life service with the #4 carrier. I may go back.
boomerbubba said:
I live in a "4G" city, and I am disappointed. According to Sprint's coverage maps I'm supposed to have 4G inside my home, but I don't. Also, driving even on freeways has dead pockets.
That forces me back to 3G, which on the Epic has well-documented poor performance, especially on uploads.
I do get decent 4G indoors in a downtown office. When 4G is hot, it's hot -- about twice the 3G speeds I got with T-Mobile's HSPA+ on a Vibrant. But T-Mobile's 3G service is more consistent, with better infill coverage and indoor penetration. Overall, I think I got better real-life service with the #4 carrier. I may go back.
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Im getting the Epic today in the mail, and ive already been missing tmob. The vibrant did get great speeds and in a wider coverage area. If im dissatisfied with the service in two weeks, ill just get another vibrant.
I live in Vegas and the WiMAX service sucks the big one. You can't maintain a connection while driving and because data doesn't smoothly transition, you get horrible data service. It's the outdoors network. Suburbs, no 4G, buildings without a 4G tower perched up next to it, no 4G.. driving down the street, no 4G. It's really poor. Sprint 3G coverage is ok, but the 4G is just plain horrible and there are no signs of it improving soon. They've colocated on all of the towers they can, so they will be building new ones if they want better coverage and as of right now cash is low at Clear.
lazytexan said:
Have you used the Sprint tool to monitor 4G coverage for your area? The green cloud is pretty accurate in showing exactly where you get only outside coverage and where you get inside building coverage as well. I can attest to it's accuracy. My home in Texas is barely in the outside green coverage and no inside coverage at all. My son verified that he cannot get the signal indoors, but can get it outdoors.
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I'm a little surprised the network is "launched" in DC, where it's so spotty I cannot get coverage at work (south of Dupont Circle) or at home (Waterfront) despite what the Clear map shows. Very frustrating.
even worse for me..im in an area that says "inside connection" and is dark blue..yet every time i turn on 4g.it will try to connect..then it may connect..and as soon as i pick up the damn phone..i get a "4g disconnected"..ish sucks man..very dissapointed
Here's a little one about how sprints gonna drum up a lil more money and help out good ol #4 in the process http://www.mobiledia.com/news/73500.html
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
T-Mobile isn't doing anything 4G until 2012. They've already stated it. To help out number #4 you'd actually have to be the one able to give the help. Sprint isn't building a 4G network for a reason. They can't afford to. Sprint is only #3 because of Nextel, a horrible purchase.
jlbiad said:
I'm a little surprised the network is "launched" in DC, where it's so spotty I cannot get coverage at work (south of Dupont Circle) or at home (Waterfront) despite what the Clear map shows. Very frustrating.
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DC isn't an official 4g market Sprintwise so don't blame them yet.. I know there's service and I am also from the area and felt comfortable paying extra because I knew there was some service, but no point in complaining if Sprint hasn't advertised your city.
Buyer beware! For some reason Richmond, VA is covered...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I work and go to school full time so 90% of the time I'm inside of a building. I'm finding that even seated in front of a huge window I have no data signal it just says "emergency calls only" and the wifi is so terribly weak I can't even connect to the campus wifi. Anything I can do to improve this before I consider other options?
Sent from my Nexus S
Bronk93 said:
I work and go to school full time so 90% of the time I'm inside of a building. I'm finding that even seated in front of a huge window I have no data signal it just says "emergency calls only" and the wifi is so terribly weak I can't even connect to the campus wifi. Anything I can do to improve this before I consider other options?
Sent from my Nexus S
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T-Mobile will NEVER be good at building penetration with their current network; it's the high frequencies they use and the lack of close-together towers.
