[obakasan]

There was a thread asking about WI-Fi in and around ACen, so I thought I'd ask people's experiences with cellphone reception and mobile internet reception around the convention area.

I know from experience that cellphone reception in some areas in and and around the ACen venues sucks rocks. I'd like to hear from any and all what their experiences have been.

What carrier/carriers do you use. ATT, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc.?

Have you found one company has better coverage than another? Worse coverage?

How good, dependable, fast (for data) were those connections?

Where did reception come in strong, and were are the dead spots?

Bear in mind I'm only asking about how things were/are around the ACen hotels, DES Convention Center, etc. Not in other parts of the city/country/planet. Please try to be as specific as possible. (Pretend it's a game of Clue... It was me, in the basement of the Hyatt, with a Verizon cellphone, at 6pm, on a Friday, with Col. Mustard)

[Stormy-chan]

I have Sprint and I had little to no reception in the dealer hall for phone calls. Though text messages seemed to do alright. I have a new phone this year so I am hoping that might help with reception, but we shall see what happens

[TheStrongJaeger]

I have AT&T and have great reception everywhere except in certain parts of the basement of the Hyatt(video/arcade room was one spot) where I would get nothing. But that isn't entirely surprising with it being underground and concrete and all that.

[kenkendazo]

TheStrongJaeger, on 13 April 2012 - 12:29 PM, said:

I have AT&T and have great reception everywhere except in certain parts of the basement of the Hyatt(video/arcade room was one spot) where I would get nothing. But that isn't entirely surprising with it being underground and concrete and all that.

Same here, though I find it too loud to use the phone do I just end up texting but AT&T gets them through.

[TheStrongJaeger]

kenkendazo, on 13 April 2012 - 12:31 PM, said:

Same here, though I find it too loud to use the phone do I just end up texting but AT&T gets them through.

I did the same and at worst I'd have to try to send the text 2 or 3 times for it to go.

[rondo]

If my memory serves me, I have Verizon and it is kinda spotty throughout the Hyatt, even in my room.

I will verify this once I get there and post. Will have a new phone then (and 4g as well), so we'll see how well it acts compared to the old one.

Does the Hyatt have an external antenna for any of the carriers? Could they even get one? Then again, they may not care while pimping their own landlines and wifi.

[STVO]

TheStrongJaeger, on 13 April 2012 - 12:29 PM, said:

I have AT&T and have great reception everywhere except in certain parts of the basement of the Hyatt(video/arcade room was one spot) where I would get nothing. But that isn't entirely surprising with it being underground and concrete and all that.

This. God bless 3G and 4G (though I don't have that. )

[Naoya Toudou]

I have ATT and my phone worked relatively well in around the hyatt, in the Dealers Hall it was on and off again depending how deep i was in. but closer to the entrances i had ok reception ( good thing to, someone collapsed and required medical attention that year. )

[XenoBlade]

T-mobile. Reception is VERY spotty at best. Last year I had all sorts of problems reaching people.

[GITS SAC Motoko]

I have ATT and I got NOTHING last year. It could have been since my phone at the time was SO BAD and so sucky that it wouldn't recieve texts and all >.> but I remember only getting reception outside. If i was inside, you couldn't contact me. Maybe it'll be better since I have a better phone now than the POS I had last year .

[magishine]

I have AT&T and other than the basement of the Hyatt, I got reception everywhere

[Prayer Police]

T-Mobile is spotty.
Had to stick my phone out my hotel room window to get 4G.

[satsuke]

Sprint has some trouble in the basement of the Hyatt (which is what you'd expect being in a farraday cage -- in a rebar trough under a building etc etc etc).

Other than that Sprint shouldn't have much trouble on 3G anywhere else (maybe the dealers room, depending on if it's in the upper floor or lower floor this year).

That area is pretty heavily built out because of the convention center and number of hotels in the area (20k people in an area that size would make most normal suburban cell phone towers overload .. kind of a 3 days mass calling event .. though who exactly calls anymore?).

