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More 3G antennas in more places! Anyone else seeing this?

Rybold said:
Today, I got in my car and drove around my neighborhood. There is a 3G antenna about half a mile from my house. I noticed, in driving towards the antenna, driving away from the antenna, and around my neighborhood and surrounding streets that signal strength (the number of bars displayed on the phone) can vary significantly depending on surrounding houses, buildings, telephone poles, UPS trucks parked on the side of the road, and just about anything that contains metal. In some spots, I noticed the signal drop from 5 bars down to 2 bars just by moving 20 feet. I noticed that when my car was driving toward the 3G antenna (only the windshield of my car between phone and cell tower) the signal was usually 4 or 5 bars, yet when I was driving away from the 3G antenna the signal was usually about 2 bars. I live on a hilly area, and I noticed 5 bars in all of the high spots and 2 bars in most of the low spots. In some locations, when I would have thought the signal to be one bar, it was mysteriously 5 bars, and in other locations when I expected 5 bars, it was only 3 or 2 bars. In conclusion, the number of bars on your phone can vary significantly based on many different factors of your surroundings; so don't whine too much that you only have 2 bars at your house when your buddy 20 miles away has 5 bars - maybe it's because of the immediate surroundings of your houses that is creating the difference, and not the cell tower. In my own experience, I have noticed no obvious difference in speed between 2 bars or 5 bars. Maybe a quantified internet speed test will show a difference; but to the human brain, the speed seems the same between 2 bars and 5 bars of 3G ... at least for my brain. :)
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From my understanding 3G uses a higher frequency bandwidth to transmit data. Higher frequency waves bend around corners and buildings less than lower frequency (like Edge) so you might see a noticeable difference block to block and building by building.

Then again when ATT says its 100% coverage I'd assume that they have the area blanketed with 3G towers (but signal in my apartment still sucks balls).

I could also be full of ****.
 
uberzete said:
From my understanding 3G uses a higher frequency bandwidth to transmit data. Higher frequency waves bend around corners and buildings less than lower frequency (like Edge) so you might see a noticeable difference block to block and building by building.
Then again when ATT says its 100% coverage I'd assume that they have the area blanketed with 3G towers (but signal in my apartment still sucks balls).
I could also be full of ****.
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No light waves or radio waves "bend," but based on my own experience and observation with my phone, 3G does seem to be less pervasive than EDGE. In other words, the EM waves are absorbed (blocked) more easily by more objects that might be between your phone and the cell tower.

Radio waves and light waves are both EM waves, except at different frequencies. Just as visible light can pass directly through a glass window unhindered, a radio wave can pass though the wall of a building unhindered. Metal does not block radio waves, but it does conduct/redirect the waves. Here's something cool to think about: We've all wondered how the little antenna on our cell phones is so powerful that it can send a signal to a tower a mile away. Since radio waves are electromagnetic waves, like light waves, think of it this way: On a completely dark night, if you shined a flashlight towards a cell phone tower a mile away and nothing was inbetween you and the tower, a person standing at the tower would see the light. Now your flashlight has a small battery and a small light bulb. Same concept with a cell phone. Just as light waves are able to pass through glass, radio waves are able to pass through walls and tree leaves. :)
electromagnetic-spectrum.jpg
 
i live about 8 miles south of disneyland in tustin and i get "No Service" when i switch to 3G in my house. :mad: i get pretty good (4-5 bars) on the 5 freeway from tustin to foothill ranch where i work though (loads maps extremely quick for checking traffic :D)
 
kheovnien said:
i live about 8 miles south of disneyland in tustin and i get "No Service" when i switch to 3G in my house. :mad: i get pretty good (4-5 bars) on the 5 freeway from tustin to foothill ranch where i work though (loads maps extremely quick for checking traffic :D)
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Do you live in the new part of Tustin or the part that has been there for many years? Do you live up the hill, in the valley, or on the flat part? A friend of mine lives over the hill and in the valley and I do not get 3G at his house. When I am driving along the 5 Fwy and when I am at Tustin Market Place, I get 3-5 bars of 3G. Sometimes when traffic is not moving on the 5 at Jamboree, I'll surf the internet on my phone :D
 
