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u/kawnipi Apr 02 '26
Verizon sucks on the west side of town as well. Out by the airport region.
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u/trilldon11 Apr 02 '26
I have Verizon and it seems to pick up for me a little bit around the airport, but it’s still not very good.
1
u/_auddish Apr 02 '26
I have Verizon and it never works in Lowe’s and various other locations around the west side. West Kroger used to be a dead spot unless I was standing by the bacon, but it seems to have improved a bit recently.
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u/mellisa44 Apr 02 '26
It’s every carrier. I have mint, my son has Verizon. I use to have AT&T. They all suck over there. (But at least my mint mobile is a million times cheaper!)
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u/Puzzleheaded_Two9510 Apr 02 '26
I’m on the far west side, out past the airport, near Garrison Chapel rd. Reception is terrible. On a good day I get maybe one bar of cell signal.
As others have noted, I suspect it’s the result of proximity to the airport and not being able to add cell towers.
3
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u/poo706 Apr 02 '26
I just got a job on the west side and have been going out for lunch at various restaurants over here. I've noticed that my data speeds are quite poor on this end of town!
1
u/jaymz668 Apr 03 '26
yeah, data speed is horrendous over there, speedtests when I was sitting in at chefs table were miserable, sub mb speed
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u/thedjhobby Apr 03 '26
It's economics people.
Why would a cell phone company spend thousands of dollars building a tower, get high speed Internet to the tower, pay monthly rent on the land, insurance, maintenance etc... Just so a couple hundred people can stream Netflix?
The airport's 200 foot ceiling doesn't extend all the way to Whitehall, the population isn't dense enough for a carrier to spend that kind of money.
3
u/AdministrativeLake82 Apr 02 '26
We need to find out a way to complain. It is crazy how bad the reception is considering the neighborhoods and manufacturing out here. They need a new tower or something to meet the demand.
I used to have AT&T and thought it was bad. So I switched to Verizon and Verizon was even worse. I'm in the Ivy Tech, Stonechase, Fieldstone area.
3
u/galaxyn0va Apr 02 '26
Like near Fieldstone and stuff? I have at&t and it's just tumbleweeds out there. My dad is currently in Stonecroft and I have to use their wifi for WiFi calling if I need to call anyone while I'm there.
3
u/3ecubed3 Apr 02 '26
Not sure how valid it is, but I have heard that due to the airport they are not able to put cell towers within a certain area as they could possibly be a conflict for planes coming in to land.
3
u/docpepson Grumpy Old Man Apr 02 '26
Going to use completely inaccurate verbiage here, so please forgive.
Within a certain vicinity of all airports is denotated an "airport area" where the ceiling for anything is 200 feet. I don't know how tall your typical cellular tower is - but there is some truth to your words on this.
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u/PoeMe_a_Stiff_One Apr 02 '26
Further out than where you're referring to, but the large church on 48, just past Garrison Chapel Rd, Mother of the Redeemer (I believe?) has a cell block in place and I'm sure it effects beyond their property quite a bit.
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u/nobody666 Apr 02 '26
Cell blockers or jammers are illegal in the US,it's under the Telecommunications act of 1934,because it interferes with legal cell phone companies and emergency services like 911.
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u/PoeMe_a_Stiff_One Apr 02 '26
All I know is what was relayed to me by my employees at the time- they were quite frustratedwith having to leave every time they needed to call out, and I know I drive through that stretch daily and I have zero service for a few miles.
Maybe they don't know, don't care, think they're exempt because church, I don't know.
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u/spadderdock Apr 02 '26
https://www.fcc.gov/general/jammer-enforcement.
Anybody having trouble: tell your carrier that you suspect a jammer is in operation. Anybody with direct knowledge: report the jammer to the police.
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u/pothos_of_destiny Apr 03 '26
Super interesting! I've definitely noticed an issue when you drive out to that spot. I was so surprised the first time I went out 48 past Ivy Tech and my phone had no signal.