[Defyplums]

satsuke, on 13 April 2012 - 02:49 PM, said:

Sprint has some trouble in the basement of the Hyatt (which is what you'd expect being in a farraday cage -- in a rebar trough under a building etc etc etc).

Other than that Sprint shouldn't have much trouble on 3G anywhere else (maybe the dealers room, depending on if it's in the upper floor or lower floor this year).

That area is pretty heavily built out because of the convention center and number of hotels in the area (20k people in an area that size would make most normal suburban cell phone towers overload .. kind of a 3 days mass calling event .. though who exactly calls anymore?).

**meekly raises hand**

[Ashori]

I have Straight Talk, one of those no-contract phones you can buy at Walmart. Pretty much like a majority of everyone else in here, I had spotty service throughout the convention, although when I was in my room, reception was pretty good. Out in the dome of the convention hall and such, service was pretty good, but throughout the rest of the con, it depended on where I was.

Texts weren't too bad and sent/received 95% of them, but it's a big pain in the butt to text on my phone, so I prefer calling over texting. XP

[MsLovelyCookie]

I have AT&T. Works better outside with a stronger signal then inside the Hotels and Deal Hall where I have fewer bars. Only inside the elevators and the Hyatt basement I barely had a signal.

[Neko_master_Luna]

Verizon- spotty in dealer's room & basement. Otherwise no problems. As for Wi-Fi, not sure. This will be my first year with a smart phone. I am thinking some hotels might mention if they have it or if it's free or not.

[Goldeneyeuro]

T-Mobile customer here- my phone had serious problems last year at ACEN starting around 11 AM on Friday- oftentimes it just did not have ANY reception at all, 3G or phone reception despite restarts, yanking of the SIM card and battery. Service was fine ONLY if I was not using it- and this was outside, inside, everywhere around the con, even in my hotel room at the Hilton. This kept going on all 3 days of the con, and it was extremely frustrating. I remember a friend I tried to reach said that when she got my texts, she got them in a huge flood since I kept hitting resend and it kept failing. I do remember getting some reception at the Dealers Room, though it was weak. As for 3G, didn't use it except in the hotel room where it was okay at best. Glad I brought my laptop.

Not sure what was going on but I assumed it was either everyone at ACEN crowding the airwaves or the fact the con was so close to O'Hare Intl Airport. I was told by someone that T-Mobile barely had any towers in the nearby area. I had to use my friend's Iphone w. AT&T service to call T-Mobile and have them check out the problem. The rep said to use the EDGE network instead of the 3G, which did work for me the rest of the con... until I decided to switch on the GPS to navigate to Mitsuwa after I left. Nothing was wrong with the phone since it started working perfectly fine right after the Mitsuwa trip...

So- since my contract isn't up yet and I can't upgrade to a 4G phone, printing out the addresses of T-Mobile stores close to the hotel in case my phone goes haywire again since I'm NOT going to put up with it again this year.

[Kii]

I hardly pay attention to my phone at ACen unless I'm trying to meet up with someone.But I've never had problems.My carrier is Verizon.
T-Mobile has the worst reception indoors. I used to have it back in high school and I couldn't get reception in grocery stores, hospitals, and worst of all...while I was sitting in class.

[jsieczkar]

T-mobile is very spoty do to, from what I was told, the Hyatt being a T-Moble hot spot and the network not being strong enough to keep up with demand.

[MatsuriHino]

I'll keep my short and sweet. I have T-mobile and for the past 3 years I've always been on 2G when I was at the Con. Spotty inside the convention itself and okay outside.

[Rori]

Kii, on 13 April 2012 - 05:48 PM, said:

I hardly pay attention to my phone at ACen unless I'm trying to meet up with someone.But I've never had problems.My carrier is Verizon.

^This. I don't remember any problems with texting.

[nouseforaname]

I have T-Mobile. Whenever I would be in the lower levels of the convention, I had no reception. Then again I had prepaid at the time and my phone was old. I'm sure it'll be better now even though my current phone is three years old. I guess it's time to upgrade.