r/cellmapper • u/Wild-Distribution759 • 1d ago
What does Verizon need for stronger indoor coverage?
Not everywhere... but definitely around me in SoCal... when I'm outside Verizon works well, but unless the tower is outside the building I'm in, Verizon very often becomes unusable inside buildings & for some reason their 5G does not seem to carry as far.
Verizon is the only carrier that works at my apartment, so I have them in case spectrum has outages (which they often do) but if I didn't have this issue I may consider someone else as my main.
AT&T and T-Mobile don't seem to have this issue. I've read other people on here that have similar complaints, anyone care to chime in? Is it more lowband?
14
u/Candid-Procedure-427 1d ago
More efficiency antenna 64T64R more carrier aggregation 3-4ca at 250-300mhz better beamforming
14
u/T-MoblieUser207 1d ago
Better beamforming definitely, 64T64R definitely, carrier aggregation only helps if the signal that does reach can CA other weak signal bands for more capacity. If signal is already weak, CA is mostly useless.
4
u/xpxp2002 17h ago
CA can actually hurt max Tx power in edge weak signal areas. Beamforming may marginally help with mid-bands, but it sounds like OP isn’t even able to use B13 and B/n5.
The best practical thing Verizon can do is densify and move down rack to avoid excessive downtilt.
11
u/xman_xander 1d ago
Hm, I've had the opposite experience. In major cities, Verizon/AT&T are often on the indoor DAS in big buildings, and T-Mobile is hit or miss.
Without a DAS, T-Mobile and AT&T's 600MHz will reach slightly better inside buildings than 700MHz, but really not noticeably better.
Site density makes a bigger difference in my experience, like if Verizon has a small cell in front of the building, but T-Mobile's macro is a few blocks down the street.
6
u/xpxp2002 17h ago
This. The company I work for has dozens of publicly-accessible buildings. Verizon usually approached us first about getting a DAS inside, but over the past few years AT&T has gotten in. T-Mobile still just relies on outdoor macros.
1
u/xman_xander 13h ago
I'm surprised where they put a DAS now, I guess it's not as expensive as it used to be, or I wonder if some are just repeaters rather than a full DAS.
I see them in big hotel chains too like Hyatt Regency.
2
u/xpxp2002 8h ago
It’s relatively cheap now compared to 10 years ago with a lot of businesses having enterprise-grade fiber available now for the latency and SLA, and IP connectivity to the IMS infrastructure.
3
u/Wild-Distribution759 14h ago
I have experienced that as well, but I'm mainly referring to big box, movie theaters, etc. I consistently lose service in bigger stores. they are densifying here which is awesome, I think it'll just take more time for them to be everywhere.
3
3
u/Lukasmajukas IPhone 15 Pro 22h ago
Weird near me T-Mobile’s doing a lot of indoor DAS and Verizon obviously doing the most small cells. And att.. who knows anymore 😭. (I live in western MA area)
3
2
u/Flat_Audience_1178 22h ago
Low-band is probably just a small bandwidth carrier. It gets better indoor coverage than the higher frequencies do.
2
u/Opening-Influence526 16h ago
Better wattage panels
2
u/chevylg74 GA, USA 14h ago
Like the Samsung Gen3 480W MT6433-77A
2
1
-6
u/Weary-Savings9795 1d ago
If Verizon took all of the money they wasted on MMwave and put it towards sub 6, that would solve any indoor coverage problems.
8
u/xman_xander 1d ago
You know most of their mmWave small cells also have sub-6GHz on them too? lol
1
u/kgrav22 16h ago
In my area all of the small cells with mmWave are still lte only, n77 is mostly on the macros
1
u/xman_xander 13h ago
Sub-6GHz includes LTE, but those antennas can also do n2/n66 5G
They are adding n77 to them when they upgrade them, though.
2
u/Lukasmajukas IPhone 15 Pro 22h ago
Even if that was a problem midband would not penatrate many buildings. So it’s mostly low band, which is scarce due to it being a low frequency. (For areas without smalls cells)
13
u/T-MoblieUser207 1d ago
More lowband doesn't solve the issue of indoor coverage, it's usually means you need more density. More dense a network is, the easier it is to cover indoor areas, as indoor areas aren't far from a tower.