Cell Phone Service

[RaymondP]

In Marketing they talk about "features" and "benefits". In my experience the features often don't deliver the promised benefits. Worst service is within my house. If I didn't have wifi calling I would be DOA. Have called providers multiple times but no fix. Sometimes they blame the phone itself. Found in northern Michigan there are large areas with no service at all.

My phone automatically jumps between bands and wifi to obtain the best signal, including much promoted 5G. At home always defaults to wifi. Seems all providers share the same networks so switching is of no benefit, at least in my experience.

When I buy a new phone I always say, I just want to be confident to receive and make calls, plus the occasional text. I don't need it to load the dishwasher or rotate the tires. Still seems illusive. Also, I want a phone that is small enough to fit in my pocket without fear of falling out. Seems they have abandoned smaller phones aside from the pricey iphones and flip phones that used to be commonplace. Guess I am not your typical phone user.

OK...rant over!!

 

[wwillson]

Worst service is within my house.

Mine too, but I live in a house with metal heating ducts, concrete, aluminum siding, and a tree filled neighborhood. Those materials attenuate the microwave energy, that's a rule of physics. I take my phone out into the yard and get a couple more bars. It's not the carrier's fault I live encased in signal attenuating materials. However, most cellular customers believe they should get great coverage everywhere they go, because they pay a monthly fee. It just doesn't work that way. If you can turn on Wi-Fi calling, turn it on, your satisfaction will likely increase.

 

[RaymondP]

Mine too, but I live in a house with metal heating ducts, concrete, aluminum siding, and a tree filled neighborhood. Those materials attenuate the microwave energy, that's a rule of physics. I take my phone out into the yard and get a couple more bars. It's not the carrier's fault I live encased in signal attenuating materials. However, most cellular customers believe they should get great coverage everywhere they go, because they pay a monthly fee. It just doesn't work that way. If you can turn on Wi-Fi calling, turn it on, your satisfaction will likely increase.

Understand the science and current limitations due to materials, structure, etc. Just wonder why they have allowed such design limitations in the system when so many of us occupy these types of dwellings with their inherent limitations. Others have commented on hard lines that don't have these issues. Just commenting on the perceived progress vs actual improvement while greatly appreciating you no longer need to be tethered to a hard line and are now free to go about your business. Thinking the collective "we" are smart enough to resolve these issues, probably at some cost!

 

[brianl703]

They've already replaced a lot of copper with fiber in downtown Chicago and the suburban neighborhoods and will keep increasing the price of plans still using the copper lines until the account holder decides to give up and move over to fiber.

They don't need to increase the price. They just need to take 4 days to fix it when it breaks, like Verizon did when their contractor hit a 200 pair cable in my front yard about 2 years ago. The clown show that ensued, by the way, made me never want to do business with Verizon again (I haven't been a customer of theirs since probably 2008).

 

[brianl703]

Understand the science and current limitations due to materials, structure, etc. Just wonder why they have allowed such design limitations in the system when so many of us occupy these types of dwellings with their inherent limitations.

Tmobile has a chunk of 700MHz spectrum that is supposed to give better in-building coverage. AT&T and Verizon should have 800MHz spectrum (from the days of A and B side AMPS carriers) with the same properties.

 

[Pew]

They don't need to increase the price. They just need to take 4 days to fix it when it breaks, like Verizon did when their contractor hit a 200 pair cable in my front yard about 2 years ago. The clown show that ensued, by the way, made me never want to do business with Verizon again (I haven't been a customer of theirs since probably 2008).

It sounds like they took a chunk out of Sprint's play-book for repair time!

 

[wwillson]

Fiber is cheap enough to replace copper lines now so there's no reason to upkeep both copper and fiber in most situations.

Very true. Fiber has virtually unlimited bandwidth and copper still is stuck in the TDM world with teeny tiny bandwidth. Carriers would love to replace every piece of copper with fiber, but the cost in residential neighborhoods is extremely expensive. In high density areas, like downtown Chicago, there is some copper left, but not much. Businesses have such insatiable demand for bandwidth, most have zero copper in use. Fiber rules in the business world.