WiFi seems to be hit or miss for people. I have zero issues with WiFi on my phone, but lots of people complain the NS is weak. You might consider a swap if you're still in the remorse period. Other than that, unless you get closer to the WiFi, there's nothing you can (currently) do to the phone that will boost the reception, but software updates might address that (new modem software, etc).
that is the nature of AWS 1700+2100 (t-mobile) signal
some areas are really good, some areas are horrible
i myself i'm victim of that, no much you can do about it, other than to report weak signal areas, so that they can put up more towers to cover the black spots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI)
as for WiFi signal... i don't seem to have that trouble
i can connect to WiFi G and N just fine, fast and strong 3 bars, or 4 bars, but never max
Bronk93 said:
I'm finding that even seated in front of a huge window I have no data signal... and the wifi is so terribly weak I can't even connect to the campus wifi. Anything I can do to improve this before I consider other options?
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I find that I am having the same problem.
The understand network signal issue that "AllGamer" and "distortedloop" mention. But I am came to the Nexus S from a G2. I wanted a purely Google phone and paid for the Nexus S. In the same buildings (Work & School), My G2 would report a stronger WIFI signal.
Any reason for this noted discrepancy? I'm not complaining, just trying to understand and find out if there is a solution.
I think I'm still in my 14 day period, so I may swap it out. But it feels like I've been setting up phone preferences and reinstalling programs for months. I've been through several G2s because of that darn hinge and now another Nexus-S.
Please somebody--- say there's a fix.
I get 2 bars of wifi only 10 feet from my home router even. Im out of my grace period but I have the 10$ a month best buy insurance, could that be used? Sadly I'm looking at the g2 and hd7, some form of reliable data is a must for me.
Sent from my Nexus S
I live in a terrible service area. With my Sprint phone I had to actually go outside to be able to make and receive calls and I live in the Northwest. Its f***ing wet here. On Tmobile I get great service...on my couch only. Its better than having to go outside, and I don't mind it that much to be honest. I just leave my phone on my couch while I'm at home and all is well. As for WiFi, I've never had any issues though I've read about all the people complaining. My wife and I both have great WiFi reception or at the very worst, reception on par with every other phone I've owned. She goes to class inside a concrete building from the 70s and gets fine WiFi and no one on any carrier gets any real cell reception in those buildings.
I don't have experience with any other carrier, so I have no basis for comparison, but I've never found T-Mobile to be particularly bad inside buildings in general. Some are just really bad. I suspect it has a lot to do with the design and materials of the building. I've never had an experience of having such bad coverage by a window, though. Maybe you're only in range of one tower, and the window you're standing at is just on the opposite side of the building from that tower? I dunno.
Thanks for all the feedback fellas. I'm going to see if the best buy insurance will cover a phone swap.
Sent from my Nexus S
It most likely won't. Your best bet would be an exchange if you're within the 30 days or selling the nexus and buying a different phone off contract.
Sent from my SubCyan CM7 Google Nexus S!
zorak950 said:
I don't have experience with any other carrier, so I have no basis for comparison, but I've never found T-Mobile to be particularly bad inside buildings in general. Some are just really bad. I suspect it has a lot to do with the design and materials of the building. I've never had an experience of having such bad coverage by a window, though. Maybe you're only in range of one tower, and the window you're standing at is just on the opposite side of the building from that tower? I dunno.
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T-Mobile's overall service is definitely location-dependent.
I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles. My house is single story, wood frame & 1/2" stucco construction built in the 50s. It's in the "hills", but in direct line of sight of two different towers. One's maybe 3/4 miles, the other just over a mile.
Until a couple of months ago, I could not get any signal in my house, on either voice or data. They did something in the fall and I started getting voice and EDGE, and occasionally I'll get a single bar of 3G in some rooms of the house.
AT&T and Verizon, 5 bars inside my house, but in fairness to T-Mobile, in the early days of the iPhone, I remember having lots of dead spots inside the house with the iPhone.
distortedloop said:
T-Mobile's overall service is definitely location-dependent.
I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles. My house is single story, wood frame & 1/2" stucco construction built in the 50s. It's in the "hills", but in direct line of sight of two different towers. One's maybe 3/4 miles, the other just over a mile.
