Signal strength in Europe vs USA

[jshaw42]

I was just in France and Switzerland using my S7 from Verizon. I was amazed at how strong the signals were everywhere, even inside large buildings - hotels, on a river boat, on a 7,000 feet mountain and on the train.

I do use WiFi calling due to the bad signal here. But, in my house, I only get one bar, if that, with LTE.

Anyone know why there is so much of a difference?

 

[bIOforger]

Yes, Europe > USA

 

[mikedt]

I was just in France and Switzerland using my S7 from Verizon. I was amazed at how strong the signals were everywhere, even inside large buildings - hotels, on a river boat, on a 7,000 feet mountain and on the train.

I do use WiFi calling due to the bad signal here. But, in my house, I only get one bar, if that, with LTE.

Anyone know why there is so much of a difference?

Because your particular carrier has crap reception at your house. You might want to investigate a femtocell possibly.

 

[Toto39]

It is also dependent on the mobile network selected. When I'm in Kentucky I use gsm but at home in Indiana I use cdma. You need to select the network that has the stronger signal

 

[jshaw42]

It is also dependent on the mobile network selected. When I'm in Kentucky I use gsm but at home in Indiana I use cdma. You need to select the network that has the stronger signal

Thanks for the response (one out three ain't bad). I was set to Global. I tried switching to LTE/CDMA with no improvement. I tried switching to LTE/GSM/UMTS and the signal decreased.

 

[jshaw42]

Because your particular carrier has crap reception at your house. You might want to investigate a femtocell possibly.

Thanks for the resonse. Upon research, I found that a femtocell would not give me the coverage I need since the phone usually needs to be within 15 feet to connect.

 

[Toto39]

No problem. You may have the unfortunate luck of being in a dead spot. You might also try disabling HD Voice as that usually goes squirly in bad signal locations

 

[svim]

Thanks for the resonse. Upon research, I found that a femtocell would not give me the coverage I need since the phone usually needs to be within 15 feet to connect.

Fifteen feet is pretty low, different femtocells provide better coverage than others but typically you should get at 35 to 50 feet of coverage in a household with a lot of walls and such, more in a larger open space. Some people don't set them up properly and that decreases performance, a femtocell requires a) a good broadband connection and b) access to a solid GPS signal so it's important to position the femtocell unit close to an outward facing window (some femtocells have external GPS antennas).

 

[jshaw42]

My recent visit to Verizon opened my eyes a bit. It appears that the City has placed restrictions on the amount of power used by cell providers. I am in the process of validating that comment and geeting changes made.