Cellphone Networks Survive Inauguration, Mostly 121
nandemoari writes "Everybody was talking about Barack Obama's inauguration on Tuesday morning, and it showed. According to reports, a number of mobile phone networks faced overload circumstances that day until late afternoon, when the chat sessions finally began to dissipate.
Having the most trouble that morning appears to have been T-Mobile, and AT&T also had some difficulty that morning."
All circuits are busy now (Score:5, Funny)
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You can thank the COWs (Score:5, Informative)
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Q: What did the police man say to the CoW?
A: You're blocking the view of the President. Mooooove along!
(Yes, it's so bad I had to post anonymously out of shame.)
Re:You can thank the COWs (Score:4, Funny)
Mu?
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Re:You can thank the COWs (Score:4, Funny)
Aha! I didn't RTFA but no doubt the Dept. of Homeland Security was involved in finding all those Cells.
I hope they detained them for further questioning, although I still don't understand why the terrorists were using Heelys [heelys.com].
Unmissable revenue opportunity (Score:4, Insightful)
As for the content.... more does not mean better. Having millions sending vids and pics shot with crappy cellphone lenses was hardy of benefit. A few real camera crews with real cameras provided all the really useful (ie worth viewing) material.
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Hardly a charitable act. Do you really think the providers were going to miss an opportunity like this? They'd have pretty much been guaranteed 100% utilization of equipment that often stands relatively idle.
An excellent point, and I never really thought of it as something the companies were doing out of the kindness of their own hearts, anyways. It really was more a game of one-upmanship for them, to see whose network could handle the most volume that day. I'm surprised the providers haven't put those numbers out yet to try to declare whose network was the best that day.
Granted I was over 300 miles away from Washington DC when the inauguration happened, but it just occurred to me I didn't even make a call
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Hardly a charitable act
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages."
-Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I Chapter II
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As for the content.... more does not mean better. Having millions sending vids and pics shot with crappy cellphone lenses was hardy of benefit. A few real camera crews with real cameras provided all the really useful (ie worth viewing) material.
No, but had there been an assassination if might be interesting.
I wonder what it would have been like if there'd been modern cellphones in November 1963. Assuming that the millions of photos and frames of video could be sifted through.
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real cameras provided all the really useful (ie worth viewing) material
Case in point: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.html [boston.com]
Verizon (Score:1, Interesting)
Just another example of the pros and cons of different companies in the cell phone market. I went to the Inauguration with my Verizon phone, and had no trouble making a few calls or texting people right from the mall.
On the other hand, I am still trying to find a way to get away from Verizon and onto AT&T or T-Mobile, because their phones are mediocre, customer service is below par, and they restrict their devices.
It's all about what you want to sacrifice when buying a phone - a wide network and more ca
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Um, couldn't you just buy your own device and use whatever carrier you want?
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Um, couldn't you just buy your own device and use whatever carrier you want?
Not from the U.S., I take it?
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In the US you absolutely CAN buy your own device and hook it up to whatever carrier covers the system (GSM, EDGE, etc.) It's the law. What you CANNOT do is buy a supercool smartphone for the (subsidized) price of $99.99 - you have to buy at list.
It's not that Americans are being shafted because they can't get out of contracts they agreed to, but that we're addicted to having the latest phone and paying
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In the US, using Sprint, I buy my own phones and when I try to replace my existing phone I get told "Sir, activating that phone will require a 2 year agreement." What? What the hell? I paid for this thing. Why should I sign a contract? I have no choice so I say yes.
The problem in the US is that you have no rights with cell phone carriers. I havent gotten a subsidized phone in ages, but Im still locked into contracts. I guess there's always the option of some pay per month crap phone, but I need a smartphon
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On the other hand, I am still trying to find a way to get away from Verizon and onto AT&T or T-Mobile, because their phones are mediocre, customer service is below par, and they restrict their devices.
And AT&T and T-Mobile don't restrict their devices?
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Not too much. My Tilt (HTC TyTN II) out of the box supports pretty much any format Windows Media Player does out of the box (I can use a full-song MP3 as any sound on the phone, etc). It asks before installing unsigned software, but doesn't care. My net connection is proxied, but i can override it.
I am, however, banned from the "AT&T Mall". I can't buy ringtones from AT&T BECAUSE my phone is so open - I could share them!
Find me a Verizon phone that can share its internet connection as a Wi-Fi access
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Okay, but AT&T and T-Mobile won't actually sell you an unlocked phone. You have to buy it 3rd party, which means you're going to be paying full price.
