Cell/internet reception in marginal areas

   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #1  

cisco

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Jul 24, 2001
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L3410
This web site is squirrely tonight (locks up a lot). Anyhow, I read a post a week or so ago on potential solutions to poor cell reception "out in the country". My situation with landline phone coverage is OK, albeit a bit expensive for "out of area" calls (defined las anywhere greater than 5 miles from my home). However, the internet signal over that line, highly marketed by the phone company, is slow (1.5 mb/sec)- forget about streaming a movie, for instance. My cell reception by the carrier in our region with the most towers (Verizon) is adequate for phone calls and 3G digital signals but inside the house not sufficient for reliable 4G (i.e., fast digital). This appears to be a fairly common issue with TBNers. Verizon, as the other cell carriers, markets a signal enhancer that consists of an outside antenna (quite small) and an inside broadcast unit, but according to the local company store such will only gain at 1-2 "bars" in a marginal reception area and they recommended at least 3, preferably 4, bars (i.e, ~ -90dB or better) in order to have a truly reliable and fast 4G connection such that one could stream whatever at 5 or more mb/sec. OK, understood, now what? I checked on the various signal multipliers on the market and settled on the Wilson unit, naturally......the most expensive but also the most widely used by industry. However, until last month Wilson did not have a multi-brand (i.e., receives all cell carriers) unit in 4G but rather only in 3G or in single carrier units (so, Verizon 4G but no one else). So, I waited, and as stated last month they released the darn thing (a year after their site said it was due.....). This commentary is ONLY relevant to my experience with the Wilson 4G Pro. It has an outside antenna of decent size, the bracket which comes with the unit being limited in use so I purchased a short pipe and clamp on line onto which I could mount it under the eaves and out of direct lightening hits. The other inclusions are the inside antenna (a modest rectangular box one can mount on a stud or wall) and some low loss cable. You need low loss cable, which from Wilson is darn expensive but you can get very good R6, or better yet R11, online at modest cost, to connect the outside and inside devices. Wilson supplies a 50 foot cable with the unit and that should suffice for most. One needs to get out on the roof or wherever to locate the best direction for cell signal. I knew of 2 towers within 20 miles (you can find tower locations via multiple online sites or from your cell carrier), so pointed my cell phone in one direction, then the other as I slowly rotated while watching the cell signal meter (most phones have it buried in the "settings" section). When I locate the best signal I fixed the outside antenna (it's directional - got to be aimed correctly). Course......reason I waited for the "all carriers" Wilson unit is everyone who visits me, from relatives and guests to repair men, didn't have good reception either and they had a variety of cell carriers. Figured I might as well solve everyone's problem by putting in a multi-carrier multiplier. Y'all can see the obvious issue - if I aimed at the Verizon tower what about the towers of the other carriers. Fortunately they were fairly close to the Verizon tower so I got away with it (my daughter's boyfriend has T-Mobile, and "I never get any signal out here" - he does now, the benefits of which are debatable). Positioning the internal antenna can be a conundrum, and Wilson doesn't mention that point..... Basically, I purchased the medium building/business unit, and the internal antenna will blanket a very large room BUT it loses strength at each wall and I've 3 floors. Placed the internal antenna in the attic directly on the drywall over the top floor and signal on that floor was 5 bars (3 bars outside unaided, 1-2 bars inside the house on that floor unaided), on the middle floor 3-4 bars, and on the bottom floor 2-3 bars (bottom floor walls are 10" reinforced concrete, as in rebar every 18" in a cross pattern - 150 mph rated house) whereas unaided it had been 0 bars of 4G, 1-2 bars 3G and unreliable even for conversations, which is 1X.
So, just my experience - good luck out there if you've what many of us country folks have, a lousy internet connection (forget about the satellite stuff) via a phone line. Yeah, I have to pay for extra GB from my cell carrier (I had 6, going to 10) but I knew if I got decent 4G I'd have no issues with downloading whatever. Easiest way to find that out is to use your cell as a wi-fi source (if your cell plan allows it) close to a cell tower and see how fast your tablet or portable computer runs on it. And, yup, you can buy extra interior antennas but the signal diminishes 3dB with each split in the output so the advantage is not great.
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #3  
My house is about 1/4 mile past the last house in line to get DSL. Century link has no plans to expand. I bought the Verizon outdoor set up in order to pump up my signal as it does not work well at all. I got on the roof and tried in all directions. I also checked on line (From McDonalds-free wi-fi) to see where the towers are. Looks like we will have to go the satelite route. Burns my b*tt I gotta pay 60 bucks for internet and my nieghbor only has to spend 18. Is what it is....
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #4  
Close to 8 years ago now 'someone' said that he would work to have internet access to everyone in the country and the ones out in the country.(rural).This has yet to happen His insight imagined many people with open wi fi signals so eventually all the US would be a spiderweb of connections. This hasnt progressed at all as far as I can see. And one stumbiling block I doubt they considered was that people would lock theirs. (and for good reason).On a similiar note my two elderly relatives at one point had 'good' TV reception . and would be able to get the official notices of emergency. NOW with the digital they get ZERO channels. HMM Not to well thought out in my opinion..Ill take a snowy signal over none. didnt meant to highjack and rant lol
My house is about 1/4 mile past the last house in line to get DSL. Century link has no plans to expand. I bought the Verizon outdoor set up in order to pump up my signal as it does not work well at all. I got on the roof and tried in all directions. I also checked on line (From McDonalds-free wi-fi) to see where the towers are. Looks like we will have to go the satelite route. Burns my b*tt I gotta pay 60 bucks for internet and my nieghbor only has to spend 18. Is what it is....
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #5  
I don't have land lines for anything, except electricity. I'm WAY beyond any service of that kind. Never expect to get land line service either. I'm satellite for internet and TV. My cell phone occasionally will have two bars for reception/transmission. Its just the way of life out here.
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #6  
I don't have land lines for anything, except electricity. I'm WAY beyond any service of that kind. Never expect to get land line service either. I'm satellite for internet and TV. My cell phone occasionally will have two bars for reception/transmission. Its just the way of life out here.

