AT&T says their service doesn't work in buildings

[Excellerator]

I have actually noticed my iPhone reception to be quite good. I can actually use it inside department stores where my 2 year old Samsung Sync was spotty (both being 3G phones) in the same store.

Although like a previous poster said, it all depends on the building construction. I was at a wedding reception last night and I was getting between No Service to 1 bar under Egde. A friend got the same with his phone (his was AT&T) and another one tried (Verizon) and the same thing.

 

[SHIFTLife]

It is science. Higher frequency=less signal through walls or any obstacle for that matter. Shorter waves just can't get through as well as longer ones can.

Higher frequencies (3G, 1900MHz GSM) don't travel through buildings as good as lower frequencies (850 MHz GSM).

I hate to break it to the two of you, but you're both wrong. Shorter wavelength radio waves have a much easier time passing through walls and other obstacles than longer wavelengths. This is why 802.11a (5GHz) wireless Ethernet is better suited to buildings with thick walls or concrete structures than 802.11b/g. It's also why a 5GHz cordless phone will work farther from the base station in a home than a 2.4GHz phone.

However, lower frequencies can travel longer distances without requiring amplification. This is why WCDMA and CDMA stations must be placed closer together to mitigate the shorter distance the radios waves are effective within, as well as a phenomenon known as cell breathing.

While the difference between GSM and WCDMA frequencies is relatively small compared to ULF and UHF, the WCDMA spectrum will have an easier time passing through walls than the lower frequencies of GSM.

 

[deannnnn]

You know, it's a shame you guys don't have a little more choice with the iPhone.

Don't get me wrong, neither Rogers nor Fido is all that great - but man, it just sounds like AT&T is a horror.

The iPhone is a great phone ... I would hate to have to make a decision like this (service vs hardware).

AT&T is fine. People just like to complain.

 

[macdim]

I hate to break it to the two of you, but you're both wrong. Shorter wavelength radio waves have a much easier time passing through walls and other obstacles than longer wavelengths. This is why 802.11a (5GHz) wireless Ethernet is better suited to buildings with thick walls or concrete structures than 802.11b/g. It's also why a 5GHz cordless phone will work farther from the base station in a home than a 2.4GHz phone.

However, lower frequencies can travel longer distances without requiring amplification. This is why WCDMA and CDMA stations must be placed closer together to mitigate the shorter distance the radios waves are effective within, as well as a phenomenon known as cell breathing.

While the difference between GSM and WCDMA frequencies is relatively small compared to ULF and UHF, the WCDMA spectrum will have an easier time passing through walls than the lower frequencies of GSM.

Thanks MythBuster

 

[daniels]

It all just depends... Building construction and tower location has a LOT to do with it.

My office just moved from one 4 floor office building to another one 2 buildings over (1/8 a mile down the road). I went from getting 3-4 bars 3G in the old space to BARELY 2 bars EDGE sitting next to the window and it quickly goes to No Service if I walk away from the window. NOBODY gets good service in our new building. We have a mix of Verizon, Sprint and AT&T users and none of us gets good solid 3G inside the building. The second I walk outside, Boom 5 bars 3G.

It's gotten so bad that we're talking to the other companies in the building to petition the leasing company to put in Cell phone repeaters on each floor.

In places like NYC where there are a lot of tall metal construction buildings, radio signals get bounced all over the place, echos are rampant, and shadows are everywhere... These big metal buildings act like huge Faraday cages that block out low-power signals like cell and GPS like crazy. Even windows in most big office buildings have metalic coatings on them that disrupt RF signals.

Your best bet, assuming you can mount an antenna outside and run a cable inside, is to get a cell phone repeater unit. Check out "repeaterstore.com"

Again, I'm not going to spend $300 to use my phone inside when it should work anyway.

 

[daniels]

AT&T is fine. People just like to complain.

How can you say it's fine when my roommates' verizon phones work perfectly and my AT&T phone won't?