Until a couple of months ago, I could not get any signal in my house, on either voice or data. They did something in the fall and I started getting voice and EDGE, and occasionally I'll get a single bar of 3G in some rooms of the house.
AT&T and Verizon, 5 bars inside my house, but in fairness to T-Mobile, in the early days of the iPhone, I remember having lots of dead spots inside the house with the iPhone.
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Crazy. I never had a smartphone when I lived in Rochester (MN), so I know nothing about 3G there, but I never had problems with voice calls unless I was in the subway or I buried myself in the core of one of Mayo Clinic's monstrous stone buildings. In Saint Cloud the only place I can recall getting no signal was in the middle of the cinder block labyrinth known as our student union building. In Portland, I get reception pretty much everywhere, though 3G coverage just doesn't exist still in sizable patches outside the city's core.
But yeah, I imagine it's like that with pretty much any carrier; some places, coverage just blows.
I've decided that I am willing to give up my nexus to get service through another carrier with better service in my area. Does anyone have experience with at&t? Does their band allow for better reception in buildings?
Sent from my Nexus S
Yes if you live in an 850mHz area for ATT then building penetration is spectacular. But It's not totally common.
Also I read an ATT version of the nexus s is confirmed now. So that's an option.
I concur with RogerPodacter on AT&T. Their 1900 mhz signal isn't much better at building penetration than T-Mobiles 1700/2100 AWS, but 850 should be. I don't think a lot of areas are actually 850 yet.
If coverage and building penetration are your main concerns, I really feel Verizon is the way to go. Everywhere I hang out that I don't get a signal on either my T-Mo or my AT&T phone, the folks with Verizon are getting good strong coverage. I live and work in the suburbs and surrounding areas of Los Angeles; since cell service is very much dependent on the area you live in with all the companies, your experience may be much different.
Along those lines, I was at Lake Mohave (Bullhead, AZ area) recently, and neither my AT&T i9000, iPhone 4, or T-Mobile Nexus One could get a signal at all for voice or data, but the guys with old original model iPhones were pulling in a signal. Go figure.
My Own Fustration
Hmm...my problem is that 50% of the time when I am on the subway and the signal drops off, when I arrive at the next station, it remains off. There seems to be some kind of glitch (either in the actual OS or else something caused by something I have running in the background) whereby the phone antenna just turns "off", so to speak, and the only way to fix it is to restart the phone.
TokyoGuy said:
Hmm...my problem is that 50% of the time when I am on the subway and the signal drops off, when I arrive at the next station, it remains off. There seems to be some kind of glitch (either in the actual OS or else something caused by something I have running in the background) whereby the phone antenna just turns "off", so to speak, and the only way to fix it is to restart the phone.
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Or you can try turning airplane mode off and on, see if that helps
How would I know which AT&T signal is available in my area?
Sent from my Nexus S
Bronk93 said:
How would I know which AT&T signal is available in my area?
Sent from my Nexus S
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I'm not sure how accurate this is, since it's 2 years old, but it's a good start: http://www.cellularmaps.com/att_850_1900.shtml
distortedloop said:
I'm not sure how accurate this is, since it's 2 years old, but it's a good start: http://www.cellularmaps.com/att_850_1900.shtml
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wow! i'm actually surprised there are less 850 coverage than 1900 areas (according to that map)
on a related note.
wish more Cell phone carriers had this feature
http://www2.windmobile.ca/en/pages/storesandcoverage.aspx
using google map, to check live coverage, and you can report weak spots, so they can build a new tower to cover the weak spots
I just switched from Galaxy S3 on ATT to Droid Turbo on Verizon.
Signal outside was fine (on par with ATT), but today I went to work, I work in office area that is located in the middle of one story warehouse/production line environment., with ATT I was getting 4G LTE with 3 to 5 bars, now with Verizon i'm getting 3G with 1-2 bars, but when you try to do anything, nothing works, from time to time it even switches to something called 1x. what the hell is 1x?
whats the point of droid turbo large battery when its draining fast because poor thing can't get signal.
