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View Full Version : any ideas for no cell service in building



Zoe Girl
10-19-15, 11:04am
if this has a better home please feel free to move it, it is somewhat a work issue, somewhat a tech one,

My new office in my school building this year is a cell phone dead spot. i have a nice i-phone as a work cell which is awesome, just terrible that i can't stay in my office and talk on it. So when it rings i answer and literally run out of my office to a place in the building that i can talk. i can get some texts, not perfectly though. yesterday i saw that i sent a text to my job coach on wednesday and it has not sent yet, just spinning even after i left the dead spot. that was on my personal phone, both phones are verizon. i need to set up my desk phone for long distance again, i need to do this every year but with the cell phone available it has not been urgent. well now i have conference calls for a personal group and i end up sitting in my car for an hour or 2 because i can't use a personal phone in my own office. these calls can be close to work time so i can't call from home and then drive over, in winter this is not going to work. with the desk phone having long distance i can at least do my conference calls but it doesn't help getting calls from parents or others on the cell phone and missing them.

So i called the tech people in my district and they say there is nothing they can do. i am still waiting on 3 things from the tech department anyway, sigh. Are there things you can do? Can the cell phone company do anything to boost a signal in an area?

Alan
10-19-15, 11:12am
That's a tough situation. My workplace provides iPhones to better than half of the employees and we're an AT&T shop. We've set up repeaters throughout the facility to ensure no dead spots. The people without company phones who have Verizon (or other providers) constantly complain about lack of coverage. Outside of that, the only suggestion I might have regards the possibility of using an alternate number, such as one provided by Google Voice and use your schools wifi system to send and receive calls. Of course, that assumes you have access to a wifi signal at your desk.

SteveinMN
10-21-15, 11:10am
I would suggest that whoever pays for the phone (you or your IT staff/district) call Verizon and plead the case. I'm not terribly familiar with Verizon, not having been a customer of theirs for at least five years, but I know other carriers offer repeaters (as Alan mentioned) which are positioned someplace with a good signal and are able to relay a signal further. Many carriers have problems with signal penetrating multiple walls in buildings, though Verizon's technology is supposed to handle that better than other carriers.

Another option, if your staff is OK with it, is to switch carriers to one that has a good signal inside the building or can provide a repeater which will get you service. If it's a recent iPhone (6 or better for sure; maybe some 5 models, I'd have to check), you won't need a new phone; it has everything it needs to use another network (except maybe a SIM, which will be a minimal cost).

bae
10-21-15, 2:31pm
I noticed the other day that AT&T finally turned on the ability to use their cell network over pure wifi if you don't have cell signal, for iPhones 6 or newer.

So now I have "cell" service for the first time in years here, since my lame AT&T microcell died after some years of not-quite-really-working.

http://about.att.com/innovationblog/10082015wificalling

So, if you have wifi there, and turn on the correct button in "settings", you are set.

SteveinMN
10-22-15, 9:07pm
Applies only to postpaid AT&T customers on certain phones, but, yes, it's coming. Too bad ZG is on Verizon.

bae
10-22-15, 9:13pm
Applies only to postpaid AT&T customers on certain phones, but, yes, it's coming. Too bad ZG is on Verizon.

T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint currently have the cell-via-wifi thing enabled, and Verizon is supposed to go live "real soon now".

SteveinMN
10-24-15, 9:13pm
T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint currently have the cell-via-wifi thing enabled, and Verizon is supposed to go live "real soon now".
I was referring only to AT&T. Postpaid only. Their GoPhone and Cricket customers have to wait.

I actually had Wi-Fi calling through T-Mobile on my ca. 2009 Nokia smartphone. It didn't really make up for their small network (at the time) but it was a nice-to-have. I look forward to it being an option (someday) on my iPhone though GoPhone.