I would say mitigated (Score:3, Interesting)
--
So who is hotter? Ali or Ali's Sister?
Re:I would say mitigated (Score:4, Insightful)
If they had survived service would not have been interrupted based in normal use, not a reduction
I don't think 2M people in a few square miles all texting, pic/vid messaging, and calling is "normal use".
Mitigating [merriam-webster.com] any *major* issues brought about with extreme usage is survival, to me.
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Well, it's "normal use" in Manhattan, or Boston, or most downtown areas of major cities (especially in the middle of the work day).
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Density of Manhattan is 70,000 per sq mile, Density of Boston is 12,000 per sq mile.
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There weren't even close to 2 million people. In fact it's unclear if the Obama inauguration even surpassed the record of 1.2 million previously set by Lyndon Johnson. This smells just like the "Million Man March", more media perpetuated bullshit.
Re:I would say mitigated (Score:4, Interesting)
Ah but was Johnson's one really 1.2 million? How did they get that figure?
There is a cool satellite image of it all going around, like here [washingtonpost.com], so you imagine someone could eventually come up with a good estimate of yesterdays one.
How do they estimate crowd sizes anyway, fair enough in a stadium (80,000 seats all full = 80,000 people) but for other things it seems to be bordering on random guessing.
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The National Park Service produced official estimates until 1995, when they were ordered by congress to stop, after being sued by Louis Farrakhan for estimating only 400,000 attended the Million Man March. They're providing official estimates for the size of the inauguration crowd.
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Right so after staring at the picture I linked to and allowing 2.5 sq foot per person in the crowded bits, I reckon 500,000 on the mall at the time of the picture, there was another 200,000 invited people in the capitol grounds, and then there are the people still crowding the streets. Picture was taken half an hour before and 18th street still looks crowded in that picture. So I don't know 900k in total?
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I heard that the estimate is the mall holds around 1.0-1.2 million when full. I don't know how accurate that is, but I'm guessing someone who knows more about it than you or I came up with that. ;-)
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It would depend what is defined as the mall also - Is it just the bit from 3rd street to the Washington monument or do you go all the way to the Lincoln memorial.
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This morning Channel 6 in Philadelphia debunked the 2 million estimate. They demonstrated with a newspaper that in order to squeeze that many people, the citizens would have to be standing close enough to have sex with one another (i.e. 8 people per newspaper sheet).
A more-realistic estimate, based upon video of the scene, indicates 3-4 people per newspaper sheet, which yields 750,000-1 million total.
Also if you look at the satellite, you'll notice that not the whole mall was filled. People were clustered
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lessons (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:lessons (Score:5, Informative)
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Sure they could test it. The only problem is stupid people would not realize it's better to test it on some random Wednesday afternoon and risk failure then, than to test it during an emergency. If they run a test and it goes badly, they get major bad PR, when they really should get good PR for trying to make sure their systems work ahead of time.
So they end up doing exactly what you said - don't test it at all, and just hope there's no emergency.
Waiting for Congestion Charges (Score:1)
To appear on ~1M mobile phone bills.
My experience (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:My experience (Score:5, Informative)
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NPR was running a story on the cell phone aspect of the inauguration yesterday morning. They reported the carriers were encouraging people to text instead of call (which I'm sure was only to save bandwidth and had nothing to do with the massively inflated cost per text - which /. has also covered) I will say though that my girlfriend was texting back and forth from the mall a lot, while she had to press send a couple of times for some messages, once they were through, they were delivered in a timely fashi
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You were also correct in assuming that massive calls = lots of call control signaling = not much room left for SMS.
Re:My experience (Score:4, Informative)
From the phone to the tower, that is correct. However, once your carrier receives the text, it is routed entirely differently.
From what I heard, the reason texts were delayed for so long has nothing to do with the control channel being full, but rather the total text volume being switched between carriers.
i.e., the text isn't stuck on your mobile phone, it's stuck in a message queue in a datacenter somewhere.
Data network not taken seriously (Score:2, Interesting)
I was on the Mall in DC, and AT&T's data network was completely down through most, if not all, of the day. Since they have to dedicate channels to data, I'm sure they decided to abandon data completely. Another example of how current data carriers don't take their data networks seriously. They're *obviously* not as important as voice...
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I was on the Mall in DC as well, and found the same thing with AT&T. Although I had very spotty voice services, I was receiving texts over 2 hours after they were sent and had no larger data transfer capabilities.
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Another example of how current data carriers don't take their data networks seriously. They're *obviously* not as important as voice...
