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-   -   Phone coverage in Wolfeboro/Ossipee area? (https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27675)

TCC 12-29-2021 05:05 PM

Phone coverage in Wolfeboro/Ossipee area?
 
I'm hoping someone here will know. Other than Verizon, are there any wireless carriers that have solid phone coverage in the Wolfeboro/Ossipee area?

Thanks.

thinkxingu 12-29-2021 07:04 PM

We had AT&T for a couple years, and it worked well in the whole of the Lakes Region. We moved back to Verizon recently because AT&T seemed to get worse at my wife's school back in MA.

Having used both recently, I think they're very close in terms of coverage.

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upthesaukee 12-29-2021 09:16 PM

Other side of the cellar bands
 
Back in the roaming days of cell service, I had a flip phone with U S Cellular and had good coverage all around the lake EXCEPT in the Alton area.

Coverage up through Conway and Jackson was quite good given terrain problems that all companies had back then.

I believe U S Cellular got bought out by Sprint, but not positive.

Dave

burgerunh 12-30-2021 02:11 PM

I have verizon and a camp at ossipee lake. Coverage is great until it gets to be a busy summer weekend up there. Then you can't get data for the life of you. I'm not sure if other carriers have similar issues. It's almost like the verizon towers get overwhelmed.

thinkxingu 12-30-2021 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by burgerunh (Post 365661)
I have verizon and a camp at ossipee lake. Coverage is great until it gets to be a busy summer weekend up there. Then you can't get data for the life of you. I'm not sure if other carriers have similar issues. It's almost like the verizon towers get overwhelmed.

My *guess* is that you're being deprioritized. Do you have a "premium unlimited" plan?

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bobkatfly 12-31-2021 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thinkxingu (Post 365664)
My *guess* is that you're being deprioritized.

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Agree. I'm in Tuftonboro about 150 ft above lake level and have a direct line of sight to the tower near Gunstock. Starting in the summer of 2019 I had decent service until around 7 or 8 AM. After that, service slowly started degrading (people waking up on the more densely populated side of the lake, businesses opening, etc.). In the summer it was much worse and holidays like the 4th, forget about it. Finally installed a cell booster which helped....a little.

thinkxingu 12-31-2021 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobkatfly (Post 365681)
Quote:

Originally Posted by thinkxingu (Post 365664)
My *guess* is that you're being deprioritized.

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Agree. I'm in Tuftonboro about 150 ft above lake level and have a direct line of sight to the tower near Gunstock. Starting in the summer of 2019 I had decent service until around 7 or 8 AM. After that, service slowly started degrading (people waking up on the more densely populated side of the lake, businesses opening, etc.). In the summer it was much worse and holidays like the 4th, forget about it. Finally installed a cell booster which helped....a little.

So, the booster and deprioritization would be different. A booster would help if signal strength was low whereas deprioritization is when certain users have less, or slower, access to the network.

A few years back, I'd posted a bunch about this when our prepaid Verizon service essentially stopped working for that summer and I spent hours working with their techs to find the "problem" when they could've just told me it's because I had the lowest tiered service and, when the network was congested, I'd be last to be given access (this page seems to have the best information with regards to the hierarchical order of priority: https://coveragecritic.com/mobile-ph...prioritization). (Of course they don't want to be honest and say, "our prepaid network blows in busy areas.")

Anyhow, I'd researched and discovered that AT&T's network is usually less congested because they have fewer overall users and their first responder bandwidth is shared with consumers when not being used. For two summers, we had great AT&T prepaid for, like, $97 for three phones with plenty of data (15GB w/rollover or something).

This past fall, my wife's school started using texting to communicate more often to deal with staffing shortages, absences, etc. and AT&T just wasn't working, so we switched over to Verizon again (her colleagues were having good luck with Verizon, otherwise we would've tried T-Mobile first).

When signing up for Verizon, we chose one of the unlimited plans which now comes with Hulu and Disney, so, even though we pay $130/mth. for three phones unlimited, we get a $15 value out of those for a net increase of $18.

We've not really noticed much difference in coverage, but Verizon is certainly faster when signal is strong.

Finally, since we got them towards the end of the season, I have no idea if having the "premium" tier plan will avoid the problems we had during peak times a few summers ago. I do know that I'll have to install a signal booster as the metal roof of my porch and camp crush the signal strength.

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bobkatfly 12-31-2021 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thinkxingu (Post 365683)
So, the booster and deprioritization would be different. A booster would help if signal strength was low whereas deprioritization is when certain users have less, or slower, access to the network.

Think, my understanding of deprioritization is that it is directly related to congestion regardless of network plan levels. Now if one has a higher tier plan, during congestion you would still have a usable signal, just lower.
Prior to the area becoming congested (7-8 AM) or weekend holidays, I had usable signals on the order of -85 to -90 dBm. Afterwards, that would drop to under -100 or become completely non existent. After installing the booster I consistently saw -70 to -85 or so. It took some effort to dial it in because it was a YAGI antenna.
What I can't figure out is why I didn't have any problems prior to 2019. Was 5G construction being started?

https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhone...prioritization

BTW, I also had AT&T then.

thinkxingu 12-31-2021 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobkatfly (Post 365685)
Quote:

Originally Posted by thinkxingu (Post 365683)
So, the booster and deprioritization would be different. A booster would help if signal strength was low whereas deprioritization is when certain users have less, or slower, access to the network.

Think, my understanding of deprioritization is that it is directly related to congestion regardless of network plan levels. Now if one has a higher tier plan, during congestion you would still have a usable signal, just lower.
Prior to the area becoming congested (7-8 AM) or weekend holidays, I had usable signals on the order of -85 to -90 dBm. Afterwards, that would drop to under -100 or become completely non existent. After installing the booster I consistently saw -70 to -85 or so. It took some effort to dial it in because it was a YAGI antenna.
What I can't figure out is why I didn't have any problems prior to 2019. Was 5G construction being started?

https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhone...prioritization

BTW, I also had AT&T then.

As best I can tell from my research and experience, it has nothing to do with signal strength and everything to do with your placement on the network hierarchy. For example, during that day my prepaid Verizon service wasn't working, a friend who had "premium-tiered" service could use his phone normally. It was a tad slower—Spotify had to load for a second before playing—but mine was unusable.

Essentially, during congested times, premium users are treated differently than prepaid, MVNOs, etc. That link I provided goes into detail.

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bobkatfly 12-31-2021 09:58 AM

Well, I had the AT&T unlimited plus plan. 2 lines each with 15 GB hotspot which I needed to give laptops access. I guess I considered it a premium plan but maybe it wasnt.

thinkxingu 12-31-2021 11:17 AM

I would definitely think you wouldn't be deprioritized with that level plan, but I don't know enough about AT&T's plan levels since I only ever had prepaid (which is absolutely second-tier!).

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