Why is GSM so poor inside buildings?

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ftarz@mindspring.com - 02 Feb 2005 22:41 GMT

I work in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. There are cell
towers all around. If I'm outside I have no problem with my Cingular
GSM service. But inside the moment I step away from the window the
signal drops to zero.

It's to be expected I thought; the building is made of lots of concrete
and steel. Just a fact of life that I won't get a usable signal
inside.

But plenty of people come through the building where I work and just
keep talking on their Nextel and Verizon phones. The concrete and
steel all around seem to have little effect.

What gives? Why does my GSM signal die at the window but others seem
to penetrate right through.

You may have noticed that I haven't said what I phone I've been using
since the last 4: Ericsson 688, 888, T28 and current Motorola V400 have
all exhibited the same behavior. The common denominator seems to the
Cingular GSM network.

Frank

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Joseph - 03 Feb 2005 00:50 GMT

>I work in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. There are cell
>towers all around. If I'm outside I have no problem with my Cingular
>GSM service. But inside the moment I step away from the window the
>signal drops to zero.

Why do you assume it's GSM that's the problem? How do other PCS
carriers such as Sprint PCS do inside the building? How close is the
nearest *cingular* tower? How do you know that the "cell towers all
around" are for cingular?

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Michael Schmidt - 03 Feb 2005 16:06 GMT

Experience is Europe tells us that it simply takes several years until
the GSM coverage is so dense that you have a sufficiently strong signal
in all (or most) buildings. The situation in Germany is that the two
premium providers offer a coverage which makes GSM communication in
almost all buildings possible. If you (have to) use on one of the two
other providers, you also suffer from missing communication in some
(maybe 1/3) of the buildings.

Michael

ftarz@mindspring.com schrieb:

> I work in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. There are cell
> towers all around. If I'm outside I have no problem with my Cingular
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> Frank

Signature

Michael Schmidt
University of Siegen, Germany
http: www.dcs.uni-siegen.de
e-mail: schmidt _at_ nue.et-inf.uni-siegen.de

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C Antoine - 03 Feb 2005 22:02 GMT

Michael Schmidt a formulé ce jeudi :

> Experience is Europe tells us that it simply takes several years until the
> GSM coverage is so dense that you have a sufficiently strong signal in all
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> you also suffer from missing communication in some (maybe 1/3) of the
> buildings.

The premium providers always got 900Mhz spectrum, while others often
got 1800 only, which is poor for indoor coverage. In Frank's case, the
spectrum seems to be 1900MHz, even poorer for indoor penetration...

Signature

Christophe

Couverture GSM Oléron 2003
http://chantoine3.free.fr

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John S. - 04 Feb 2005 01:05 GMT

>The common denominator seems to the
>Cingular GSM network.

I don't know, so I will ask, but is it that the Cingulalr Network there is
1900PCS and not 800 Cellular?

Keep in mind that the technology really doesn't keep penetration down as much
as frequency.

NEXTEL is an 800MHz SMR, Verizon in that part of the country is Cellular
(800MHz). The lower the frequency the better the penetration of things like
buildings.

--
John S.
e-mail responses to - john at kiana dot net

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