People always assume that because Verizon is the biggest that it covers every square inch of the United States. This of course, is not true. There are going to be areas where you have crappy signal or no signal at all. There are quite a few places in California where I have no signal but someone with AT&T does. It's just the way it is. I would check with Verizon and make sure you're covered in that area. If you're not. You might want to consider going back to AT&T
Many things factor into signal, as well. Different carriers use different frequencies and wavelengths, and different things impact the reception of those frequencies differently. I worked in a building where Sprint signal was 100% all the time, but Verizon was crap. They had film on the windows (the help block sun and keep AC costs down) that didn't play well with VZW. When the company started moving to VZW for their company provided phones, it became a real issue (personal phones didn't really matter to them), and the film was changed.
Stucco/cement buildings aren't great for phone reception of any kind, but for all you know, there could have been an AT&T tower very near you, and the VZW tower is simply further away. Going inside the building further impedes that signal, so you get less of it on VZW.
To answer your other question, 1X is 2G service, and the slowest speed that Verizon has. 1X/2G, 3G and 4G LTE. It (usually) means that it is the best signal available and your phone is using it for a constant connection, vs. spotty 3G/4G. Again, this can be based on frequencies and bands within the VZW spectrum, and shouldn't really be compared to another phone on another carrier.
zathus said:
People always assume that because Verizon is the biggest that it covers every square inch of the United States. This of course, is not true. There are going to be areas where you have crappy signal or no signal at all. There are quite a few places in California where I have no signal but someone with AT&T does. It's just the way it is. I would check with Verizon and make sure you're covered in that area. If you're not. You might want to consider going back to AT&T
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Verizon has by far the best and most uniform coverage nationwide, but no US carrier is excellent, and every carrier has their strong spots and their weak spots, necessitating - unfortunately - choosing a carrier based on your location.
It sounds like where you work is a Verizon weak spot, and an AT&T strong spot.
Essentially, if you were to choose a random spot - any spot - within the U.S., and do this a hundred to a thousand times, Verizon would - on average - perform better than anyone else, but in any given spot, Verizon could suck, and someone else could be better.
Not sure how it is these days, but back in the day of iPhone exclusivity on AT&T, AT&T was pretty much unusable in all of New York City.
I switched from AT&T to Verizon 2-3 years ago (giving up my unlimited data in the process) because here in Boston I was simply getting too many dropped calls on AT&T. Verizon was a clear improvement, but still not perfect.
generally around here in the greater Boston area the consensus is:
Verizon > AT&T >> TMobile > Sprint > those other nobodies.
nekrosoft13 said:
I just switched from Galaxy S3 on ATT to Droid Turbo on Verizon.
Signal outside was fine (on par with ATT), but today I went to work, I work in office area that is located in the middle of one story warehouse/production line environment., with ATT I was getting 4G LTE with 3 to 5 bars, now with Verizon i'm getting 3G with 1-2 bars, but when you try to do anything, nothing works, from time to time it even switches to something called 1x. what the hell is 1x?
whats the point of droid turbo large battery when its draining fast because poor thing can't get signal.
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Your title is a little mis-leading.
In any given location, any particular carrier may have more or less signal coverage than any of the other carriers. Sounds like you just happen to work in a place where AT&T coverage is better. That doesn't mean that Verizon's coverage is "horrible", because NO carrier can state that they work everywhere.
If it's that bad, you may want to consider returning the phone and switching back.
while I understand what all of you are saying.
but this is not one of those cases.
I stepped outside the back of the building, I stepped out the front of the building and I get 4-5 bars 4G LTE with 25-35Mbps transfer speed, sounds perfect...
I go back In the building I get 3G with 1-2 bars that don't work, or some 1x bull****.
Its not the "area" its the building, and this seems to fit with what some people (engineers/including people that are experts in RF and other radio frequencies) been telling me, CDMA has trouble travelling through thick walls.
