Why Your Home Cell Phone Signal Has Stopped Working

Cell Towers vs Distributed Antenna Systems

If you live in a rural area of the United States it is likely that your cell phone signal strength has been fluctuating or might have dropped entirely in recent years as carriers move from 3G to 4G LTE.  Wireless carriers are increasingly moving services in areas from the very tall cell phone towers to the smaller distributed antenna systems as you see in the picture above.  Why?  

These very tall cell phone towers can provide 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE coverage of 1 to 2 miles and service several thousand people and homes from a single tower.  Carriers are increasingly dealing with capacity issues on these tall towers and have to turn wireless signals down or off in areas on antennas where there are congestion problems (too many users) or not enough customers (not profitable).  

This could result in your home that previously had several bars of cell phone signal suddenly not having any signal at all.  The wireless carrier may put up a DAS system in your neighborhood to fix the problem if you complain enough.  DAS or Distributed Antenna Systems are essentially smaller and lower power cell towers that are installed on top or inside of buildings or utility poles most commonly.  DAS antenna systems will provide service to a smaller number of people.  The theory is that your signal will be more reliable and faster.  

Unfortunately, the FCC or FTC has no mandate for the wireless carrier they have to inform you of changes in signal strength in your neighborhood.  Carriers might not even reflect this coverage accurately on their coverage maps for several years.  Deadcellzones.com has been operating for the last 18 years collecting complaints on a map of where customers have trouble getting cell phone signals.  

The complaint latest trend in the industry seems to be carriers optimizing their networks in markets and dropping coverage for "unprofitable" markets.  There is no guarantee that coverage will be provided at your home and this is the biggest portion of customer traffic adding data to the dead zones map.  

I am curious what some homeowners have done to remedy this problem with carriers.  Please comment below if you have any feedback or suggestions on how to solve this problem with each carrier.  These carriers have gotten so big that bureaucracy is probably the biggest obstacle to getting solutions for customers who have lost good home cell phone signals.  

New Antenna: A Solution For Short Battery Life & Poor Signal

A new piece of research could offer welcome news for smartphone users struggling with poor signals, slow downloads, and short battery life.

Researchers at the Radio Science and Engineering Department at Finland's Aalto University have developed a digital antenna design that is expected to improve reception, data-transfer speed, and power consumption.
Currently, smartphones have multiple antennas that each work with one or several frequencies dedicated to specific smartphone applications, such as cellular reception, GPS, and Bluetooth.

The new method is set to change this approach by combining several small antenna elements together as a single aerial, which can be controlled digitally to operate at any frequency.

Viikari compares this approach to a guitar where a single open string could digitally be made to produce a different note. When one compact antenna can be used for multiple frequencies, it frees up space for the likes of larger touchscreens, thanks to smaller bezels, without sacrificing the phone's performance.

But the new digital method promises to give the antenna greater bandwidth, which results in better radiation efficiency and the 100 to 1,000 times faster data transfer speeds set as an objective for the next-generation of 5G smartphones.  Read more. 

How to Search Dead Zones Database Map

Word Cloud of Dead Cell Zones Database 

You can search for these locations on the dead zones map. 

See the map below for directions. 

Why Does My Phone Keep Dropping Calls?

Social Networking Apps Causing Cell Tower Signaling Issues

A recent survey found that 72% of Americans experience some form of dropped calls, and 32% experience dropped calls at least a few times per week or more. Like it or not, dropped calls and poor coverage are still a major problem for a large number of people. Carriers continue to add cell towers and expand coverage areas, this is not a problem that's going to go away soon. So what is there to do?   Get a small cell (aka femtocell) or a cell phone booster for your house.

You can also, tell all of your friend's kids and neighbors using the same cell phone tower to stop using their chatty messaging apps.  If you see the chart above it is looks like these apps are constantly pinging the cell towers which is causing people to drop calls.  Would love additional feedback below.  

Yes, dead zones or poor signal strength areas do cause many dropped calls.  However, the majority of dropped calls are in areas near cell phone towers.  The more smartphones pinging the tower the more dropped calls will persist.