 

[dontwalkhand]

Have you thought about getting a GSM Signal repeater for your apartment? Mount the device outside your apartment window, and then hopefully you should see some improvement inside your house. This device would work with any GSM phone you have, iPhone included.

http://repeaterstore.com


Also, last I heard about ATT's Femtocell service should also help you, where you basically build up your own "personal cell tower" using your Wi-Fi network. This service should work with any GSM phone, wether iPhone or not. Though I do not know the status on AT&T's rollout of this.

 

[dontwalkhand]

How can you say it's fine when my roommates' verizon phones work perfectly and my AT&T phone won't?

Verizon uses CDMA, which runs on a different frequency, etc.

AT&T uses GSM, already as overcrowded spectrum as it is. 3G helps, but not by a lot if you have a lot of metal in your walls.

AT&T isn't the problem, it would be your building.

 

[deannnnn]

How can you say it's fine when my roommates' verizon phones work perfectly and my AT&T phone won't?

I'm not saying it's fine for you... it clearly isn't... I'm just speaking in general. No cell phone provider has service everywhere! I'm sure that there are buildings all over the place that AT&T works in and Verizon doesn't. In fact, I was just in the basement of a building here in NYC the other day with my roommate (who has Verizon). He couldn't make a call... but I could.

 

[Sweetbike40]

I can't believe a salesperson would say AT&T signals don't reach inside buildings. I've had AT&T for about 9-10 years. I've always been able to use it inside. Actually, where i used to work, there was a girl who sat next to me with a Verizon phone. She couldn't get a signal in the office, while i was able to get perfect service. It frustrated her so much when my phone rang and i was able to sit at my desk and have a conversation. Her phone was useless in the office.

 

[Jazhawk]

I can't believe a salesperson would say AT&T signals don't reach inside buildings. I've had AT&T for about 9-10 years. I've always been able to use it inside. Actually, where i used to work, there was a girl who sat next to me with a Verizon phone. She couldn't get a signal in the office, while i was able to get perfect service. It frustrated her so much when my phone rang and i was able to sit at my desk and have a conversation. Her phone was useless in the office.

Cool. But this isn't about your phone service experience. For me, it's trash service and is seems the only people its been better for is you and about 6 other people nationwide.

-Jazhawk

 

[deannnnn]

Cool. But this isn't about your phone service experience. For me, it's trash service and is seems the only people its been better for is you and about 6 other people nationwide.

-Jazhawk

Location. Location. Location.

 

[Sweetbike40]

Cool. But this isn't about your phone service experience. For me, it's trash service and is seems the only people its been better for is you and about 6 other people nationwide.

-Jazhawk

My point with story really is that Verizon isn't perfect either.

 

[dtich]

Iphone Users Switching For Att Service Woes

i work in the entertainment industry and A LOT of iphone users i know are switching BACK TO CRACKBERRY because ATT service/iphone is (can be) so unreliable, esp. for email and messages. this is a no go for a high pressure job and they say one of the great things about rim is it is super solid reliable. that's what is needed. have to count on it.

terrible terrible scenario and apple should really pressure att to nip this in the bud. i'm sure they are... be nice when other service providers can get in on the iphone game.

i myself can live with some annoyances with iphone service, but even for me it's a big pain at times. not good.

 

[Crunch]

I can't believe a salesperson would say AT&T signals don't reach inside buildings. I've had AT&T for about 9-10 years. I've always been able to use it inside. Actually, where i used to work, there was a girl who sat next to me with a Verizon phone. She couldn't get a signal in the office, while i was able to get perfect service. It frustrated her so much when my phone rang and i was able to sit at my desk and have a conversation. Her phone was useless in the office.

I hear you. I'm also going on 10 years with Pacific Bell Wireles ---> Cingular Wireless ---> AT&T.

I lived on Long Island, NY (Suffolk County), midtown Manhattan, Upper West Side, and have traveled ALL over Long Island, Manhattan (obviously), Hoboken, NJ, Philadelphia, and for the past 5 years Los Angeles (Hollywood Hills), and AT&T even works up in the Hills.

There have always been those screaming AT&T sucks in L.A. I don't understand it. L.A. is the one place where I've had the very best EDGE speeds (on my Blackberry Curve), and 3G is great on my Treo 750, and on the iPhone 3G, of course.

