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My phone has no building penetration.....

Gix1k

Gix1k

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
3,589
1,296
16PM - Anytime I go into say Walmart or into a gym or something indoors, my service goes to nothing. I get that private relay message which lets me know my service is gone. I have AT&T. It's annoying because I see other people using their phones just fine. Is this an ATT or phone problem? I've considered leaving ATT due to it.
 
It's so frustrating! I'm in gyms a lot for my daughter's sport she competes in. Parents can follow scores on an app. I'm always DOA. Other parents I see in the app just fine. I literally can't do anything on my phone.
 
Not a AT&T problem as I can not remember the last time I did not have service or had a dropped call. Are you located in an area that does not have good cell coverage to begin with. Are you using a case? A friend of mine had to remove his carbon fiber case due to it interfering with cell service.
 
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More than likey your network provider is the issue, do you have another sim card (on a different network) you can test side by side in these locations? As what you don't want to do is move to one that is the same, or worse.
 

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maerz001 said:
Ask the other parents what they use and apparently works
Click to expand...
The mom last weekend was using a iPhone. I know for sure because I got there after they did and when I walked up I asked if they were using an app for scoring that day. She showed me her screen and I was able to see the live scoring. I wasn't able to see scores the whole day. Further insult, her husband had one of those extra large iPads with a keyboard attached and he was streaming some golf event that was happening.
 
RRC said:
More than likey your network provider is the issue, do you have another sim card (on a different network) you can test side by side in these locations? As what you don't want to do is move to one that is the same, or worse.
Click to expand...
Sadly no, I carry a 2nd iPhone for my business that's also AT&T.
 
I think some providers have contracts with companies that allow them to block signal to force you to connect to their in house wifi. With that being said, get this, my wife’s phone always has better coverage than mine. This started happening way back with the iPhone 3G. Same provider, same model phone, I can put them right next to each other, hers will have more bars. In dead zones mine will go to “no service”, hers will be just fine. No one has ever been able to figure it out.
 
jimmirehman said:
I think some providers have contracts with companies that allow them to block signal to force you to connect to their in house wifi. With that being said, get this, my wife’s phone always has better coverage than mine. This started happening way back with the iPhone 3G. Same provider, same model phone, I can put them right next to each other, hers will have more bars. In dead zones mine will go to “no service”, hers will be just fine. No one has ever been able to figure it out.
Click to expand...
A situation like this would lead me to believe your phone is defective.
 
jimmirehman said:
I think some providers have contracts with companies that allow them to block signal to force you to connect to their in house wifi. With that being said, get this, my wife’s phone always has better coverage than mine. This started happening way back with the iPhone 3G. Same provider, same model phone, I can put them right next to each other, hers will have more bars. In dead zones mine will go to “no service”, hers will be just fine. No one has ever been able to figure it out.
Click to expand...
What happens if you switch phones with your wife? If this has been the case with every phone you and your wife have owned, must be some chemical or molecular differences in your bodies :oops: or your wife always wears some jewelry or hand cream which positively impacts her reception ... or one of you is an alien. Very strange.
 
This may be an obvious question, but how many bars does your phone have directly outside the building, say in an adjacent parking lot?

Also, does the venue have public wifi? Many do, so it could be a fallback.
 
chown33 said:
This may be an obvious question, but how many bars does your phone have directly outside the building, say in an adjacent parking lot?

Also, does the venue have public wifi? Many do, so it could be a fallback.
Click to expand...

I never pay attention to that. I will though. No, there’s no WiFi in these gyms.
 
I would suggest OpenSignal for some insight, but because, at the moment, neither the map nor the cell tower finder features are functional (for me), it probably wouldn’t be much help.

With that, I did seek out a similar service/app, and found this:

www.coveragemap.com

CoverageMap.com | Crowdsourced Maps of Cellular Networks

CoverageMap.com is building crowdsourced maps of cellular networks. Compare download speeds, upload speeds, and latency betwen AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Dish, and UScellular.
www.coveragemap.com www.coveragemap.com

Map | CoverageMap.com

map.coveragemap.com map.coveragemap.com

In my area, there doesn’t appear to be as much contribution compared to my last observation of OpenSignal. However, there are some data points, mostly on the major roadways. I like the GUI significantly more overall versus that of OpenSignal. And I’ll probably contribute as I believe these apps can and are useful as long as there’s enough data.

As far as anecdotal evidence on the topic… At work, I have a strong 5G signal with few connectivity problems. In the grocery store a few blocks away, connectivity is definitely on the weak side, causing timeouts during some sessions. Nonetheless, of course, there are several factors:

Signal strength and quality

help.campbellsci.com help.campbellsci.com

By the way, the metrics noted at the link above can (still) be found in Field Test Mode.

 
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So with private relay disabled it works? Let me have a guess: yes. That is why it works for the others, because most won't have private relay enabled.
 
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iSuzan said:
So with private relay disabled it works? Let me have a guess: yes. That is why it works for the others, because most won't have private relay enabled.
Click to expand...

I don’t even know what private relay is. A message about it always appears on my screen when I lose service.
 
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