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ATT updating some towers?

B

Branskins

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 8, 2008
1,235
180
This is weird... I have been showing 2 bars the last two days. The death grip has dropped the bars to one and slowed down data transfer. All of a sudden...my bars went to 5. The death grip drops down the bars from 5 to 4 and sometimes 3. But my dad speeds are not affected...

Is AT&T up to something? Upgrading towers? Frequencies? I have 5 bars right now instead of 2 and I'm on 4.01...
 
seriously?

AT&T is upgrading their networks all the time. And you didn't even provide a location, so random people here are supposed to magically know where you are and what AT&T is doing near you?
 
Michigan near Detroit sorry. I just didn't know if they were rolling something out.

I noticed the other day when I was on Edge and holding the seam and it didn't affect data at all. Wasn't AT&T switching the frequencies of edge and 3G?

I was also trying to give some hope to people amid all of the complaining.
 
It's not the towers.

I really hope Apple doesn't use the iPhone 4 fiasco as a way to insist on more towers.
 
Where is Michigan?

The 10 mile/Dixboro tower is scheduled for update on August 13th...Friday the 13th....
 
Some might say it's a placebo or something, but I can visually see 5 bars. I've had 2 since 4.01 came out. When I touched the seam then my data transfer would stop but all of a sudden I have full bars and my data doesn't stop. I just don't get it...
 
i'm in florida, middle of the state near tampa and i've spoken to at&t two days in a row and supposedly they are having some trouble with the towers in my area.

i haven't upgraded my phone yet but i have noticed over the past three days that i have 2 bars a lot more often in certain places and with my 3GS i had full bars most of the time
 
I'm in Santa Ana, CA. 2 weeks ago I could run a speed test on the 3G and get maybe 200k down and 40k up if I was lucky. Got my iPhone 4 yesterday and tested it out. I got 1666k down and 1249k up. I tested my wifes 3GS and it got close to 2000k down and about 900k up. They did something with the towers around here. I even got a text from AT&T since I use the Mark the spot app telling me improvements were coming.
 
I wonder if AT&T can leverage this problem by saying they can make improvements for an extension with their contract with Apple?

Seems like a perfect opportunity to get some help from Apple and use this situation to their advantage.

Anyways, they must be doing something because this seems like a strange change of events to see such a drastic improvement the day Apple has their press conference.
 
I live 45 minutes from Philadelphia and since 7 pm EST, my speed right now are at 0.5 Mbps down and 0.2 Mpbs.
 
ATT is suppose to be switching 3G to the Edge frequency right? That would probably alleviate the problem for most people. I wonder if that change finally hit my area?
 
Branskins said:
Michigan near Detroit sorry. I just didn't know if they were rolling something out.

I noticed the other day when I was on Edge and holding the seam and it didn't affect data at all. Wasn't AT&T switching the frequencies of edge and 3G?

I was also trying to give some hope to people amid all of the complaining.
Click to expand...

I live in flat rock and i got a letter in the mail last week from att saying that the monroe area just went 3g.
 
zizo79 said:
My area is all 3G and my bars went down from 5 bars to 2 bars after installing 4.1
Click to expand...

Mine did too right after I got 4.01. But just today my bars went up to 5 and the "death grip" only drops it down to 4 bars and sometimes 3.

The big test was whether it stopped data transfer and it does not. When I had 2 bars it did stop data when I touched the seam, but this magically went away today.

Very odd...I wonder if this will persist through the night.
 
bushbaby said:
It's not the towers.

I really hope Apple doesn't use the iPhone 4 fiasco as a way to insist on more towers.
Click to expand...

I hate that this is my first post, but...why don't you want more towers? I can't understand your logic. I have reception about 20% of my daily drive here in Missouri. I welcome new towers...I just wish they were here!
 
Branskins said:
Mine did too right after I got 4.01. But just today my bars went up to 5 and the "death grip" only drops it down to 4 bars and sometimes 3.

The big test was whether it stopped data transfer and it does not. When I had 2 bars it did stop data when I touched the seam, but this magically went away today.

