Poor Cell coverage in 77494

A new tower is probably out of the question because that takes FCC approval and years of planning, studies, etc involving the local governments. Are there any other carriers in the area who offer better coverage?

@OttoPylot ,

     The neighborhood had proposed a tower, however it is under review and most residents do not want tower in back yard, I'm on the exploratory committee to find the appropriate contacts to identify and work individual solutions such as a tower or boosters.

ATT is losing customers in this area due to the poor coverage, T-mobile has a tower and it is greatly improved. Out of all of the residents Verizon seems to be the top carrier, however with the worst coverage. 

I would imagine ATT would want to maintain the customer base in the area, advertised as covered, but not., spotty at best. 

HOA also did a survey and we had close to 900 responses. Would like to know who we can talk to in order to leverage this large a customer base to get us some assistance.

Is there an Area manager we can speak to about this? Not as an individual but as a community?

Thank you

ATT does not build cell towers, they sold the majority of their towers in 2013 and balance in 2019.

Therefore need to talk to the 3 to 5 companies that build towers and lease space, think a vertical strip mall.

Most towers have (2) tenants.

Are there power or telephone poles in the neighborhood?

If yes possible placement of small cells… for some information by a large tower builder who bought 9700 ATT towers in 2013.

https://www.crowncastle.com/communities/small-cell-information

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/at-t-sells-and-leases-towers-to-crown-castle-4-85b-deal

Hey there @Scottvrtx, 

We understand, and would like to point you in the right direction.

The Community Forums are a public support option where other users, and AT&T, will try and assist with high level support needs. This means we won’t be able to look into account specific concerns. To get the help you need for your unique issue, please review our Contact us : https://www.att.com/support/contact-us/, and choose the best option to reach out to us. You can call, chat, or reach out via social media, and we can review your specific issue and provide you support. If you feel your issue isn’t account specific, and can be answered generally, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to help.

Thank you for visiting the AT&T Community Forums.

DavidA, Community Forums Specialist.

Hello, 

      Besides tower solutions, are there any booster solutions like for business and college campuses ?  something to mount on side or top of neighborhood community center that doesn't require FCC? 

Thank you!

@ATTHelp  This is NOT about my account needs, its about thousands of users in the area with poor coverage. Happy to share our customer survey showing the areas and user confirmation.

@Scottvrtx  It doesn’t matter. @ATTHelp always responds the same way.  You aren’t going to get any other answer from them, and calling customer service for something like this will almost certainly result in no help.

Did you read the first link about small cells?

That is the boosters your talking about is my thought.

Fiber is installed to the small cell either above ground or underground, the small cell is installed and activated…

an excerpt…

Given the challenges the town faces, Anytown would be an ideal candidate for a new small cell network. A small cell network consists of a series of small low-powered antennas—sometimes called nodes—that provide coverage and capacity in a similar way to a tower, with a few important distinctions. Small cells are always connected by fiber optic cable, and usually attached to existing infrastructure in the public right of way like utility poles or streetlights. This makes them more discreet, while also bringing them closer to smartphones and other devices—a benefit that will become clear as we go. Similar to a tower though, small cell nodes communicate wirelessly over radio waves, and then send the signals to the internet or phone system. One added benefit of small cells is because they’re connected with fiber they are able to handle massive amounts of data at fast speeds

edit… if the reason people do not want a cell tower in their backyard is due to increased radiation of wireless waves will have the same effect using any small cell or booster device, improving wireless connection is increasing wireless waves hitting ash and every address within range.

@my thoughts 

   I did see your link and much appreciated for your time and effort. The concern is yes the radiation of the wireless waves being to close to homes. I'm tasked with looking into these smaller options or boosters.

Yes, the reason the residents do not want the full tower is the technological pollution that would invade some nearby homes.  So there would also be an impact study for these small cell sites which lead us to looking at booster solutions. We understand that 3500 in firethorne alone is really like 10,000 devices+ its a big problem especially during emergency response when the neighborhood looses power, no in home wifi and no cell phone coverage is a huge problem during an incident.

I'll look at the small cell sites. is there any information on the impact of these devices? 

Radio waves, tv station waves, satellite waves, cell tower and cell boosters (small cells), ham radio, CBs, etc all produce radiation, while each is deemed relatively safe, what can be said about increasing combined usage?

Are those concerned, only using hardwired devices in their home with no wireless including Bluetooth, gaming,  speakers, tvs, or phones either cellular or base station with handset(s)?

I am no expert on these but some interesting reading sources can be found online such as 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-safe-5g-millimeter-wave-communication-arminder-singh

Does this mean that mobile radiation doesn't cause any Health Hazards?

It's complicated. Some experts suspect that the radiation from these devices could damage cells via another biological mechanism, such as "Oxidative Stress" in cells.

What is Oxidative Stress ?

Oxidative stress is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in your body.

Effects of Oxidative Stress-

Referring above, Oxidative stress, occurs when there’s an imbalance between free radical activity and antioxidant activity. When functioning properly, free radicals can help fight off pathogens. Pathogens lead to infections. When there are more free radicals present than can be kept in balance by antioxidants, the free radicals can start doing damage to fatty tissue, DNA, and proteins in your body. Proteins, lipids, and DNA make up a large part of your body, so that damage can lead to a vast number of diseases over time. These include-

• diabetes
• atherosclerosis, or the hardening of the blood vessels
• inflammatory conditions
• high blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension
• heart disease
• neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
• cancer

Oxidative stress also contributes to aging.

So in the simple language oxidative stress leads to several biological conditions, which further leads to many diseases as well as aging.

. . . . .

But above studies were limited to earlier technologies (till 4G). 5G so-called "high band" spectrum that's of most concern, because it'll require denser radio deployments. There's also less research on the effects of radiation at these higher frequency bands. 

The deployment of new 5G networks, which requires many more small cell towers to be deployed much closer to where people live, work and go to school.

So if researchers discover that non-ionizing radiation can set off some other biological chain reaction, such as oxidative stress in cells, it could be more severe relevant to 5G.

5G will require up to five times the amount of infrastructure as 3G or 4G deployments. Not only will there be more 5G radios transmitting signals, but the radios will have to be closer to us.