Cell Phone Reception At LES

Am I the only one that can't get cell phone reception at the games? I have AT&T and in the past I never had any trouble. This year I can't get calls or emails in the stadium. Usually after I walk to the car after the game I get around 10 text messages that were sent while I was at the game.

I have the same problem and I have AT&T as well. I think it may be an AT&T issue because I know people with Verizon and T-mobile Phones that text all game or call all game long without a problem. I never had any problems until the last two years, but this year has been much worse for me.

Mars wrote:


60,000 cell phones = terrible reception. Plus the angles of bouncing signals into a 4-walled bowl. It's the same at any stadium, any year.

Except I have sat next to people using their networks making calls without a problem. That's what drives me nuts is when I have full bars and phone calls and texts won't arrive on my phone until a good hour after I've left the stadium. And you can forget about data.



And yes. it's AT&T.

Ditto to the above. AT&T. No reception. My brother has another carrier (T-Mobile???) - no problem.



Every single game day, my phone lights up like a Christmas Tree when I'm half way home from the game with all the texts and missed calls/messages that didn't make it through while I was at the game.



This is especially annoying because BYU can only find it in the goodness of their heart to show "scores of interest" once a game, and almost always in the middle of a drive! Idiots...

I'm on Verizon and usually have pretty good reception. I try to text Hawkwing during the game, but he keeps forgetting to charge his phone, so the middle of the 2nd quarter I get a text: My phone is about to die.

Maybe AT&T is secretly owned by a BCS entity and they are just screwing with our emotions because we can't check other scores just like the administration seems to be screwing with our emotions of joining a BCS conference. Unlike Hawk my phone is always charged but it is dead about half-way through the game because it stays on trying to send a message for 2 hours. I have been with AT&T for 7 years and I am on the verge of getting a diff carrier just so I can look at scores when I am in the stadium.

verizon is where it's at

Had verizon and they kept charging me all these hidden fees. It was cheaper to buy my contract out early then keep paying all these ridiculous fees every month.

Holy cow I thought I was the only one having this problem.... very frustrating. I have T- mobile and have had the same service and seats at LES and never had a problem before this year.



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I have at&t, as Spiff said, we usually text each other during the game (unless I have the gps on my phone on, and then my phone dies by the 3rd quarter). It can be frustrating not getting very good reception. It happens to me too, but I usually am able to get the texts to and from Spiff. Last game I was sitting next to my in-laws and they couldn't get texts with Verizon. I think cell phone companies or BYU themselves, would be very wise to put in temporary transponders during the game.

Of course, Hawk's seats are so high, he probably has less interference from the stadium's structural framework too.

SpiffCoug wrote:
Of course, Hawk's seats are so high, he probably has less interference from the stadium's structural framework too.

Yeah, but the blood from my nosebleeds has to interfere some how.

Same problem for me on AT&T. I keep wanting to visit ESPN to check the team's stats during the game but can never get a thing.

I went on AT&T's website and reported the problem via chat with one of their technical reps. They indicated that they will notify their "network team" to check the area for "unknown service issues". I told them they better check it during the a game otherwise everything will appear to work fine. They told me they are unable to set the time when the network team is dispatched.



I recommend everyone with AT&T call or email them so that maybe they will actually fix the issue. (That worked so well for getting the mtn...)

I was talking with Greg Wrubell tonight and this very topic came up and how both he and I can never access data on at&t during game time.



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ATT goes down much more frequently than Verizon because of the way their 3G network works and because there are probably more ATT subscribers at the stadium. Long technical mumbo jumbo could be used to explain the problem, but more interestingly, there are some ways around it. I hesitate to share them here as they become less reliable as more people use them, but I am a good guy, so lets all just keep this a secret. It's not like this is going to get out. It's only the internet right?



The easiest way to retain/regain cell reception at LVES is to...here it comes...wait for it...TURN YOUR 3G RADIO OFF. This will force your phone to connect to ATT's older EDGE network (2G), which is probably going to be less populated and therefore more reliable. If that fails, and if your phone allows, you can turn off EDGE service and you will be relegated to ATT's older network (think it is GSM around here-not sure about that though. Could be GPRS) which will likely be even less populated.



I try going to EDGE first, and that usually works, but if not, I just turn off EDGE as well. Data is still very slow/non-existant (just like in the good ol' days), but I can text and call without problems.



I'm not sure to what extent different phones allow you to selectively turn off radios. I imagine that they all will let you as it is very helpful in improving battery life, among other things, but they might just try to hide it in the settings under something like, "turn off data connection" or something like that. I have an iPhone. It is jailbroken and I use a jailbreak app called SBSettings that lets me control all of that very easily and without doing anything technical. But even "dumb phones" nowadays connect to the 3g network to make calls, so turning off 3g with those is also helpful.