ATT GSM didn't have that problem.
nekrosoft13 said:
while I understand what all of you are saying.
but this is not one of those cases.
I stepped outside the back of the building, I stepped out the front of the building and I get 4-5 bars 4G LTE with 25-35Mbps transfer speed, sounds perfect...
I go back In the building I get 3G with 1-2 bars that don't work, or some 1x bull****.
Its not the "area" its the building, and this seems to fit with what some people (engineers/including people that are experts in RF and other radio frequencies) been telling me, CDMA has trouble travelling through thick walls.
ATT GSM didn't have that problem.
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But you're not losing your CDMA signal, you're losing your LTE signal. It's just the tower, or the frequency Verizon has there. Maybe Verizon has high frequency at your location and therefore it can't penetrate the building. Use LTE discovery to find out which band you have.
current connection eHRPD/1x
is not even listing any LTE frequencies....
****ing verizon bull****....
on the signal tab, now its showing connecting...... 10 second later, connected, 5 seconds later connecting... great service!
nekrosoft13 said:
while I understand what all of you are saying.
but this is not one of those cases.
I stepped outside the back of the building, I stepped out the front of the building and I get 4-5 bars 4G LTE with 25-35Mbps transfer speed, sounds perfect...
I go back In the building I get 3G with 1-2 bars that don't work, or some 1x bull****.
Its not the "area" its the building, and this seems to fit with what some people (engineers/including people that are experts in RF and other radio frequencies) been telling me, CDMA has trouble travelling through thick walls.
ATT GSM didn't have that problem.
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3g is CDMA. 4G which you say you lose is GSM
Jweimn said:
3g is CDMA. 4G which you say you lose is GSM
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Not quite, 4G is LTE. LTE is more similar to GSM than it is to CDMA, but it is not GSM.
Verizon uses 700, 850, 1700, and 2100MHz for LTE. ATT uses 700, 850, 1700, 1900, and 2100MHz for LTE. In the case of both carriers, there are generally not more than 1 or 2 of those frequencies in any given area and they are not always the same ones for both carries. Some areas have the lower frequencies which allows the signal to pass through buildings more easily, other areas have the higher frequencies which allows the signal to be bounced off of buildings which results in poorer building penetration, but can result in increased signal outside due to the signal being bounced off of surrounding surfaces. In your case you are almost definitely in a low frequency ATT and high frequency Verizon area. It is also possible that your work has a signal booster for ATT, but not for Verizon and that may be why you see dramatically better ATT signal there. No carrier is best everywhere, but Verizon is best in more places than any other US carrier. If you live/work in an area that ATT is better you should probably just go back to them.
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Verizon used to be better for me. I notice a pattern now where upon arrival to my house my signal goes from 3 to 5 bars of LTE to two or 1 or drops to 3g. Not only at my current residence but my last one as well. Like throttled down at home. I live in a flat city that should not have dead zones.
I live in a city with full coverage from all the carriers, but Verizon is the only carrier that keeps me connected from Philly to AC and back.
cstone1991 said:
Not quite, 4G is LTE. LTE is more similar to GSM than it is to CDMA, but it is not GSM.
Verizon uses 700, 850, 1700, and 2100MHz for LTE. ATT uses 700, 850, 1700, 1900, and 2100MHz for LTE. In the case of both carriers, there are generally not more than 1 or 2 of those frequencies in any given area and they are not always the same ones for both carries. Some areas have the lower frequencies which allows the signal to pass through buildings more easily, other areas have the higher frequencies which allows the signal to be bounced off of buildings which results in poorer building penetration, but can result in increased signal outside due to the signal being bounced off of surrounding surfaces. In your case you are almost definitely in a low frequency ATT and high frequency Verizon area. It is also possible that your work has a signal booster for ATT, but not for Verizon and that may be why you see dramatically better ATT signal there. No carrier is best everywhere, but Verizon is best in more places than any other US carrier. If you live/work in an area that ATT is better you should probably just go back to them.
