att and t mobile siginal strength

[Android Central Question]

I have att cell and use a att hotspot for internet service,but the att cell coverage is very poor.i have a tmobile hotspot which shows 26 dbm on my siginal app.the att hotspot shows 46 dbm. if I am right the t mobile siginal is stronger,would this mean that I should get better cell siginal with t mobile,are there any opinions on this

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Can you clarify -- when you say you have a T-Mobile hotspot that shows -26 dBm, do you mean that you have a standalone T-Mobile mobile hotspot device, and its signal is registering as -26 dBm on your signal app? Is this for wi-fi or mobile data signal? -26 dBm is a very strong signal, and typically unattainable in the real world, so I suspect you're actually detecting the hotspot's wi-fi strength. If you're right next to the hotspot, its wi-fi signal will clearly be strong, but this doesn't mean the speeds will be fast, since the hotspot itself has to get a good mobile data signal from the carrier. So if AT&T still has stronger coverage than T-Mobile in your area, then the T-Mobile hotspot probably won't give you faster speeds, even if the wi-fi signal that the hotspot is broadcasting is stronger.

 

[jmtn]

it is a zte stand alone hot spot ,the app is called wifi analyzer,so it is likely showing the wifi siginal.so it will not show what my cell siginal will be??I have att cell now and have very poor siginal,i was thinking about going to t mobile who shows I would have a fair siginal in my area of n/e texas.but I am not sure I can count on any provider to give me a true siginal strength number.i may get a new phone that will pickup the tm 600mhz band, any opinons on that thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

Try the coverage map from RootMetrics or OpenSignal to see if there's enough crowdsourced information to help you make a decision.