AT&T cell service

[Dockem]

Okay, is it my imagination or am I just in a dead zone?

Usually I am lucky to get 1-2 bars on my cell phone. If I go out in the garage, it may hit 3 bars.

Tried calling a buddy in Ohio last night. 3 tries before it connected. Talked 5 minutes and then it crapped out. Tried to recall him and went to voicemail all the time. He tried calling me and same result. Got too hot out in the garage, so I gave up.

Is AT&T getting worse with this 4G stuff or what? My old flip phone did better than this Motorola Atrix smartphone.

Should I consider Verizon next time?

BTW, I'm out in Crawfordsville. I get 5 bars if I am in Indy, but was in Florida on vacation and only got 3 bars.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Could be they've developed trouble with the tower you normally connect to. We've always had crappy cell coverage out where we live and it didn't matter whether it was ATT or Verizon. But since ATT has gone to all 4G around us, our service has actually improved.

 

[mrjarrell]

Mine works fine. I have an occasional dropped call, but it's rare. I get better coverage with AT&T than I ever did with Sprint, back when I had them. Like GFGT says, it may be an issue with your tower. Give them a call and let them know you're having issues. I've been pretty pleased with their service for years and have no plans to switch.

 

[Csquared]

Okay, is it my imagination or am I just in a dead zone?

Usually I am lucky to get 1-2 bars on my cell phone. If I go out in the garage, it may hit 3 bars.

Tried calling a buddy in Ohio last night. 3 tries before it connected. Talked 5 minutes and then it crapped out. Tried to recall him and went to voicemail all the time. He tried calling me and same result. Got too hot out in the garage, so I gave up.

Is AT&T getting worse with this 4G stuff or what? My old flip phone did better than this Motorola Atrix smartphone.

Should I consider Verizon next time?

BTW, I'm out in Crawfordsville. I get 5 bars if I am in Indy, but was in Florida on vacation and only got 3 bars.

I'm not sure about anywhere else but if you garage happens to be sided with metal, that seems to suck the signal away from mobiles, at least in my experiences. I work in an office/warehouse setting that is metal sided and roofed and I ALWAYS have to exit the building to get more than 1-2 bars. I'm even on what they call an "M-Cell signal booster" and we have one in our office and in our warehouse by the workbench and it still cannot seem to overpower the signal issues.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I'm not sure about anywhere else but if you garage happens to be sided with metal, that seems to suck the signal away from mobiles, at least in my experiences. I work in an office/warehouse setting that is metal sided and roofed and I ALWAYS have to exit the building to get more than 1-2 bars. I'm even on what they call an "M-Cell signal booster" and we have one in our office and in our warehouse by the workbench and it still cannot seem to overpower the signal issues.

If you are using an iphone, does it say "AT&T M-CELL" next to the bars when you are next to it? If not your phone was not activated against it or its not setup/operating properly. If its a true M CELL and not an "in building wireless solution" whomever has admin access to the box has to add the phone numbers of the phones that need to connect to it (up to 10 per M-Cell) on the ATT website.

The other gotcha is they require an external antenna for the GPS that has a clear view of the south sky. We had a site that decided to move theirs toward the center of the building from an exterior office and it stopped working. I took them a GPS antenna with a 50' cable, stuck it to the inside of the outside window and now it works. On mine, the power, internet (looks like Saturn), GPS, and the bars lights are all solid green when its working. If any of them arent green or are flashing something isnt right and its flat out not working. (if the bars are on, the computer light is off and vice versa... so you should have all but one light solid green depending on how its connected)

 

[1911ly]

Call tech support. Every call placed has a route that can be traced. I had issues here for about 2 months. After endless calls I got someone that cared enough to check my call logs. Problem was resolved by the next morning. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Complain!

 

[Gluemanz28]

I had the same issue with my AT&T iPhone. I would drop calls all the time when I was at home. My office is at home as well so it was very annoying to say the least. The company I work for bought me a 3G Micro Cell and it fixed my issue. I couldn't use it at all before if I was in the basement reloading. It took a couple tries to find a location that would connect to GPS. The Living room window was the best spot for it. The only slight hassle was I had to run an ethernet cord to it from the router. I now have full bars unless I'm in the basement then it drops to four bars. They cost $200 but when I got mine they offered a $100 MasterCard as a rebate. Buy the Micro Cell and don't look back is my opinion.

 

[hoosierdoc]

I used to be able to call their support number and say "dropped call" and I would get a $0.50 credit. I made sure I was on the phone when I passed known dead zones. I reported the dead zones but they didn't do anything about it, so I kept my fitty-cent bonuses rolling.

 

[hornadylnl]

My signal strength is inversely proportional to the height of the corn. AT&T gave me a free microcell several years ago.

 

[Csquared]

If you are using an iphone, does it say "AT&T M-CELL" next to the bars when you are next to it? If not your phone was not activated against it or its not setup/operating properly. If its a true M CELL and not an "in building wireless solution" whomever has admin access to the box has to add the phone numbers of the phones that need to connect to it (up to 10 per M-Cell) on the ATT website.

The other gotcha is they require an external antenna for the GPS that has a clear view of the south sky. We had a site that decided to move theirs toward the center of the building from an exterior office and it stopped working. I took them a GPS antenna with a 50' cable, stuck it to the inside of the outside window and now it works. On mine, the power, internet (looks like Saturn), GPS, and the bars lights are all solid green when its working. If any of them arent green or are flashing something isnt right and its flat out not working. (if the bars are on, the computer light is off and vice versa... so you should have all but one light solid green depending on how its connected)

Yeah it says "M-Cell" right beside my AT&T logo about where my wifi symbol would be. I'm not sure if anyone else had noticed but it seems that the metal siding and roofing seems to throw things off a bit. I definitely could be wrong though lol

 

[jkaetz]

If you have a micro cell, you should stand closer to that when making calls. It does not boost anything, it routes your phone call through your home's internet connection. Next, how good is your home internet connection? Since the micro cell uses your home internet connection to make calls, if it isn't very good, your call won't be very good either. Finally, a call to AT&T may be in order even though their support, and most other cell carriers, is about as useful as asking a monkey for help.

 

[Cameramonkey]

If you have a micro cell, you should stand closer to that when making calls. It does not boost anything, it routes your phone call through your home's internet connection. Next, how good is your home internet connection? Since the micro cell uses your home internet connection to make calls, if it isn't very good, your call won't be very good either. Finally, a call to AT&T may be in order even though their support, and most other cell carriers, is about as useful as asking a monkey for help.

THIS! Although speed isnt the primary issue, latency is. So even if you have plenty of bandwidth when others are using the network it can make your call quality go down the tubes. I had to go into my router and assign a Quality of Service rule that made sure that the IP address of my micro cell always had priority over all other devices in the network. Once I did that, I found it worked better.

 

[mhinkle2]

Verizon works better in the midwest

 

[Tactical Dave]

Download the free app AT&T mark the spot... It is a true ATT app and is used by the company to make improvements....

I have used it, takes a few seconds and is easy....

 

[Jomibe]

Nothing beats Verizon in more rural areas no matter where that rural area is (out of state). They all seem about the same in the cities or burbs. Verizon costs a little more, but its worth it knowing your phone will work when you want it to.