Rural Reception
box2105
Enthusiast - Level 1

I have a second home in Danbury NH where cellular reception is not the best but does work most of the time. It seems to greatly downgrade on cloudy days and on weekends during the ski season. Cable has never made it to my area (its 2 miles away for 50 years now) and satellite is not practical due to tall pine trees that I do not own. Also, the switch to digital TV wiped out all of our over the air  TV reception. Therefore, I rely on cellular for all of my cumminication needs. My nearest tower is about 5 miles away at the top of Ragged Mtn where the ski area is. This past weekend cellular from my place was almost impossible, possibly due to the hugh crowds up there skiing for the long weekend. Weather was fine.

Is there aything in the plans that will help improve cellular in my area? Will 5G solve it?  

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Re: Rural Reception
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Having reliable service wherever you go is crucial, and we want to ensure your area is looked into. Could you please provide your full address that you experience issues? This will help us look into the area more in depth. 

CheyenneS_VZW

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Re: Rural Reception
box2105
Enthusiast - Level 1

49 brookside lane

Danbury, NH

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Re: Rural Reception
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Thanks for that additional detail, box2105. You can delete that info. The location in question is considered to be fringe coverage due to distance from cell site and signal obstructions that result from hilly, mountainous terrain and foliage that provide a challenge for tower signal to properly penetrate within your area. With fringe coverage, you will have an inconsistent network experience such as fluctuating signal (1X, 3G, 4G) and poor service. Areas such as this are very difficult to get towers approved within since cell towers have a limited line of sight in which to transmit radio frequency signal straight out and are often placed on flat lands just outside of these types of terrains (so it's not able to angle itself downwards into low-lying areas or upwards and over a hill). Because areas like this will often only have few towers at their disposal, any increases in the traffic on those existing towers will also lead to further signal degradation. This will in turn have a significant impact on how signal is received indoors, if at all. Therefore, it does all boil down to where you are and where that location is in relation to our towers and if that towers signal is able to penetrate into your area effectively and how much traffic is being taken on via that tower by others in the area. While our tower is working as designed in this area, we cannot control topography (specifically hilly or mountainous terrain, foliage or signal refraction off of water). As a result, we can't really say how 5G will work in that area especially since 5G signal is a short range signal that primarily consists of mini antennas affixed to light and utility poles and other fixtures so it doesn't utilize the same towers as our existing 4G cell sites. That testing isn't usually done until the 5G network is actually in place in an area and our network engineers are able to perform drive tests to see what the reception looks like.

 

EbonyR_VZW

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Re: Rural Reception
jav6
Champion - Level 3

@vzw_customer_support wrote:

Thanks for that additional detail, box2105. You can delete that info. .

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@ebonyr_vzw 


Actually, this forum software does not allow users to delete their posts (ever) nor change the text after 5 minutes.  Personal info should not be requested nor posted in public.

...Just another VZW customer...trying to offer some assistance...