Signal Issues and Battery drain on two different phones starting this week

I have a Galaxy Note 2, and a Nokia Lumia 920. 

Note2 is at 4.3 MK6

Nokia is at Cyan, windows OS 8.10.12393.xxxx

Starting this week, 17Nov2014 or 16Nov2014, both devices started to have battery drain issues.  The Note 2 went from being at mid 80% batter life at the end of the day, to 35 to 40% battery life.  Right now my signal is -104 dBm 36asu, and no I turn off 4G unless I need it.

The Nokia usually is at 50% life at the end of the day, and after a night of charging, by noon or 11am that same day (off the charger at 8am) it must be plugged in or it dies.

I live in Central Texas, and noticed this week my signal went from full to 2 and 4 bars tops, in the whole area... meaning a 60 by 60 mile box.

When a phone cannot get full strenght ramping (or boosting) occurs to try to force a better connection, which I suspect is the cause of my battery drain. 

What is going on with the wireless in Central Texas, and why are both my phones crapping out at the same time?

thank you