Bad cell phone service at the USC game

[chawan_cut]

My friend and I had t-mobile and we had really really bad signal levels outside in the parking lot. I could only get voicemails and couldn't make or receive regular calls. My other friends had other providers and they too had little or no bars on their phones. Inside the stadium was worse. Everyone around us had almost zero coverage. I couldn't even send a text message. This has never happened before at Aloha Stadium.
Anyone else notice this or know why it was so bad?

[HawaiianHogster]

Not me. I have T-Mobile and used it with no problems outside the stadium. I talked to my wife who is in Vegas right now. I never had to use it inside the stadium so I don't know about that.

[uhwarriors]

Verizon. No problems in parking lot, but didn't use cell in stadium during USC game. Haven't had any problems in the past in the stadium. Will try next home game.

[Sabut20]

I have AT&T and I had bars but could not call out or receive texts. It was really weird.

[BigWave96744]

Verizon Wireless: No Problems
Although I had a friend who had the same problems as you.

I remember in 2007 during the Boise St tailgate, I kept getting "All Lines are Busy"... Seem like everyone was on their cell phone before the game..

[travo66]

My girlfriend and I both have iPhones (3Gs and 4) and we had problems during the game from inside the stadium. It showed full bars at times and no bars at times, but either way, it was difficult to send a text. Could it have something to do with ESPN? Never had that problem before...

[poidog]

i have a phone with Sprint and most of my service was unavailable while inside the stadium. everyone next to me (2 at&t and 1 tmobile) were also experiencing similar issues. i think maybe they didn't bring over mobile antennas to the stadium that day because it was a thursday game.

[Wild Warrior]

Verizon. No problems in parking lot, but didn't use cell in stadium during USC game. Haven't had any problems in the past in the stadium. Will try next home game.

I have Verizon and my daughter in law has AT&T. We both experienced problems in receiving and making calls for most of the game. Had no problems in the parking lot, but inside the stadium we had big problems. Both our phones showed plenty of bars, but service was still not good.

WW

[The808Chef]

Uhh...you guys supposed to be enjoying the game and the tailgate? Not futtin around with your phones.

I got my cell going straight to VM during UH games. I have a special VM greeting during this time basically saying, I'm watching my Warriors play football. I'll call you when the game is done.

[SmugDude]

Having worked for T-Mobile I can honestly tell you what you experienced is very common. As cell towers can only handle a certain number of active connections and they are placed based on the normal distribution of the population. That said, on game days (if the stadium is close to full) you have way above normal concentrations of people and as a result the cell towers get overwhelmed and calls route to voice mail and you can't call out.

So point being, if the stadium is full you should expect this kind of thing going forward. The only thing the carriers can do is deploy a mobile cell tower to boost coverage temporarily which is incredible expensive to do and hence they don't like to do it unless there's a large scale event going on for a prolonged period of time (like a fair or carnival).

[Old Diver]

Uhh...you guys supposed to be enjoying the game and the tailgate? Not futtin around with your phones.

I got my cell going straight to VM during UH games. I have a special VM greeting during this time basically saying, I'm watching my Warriors play football. I'll call you when the game is done.

I'm with you. Last year during the closing seconds of the Navy game my wife called me asking about the TV remote. Well, I don't need to tell you how that conversation ended.

[kalilix7]

That sounds like a reasonable explanation, but I did not have that problem at any of the games last year or the year before.

Having worked for T-Mobile I can honestly tell you what you experienced is very common. As cell towers can only handle a certain number of active connections and they are placed based on the normal distribution of the population. That said, on game days (if the stadium is close to full) you have way above normal concentrations of people and as a result the cell towers get overwhelmed and calls route to voice mail and you can't call out.

So point being, if the stadium is full you should expect this kind of thing going forward. The only thing the carriers can do is deploy a mobile cell tower to boost coverage temporarily which is incredible expensive to do and hence they don't like to do it unless there's a large scale event going on for a prolonged period of time (like a fair or carnival).

[SmugDude]

Two other things to consider:

- Smart phones - as they often draw bandwidth from the towers very passively. Meaning, if i'm getting work email that data has to come down some how and as a result too many active smart phone connections also can cripple a tower. Plus things like Pandora or listening to ESPN radio through your phone also burn up cell tower capacity.

- did you upgrade your phone? As if you had an older phone in years past they may be on other frequency spectrums which might not be overwhelmed or might allow you to draw from a tower further out. As not all towers necessarily support all spectrums and as a result most phones are tri-band or quad-band just to give you the maximum coverage possible.

Also as a tip, if you have a situation like this if you turn your phone off and then turn it back on again sometimes this will remedy the situation as "power cycling" your phone will re-log you back into the tower and reset your place in the queue. This will have the net effect of boosting coverage as the tower will prioritize your phone for the time being. Not a full proof solution, but if there's a lot of people jumping onto a tower it can happen.

[bungahead]

Here's the bottom line:

You pay for phone service. Everytime you cannot access phone service, you are getting RIPPED OFF.

Interesting, because if you're not on an unlimited minutes plan, everytime you press send, with your butt, or whatever, a minute is charged/debited to your account.'

More importantly, IF you have an unlimited plan, then you have the right to use the phone whenever you want. So, to the extent you're ever not able to in a covered area, you're getting RIPPED OFF.

But, if the phone company doesn't provide you the minutes you WANT to use it. . . no adjustment.

T-Mobile keeps on getting mentioned above. There is a reason for this: T-Mobile SUCKS!

[bentofan]

Was it after that hit on Moniz in the third, or before that knocked service out?


article,
http://boxscorenews.com/hawaii-warriors ... 567-68.htm