AT&T has a turnaround of 4-6 months. That means they spew a lot of crap. A friend of mine in Hartford, CT has 4 out of 5 bars on his Nokia N75 in his BASEMENT. He tethers a lot with it, and gets uninterrupted coverage. Long Beach, CA seems to be an area where AT&T has very bad coverage, and this is in large part due to LB's city council not allowing AT&T to put up towers. Lots of NIMBY'ism going on down there.

For those of you who live in L.A., and know the Crunch gym on Sunset & Crescent Heights, I tried to see how far I can drive down in the subterranean parking lot, and it works THREE thick layers of concrete down, albeit with one bar only.

3G is not as good as it used to be. This is only logical and to be expected when you throw hundreds of thousands of iPhones on their 3G network. They'll have to increase capacity dramatically to claim "the fastest 3G network in all of America" with credibility.

No wireless carrier guarantees service everywhere. That's unrealistic anyway.

My .02. I'm happy with AT&T. Very very happy.

 

[webmarek]

Yeah right all you ATT lovers...

Listen, after what I've been through I don't believe a single great ATT story. I was with t-mobile for 8 years. NEVER HAD A PROBLEM in my area of New Britain CT with them. I've traveled all over CT phone and everything nearly always perfect. For reasons I dont care to say, I needed to cancel my account with t-mobile and tried ATT. OMG what a nightmare. We ordered a family plan with three different phones. Had their service now only 1 week and cannot and will not tolerate this any more. We have 1 month to cancel the contract without breaking it. Let me tell you, no reception in our own house! At work all of a sudden I can't talk to with anyone any more (I work mostly in a basement all day), My mother works at a hospital and she cannot talk also, if we do get some reception, we cannot talk through all the breaking up. I called 5 times they are trying to blame it on walls and crap. One of them told me we are in the most covered area they have! He also said we are only a quarter mile from the nearest tower! WTF! I was shocked to hear that. They expect me to walk outside in winter time to talk, what if there is an emergency? My mother and my sister cannot receive calls in their own house, goes right to voice mail, never rings! All three of us never even talked about cell phone reception in all the years we've been with t-mobile. I am so frustrated, I am sending all their phones back to them and they will never hear from us again. More bars in more places MY ASS! More like more bars in some places.

 

[Turmoil]

works well in Seattle

just another data point. We have always had excellent reception in the Seattle area. We live close in and get good edge and 3G results. On vacation to Quinault - way in middle of Olympic mountains-had enough edge connect to stream music from home w/simplify- I've been impressed with ATT/Cingular for years- your millage will vary

 

[xraydoc]

I can't wait for T-Mobile's Android phone though, my first 30 days of AT&T are almost up. Plus I only know one person with T-Mobile. If I switch it will be to Verizon. I've used Sprint before and hated it.

If AT&T's service is troublesome for you, T-Mobile wont be any better. They both use the same GSM signal type and similar frequencies.

 

[andreab35]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

I hear how you feel..

I have a first gen. iPhone. I have 5 bars outside a store. When I go in, I get zippo.

AT&T is a real pain in the butt for service for me, but I love my iPhone too much to to give it up.

Maybe that's why they were rated fifth for cell phone service in Consumer Reports...

I have hope one day for AT&T.

But if Apple miraculously goes with Verizon in the future, I'm in for the deal.

 

[samiwas]

Interesting thread to read. In the building we're working in now, those of us with iPhones on AT&T (three of us) have great service in most parts of the building. Everyone else, those with TMobile, Verizon, Sprint, etc, have to go to other parts of the building or outside to make a call. There are so many variables in this.

 

[Warbrain]

If AT&T's service is troublesome for you, T-Mobile wont be any better. They both use the same GSM signal type and similar frequencies.

They use frequencies on totally opposite ends of the GSM network.

 

[Crunch]

They use frequencies on totally opposite ends of the GSM network.

LOL...Umm no. Although I'm certainly no T-Mobile fan, they use the same frequency on the high end (1900MHz), but have no 850MHz band. The only difference is its 3G frequency, which is 1,700MHz. Nobody else uses 1,700MHz.