We're the same out my way, although we have a land line for phone, cable is nonexistent, so we rely on dish for our TV and internet. Cell service is pretty spotty as well. I hated it when I first moved out there, but being disconnected(or limited) actually has it's perks IMO

Sent from my LGL35G using TractorByNet
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #7  
We have Hughes-net for our Internet and AT&T for Cell,have no problems
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #8  
I'm retired from a job where I interfaced with the public daily & all day long. Its good to be out here where I seldom have direct public contact - guess I'm the hermit type, ha,ha.

Its interesting to see the grandkids have to communicate by spoken words rather than their fingers on a keyboard or touchpad. They are kind of lost when their electronic devices no longer have service.

I've lived out here for 32 years and enjoy every minute of it.
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #9  
I don't have land lines for anything, except electricity. I'm WAY beyond any service of that kind. Never expect to get land line service either. I'm satellite for internet and TV. My cell phone occasionally will have two bars for reception/transmission. Its just the way of life out here.

My situation is similar. Sat for tv and verizonwireless for internet. Used wireless for many years thru sprint and verizon. Recently went to something called home fusion but i believe they package name has changed. $60/month, 20GB. $10 per GB there after. 2-4 Mb download speed.
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #10  
My house is about 1/4 mile past the last house in line to get DSL. Century link has no plans to expand. I bought the Verizon outdoor set up in order to pump up my signal as it does not work well at all. I got on the roof and tried in all directions. I also checked on line (From McDonalds-free wi-fi) to see where the towers are. Looks like we will have to go the satelite route. Burns my b*tt I gotta pay 60 bucks for internet and my nieghbor only has to spend 18. Is what it is....

I feel your pain. We are the last house on the phone line so we are lucky to even get DSL at 1.5 mbps. We have asked CenturyLink if they would upgrade the system for our neighborhood but they won't. We don't have cable access either though the line runs down the major road in front of the subdivision. We have had the neighbors call the cable and phone companies to get access, or better access, but we got nothing.

