Forum Discussion
One bar or less in my neighborhood
Hola All,
I live in Orange County, CA, where the T-mobile coverage is supposed to be excellent. However, my neighborhood is in a bit of a box canyon that is just a couple of miles from the freeway where all of the cell towers are. The hills block the signals from every carrier. We have one bar of coverage at our house, if any at all. Is there a way to convince T-Mobile to install some sort of relay or booster between the freeway and our street, so that we can get decent cellular signal strength?
¡Gracias de antemano!
ps. I'm not interested in a home gateway. We already have cable-based wifi in the house, and so can make wifi calls. But it sucks to have to pay for "awesome 5g" and never get to use it at our house.
unfortunately no..the odds of them up and installing a new tower is going to be rough..heck even if they decided today that they need to put one up somewhere around there it would take a couple years to get everything in order before they could even break dirt. plus if its a smaller community ish sized area they would also need to figure in how many actual TMO customers are there and if the cost of tossing up a new tower would be worth it or not.
unfortunately no..the odds of them up and installing a new tower is going to be rough..heck even if they decided today that they need to put one up somewhere around there it would take a couple years to get everything in order before they could even break dirt. plus if its a smaller community ish sized area they would also need to figure in how many actual TMO customers are there and if the cost of tossing up a new tower would be worth it or not.
You hit the nail:
- In a canyon
- ~2 miles from the freeway where the towers are
- in OC (NIMBY).
At best, you'd have to look for a 'signal booster' and get approval to use it. In many areas, T-Mobile won't fix service where there is no service … outdoors.
You have to accept 5G isn't going to be available at home for a long time, if ever. If you don't travel where the possibility of 5G actually exists, go to a cheaper plan if available. I am in a large New York suburb where 5G is said to be "everywhere," and I can't get it in my home. In fact, I have one bar on my iPhone all the time. It's very frustrating, and additionally when I have had a strong 5G service elsewhere I have never seen any notable improvement in service. For me, it's been a huge disappointment and I'm agreeing with those who say it's oversold and largely a hype.
There's always a huge difference between 'everywhere' and 'indoors'. Many urban areas are prone to this problem due to MANY buildings (concrete + metal) between your indoors and the 'tower' (typically on the side/roof of a building. Other carriers have different deployment methods and locations. Suburbia is always a mixed bag. It really depends on the location and how their buildout is. Suburbia where I am, is quite good. Rural (a few miles out of town) is basically a dead zone.
Canuk is on the right path. You can run a t-mobile "cell spot" off your home internet. Ask for one and dont give up.
I had 0-1 bar of signal here until i got one. Works in and outside the house too.
