Cellular Experts, I Need Your Help..............

[kennyd]

If I may ask you to elaborate in laymans terms...................

1) If I were getting overpowered, wouldn't I have been getting overpowered 6 months ago, a year ago? Perhaps I'm not getting it, but as I stated earlier, nothing has changed here other than the service has all of a sudden deteriorated within the past 60 days. I am using the same phone I was using a year ago. (my wife the same phone as a year and a half ago)

2) As far as umbrella effect, same question. Is there a reason I might have it now, when my service has always worked very well at home in the past (7 years)?

Remember, I am NOT a cell tech, I just work at many different sites and interact with tech's-mostly from VZW and ATT.

Possibly they have re-aligned or moved the some of the antenna(s)? I know around here they are changing to remote radio heads where the transceivers are actually up on the tower rather than on the ground-it save's them from running 9 of the large coax's up the tower (3 per 120* phase). This save's weight and wind loading on the tower and probably other advantages that I dont know about. Only one hybrid copper (for power) and FO cable is needed for each phase. All this is for their 4G upgrade as mentioned above.

 

[KTurner]

2) You are suffering some the "umbrella" effect, meaning that the signal is going over your house and missing you completely-I have seen/experienced this myself while at cell sites. But looking at the picture, and base on the fact that you have full signal strength I doubt this is the cause.

I was wondering about this, but didn't know the term. Is it possible that he is on the border of the umbrella and is cycling back and forth between the close cell tower and the next tower over and this is causing the sudden drop from full strength to nothing?

Keith

 

[MtHam]

Verizon and AT&T have the best coverage nation wide, although one or the other may be better in your particular area. All the others may be marginal or worse in the boonies, where many TBN readers, myself included, live. Years ago, I had a problem with AT&T, and encountered the WORST customer service imaginable. Ever since, I have said I will NEVER do business with AT&T again and have NOT!! There are devices which will improve your service, if there is a signal. Visit the 3G Store for details. Basically, you need a directional antenna and an amplifier. IF, you have a marginal signal, such a set-up will turn it into a steady, reliable connection for both cell phone service and data.

 

[deepNdirt]

No expert here, But I have encountered issue just as you have about 5 years ago when letting the wife talk me into the current trend phone ( Black berry ) phone, Once activated they seem to work well in the area from which we purchased them but once at home it was a 50/50% chance of calling out, and we live less than 1 mile from a tower, always had good reception with our previous 3-G phones, So I called ATT and explained to them I had very low to zero reception with the New phone we had just purchased, she did a quick lookup of our location and could see we were within 1 mile of a tower and thought perhaps we were under the umbrella of the tower, suggest that we travel further away to see if it got any better, but No not really we traveled several miles away, I could see the signal bars move from 1 to 2 and back to zero every couple hundred ft. I suspected something els was the problem....... My second conversation on that same day with another ATT rep told me that the Phones we had ( BB ) were more designed for Data not for actual making and receiving calls,.. at this point I felt like they were blowing smoke up My U-no-what, I begin to get a bit irate at him and then his suggestion was to take the Black berry's back and exchange them for another model on cell phone and report back to them if have anymore trouble, Bottom line was No More problems at all, so I guess some times it has to do with the phones design and what exactly it is design for, and can make a difference , Now 5 years latter with having smart phones we have the best of both, Good transmission/recieving signals along with Data on a 4G network, But Whats Next?

 

[BillG_in_TX]

Several years ago, I moved to a house at the bottom of a hill and had very poor reception with my Sprint phones. I called to cancel my service and Sprint offered to send me an Airave for free. It's a small device that connects to your router and it's like having a mini cell tower in your house.

I don't know what your internet situation is, but you might talk to Sprint about it. And trust me, you won't have to pay for it (device or monthly service) if you tell them you're going to cancel.

Sprint AIRAVE Wireless In-Home Signal Booster for Voice & Data

 

[Wilky]

Several years ago, I moved to a house at the bottom of a hill and had very poor reception with my Sprint phones. I called to cancel my service and Sprint offered to send me an Airave for free. It's a small device that connects to your router and it's like having a mini cell tower in your house.

I don't know what your internet situation is, but you might talk to Sprint about it. And trust me, you won't have to pay for it (device or monthly service) if you tell them you're going to cancel.

Sprint AIRAVE Wireless In-Home Signal Booster for Voice & Data

I was going to suggest the same thing. At my home we have good coverage with Verizon' but sprint sucks. Our renter had sprint and he received a free airaves
when he told them he was changing carriers because of coverage.

 

[Ductape]

Several years ago, I moved to a house at the bottom of a hill and had very poor reception with my Sprint phones. I called to cancel my service and Sprint offered to send me an Airave for free. It's a small device that connects to your router and it's like having a mini cell tower in your house.

I don't know what your internet situation is, but you might talk to Sprint about it. And trust me, you won't have to pay for it (device or monthly service) if you tell them you're going to cancel.

Sprint AIRAVE Wireless In-Home Signal Booster for Voice & Data

Interestingly, we have one coming courtesy of Sprint. My called a few days ago to complain that her problem persisted, and wanted to buy out her last few months remaining on her contract. They offered to send her one free of charge, and with no monthly use charge. I just looked at the shipping confirmation to actually see what it was that they sent, since she just said it was a signal booster. It should be here in a few days. I suppose if it cures our bad reception, we'll be happy..... but there is obviously still some other problem there.

 

[BillG_in_TX]

Well, then I think you won't have a problem pretty soon. It worked great for us for a couple of years until we dropped Sprint and went with Tracfone. It doesn't take much bandwidth, so minimum DSL should be sufficient.

 

[JD 4520]

Ductape - kennyd is right on with his info. The providers do often realign the antenna arrays for most traffic usage which may have affected your home situation negatively.

It sounds like you have a plan. If this does not work for you and you want to stay with Sprint, I would be happy to introduce you to one of Sprints executives that should be glad to see you stay as a happy customer. I'll try to watch for your response.

Good luck.

 

[Ductape]

It sounds like you have a plan. If this does not work for you and you want to stay with Sprint, I would be happy to introduce you to one of Sprints executives that should be glad to see you stay as a happy customer. I'll try to watch for your response.

Good luck.

I appreciate it. I also talked to a neighbor around the block. He is a higher-up with the fire dept next town over. Their phones are through Sprint, and he is having the same exact problem with his FD supplied phone. He also said he has complained about the problem...... so it's not just us. He is a bit higher in elevation also.

As I said earlier, overall, I've been pretty happy with Sprint. Happy enough to stay with them from their early days in the cellular business. We have had a couple small disputes in the past.... some my fault, some theirs. When they realize I'm a customer at will and not locked into their contract, they've always made me happy. Just cant figure out why they can't seem to get it right here.