I've seen the huge old copper cables the size of your arm from the 60s and 70s in the 10 S Canal CO that have been cut off flush at the vault wall. Carriers are that serious about getting rid of copper, cut the giant 4,800 pair cables coming into the CO so they can't be used ever again.

All regulated carriers would stop servicing copper tomorrow if they were allowed. The day of reckoning for copper is coming soon, as most states and carriers have agreed when the carrier can stop offering copper based services.

 

[wwillson]

AT&T and Verizon should have 800MHz spectrum (from the days of A and B side AMPS carriers) with the same properties.

Both have tons of 700 and 800 MHz spectrum.

 

[brianl703]

It sounds like they took a chunk out of Sprint's play-book for repair time!

Before I had Tmobile I had Sprint, never really had a problem with them.

Are you referring to Sprint's wireline service?

 

[brianl703]

Carriers would love to replace every piece of copper with fiber, but the cost in residential neighborhoods is extremely expensive.

The cost in rural areas is even more expensive than extremely expensive.

 

[Pew]

Before I had Tmobile I had Sprint, never really had a problem with them.

Are you referring to Sprint's wireline service?

Negtive, just a general whine from me . I actually didn't have any issues with Sprint either up until a few years before their merge with TMO.

 

[wwillson]

The cost in rural areas is even more expensive than extremely expensive.

Yes, with low density and sometimes a negative payback to the carrier.

 

[brianl703]

Negtive, just a general whine from me . I actually didn't have any issues with Sprint either up until a few years before their merge with TMO.

Only problem I ever had with Sprint was entirely beyond their control and they told me exactly what the problem was. My Sprint data wasn't working. I found that out when I tried to use it because my cable modem (Xfinity) was also not working.

Sprint support told me that someone crashed into a pole in a city nearby and damaged a fiber optic line. Because my Xfinity service also stopped working, I think it's a Comcast line that got hit, which had both the feed to the Sprint cell site/tower and the Xfinity node for my neighborhood on it.

It was out for about 12 hours, most of which was probably because they can't fix the fiber till the power company is done with their work, and I expect they had to replace the pole.

 

[brianl703]

Yes, with low density and sometimes a negative payback to the carrier.

What I find interesting about telecom in rural areas is that very often, the telephone cables are buried even when the power is still overhead. I can't imagine what the justification was for burying the telephone cables in rural areas. I expect that happened back when there was still Ma Bell and she had very deep pockets.

 

[SHOZ]

What I find interesting about telecom in rural areas is that very often, the telephone cables are buried even when the power is still overhead. I can't imagine what the justification was for burying the telephone cables in rural areas. I expect that happened back when there was still Ma Bell and she had very deep pockets.

Little storm damage. They haven't had overhead lines since the 60s rurally in Illinois.

 

[brianl703]

Little storm damage. They haven't had overhead lines since the 60s rurally in Illinois.

I've seen telephone cables supporting a tree that fell on them. They aren't fragile like power lines.

 

[wwillson]

What I find interesting about telecom in rural areas is that very often, the telephone cables are buried even when the power is still overhead. I can't imagine what the justification was for burying the telephone cables in rural areas. I expect that happened back when there was still Ma Bell and she had very deep pockets.

Probably for reliability. AT&T back in the monopoly days was required to make an extremely resilient network up to and including nuclear attack. I've seen internal books that documented the standards for reliability. Back in those days AT&T had piles of money to burn.

 

[SHOZ]

I've seen telephone cables supporting a tree that fell on them. They aren't fragile like power lines.

It's usually ice or wind that take out the poles. Big problem here with the local electrical grid between substations. One section has been renewed three times in the last 5 years due to straight line winds taking them all down. Huge poles too. Carry two sets three phase and two of the lower 7.5kv.