LTE building penetration

[Superguy25]

Hey all,

I was at an AT&T shop at a suburban Baltimore mall today, well within an LTE coverage area. I wanted to do a speed comparison to Verizon's LTE on my Rezound as I'm considering a carrier switch. To my surprise, NONE of the phones had an LTE signal. They had a strong HSPA signal, but not LTE. Meanwhile, my Verizon phone a strong LTE signal in the exact same spot.

I asked the guys at the shop why they didn't have a signal. The told me I could get one outside and near the food court, but not in the store.

So, it begs the question - how good is AT&T's LTE building penetration? Was I just in a bad spot, or it AT&T's just weaker than Verizon's?

Thanks!

Super

 

[Jay A whY]

I am curious to hear back from AT&T LTE users on this matter along with phone type...

I currently have unlimited Verizon LTE and AT&T HSPA+ in Aurora, Colorado.. Verizon LTE on my Rezound gets great in building coverage, due to its built in antenna battery cover (Wished more phones implemented this). My iPhone 4S on AT&T HSPA+ gets decent in building coverage, but I've had better coverage with GSM Samsung phones.

AT&T needs to hurry up and activate LTE in Denver!


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[hotbyz168]

Hey all,

I was at an AT&T shop at a suburban Baltimore mall today, well within an LTE coverage area. I wanted to do a speed comparison to Verizon's LTE on my Rezound as I'm considering a carrier switch. To my surprise, NONE of the phones had an LTE signal. They had a strong HSPA signal, but not LTE. Meanwhile, my Verizon phone a strong LTE signal in the exact same spot.

I asked the guys at the shop why they didn't have a signal. The told me I could get one outside and near the food court, but not in the store.

So, it begs the question - how good is AT&T's LTE building penetration? Was I just in a bad spot, or it AT&T's just weaker than Verizon's?

Thanks!

Super

It usually means that not all of at&t's sites have lte yet. So the one in the mall is prob hspa+ until they upgrade

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[natehoy]

It probably has more to do with the repeater in use at the mall than the building penetration. I have LTE (Verizon, but still the same idea) at work. When I go inside the building, however, I drop back to 3G. In the US, LTE for both AT&T and Verizon are using 700MHz, 1700MHz, and 2100MHz bands for LTE. These are all new bands that have been introduced relatively recently (2006 and 2008) and used to be used for things like analog TV broadcasts. Obviously, manufacturing a repeater designed to repeat these "new" frequencies would have been against FCC regulations until very recently.

Most repeaters will repeat "legacy" frequencies (the 850MHz and 1900MHz bands) that have been used for years. Those bands carry voice, 2G, and 3G for both Verizon and AT&T.

So, here at work, my phone COULD maintain a fairly stable 4G/LTE connection. However, the phone is also programmed to have a reasonable bias toward a decent-strength signal, and the repeater here at work pumps out a pretty consistent -60dBm signal, and no tower can compete with that through glass, concrete, and steel.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Higher frequencies don't penetrate buildings and structures as well as lower ones do.

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