TMobile reception inside a building

[FocusFreak]

Is there a trick to this or something? I have only had TMobile for like a day and this was already the 3rd building I have been in where I had no 4G at all. It dropped to a few bars of 2G which is worthless. Doesnt TMobile have 3G? Internet didnt work at all. Had to walk outside to get it running. I have had Verizon and Sprint in recent years and never had this issue. Last time I had to walk outside a building to use my phone was in the 90s when I had a Razr. Completely unacceptable. Even with the signal issues on my Nexus S 4G with Sprint, I could at least get a 3G signal and use my phone. Looked at the coverage map and where I was said there SHOULD be good 4G, obviously not. Is it something wrong with the Sensation? Whatever it is, I am glad I havent returned my Nexus yet, might have to go back to Sprint very shortly.

 

[nox]

Funny, with VZW I would drop signal all the time (Not even 1x) inside any Walmart.
this one has been pretty solid, providing 3G if not 4G.

How big is the building?

 

[alexbr91]

Isn't CDMA supposed to be better than GSM at penetrating through buildings?

 

[Droid800]

Is there a trick to this or something? I have only had TMobile for like a day and this was already the 3rd building I have been in where I had no 4G at all. It dropped to a few bars of 2G which is worthless. Doesnt TMobile have 3G? Internet didnt work at all. Had to walk outside to get it running. I have had Verizon and Sprint in recent years and never had this issue. Last time I had to walk outside a building to use my phone was in the 90s when I had a Razr. Completely unacceptable. Even with the signal issues on my Nexus S 4G with Sprint, I could at least get a 3G signal and use my phone. Looked at the coverage map and where I was said there SHOULD be good 4G, obviously not. Is it something wrong with the Sensation? Whatever it is, I am glad I havent returned my Nexus yet, might have to go back to Sprint very shortly.

No carrier will provide you with amazing signal inside buildings. It isn't unacceptable, its a fact of life when it comes with cell phones. If you got better signal with Sprint, go back to them.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk

 

[relic419]

I live in a basement and had Sprint (Pre, then Epic 4G) and I had to use RoamControl from the market to force roaming on Verizon, but then I would get 0-1 bar. Just switched to the sensation, and not only am I getting pretty strong signal down here, I'm able to pull 1.5-2 Mbps down. As soon as I go upstairs in the house, I get about 5-6Mbps down. So for me, the building penetration of T-Mobile is significantly better than VZ and Sprint.

 

[nox]

Same here. Only thing we can say is if you ring get good signal than it might not be for you. Have you tried enabling and using WiFi calling?

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G

 

[FocusFreak]

Same here. Only thing we can say is if you ring get good signal than it might not be for you. Have you tried enabling and using WiFi calling?

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G

Yes, I have to use wifi calling in my house cause I get no reception which bothers me. That feature won't help in a restaurant though. Signal was a bit better places I went today, will have to see how it is when I travel outside this area

 

[nox]

Yes, I have to use wifi calling in my house cause I get no reception which bothers me. That feature won't help in a restaurant though. Signal was a bit better places I went today, will have to see how it is when I travel outside this area

That's a pain. Hopefully something ends up working for you. Be a shame to let the device go.

 

[MattMJB0188]

Same here. Only thing we can say is if you ring get good signal than it might not be for you. Have you tried enabling and using WiFi calling?

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G

Are you new to T-Mobile? Not to hijack the thread but I would really love to here your input on the Sensation?

 

[MattMJB0188]

Yes, I have to use wifi calling in my house cause I get no reception which bothers me. That feature won't help in a restaurant though. Signal was a bit better places I went today, will have to see how it is when I travel outside this area

I hear ya. I get the absolute WORST Edge/2G signal around my home its not even funny. Like 0.05mbps down. Call quality is fine but data connectivity is ridiculous. Endless calls to T-Mobile do nothing. I still have hope for my area as all the towns around me got 4G. Hopefully it will come here soon enough.

 

[VCL]

Get great T-Mobile signal in my house. Suburb of Boston getting over 8.5 MB down and over 1.5 MB Up. That is during the day when everyone is on the internet. Not too shabby. Thank you T-Mobile.

