No signal inside walmart

[tornadog]

So yesterday I went to a walmart supercenter and was trying to find something. I tried to pull it up on my phone and no signal, just the empty triangle. I step outside and I have full 4g LTE. Luckily the walmart had free wifi so I could pull up the item and make the purchase...but what gives?

 

[Almeuit]

Some roofs kill cell signal really bad. There is a pool hall that we play at for tournaments sometimes and everyones cell signal inside (yes even Verizon phones) down to 1 bar (if that). It is horrid. So most likely the roof there is messing with it for you and they don't have any 700 MHz there to offset it.

 

[Rukbat]

There's really no way to predict things like that. Sprint covers this town like a blanket (they actually have the best coverage), but there's one hole - my daughter's entire house. And it's not because of the roof, it's because of a hill between her and the tower, causing a refraction that causes the signal to "bend upward" and not leave anything down below where the house is.

Where my wife used to work, the inside of the building, all steel, was almost totally dead for all phones, even though AT&T had a tower nearby. We had to try a few phones before we found one with enough sensitivity and power to work from her desk. (An old StarTAC would have worked on analog - that was a more sensitive receiver, and the phone put out a lot more power - but once analog networks shut down we had a problem.)

If you're on one of the 4 major carriers, talk to them (ask in a store which department you should call and what their number is) - they may care enough to do something to increase coverage in that direction.

 

[Darrkman]

Walmart makes their buildings sturdy. There is a Walmart in NJ where I didn't get a signal with either T-Mobile or Sprint.

Sent from my Galaxy S6

 

[LeoRex]

So yesterday I went to a walmart supercenter and was trying to find something. I tried to pull it up on my phone and no signal, just the empty triangle. I step outside and I have full 4g LTE. Luckily the walmart had free wifi so I could pull up the item and make the purchase...but what gives?

T-Mobile's most common LTE band is band 4.... which uses 1700MHz and 2100MHz frequencies. These don't penetrate walls and roofs all that well, so T-Mobile's signal often suffers when you go into buildings, especially large retail buildings... those insulate signals really well. That's why T-Mobile fought to buy up spectrum in band 12... which us 700Mhz... this frequency does a lot better job getting through stuff.

 

[Bob61]

I have same problem in Walmart. I was out of state recently and found Walmart in Nevada I'd get a good signal. Thought maybe my local Walmart is blocking cell signals.

On the flip side, when I had VZW I would never get signal in any Kohl's store. With tmo I do now. Guess it's hit or miss.

 

[Sam1224]

When I replaced my roof I went with metal instead of tile or shingles. Cell signal inside was definitely affected. If I get near a window I get enough signal to make a call, but if I walk to the center of the house I get nothing or if I'm on a call it will more than likely drop. Friends with AT&T or Verizon service have a degraded signal as well, but not like TMO.

Same thing when I go into my local drug store - it's almost like they have jammers in there, my phone just won't work at all. I'm fairly certain it's just the building construction though....

 

[Marcin Stachurski]

Also i would take into account how many wireless signals are flowing through a Walmart for all of their systems to run, that kind of traffic must block cellular signal.

Posted via the Android Central App