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x-evil-x

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
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I am in LTE area barely and i can only pick up 4g. Ive only been able to get lte is very rare spots in the city so far. some parts of the freeway and in scottsdale. Shouldnt i be getting it mostly everywhere according to this map?
 

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They probably have a minimal amount of towers so reception will be worse towards the edges. But as they add towers you should see more consistent coverage.
 
They probably have a minimal amount of towers so reception will be worse towards the edges. But as they add towers you should see more consistent coverage.

shouldnt i be picking it up in a lot more places though? i mean i am in the lte zone. doesnt make sense to me
 
From the looks of the map you are in a fringe area for LTE. Did you happen to see the first set of comments below that address search box? This is why they put the disclaimer there. These coverage maps are not plotted out to be perfectly correct.
 
I am in LTE area barely and i can only pick up 4g. Ive only been able to get lte is very rare spots in the city so far. some parts of the freeway and in scottsdale. Shouldnt i be getting it mostly everywhere according to this map?

They lie about coverage in general. They say I get FULL service at my house. In reality, I got nothing. Switched to Verizon, not looking back. Best decision I've ever made. :D
 
From the looks of the map you are in a fringe area for LTE. Did you happen to see the first set of comments below that address search box? This is why they put the disclaimer there. These coverage maps are not plotted out to be perfectly correct.

even more in towards a better zone i still dont pick it up unless im in certain spots.
 
Looks like you're pretty close to the edge of LTE. The map probably demonstrates where you can get it standing outside. I have gotten it everywhere I have been in Phoenix and Scottsdale.
 
I am in LTE area barely and i can only pick up 4g. Ive only been able to get lte is very rare spots in the city so far. some parts of the freeway and in scottsdale. Shouldnt i be getting it mostly everywhere according to this map?

I know that it might be a obvious thing but is your LTE Data option enabled in settings?
 
AT&T definitely lies about their coverage. I'm suppose to have strong signal coverage at home according to their map, but I get no signal at all at home. Even when outside, I get 1-2 bars at best. Can't even make a phone call. So glad I switched to Verizon.
 
My experience with AT&T has been quite different compared to what I generally see around the internet. I have a suspicion that it's all about location.

I'm in Pittsburgh, PA. AT&T service is absolutely fantastic out here. Yes, every month or so the data from one cell will cut out for a little while, but it's not a huge problem. About a year ago I was having problems making calls during peak times connected to a swamped base station. I submitted a report in the "Mark the Spot" application and about a week later everything was working normally, with a message sent to me in the app saying that they received my report and have added capacity at the effected tower site. I even saw the AT&T engineers up on top of the building that houses the base station working on it!

I'm from the Harrisburg, PA area where AT&T service is also very good. Since I'm a college kid, I'm constantly making the trip across the PA Turnpike between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. Two years ago (good ol' Freshman year of college), a good 75% of the trip was limited to GSM/EDGE coverage for the 200 miles through the Allegheny Mountains. Now, there's only a small portion, I'd say about 10-15 miles, that falls back to GSM/EDGE. The rest is full HSPA+ UMTS. I saw an article on AT&T's corporate website somewhere stating that AT&T had invested something like $6 Billion in PA on their network, and my experience is some proof to that.

I've never had problems with coverage. There's some spots here and there where I'll get down to 1 or 2 bars, but they're few and far between. Signals are usually very strong and clean, which one might find unusual considering the rugged terrain of the Pittsburgh, PA area.

A huge perk to being an AT&T customer in Central and Western Pennsylvania is the simple fact that Verizon is MUCH more dominant in terms of user share. It would be a task to find someone on the street who has an AT&T cell phone. As a result, my data rates and call success rates are much higher than the national average for AT&T customers just because I'm competing with less users for access to the network. When it comes to Verizon, data rates are terrible in Pittsburgh. I've seen Verizon LTE speed tests average around 7-8mbps late in the evening, and this seems to be pretty widespread. CDMA? Forget about it. Think EDGE but just a *little* bit faster.

This is a classic example of how nationwide networks are so inefficient.

So... Does AT&T lie about their coverage? Well, yes and no. First, coverage maps are HIGHLY inaccurate. There's so many factors that play into received signal strength in addition to distance from the tower and terrain. These models are probably computer predictions based upon distance and terrain. They don't take into account any antenna gains on the user's side. Obviously, the signal will be stronger outside than it will be inside a building or home. IF AT&T does in fact use real physical measurements to generate these maps, remember guys, they're probably taking these measurements with a roof mounted, high gain antenna on a truck rolling down the street.

TL;DR - Just read it. It's a good post.
 
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They all suck. AT&T and VZW price gouge and lie. Sprint has the worst customer service in existence and a slow network.

How true. Over in Europe, you pay full price for phone but can get an everything plan for less than $50 a month. Over here you get a subsidized phone and pay $80 to $100 if you want 4G, and if you buy phone full price? You still pay $80 to $100 a month for 4G. There's no competition because they use different bands. FCC blew their chance at real competition by not requiring all carriers to use the same bands with their 4G upgrades.
 
How true. Over in Europe, you pay full price for phone but can get an everything plan for less than $50 a month. Over here you get a subsidized phone and pay $80 to $100 if you want 4G, and if you buy phone full price? You still pay $80 to $100 a month for 4G. There's no competition because they use different bands. FCC blew their chance at real competition by not requiring all carriers to use the same bands with their 4G upgrades.


I'm from England. In England are ip5 prices are 529,599,699 for just the phones itself.
We don't have 4G YET. But I pay 40£ and get 2000 mins unlimited texts and unlimited Internet.
 
Not to defend any carrier because they're all crooks in my book but the maps are just a general idea of coverage. Obstructions will take a role in how signal is received. There is no way a carrier is going to comb the woods to tell you how far a signal is going. The food stores in my town has 0 service when AT&T has full coverage. Verizon lists it on its map to have perfect service including its LTE. Truth is, it has nothing, not even edge.
 
The maps are for guidence only and are not saying for sure you will have coverage every where inside thew indicated area, so AT&T does not have to lie as their is a disclamer on each map.

Such a hatred for AT&T leads me to believe that alot of 1%ers live here!:p

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How true. Over in Europe, you pay full price for phone but can get an everything plan for less than $50 a month. Over here you get a subsidized phone and pay $80 to $100 if you want 4G, and if you buy phone full price? You still pay $80 to $100 a month for 4G. There's no competition because they use different bands. FCC blew their chance at real competition by not requiring all carriers to use the same bands with their 4G upgrades.

Over hear you can get an obama phone for FREE!:rolleyes:
 
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