 

[FocusFreak]

Alright so another full day with the Sensation and it was better. Coverage is so hit and miss around here it seems but going into a building really drops 4G signal which I am not used to. GSM is satellite based though, so I guess thats going to happen. Doesnt happen as bad with CDMA phones. Gonna give it a few more days, still have 28 days left and the phone is awesome aside from some data issues at times.

 

[Droid800]

Alright so another full day with the Sensation and it was better. Coverage is so hit and miss around here it seems but going into a building really drops 4G signal which I am not used to. GSM is satellite based though, so I guess thats going to happen. Doesnt happen as bad with CDMA phones. Gonna give it a few more days, still have 28 days left and the phone is awesome aside from some data issues at times.

Erm. GSM is land-based just like CDMA. In fact, HSPA+ is a cousin of CDMA.

What affects building penetration is 1) Coverage (obviously), and 2) Frequency being used. Because T-mobile's HSPA+ is at such a high frequency, it can have some trouble with penetration. (Verizon's LTE doesn't have that problem since its sitting pretty at 700) Now, if T-mobile had the network density of Verizon's 3G it would overcome the deficiencies of the spectrum, but they don't. (at least not in as many places as VZW)

 

[FocusFreak]

Erm. GSM is land-based just like CDMA. In fact, HSPA+ is a cousin of CDMA.

What affects building penetration is 1) Coverage (obviously), and 2) Frequency being used. Because T-mobile's HSPA+ is at such a high frequency, it can have some trouble with penetration. (Verizon's LTE doesn't have that problem since its sitting pretty at 700) Now, if T-mobile had the network density of Verizon's 3G it would overcome the deficiencies of the spectrum, but they don't. (at least not in as many places as VZW)

Ah ok, thanks for that.

 

[nox]

Are you new to T-Mobile? Not to hijack the thread but I would really love to here your input on the Sensation?

Kinda sorta. I've had t mobile in the past.
The sensation is awesome though. In loving this phone

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G

 

[nox]

Erm. GSM is land-based just like CDMA. In fact, HSPA+ is a cousin of CDMA.

What affects building penetration is 1) Coverage (obviously), and 2) Frequency being used. Because T-mobile's HSPA+ is at such a high frequency, it can have some trouble with penetration. (Verizon's LTE doesn't have that problem since its sitting pretty at 700) Now, if T-mobile had the network density of Verizon's 3G it would overcome the deficiencies of the spectrum, but they don't. (at least not in as many places as VZW)

Yeah that actually really taught me something. Thanks.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G

 

[MattMJB0188]

I definitely had a better signal with the myTouch 4G at work. Of course this is problem is unique to Sensation users but my Sensation doesn't get as fast of download speeds as the myTouch 4G did or Galaxy S 4G. The update we are getting should resolve this. Hopefully it resolves the issue with the antenna.

 

[lemmeholdat]

you should use the t-mobile coverage map on their site. I've had them for years and it's been fairly good coverage. At my house, my room in particular, the coverage drops but anywhere else I've been fine. It could also be your phone as someone said. I hope you find a solution

 

[MattMJB0188]

Kinda sorta. I've had t mobile in the past.
The sensation is awesome though. In loving this phone

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G

Did you edit my post, because I didn't mention the "hijacking the thread" part?

 

[Droid800]

I definitely had a better signal with the myTouch 4G at work. Of course this is problem is unique to Sensation users but my Sensation doesn't get as fast of download speeds as the myTouch 4G did or Galaxy S 4G. The update we are getting should resolve this. Hopefully it resolves the issue with the antenna.

I've actually noticed the opposite, but I did have a G2X before and that Antenna was a bit weak. Just for kicks I just ran a speedtest and got 9.8 down and 2.4 up. The MT4G I had briefly was never able to breach 7 down. (which was the same as what I got with my Nexus S too)

The Galaxy S 4G was sorta nuts though; at a major intersection by my house I hit a mind boggling 15 mbps. Fastest I've ever seen on a non LTE phone. I would have stuck with it, but the lack of internal memory was a killer for me. Maybe once price go down I'll pick up a nice one on ebay just to have around.