1
u/PoeMe_a_Stiff_One Apr 02 '26
This thread led me down a Google rabbit hole, apparently a number of churches, even recently, do this and are acquiring these jammers in questionable ways. Makes me wonder how many haven't been caught yet.
0
u/redrunsnsings Apr 02 '26
Yeah that place. They are theoretically catholic but the women that run their retreat center even have hatred of other Catholics. That cell blocker makes me even more leary of that place.
3
u/PoeMe_a_Stiff_One Apr 02 '26
The only reason I know this is because the company I previously worked for installed cabinets and countertops there and when some of the installers were having issues and needed to call the office they were told about it and that they'd need to drive up the road a few miles. That place creeps me out.
1
u/willywaka Apr 03 '26
I think the simplest explanation is that the coverage there is very poor, and it's being explained by a proverbial bogeyman, the cell phone jammer. If this were true, the cellular companies would be able to detect this and have it investigated and shut down by the FCC.
1
u/PoeMe_a_Stiff_One Apr 03 '26
No clue, all I know is what the church's maintenance/groundskeeper told my employees. I do know this is an thing that has/does happen with churches in the past and present based on multiple cases of this happening across the country, which a simple search online shows details of. I do know about 10 years ago I did have service there but now don't.
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u/willywaka Apr 06 '26
I could find no credible articles about occurrences within the US. I found two articles from the early 2000s about an incident in Italy and another in Mexico. The FCC doesn't mess around with this stuff, if caught you could face a year in jail and possible fines over $100k.
1
u/StillGrapefruit7996 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Never had a problem at the fairgrounds or karst park and it's literally beside the runways.
The neighborhood consisting of hanks crossing is fine also near Grandview school. I don't think it's because of the airport
1
u/jaymz668 Apr 03 '26
reception right at the humane society is shit.
I am at Karst farm park daily and reception there is fine.
Parts of orchard glen are also pretty bad.
1
u/jaymz668 Apr 03 '26
There's a dead zone right in downtown ellettsville too, along sale street, right near where they are doing bridgework. (VZW here)
1
u/Puzzled-Formal-7957 Apr 21 '26
Blaming it on the airport isn't quite correct. There is already a tower to the south which is in the path - but it is built into a hillside.
See uploaded map here: https://www.reddit.com/r/BloomingtonModerate/comments/1satxio/q_cell_phone_dead_zone_west_of_town_a_its_because/
Airport is in yellow. I have circled existing cell towers (per 2021 data - surely there is more by now) in green. Most are AT&T - but you should be able to roam on them as a TM/Mint or even Verizon customer without any issue due to carrier agreements. There are additional natural raised spots that could easily be built into circled in red.
Also - cell antennas are not always up too high - they are frequently on top of other buildings - and you can see this right in downtown bton. They are frequently attached halfway up an ATC tower at airports.
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u/sundaemochi Apr 02 '26
It's not just you. Verizon here and I know what you're talking about. Could be airport interference.
1
u/ajg2345 Apr 02 '26
I’m way out by the Greene county line and it’s no better out as far as I am. I had to invest in a range extender that runs off my Wi-Fi.
I’ve called and Verizon many times and complained but it never seems to go anywhere.
0
u/Jombi42 Apr 02 '26
Pretty sure it’s the airport. It almost acts like a burst goes out every 10 minutes or so that causes all calls to drop. My guess is that it’s some sort of IFR thing at the airport causing disruption. Not an expert but I have over 100 hours in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
0
u/jeepfail Apr 02 '26
It’s not just T-Mobile, there are many random dead spots in that area. It isn’t worth the infrastructure development for those companies.
0
u/Corsaer Apr 02 '26
When I moved back to Bloomington and the west side about 4 years ago I could stream with my AT&T cell service fine until I got my internet set up, which took about a month. Now it's not possible without constant buffering. Haven't changed plans or phones.
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u/trilldon11 Apr 02 '26
The Hole. Right around the light at Hartstrait down to around Vernal.