Rybold said:
Do you live in the new part of Tustin or the part that has been there for many years? Do you live up the hill, in the valley, or on the flat part? A friend of mine lives over the hill and in the valley and I do not get 3G at his house. When I am driving along the 5 Fwy and when I am at Tustin Market Place, I get 3-5 bars of 3G. Sometimes when traffic is not moving on the 5 at Jamboree, I'll surf the internet on my phone :D
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lol. the 5 North always slows down at Jamboree. i live by old town tustin. i'm not bothered by the 3G reception around me much because, like u said, it's pretty good in the marketplace and on the 5 freeway. i have friends that live up in the hills off of newport ave. (technically it's santa ana up there) and i always get cut off. i haven't been up there in probably 6 months though so maybe it's better?:confused:
 
Yes, AT&T is still building out their network furiously. (As opposed to us being furious that they still have to build out their network). Carriers are usually try to be secretive on their towers so it is hard to know who is who from a distance. We also have good neighbor agreements and the carriers try to "hide" their towers with mixed success. Also, we have a "temporary" tower that is a "cherry picker" man lift with antennas tied to it. I'll try to get a picture...
 
bc008 said:
That is awesome! lol
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We have the palm tree cell phone towers all over California. I wonder what they use in the rest of the country. When I was recently on vacation in Illinois, I didn't see any camoflage. I even saw 100-year old churches with cell phone towers bolted onto chimbneys (seriously!), and I saw many barns out in the middle of farms along the Interstate that had cell phone towers. I think the oldest building I saw with a cell phone tower on it looked like it was from the 1800s. I took pics with my iPhone - I'll have to post them on here when I get a chance.
 
I live in Long Beach, but I'm all over OC all the time. I'm in Garden Grove a lot, and there's been an increase in 3G in the past couple of weeks. I visit a friend with a 3G, and we've both noticed it. Westminster isn't bad either, but Fountain Valley was hit or miss, depending on the area. Near the hospital has never been great for me.

I also spend time in HB, and I wonder if there will be better service when I go in a few days. Usually I'm switching between 1 bar of 3G and full bars of EDGE. That's the worst place I regularly spend time in, 3G-wise.

All around Santa Ana is fine, and Irvine has been great for me, as has almost all of LA County. Well, Burbank down to Long Beach, at least. I haven't had any problems anywhere.


I'll have to look for the towers; I never knew what they looked like. :eek:
 
Ntombi, HB is spotty. Sometimes I have 3G and sometimes I have EDGE. Most of OC now has 3G. They keep adding more and more every day. If you drive a lot, I'm sure you've been noticing that a month ago, 3G was rare, but today it's a lot more common. The ARCO at Beach and Adams in HB has gasoline for $3.69 right now. :D
(iPhone + gasbuddy.com is a sweet combination)
 
CheesePuff said:
I never had any 3G in or for a mile around my house until 2 days ago. I'm using 2.0.2 and now I get 2-3 bars of 3G in my house!
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AWESOME !!!! :D :D :D

(I have another tree to add to the collection. Notice the palm tree pics earlier in this thread. Today, I observed a cell phone tower that looked like an evergreen. I'll snap a pic next time I drive by and post it on here)
 
the cell towers in VA are just masts with antenna on them.
but alot are also moutnted on powerlines and water towers here.
though most of them in the suburbs are free standing.
 
I do cell site development for a living. Here in CA, the planning jurisdictions tend to be tougher in regards to the location and aesthetics of the sites, therefore, wireless facilities come in all kinds of flavors: plain monopoles or lattice towers, slimpoles, flagpoles, lightpoles, palmtrees, pines, cypresses, broadleaves, cactai, faux-church steeples, faux-chimneys, faux-you name it. We also locate antennas on rooftops, building facades, water tanks and electric transmission towers.
 
Well, yesterday I only had EDGE in my entire city. As of this morning I have 3-5 bars of 3G wherever I go. I must say, it was a very pleasant surprise :D (Central coast area of California, by the way)
 
PNutts said:
Yes, AT&T is still building out their network furiously. (As opposed to us being furious that they still have to build out their network). Carriers are usually try to be secretive on their towers so it is hard to know who is who from a distance. We also have good neighbor agreements and the carriers try to "hide" their towers with mixed success. Also, we have a "temporary" tower that is a "cherry picker" man lift with antennas tied to it. I'll try to get a picture...
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Yeah, do try and get a picture, it'll look pretty good :p
 
I wish they'd stick a single tower where my work/school is.

It's like in the middle of intersecting towers...so we get terrible reception even on a normal 3G phone.

And I'm not talking about only 3G...EDGE is terrible too! No one can like call without worry about dropping their calls.
 
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