Man, do I second that. Occasionally I'll get text messages from nagios hours after it detected a problem. That's complete bullshit. If they're going to gouge everyone for SMS messaging, they better have some outstandingly low latency for it. Seems like to me this is something that could spur a class-action lawsuit..
Can you here me now? (Score:2)
the real problem (Score:2, Insightful)
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First, I am not a cellular tech weenie, and I did not stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. I have had to learn some of this stuff over the years in self-defense, and what I understand is that to increase the call capacity in an area there are three main things that can be done. One, use sectorized antennas; two, add towers and turn their power down to create a larger number of smaller cells; three, add to the number of links to the terrestrial network.
I don't have a car analogy, but think of it like th
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Btw as for the people who keep saying the cell towers on wheels solved all the problems, I dunno what moron thought that was going to help but there's only so much bandwidth available in the air regardless of the number of towers and you can't have them stomping on each other.
Apparently those "morons" that actually work as cellular engineers. You roll in the cell sites on wheels (COWs), drop the output power of neighboring cells, and voila increased capacity!
But hey, I guess it's just easier to call someone a name whenever you don't understand how something works.
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You would think that after being shot down by several people you might actually go and do some reading instead of persisting in your idiocy.
Cellular phones (since the Moto Dynatec according to wikipedia) have the ability to change their transmit power at the request of the network. This was SPECIFICALLY designed for the purpose of accommodating different-sized/power cells and increasing capacity (like in this situation). It is one of the principle reasons that you can now see cellular transmitter at diffe
Re:the real problem (Score:5, Informative)
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Parent is entirely right.
When you think of cells in a network, don't picture the towers in the middle of a cell because they're not. Rather, picture triangles with the cell towers on the corners, transmitting inwards. (Three antenna arrays per tower, one per cell.) This is a simplification, but it illustrates the general principle. Next time you see a tower, take a look at the top, and you'll probably see the antennas spaced at 120 degree angles. This is why.
In this configuration, if you want to add capacit
Looks like the setup needs to be tweaked more. (Score:3, Interesting)
If this was an emergency like on 9/11/2001, then this would had been very bad.
Need for social engineering too (Score:2)
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Untrue -- Government officials and emergency personnel have a special code they can use to dial numbers on their cell phone, giving them priority access to the cell towers.
http://wps.ncs.gov/use.html [ncs.gov]
Dial *272 and then the number you want to call. If your phone is flagged as allowed to use WPS, then your call will be accepted and given priority over all other calls. I believe there are differing levels of access, so a local volunteer fireman might have a lower priority than say Secretary of State Clinton.
Facebook (Score:2)
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I bet a nice chunk of this was due to people watching the CNN live feed at work. CNN partnered with facebook so that the live video feed page had your friends' facebook status, and gave you the opportunity to update your own status while watching the inauguration.
Who cares? (Score:1, Insightful)
College football games get big enough crowds to overload cell networks. Is it really surprising the inauguration did? Can we get some informative articles please.
T-Mobile sucks in DC (Score:2)
No surprise that T-Mobile had so much trouble. I've heard they're OK elsewhere, but in the DC area their coverage is horrible. Pity too because they have the best phones... First the sidekick and now android.
My experience with Sprint (Score:2)
I use Sprint and was about 250m from the Washington Monument. While I had full bars the entire morning, texts were hit or miss - sometimes they went through, othertimes they did not. Calling was impossible. I tried calling twice and neither ever actually got through.
A friend with AT&T was able to get texting to work, but was not able to call nor to send a picture message.
All in all? I would not say they "survived".
Only in the sense that I can use my Sprint phone today, I suppose.
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I too was about 250m from the Washington Monument, and trying and failing on the Sprint network. I had full bars, but was only able to send 3 text messages between my 10am arrival and 2pm departure. Most got rejected with Network Busy.
Calls and data never worked during that period while on the Mall.
A friend who had Verizon did not have any trouble making calls or texting.
On NANOG, a Verizon employee described that they spent 6 months planning capacity and rolling out COW's (Cell On Wheels) and had gotten
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Looks like Sprint claimed to have deployed extra capacity. Just not enough:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/16/inauguration.phones/index.html [cnn.com]
" To handle the increased traffic, Sprint is planning to deploy resources usually reserved for hurricanes: COWs and COLTs.
The acronyms stand for Cell On Wheels and Cell On Light Truck. The vehicles use satellite and microwave technology and act as mobile cell towers. They are typically deployed to disaster sites when towers get knocked out.
