Random question but how does signal on the iPhone work?

[tymaster50]

I can be in my room with the windows wide open and get 2 bars, but I drive up the street which is like 2 minutes away and I get 5 bars of LTE. According to speedtest.net the closest server for them is in plainfield, about a 15 minute drive, or sayreville a 20 minute drive. Is there any way to see where these cell towers are placed? Then when I get to school (4 minutes away, 2 minutes in the area I was talking about where I get 5 bars at) it drops down to 2-3 bars, 1 in the library.

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then in the AT&T store the iPad 3 only had 1 bar of LTE while the iPad 2 has 5 bars of 3G. Like wtf lol come on AT&T only 1 bar on the demo model? Funny thing is Verizon had full coverage there .

 

[blevins321]

A lot of it has to do with building materials of the place you're at. And the thing about LTE..1 bar of stable LTE signal is still much faster than full-bar 3G/4G, so I think that's why the iPad defaults to that seen it can. LTE doesn't permeate buildings as easily as 3G, so that's probably why the signal strength indicated lower, too.