Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2 Bars standing next to an AT&T tower

i am not sure if this relates to phones but i know we have a digital TV transmitter about 100 meters from our house. you would think you would point your roof top areal to that transmitter but it won't get a signal because its too strong. we point our areal the otherway to a transmitter on winter hill. about 30 miles away.

The signal does not work from the close tower because its too strong to be picked up. is this the same with mobile signals?
 
A few points:

* Yes, there can be a hole in the coverage immediately below the tower. However, since you're so close, you'll usually still get 4-5 bars even with 4.0.1, inverse square law being what it is.

* How can you be sure it's an AT&T tower? Generally they're not marked in any way. The web site given earlier in this thread isn't going to be a complete list, as others have noted.

* $7,000 a year for rental is pretty darn low.

* I've always been really curious about the statement that the iPhone will connect to the tower with less traffic... If it's not the closest one, you're going to have issues with that approach. Bottom line, I've never placed a lot of validity in this statement; I'd have to see a lot more information to understand what they mean when they say this.
 
joekun said:
This is not specifically related to iPhone 4, but the reception issues don't help my situation.
I dropped 3 calls in my house this morning. I often have trouble calling my wife when she's at home and I'm not (she has a 3G), suffice to say, I just don't get great reception at homeAfter the 3 dropped calls I'd had enough and called AT&T, found out that there is a tower at the AT&T facility 4 blocks from my house, and another tower also within walking distance: I should be getting 5 bars they said - recommended I change my phone number to the local area code (my phone's area code is a 10 minute drive away), so I indulged them and waited for the "relocation department" just to hear what they had to say. Relocation said that wouldn't help (duh), and flat out said iPhones just don't get good reception, regardless of which model. I pointed out I never had this problem in my old place before I moved here, to which she had no retort.Just out of curiosity I took a walk down to that AT&T facility, and standing outside I had 2 bars of service. How can this be? It sounds like I should have amazing coverage here! Can anyone explain?
Click to expand...

I am not clear, are you using an iPhone 4?
If you are, I'm sure you must have reset network settings and retested right? If not do that and I you still have the same issues go get another phone sonethig is clearly wrong with it.
 
It's important to remember that getting really close to a transmitter can actually reduce the reception not increase it.

This is for two reasons,
1) Your device is now receiving a signal strength much higher than it was designed for in normal use.
2) Your device is now receiving high strength reflections of that signal from the ground and nearby buildings.

For example, TV Aerials in houses too close to the transmitter are often attenuated to reduce the strength of the signal to what the receiver can cope with.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

You also can't see the Empire State Building very well if you're standing next to it. Just sayin.
 
aristobrat said:
There are antennas on that tower that are pointed and angled to cover certain areas. I'm pretty sure that the literal base of the tower isn't what they're aiming at.
Click to expand...

So does that mean my plan to make a microcell hat a bad idea?
 
smithrh said:
* I've always been really curious about the statement that the iPhone will connect to the tower with less traffic... If it's not the closest one, you're going to have issues with that approach. Bottom line, I've never placed a lot of validity in this statement; I'd have to see a lot more information to understand what they mean when they say this.
Click to expand...

I don't believe it works that way either. Phones don't get to willy-nilly choose the cell they connect to, the radio network controller for that group of cells does that.
 
Gav2k said:
Yep jobs said in the original ip4 keynote the ip4 will use the signal with less traffic.

As for standing next to a tower thats pointless you need to be 200-500 meters away depending on the height of it as the is a big fat blind spot around towers.
Click to expand...

This.

Standing next to a cell tower (or under it) is the worst thing to do. Radio waves transmited by a linear antenna are not like light waves. If your turn on a bulb light goes in all directions, in a linear antenna it goes the way it's pointing to in a spherical manner.

If you want to receive signal from that tower you need to be some decent distance from it. Also, signal strength is reflected by how much power your phone perceives the antenna. So if the AT&T tower is low power, you won't see full 5-bars. Same can be said if it's congested.
 
One reason you might not get good reception even when under a tower is due to the Fresnel Zone.

The most optimal place to be is higher up with a bit of distance between you and the tower, so radio bounces from ground obstacles are minimized.
 
Ok, sounds like I may be too close to the tower. I'll try walking away from it and see if my reception improves a couple of blocks further away.

Yes, I am using an iPhone 4 and my wife has a 3G. I am resetting network settings now (didn't know about that feature). Also, I did report reception issues for both of our phones.

Thanks for all the help/replies.
 
That's AT&T for you, can't even get > 2 bars next to the tower! LOL!

jav6454 said:
This.

Standing next to a cell tower (or under it) is the worst thing to do. Radio waves transmited by a linear antenna are not like light waves. If your turn on a bulb light goes in all directions, in a linear antenna it goes the way it's pointing to in a spherical manner.

If you want to receive signal from that tower you need to be some decent distance from it. Also, signal strength is reflected by how much power your phone perceives the antenna. So if the AT&T tower is low power, you won't see full 5-bars. Same can be said if it's congested.
Click to expand...


That's funny. There's a Verizon tower on my college campus. There's no blind spot around it and little to no overlapping signal (coming from the guy who manages the tower...). It also gives signal to the underground tunnels connecting campus spots.

Quit making excuses. You have no idea what you're talking about.
 
andy9l said:
Wow, nice claim. In that case, should I not waste my battery enabling 3G?
Click to expand...

That comment makes no sense.

For the OP, standing next to a tower does not mean you will magically get 5 bars. Cell phones and towers interact in various ways and you also have to consider the backhaul load.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back