iPhone reception in big stores

[wrcooke]

Hi all,
One thing that has bugged me for a while is the iPhone's inability to pickup a signal in a store ie Walmart. I have had an iphone 3 and 4s - both do the same thing. I see people talking on other brands of phones but I never get service inside these large stores. Trying to find what the transmit and receive power is vs other brands is very difficult, if this would even point to the problem.
Would anyone have a reasonable explanation of this?
Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

[corvus32]

Different networks?

 

[aristobrat]

Would anyone have a reasonable explanation of this?

My experience is that the carriers' networks play into this as well.

In the Harris Teeter near my house, my roommates AT&T iPhone 5 gets five bars of signal (and the Internet flies), whereas my Verizon iPhone 5 gets one (maybe two) bars of signal, and the Internet doesn't work at all.