Very odd...I wonder if this will persist through the night.
Click to expand...

I will be heading to AT&T to get a new SIM card to see if it will make any difference. What I don't get is my speeds were amazing the first couple of days when I got the phone. If the SIM swap does not do it, we'll see.
 
DMurphy said:
I hate that this is my first post, but...why don't you want more towers? I can't understand your logic. I have reception about 20% of my daily drive here in Missouri. I welcome new towers...I just wish they were here!
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome to the board. I understand your needs and I hope you get your towers. Here in a densely populated city, we're having different issues with cell towers put in residential areas without any warning to the residents. Recently, one of the cell companies tried to sneak a tall cell tower on a residential street in an historic neighborhood. It was to be directly in front of someone's house (not mine). Without getting into a discussion of whether this was good or bad, the fact is the neighbor and their surrounding neighbors that would be most impacted did not want it. They also presented proof that lack of connectivity was not an issue in the area.

The cell company brought out the big guns but the neighbors started a grassroots organization to fight it, proving that the company did not utilize available commercial zones for this project. This resulted in an ordinance that's a compromise about when and where companies could build new cell towers. Obviously, this is a balancing act between the needs of business and their customers and the needs and quality of life of homeowners with the goal of making everyone satisfied.

I hope you enjoy the board. There is good information to be found here and you can often find out something quickly. Should you come across someone who is rude, just realize they must be having a bad day. Or maybe they are Apple shareholders?
 
I will post some of my speed test results:

Today:
No grip (on table):
Test 1: 3.62 down, 1.19 up (5 bars)
Test 2: 3.19 down, 1.44 up (5 bars)
Test 3: 2.53 down, 1.16 up (5 bars)
Test 4: 2.38 down, 1.58 up (5 bars)

"Death grip":
Test 1: 4.20 down, 1.49 up (4 bars) (Throw this test out)
Test 2: 2.79 down, 1.31 up (4 bars)
Test 3: 2.65 down, 1.29 up (4 bars)
Test 4: 2.82 down, 1.22 up (4 bars)

Holding Normally (right hand):
Test 1: 5.25 down, 1.61 up
Test 2: 5.67 down, 1.57 up

Holding Left Handed (gripped):
Test 1: 1.66 down, 1.62 up (3 bars)
Test 2: 3.13 down, 1.60 up (3 bars)
Test 3: 2.10 down, 1.59 up (3 bars)

Now from yesterday (with gripping the phone):
0.73 down, 1.06 up
0.42 down, .07 up

Just for completeness, here are my wifi scores from today:
Test 1: 9.96 down, 1.93 up
Test 2: 7.15 down, 2.63 up
Test 3: 9.22 down, 2.47 up

I know this is a lot of not completely scientific data, but it is pretty interesting how drastically this has changed over a period of a day.

What I also DO NOT understand is why I am getting faster speeds in my hand and not on the table? Maybe that short distance is enough to throw off the signal?

Anyways, I find this interesting and will continue to see if it stays this way!
 
bushbaby said:
Hi and welcome to the board. I understand your needs and I hope you get your towers. Here in a densely populated city, we're having different issues with cell towers put in residential areas without any warning to the residents. Recently, one of the cell companies tried to sneak a tall cell tower on a residential street in an historic neighborhood. It was to be directly in front of someone's house (not mine). Without getting into a discussion of whether this was good or bad, the fact is the neighbor and their surrounding neighbors that would be most impacted did not want it. They also presented proof that lack of connectivity was not an issue in the area.

The cell company brought out the big guns but the neighbors started a grassroots organization to fight it, proving that the company did not utilize available commercial zones for this project. This resulted in an ordinance that's a compromise about when and where companies could build new cell towers. Obviously, this is a balancing act between the needs of business and their customers and the needs and quality of life of homeowners with the goal of making everyone satisfied.

I hope you enjoy the board. There is good information to be found here and you can often find out something quickly. Should you come across someone who is rude, just realize they must be having a bad day. Or maybe they are Apple shareholders?
Click to expand...

I'm glad your community won that battle. There "is" alot of good info here. Thanks for the welcome.
 
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