The new subdivision behind has has 10 mbps! :shocked::mad: There is only 6-7 lots over there with only a few houses while our subdivision is all but built out and has a about 30-40 homes. Go figure. The road behind the new subdivision has 10 mbps service but it is the typical rural road with houses a great distances from each other, yet we have a dense population in comparison. I really can't believe that the equipment to give us faster access would cost that much money. To make it even worse, there is a fiber line to our front as well for the cell tower that is nearby. :( The fiber is different of course but knowing there is fiber right there just kills me. :D

Later,
Dan
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #11  
Close to 8 years ago now 'someone' said that he would work to have internet access to everyone in the country and the ones out in the country.(rural).This has yet to happen His insight imagined many people with open wi fi signals so eventually all the US would be a spiderweb of connections. This hasnt progressed at all as far as I can see. And one stumbiling block I doubt they considered was that people would lock theirs. (and for good reason).On a similiar note my two elderly relatives at one point had 'good' TV reception . and would be able to get the official notices of emergency. NOW with the digital they get ZERO channels. HMM Not to well thought out in my opinion..Ill take a snowy signal over none. didnt meant to highjack and rant lol

Well, totally different "someones" for the tv and internet (the decision to go digital for tv was made during the Clinton administration). When I bought my present house about 10 years ago dial-up and satellite (ugh!) were my only choices for internet. About 4-5 years ago my town signed a deal with Time-Warner cable, took 'em a while to get thru the assorted red tape and actually run the lines but we've had cable here going on 2 years now. TV, internet & phone about $35/mo cheaper than we were paying for just landline phone & satellite internet. Around the same time Fairpoint ran fiber thru town too. Wi-max is available in some places, but due to the terrain coverage is spotty. So progress is being made, however slowly.

Yeah, we lost all OTA tv reception when things went digital too. We're close enough to Canada where we could get a couple Canadian stations, but when they went digital in '11, it was all over.

We're the same out my way, although we have a land line for phone, cable is nonexistent, so we rely on dish for our TV and internet. Cell service is pretty spotty as well. I hated it when I first moved out there, but being disconnected(or limited) actually has it's perks IMO

My stepsons and their spouses/significant others get antsy when their smart-phones don't work here, but my wife & I don't mind...ready-made excuse for not having a cellphone ourselves! IMHO the ability to be reachable anytime/anywhere soon becomes an obligation to be, and I don't even want to go there!
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #12  
This web site is squirrely tonight (locks up a lot). Anyhow, I read a post a Y'all can see the obvious issue - if I aimed at the Verizon tower what about the towers of the other carriers. Fortunately they were fairly close to the Verizon tower so I got away with it

The other carriers are probably actually on the same tower as Verizon. Cell companies usually don't own the towers, they are usually owned by tower management companies that lease space to carriers, and they usually try to get multiple carriers on each tower.
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #13  
I feel grateful to have 5 MB DSL at my little piece of paradise, it came to us after about 9 years of complaining, petitioning, attempting to bribe CenturyLink (having all the neighbors offer to write a check right now for one year's service). To this day no one knows which of those, if any, actually finally worked.

I also live near enough to a major highway that I can get Verizon 4G LTE but not reliably... it winks in and out with various conditions. When it's working I can get up to 15 MB download on it, which is real sweet as long as you remember the data caps.

It does seem pretty divided, if you are in town you usually have at least two choices, cable and DSL, but once you are rural you have DSL only or nothing. It's pretty frustrating watching the phone carriers invest in upgrading DSL in areas that already have it or already have cable, while lots of people languish with no real choices. But they go where the money is, if they get 10% of the customers in town they are probably still making more than if they get 100% of the people in a rural area of the same size and expense to service.
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #14  
We just got 4G LTE after suffering with no internet out in the country. It works GREAT. 17MB download and no data cap!
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #15  
We just got 4G LTE after suffering with no internet out in the country. It works GREAT. 17MB download and no data cap!

That's awesome. What carrier provides LTE with no data caps?
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #16  
Bugs Island Telephone (BIT). $62.95 at 4MB. They service Southside Virginia.
 
   / Cell/internet reception in marginal areas #17  
Bugs Island Telephone (BIT). $62.95 at 4MB. They service Southside Virginia.

That's excellent. I found their page for the service. BIT

Local phone co-ops seems to be doing some of the best work in getting broadband rolled out to rural areas. I guess that makes sense because they are closer to their customers and also don't have urban areas to prioritize over rural areas. There are a few pockets in my county that are served by co-ops and they seem pretty happy.
 

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