Jacksonville ... 8th worse city for cell phone reception?

[BigGuy219]

Saw this on Time's website today.

http://techland.time.com/2012/08/20/can-you-hear-me-now-the-10-u-s-cities-with-the-worst-cell-phone-reception/?hpt=hp_t3#jacksonville-florida

Is it really that bad?

I live downtown and have AT&T. Maybe it's a bigger problem in other parts of town? Maybe it's carrier dependent?

[BridgeTroll]

Saw this on Time's website today.

http://techland.time.com/2012/08/20/can-you-hear-me-now-the-10-u-s-cities-with-the-worst-cell-phone-reception/?hpt=hp_t3#jacksonville-florida

Is it really that bad?

I live downtown and have AT&T. Maybe it's a bigger problem in other parts of town? Maybe it's carrier dependent?

Phone reception is very good on the highways and roads... 

[fsujax]

I never have any issues in town. I did have a buddy who lived way out near Black Hammock Island, no reception out there for any provider, which was surprising to me.

[carpnter]

Saw this on Time's website today.

http://techland.time.com/2012/08/20/can-you-hear-me-now-the-10-u-s-cities-with-the-worst-cell-phone-reception/?hpt=hp_t3#jacksonville-florida

Is it really that bad?

I live downtown and have AT&T. Maybe it's a bigger problem in other parts of town? Maybe it's carrier dependent?

Older areas of town could be better.  I have an AT&T MicroCell in my house in Arlington because the cell reception in the neighborhood is weak (it is nowhere near as bad as that map shows), but the area was built out before cell phones were ever thought of and no one wants a cell phone to close to their home so you trade off aesthetics for weaker service. 
I think you can safely say their data is not accurate nor is it scientific since it relies on people using their android app to get the data.

Also the odds of Sprint being the best carrier on 9 out of 10 cities is very unlikely. 
 

[rippley408]

Not that I'm promoting ATT and the IPhone, but things have been a lot better since we switched to ATT. Before that, we had to walk down the street about half a block to see who had called us. We live in San Marco.

[Dog Walker]

We have Verizon and have never had any problems with connections anywhere except in the Nevada desert away from the interstate.  But we also use older, flip-open dumb phones.  That might make a difference.

Do smartphones have a harder time staying connected than dumbphones?

[mtraininjax]

ATT is horrible in Riverside/Avondale, we switched to Verizon, which has been much better. It depends on where you are in the city for coverage.

[Fallen Buckeye]

The west side of town has some patchy reception, too. I have had several dropped calls over the past couple of years, and we're only about a mile west of 295. I know I have heard a lot of people complain about it in this area, too.    We're on ATT, but I've heard complaints about other carriers, too.

[Jimmy]

FWIW, when I'm downtown, my AT&T service bites.  In Avondale, it's great.  But that's a street-by-street thing, because near St. Vincent's/Publix in Riverside, I get next to zero signal.

[mtraininjax]

My good friend from Atlanta comes down to Fernandina to his house on Amelia, he has zero coverage with ATT in the plantation, I get excellent coverage from Verizon there. So much so, he uses my phone when we visit them! I have had calls go out on 95 between Emerson and University on Verizon, so there are holes in each carrier.

[Overstreet]

My good friend from Atlanta comes down to Fernandina to his house on Amelia, he has zero coverage with ATT in the plantation, I get excellent coverage from Verizon there. So much so, he uses my phone when we visit them! I have had calls go out on 95 between Emerson and University on Verizon, so there are holes in each carrier.

In 2004 I did a project in the Little Five Points area of Atlanta. I could see three cell towers around the site. Cell phone coverage was terrible on AT&T, NEXTEL and Sprint.  I think a lot of it depends upon location and timing.

[Timkin]

AT&T is horrible in my area of Arlington and in town, especially crossing bridges.  Dog Walker has a dumb phone.  My is a just plain stupid phone, that is waiting on the two-year contract to expire in November.  Then Bye-Bye AT&T and stupid phone. File 13 for both .

[Seihaku]

I have Verizon, I seem to have pretty strong signal everywhere in town.

[CityLife]

There are solutions being created to minimize the visual pollution aspect of cell phone towers through "stealth sites". The cell phone companies have had so many denials at Planning Commission hearings around the country, that they've had to get clever with how to put their towers in built out areas. So now they are disguising them as trees, putting them inside of large flagpoles, and a few other creative things. As they become better at that, I imagine there will be more hidden towers in built out areas of Jax, which of course means better service.

It is much easier to locate a cell tower in an urban area (on top of buildings), than it is in sprawling suburban developments.  There is probably a strong correlation between poor cell service and suburbanization. So that is probably why Jax as a whole ranks so poorly in this category.

[CityLife]

Oh and I forgot to add that cell phone towers may be slowly replaced by smaller cells. So instead of having one large tower every few miles, they may have a significant quantity of smaller cells that can be more appropriately placed amongst cities and residences. When that technology happens, there should be good cell service virtually everywhere in populated areas.