# Cell phone LTE reception issues

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-lte-reception-issues/688947>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 21, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-lte-reception-issues/688947 "2014-05-21T17:12:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![filmyak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-lte-reception-issues/688947/1 "2014-05-21T17:12:45Z")

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Here’s my situation. iPhone 5s. AT&T. (They suck, I know.)

When it works, it’s great. The LTE that is.

But at work, it’s awful. I have 4 bars of LTE which should be plenty. But I can stream more than 3-5 seconds of video without playback crashing to a halt to buffer. It acts as if I have 1 bar of 3G service.

Why?

If I had awful reception here, it’d make sense. I know it’s not my phone, and it’s an issue that is consistent at work. 4 bars, awful internet connectivity.

Is this a… I dunno, bad setting at the local tower? Are the bars lying to me? Is it an alien invasion?

Would love to know how strong reception and poor speeds make sense so I can discover if there’s a way to fix it.

Ps. AT&T has an app called “mark the spot” that informs them of issues. I’ve reported this many times. No change yet.

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**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-lte-reception-issues/688947/2 "2014-05-21T17:41:24Z")

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Congestion. The big problem with mobile data is that the data rate they advertise is what you can get if there is no-one else using the same cell. Once you get more than a few active users you start to share the available data bandwidth, and especially in city areas the measly slice of bandwidth left to you can be worse than a bit of wet string. It doesn’t matter how strong the signal is, if there is no room left, you get nought.

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**Author:** ![filmyak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-lte-reception-issues/688947/3 "2014-05-21T17:44:09Z")

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Fair enough. But we are kind of in the boondocks of Burbank. Near a small airport and some industrial parks and office comexes. But even on weekends, when offices are empty, the problem persists. You may be right, I could be grossly underestimating tbe number of people here.