BYU definitely could install extra hardware to alleviate this problem. In fact, they already do in several buildings on campus where reception is poor etc., but only for Verizon. This is done at BYU's request and on their dollar. They could do the same at LVES if they wanted to.

DarthMagnus wrote:
ATT goes down much more frequently than Verizon because of the way their 3G network works and because there are probably more ATT subscribers at the stadium. Long technical mumbo jumbo could be used to explain the problem, but more interestingly, there are some ways around it. I hesitate to share them here as they become less reliable as more people use them, but I am a good guy, so lets all just keep this a secret. It's not like this is going to get out. It's only the internet right?



The easiest way to retain/regain cell reception at LVES is to...here it comes...wait for it...TURN YOUR 3G RADIO OFF. This will force your phone to connect to ATT's older EDGE network (2G), which is probably going to be less populated and therefore more reliable. If that fails, and if your phone allows, you can turn off EDGE service and you will be relegated to ATT's older network (think it is GSM around here-not sure about that though. Could be GPRS) which will likely be even less populated.



I try going to EDGE first, and that usually works, but if not, I just turn off EDGE as well. Data is still very slow/non-existant (just like in the good ol' days), but I can text and call without problems.



I'm not sure to what extent different phones allow you to selectively turn off radios. I imagine that they all will let you as it is very helpful in improving battery life, among other things, but they might just try to hide it in the settings under something like, "turn off data connection" or something like that. I have an iPhone. It is jailbroken and I use a jailbreak app called SBSettings that lets me control all of that very easily and without doing anything technical. But even "dumb phones" nowadays connect to the 3g network to make calls, so turning off 3g with those is also helpful.



BYU definitely could install extra hardware to alleviate this problem. In fact, they already do in several buildings on campus where reception is poor etc., but only for Verizon. This is done at BYU's request and on their dollar. They could do the same at LVES if they wanted to.

So how do you get your phone to work if you don't even have a data plan? All my phone is capable of doing is making calls and texting. I assume I'm already on AT&T's oldest network...

Wickchad84087 wrote:

ATT goes down much more frequently than Verizon because of the way their 3G network works and because there are probably more ATT subscribers at the stadium. Long technical mumbo jumbo could be used to explain the problem, but more interestingly, there are some ways around it. I hesitate to share them here as they become less reliable as more people use them, but I am a good guy, so lets all just keep this a secret. It's not like this is going to get out. It's only the internet right?



The easiest way to retain/regain cell reception at LVES is to...here it comes...wait for it...TURN YOUR 3G RADIO OFF. This will force your phone to connect to ATT's older EDGE network (2G), which is probably going to be less populated and therefore more reliable. If that fails, and if your phone allows, you can turn off EDGE service and you will be relegated to ATT's older network (think it is GSM around here-not sure about that though. Could be GPRS) which will likely be even less populated.



I try going to EDGE first, and that usually works, but if not, I just turn off EDGE as well. Data is still very slow/non-existant (just like in the good ol' days), but I can text and call without problems.



I'm not sure to what extent different phones allow you to selectively turn off radios. I imagine that they all will let you as it is very helpful in improving battery life, among other things, but they might just try to hide it in the settings under something like, "turn off data connection" or something like that. I have an iPhone. It is jailbroken and I use a jailbreak app called SBSettings that lets me control all of that very easily and without doing anything technical. But even "dumb phones" nowadays connect to the 3g network to make calls, so turning off 3g with those is also helpful.



BYU definitely could install extra hardware to alleviate this problem. In fact, they already do in several buildings on campus where reception is poor etc., but only for Verizon. This is done at BYU's request and on their dollar. They could do the same at LVES if they wanted to.

So how do you get your phone to work if you don't even have a data plan? All my phone is capable of doing is making calls and texting. I assume I'm already on AT&T's oldest network...

Negative, even most "dumb phones" now days connect to the 3g or EDGE network when its available to make calls and improve call quality. You'll just have to go through your settings and look at your options to see if there is anything there that looks like it would turn off the 3G or EDGE radio. If nothing jumps out at you, go to google and search something like, "Turn off 3G (insert your phone model number)".

I have Sprint and have had no problems with texts or calls, and only limited slowness at times with data. Maybe it's all the new Sprint signs around the top of LES. Or could be that my seats are in row 23 of section 127 (that's where we sit when I pay).



That said, last year when BYU Hoops played SDSU (1st time, in Provo), I had to be at the Jazz game (work thing) and had no trouble getting the ESPN in-game updates on my phone evey 15 seconds from row 9 in the lower bowl (that's were we sit when work pays). THe 2 guys in front of me couldn't get an AT&T signal on their iPhones and were trying to get updates. Eventually, I just held out my phone so they could see.