Indoor coverage
Just got a question regarding indoor coverage.
I just noticed today that I didn't get any indoor coverage where I was and the person next to me with AT&T had coverage. And on the T-mobile coverage map it shows I am covered.
Any ideas?
This message is not to provoke anything. No phone bashing or provider bashing comments.
Thanks!
I just noticed today that I didn't get any indoor coverage where I was and the person next to me with AT&T had coverage. And on the T-mobile coverage map it shows I am covered.
Any ideas?
This message is not to provoke anything. No phone bashing or provider bashing comments.
Thanks!
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This is the same for every wireless carrier. They cannot guarentee service indoors. The building structure can mess up the signal. It is the same in heavily wooded areas or anything like that.
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It really depends on the area. At&t might have a tower closer to your house. Also at&t uses 850mhz as well, which penetrates through buildings better because of the lower frequency.
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The difference could be in the phones too. Were the two of you using the same phone?
For the last year I have been using a Samsung phone. There were many buildings I had no coverage inside. After getting fed up with a slider phone that would always answer itself in my pocket because of the exterior buttons, I went back to my back up phone...a three-year old Motorola. My old Motorola gets bars one to two bars in many of the places I had no signal before.
There are many variables to consider...
For the last year I have been using a Samsung phone. There were many buildings I had no coverage inside. After getting fed up with a slider phone that would always answer itself in my pocket because of the exterior buttons, I went back to my back up phone...a three-year old Motorola. My old Motorola gets bars one to two bars in many of the places I had no signal before.
There are many variables to consider...
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Not always... and if you would read your contract (i guess only 2% of the people do) NO COMPANY GAURENTEES COVERAGE INDOORS!!!! But on a lighter note you could be right under a tower and not get service because people think towers shoot coverage straight out, they don't they beam the frequencies in a rainbow effect.
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wait! didn't it say on the t-mobile info page of this site that t-mobile uses 850 as well?
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Tuff to say. Although I've read TMO predominately uses the 1900 MHz GSM frequency.
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T-Mobile USA bought out voicestream, who started as omnipoint. Since the beginning they used the 1900mhz spectrum. 850mhz was used by a few smaller companies, so they made roaming agreements for where t_mobile didn't have reception to expand their footprint. Unfortunatly the higher frequency gives very poor penetrating power when it comes to buildings and such.
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i know the feeling, inside my house i get one bar and even sometimes none. outside i get all five bars. it's complicated, i live in a house built of blocks not bricks and i cannot get any reception, however i go to any other building, i get all five bars, its just in my house. it is my non scientific study that frequencies cannot go through blocks only bricks.
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The problem goes beyond cinderblock vs brick style construction.
If you find yourself in an older building that has a large ammount of steel support beams and other metal in the construction, you'll probably have trouble too. There is a grocery store I frequent near my home that is located in an older brick strip-mall and I go from five bars to nothing within a few feet of the door.
It really goes back to the frequency being used. Those GHz (i.e. 1000+ MHz) just don't penetrate anything well. Its the same problem you get when a hard rain causes your satellite TV to loose the signal...the signal can't penetrate all the water in the air.
If you find yourself in an older building that has a large ammount of steel support beams and other metal in the construction, you'll probably have trouble too. There is a grocery store I frequent near my home that is located in an older brick strip-mall and I go from five bars to nothing within a few feet of the door.
It really goes back to the frequency being used. Those GHz (i.e. 1000+ MHz) just don't penetrate anything well. Its the same problem you get when a hard rain causes your satellite TV to loose the signal...the signal can't penetrate all the water in the air.
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Guess Nextel is king for that. Heck I've read there not even running on cellular.
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Very true. I didn't know many people knew that.
From what I was told, the system Nextel rides was actually a nation-wide radio network developed by Motorola. For reasons that I have forgotten, Motorola then sold the network to Nextel.
The frequencies they use are registered for land-mobile radio use. Its really a radio network carrying cellullar traffic in addition to the push-to-talk radio traffic it was originally created to carry versus the other providers who have push-to-talk voice traveling across a cellular telephone network.
Nowdays the whole issue is not all that relevent from a network standpoint since the traffic between nodes is all IP.
From what I was told, the system Nextel rides was actually a nation-wide radio network developed by Motorola. For reasons that I have forgotten, Motorola then sold the network to Nextel.
The frequencies they use are registered for land-mobile radio use. Its really a radio network carrying cellullar traffic in addition to the push-to-talk radio traffic it was originally created to carry versus the other providers who have push-to-talk voice traveling across a cellular telephone network.
Nowdays the whole issue is not all that relevent from a network standpoint since the traffic between nodes is all IP.
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