Sent from my XT1254 using XDA Free mobile app
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its funny that you mention signal boosters, actually its opposite, my work has no boosters for ATT and has couple for Verizon.... the problem is that they boosters they have bought go thought internet connection, the internet connection is a standard T1 line shared by about 500-700 workers some with workstations and smartphones on wifi and some with both.
When I was outside work, I was on LTE band 4.
inside work I have 3G with one-two bars that every 20+ minutes disconnect and drop to 1x, the sucky thing is that even when those 1-2 bars are present data doesn't work.
and WiFi is so saturated and its useless too....
Before someone says that the trouble is caused by Verizon boosters, before the boosters were put in place, there was zero Verizon signal inside the building, again outside was fine.
nekrosoft13 said:
... from time to time it even switches to something called 1x. what the hell is 1x?
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So this is what it's come to.... :'( In some remote way this makes me feel old.
nekrosoft13 said:
I just switched from Galaxy S3 on ATT to Droid Turbo on Verizon.
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I'm not going to rehash all of what has been said, but there are two items you need to keep in mind.
First, you should check to see if you are in an XLTE area. XLTE makes use of the AWS spectrum and will do a better job of penetrating buildings.
Second, and most important .... If you have both a regular Verizon signal AND a Verizon Network Extender signal, the radios are designed to latch onto the Network Extender assuming that it will provide the best cell reception. The network extender is designed to make sure PHONE CALLS get through, and nothing more. The first and second generation Network Extenders provided only 1x data, while the latest generation Network Extenders provide 3G. There are no 4G LTE Network Extenders. As long as you are latching onto a network extender, you will NOT have good data. Period. You'll have great phone calls though. The "bars" reflect DATA coverage, not voice coverage. Phone calls will be fine even with zero bars. Data will be slow no matter what.
Again, the network extenders are meant to make certain people can make and receive PHONE CALLS (it is a cell phone after all) and not data.
Also, band 4 is the highest frequency that VZW uses for LTE and therefore the worst at penetrating buildings.
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cstone1991 said:
Also, band 4 is the highest frequency that VZW uses for LTE and therefore the worst at penetrating buildings.
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so basically Verizon sucks In the area where my work is. why would they use a band that is worse at penetrating buildings since this is mostly industrial park with warehouse like buildings and buildings with thick concrete walls.
nekrosoft13 said:
so basically Verizon sucks In the area where my work is. why would they use a band that is worse at penetrating buildings since this is mostly industrial park with warehouse like buildings and buildings with thick concrete walls.
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Basically yeah. The boosters that your work uses aren't helping either when it comes to data, they actually probably make the problem even worse as another person pointed out. The carriers own licenses for different bands or spectrums in different areas. They can only use the ones that they own in the areas that they own them. There are many reasons why a carrier may purchase higher frequencies in some areas, but the main one is that they just have to buy what is available and that's probably what happened in that area. In some scenarios the higher frequencies do perform better, building penetration just isn't one of the things that they do well.
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cstone1991 said:
Basically yeah. The boosters that your work uses aren't helping either when it comes to data, they actually probably make the problem even worse as another person pointed out. The carriers own licenses for different bands or spectrums in different areas. They can only use the ones that they own in the areas that they own them. There are many reasons why a carrier may purchase higher frequencies in some areas, but the main one is that they just have to buy what is available and that's probably what happened in that area. In some scenarios the higher frequencies do perform better, building penetration just isn't one of the things that they do well.
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I thought that VZW had band 13 everywhere they have LTE. I thought they just started adding Band 4, so if you connect to Band 4 then 13 is present. Otherwise, all the old VZW phones would not get LTE at all.
there are other people in the office that have verizon and same ****ty service.
we are looking into purchasing this for work, http://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/wilson-ag-pro-4g-70db-amplifier-kit-461104/
just not sure how this will play with current 3G repeaters that are in the building.