Anybody else notice sudden dead spots in cell service around Riverside, where you never had a problem before? I live on College Street between King and Acosta, and - within the last week - suddenly get really horrible service at my house (dropped calls, "No Service", "Searching..."). I've got AT&T and my wife has T-Mobile, and we're both having the same problems, after years of living in the same spot, with the same cell providers.
Anybody that might work in telecom know about any recent changes to the infrastructure here? I might just have to move...
I know ATT has always had a dead spot over the Acosta Bridge downtown. If I cross it while talking on my cell phone, I have always lost the call by the time I am to the other side of the river.
Unfortunately, its a near waste of time to call and complain. The far-away call centers don't understand the subtleties of your location and no one will ever get back with you to tell you if they acknowledge a problem, much less when, or if, they will ever fix it. We are expected to just pay our bills and suffer in silence.
I don't have any problems with Verizon anywhere in Riverside or downtown. My brother uses ATT and always drops calls at the top of the Acosta or Fuller Warren Bridges too.
My parents and brother live in Riverside and have At&T. They both have had problems with service for the past week.
iPhone and AT&T here. I have been out of town for most of the last week, but I definitely noticed something different before I left. Service went downhill big time. Major increase in dropped calls, and about a 2-minute wait before it will start downloading pictures or other media (even though it's allegedly connected at 3G). It's ok at home, but if I'm moving (in the car or whatnot) then keeping connected with someone is impossible in R'side. Still works fine in other areas of town. WTF?
yeh tmobile doesnt even have 3G service in Jax just Edge... driving south on 95 you'll notice G in palm coast, 2G in Daytona (actually I talked to my Tmobile guy and he said Daytona has 3G rolled out now...yes before us), and then had to be all the way in Orlando before any 3G/4G service.
Another thing you have to realize about Riverside is the age of the buildings and the construction materials used.
Seriously. I'm not even playing.
Take for example most RAP houses. That lead paint warning you have to sign when you rent the place? Yup. That stuff SUCKS for cellphones. The other thing is the way they applied plaster to most walls around the time all of these places were built. It's usually "chicken wire" and slat boards and plaster that has god knows what in it. A lot of rooms and such are like giant faraday cages. In my old apartment I could be standing in my bedroom and have one bar. Walk right outside and have 4 bars. It's silly. Try it sometime.
AT&T most likely lost an inline amp on one of the towers. There's no way for them to tell when one goes out. They just have to wait until people complain and then replace it.
Most of the buildings in 5points are the same way. AT&T tends to do better because they use a lower frequency that more readily penetrates structures and trees and such. But TMO tends to be horrible. It should be better once they get the UTMS system up and running completely, but they haven't completed that yet.
TMO replaced a tower off of 17 at edgewood recently. So it's nice over there. But it would be a regulatory nightmare to get any sort of tower in the area where everyone needs cel service. So most of the cel signal that we have is multipath from the towers that are outside of the immediate area. Riverside is a multipath nightmare for cel signals.
We have att and have had crappy service all week...talked to customer service and was told that they are having problems with two of the towers around here.... >:(
I'll have to remember that all homes built before 1973 probably contained Lead paint. I'll have to ask the owners of the houses before I make a call on my Verizon wireless, which is flawless all around Jax.
ATT = Iphone, yeah, how is that overpriced gadget now? Essentially an MP3 player with neat icons.
Quote from: RiversideLoki on July 19, 2009, 10:44:14 PM
The other thing is the way they applied plaster to most walls around the time all of these places were built. It's usually "chicken wire" and slat boards and plaster that has god knows what in it. A lot of rooms and such are like giant faraday cages. In my old apartment I could be standing in my bedroom and have one bar. Walk right outside and have 4 bars. It's silly. Try it sometime.
This is the truth. Our place has the chickenwire and plaster that appears to be made of dust and hair and I cannot even get FM signals in there without a powered antenna.
Riverside is well covered with cell antennas. Take a look at the top of the tall buildings in the area. Those vertical bar things you see are cell antennas.
Even if it doesn't have wire in it, the old plaster in Riverside homes and apartments is about 1 1/2" thick, very dense and blocks radio waves very well. If you are on the side of your house away from the antenna, you could have as much as 6" of cement/plaster for your little milliwatt cellphone to try and penetrate. If the building is also stucco on the outside you are SOL!
Modern houses don't have the problem. Half inch of drywall, half inch of particle board, quarter inch of synthetic stucco or vinyl siding is all they are made of. Very substantial stuff! (NOT)
Quote from: mtraininjax on July 23, 2009, 12:30:56 AM
I'll have to remember that all homes built before 1973 probably contained Lead paint. I'll have to ask the owners of the houses before I make a call on my Verizon wireless, which is flawless all around Jax.
ATT = Iphone, yeah, how is that overpriced gadget now? Essentially an MP3 player with neat icons.
Haha, I love the iphone. I just don't like AT&T's service (or lack thereof). The phone has a ton of capabilities that are intentionally disabled by the AT&T (like, video, tethering, etc.) because they want you to pay for additional add-on services, or they want to you buy a whole new phone just to get capabilities that your phone already has but they disabled. It makes your pocket feel picked. But after you jailbreak it, you can do whatever you want, and it's a non-issue.
The phone itself is a great gadget, I never have a bored moment anymore if I'm waiting in line somewhere, etc. And service is normally good, but the last week or week and a half it's been terrible in Riverside. As soon as you go somewhere else, it works normally. Definitely some kinda tower issue.
Quote from: mtraininjax on July 23, 2009, 12:30:56 AM
ATT = Iphone, yeah, how is that overpriced gadget now? Essentially an MP3 player with neat icons.
LOL that is a crazy statement. An iPhone is a phone, ipod, camera, video recorder, computer, internet, email, and for me a credit card terminal for my business. Many other things with the millions of apps. I can understand thats way more than the average person may want, but its vital to my business.
Overpriced Gadget,? I think not. Im having a love affair with my new 3GS and Ive had an iPhone since day 1. It's now indespensable to me.
I find it difficult to believe that anything which has been there for years could cause a sudden problem in getting cellular service, which seemed to be the point of the original post.
The wonderful att wireless network was up and then down all day today. all over the city.
According to ATT website, they were working on upgrading the wireless network today.
Quote from: riverside_mail on July 24, 2009, 10:25:01 PM
According to ATT website, they were working on upgrading the wireless network today.
Upgrading? or, downgrading? :D
Nice of them to notify customers. I had callers tell me they got recordings my number was canceled. Another, had no service at all for a while. How hard would it be for them to text message or auto-call their subscribers and tell them what the heck is going on! - just for once. Comcast, ATT, all the others - none know what the word "service" means and never have. We subscribers are just mindless ATM's to them.