For the inauguration, Sprint
Shhh! (Score:5, Insightful)
If they don't ask why the service isn't getting better but the prices are getting higher, they'll never suspect that we'd rather hoard cash instead of reinvesting it! Teeheeheehee!
---
Sincerely,
That company that would charge you $5000 to send an MP3 over SMS
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Why would they build a network capable of handling extreme peaks in usage? It's much less wasteful for them to do quick fixes (CoW, etc.) during the times they need it than to build that capacity into the network.
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> Why would they build a network capable
> of handling extreme peaks in usage?
Large scale emergencies?
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So they should build out their network in every city in America to be able to handle an emergency that has 2 million people coming to the area for a 2 day period? That seems logical...
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2m in 2d might seem extreme, but it was shown to be possible 2d ago. Should we set a design goal of 640k?
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Re:Improving networks (Score:4, Insightful)
Israel's cell phone system is engineered to this type of standard. Every time the rockets hit, everyone checks in with loved ones to see if they're alright.
It's really only the U.S. that has major overload issues when bad things happen. In places where bad things happen more often, their networks tend to be built to handle it.
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It's really only the U.S. that has major overload issues when bad things happen
Depends on the point of view, I guess, but Obama being inaugurated wouldn't qualify as a bad thing :-)
I come from a country where bad things don't happen on a regular basis, but the network here also basically fails every new year's eve, for example, when everyone's calling and messaging every friend they have to give their wishes. In fact I can't even think of another yearly event where the network fails. Maybe christmas eve?
Basically it all comes down to the economics of investing and maintaining a networ
Re:Improving networks (Score:5, Insightful)
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Russia? That is a good side. I dont know about their network though.
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red herring. if thats true than explain why cell service is as crappy in Manhattan than in bumsticks OK.
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Because New York City is run buy a collection of corrupt thugs that like to tax and stagnate things. You can't have a tower somewhere a condo is going to be built. Plus you always have to brib...go through the proper channels and get the proper permits. Doing anything in New York City without wasting a shitload of money is impossible. Don't expect it to get any better there with a self-righteous mayor, a wimpy Governor, and the city council sold to the highest bidder.
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Canada. Russia. Northern Europe. All countries have similar population density.
Re:Improving networks (Score:5, Funny)
I don't care what the Risk board says, Northern Europe is NOT a country.
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Really? How about Western Australia? Should I consider another base?
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All three of those regions are rather close to the arctic circle. Although the population density of the country may be similar, I'd venture a guess and say that most of the people are rather concentrated in major cities (or, in Canada, along the southern border).
In the US, the population is more widely dispersed than in these three areas. In other words, we have more people living in "the middle of nowhere" than they do, and our major cities are more separated as well.
How about fixing just the cities (Score:5, Interesting)
My brother is an international tour guide and uses a cellphone in places like Rwanda which has about the same coverage density as USA. Is that what the USA industry really wants to be compared to?
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Well, there is one particular advantage to Europe and most of Africa and other places around the world. They have standardized on one type of cell tech where in the US we at one time had five or more and about 20 different companies competing to be the next big thing. I think we are still using something like 3 different channels and about 4 different types of technology. Most phones can use more then one at a time.
Anyways, this is an artifact of being free and having companies bring Cell phones to the mass
Re:Improving networks (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do people assume it's so easy to magically improve the infrastructure of the entire US?
Critcism makes us appear smarter. I remember one time there was a story about a 55x CD burner being the fastest one available at the time. I sarcastically said something like "why do we need faster burners? All you have to do is wait longer!" and was modded Insightful.
Re:Improving networks (Score:5, Funny)
IIRC, when I modded your comment insightful, I was also being sarcastic.
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Puh-lease. It's as simple as adding a line item in the upcoming stimulus plan. A few billion extra dollars isn't going to break t
Patriotism, it empties your head (Score:1, Insightful)
Your argument would be valid if cities had fast broadband.
The only people who trot out this argument are too blind to see that state of broadband in America. Broadband gets cheaper all over the world, but it only gets more expensive here.
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yet your only slightly bigger than Australia which has a population of just 21 Million and our phone service doesn't suck.
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You are entirely correct.
However, the mobile providers also get goverment subsidies and make profits that would make any retailer sell his soul to get 10% of what they make.
America is larger and harder to cover with cells than most of Europe, our providers also make FAR FAR more than they need to for the investment in infrastructure upgrades to be considered sane. Theres no excuse for the service we get out of mobile providers in the states.
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That excuse is fine in the really sparse states, but most the people don't live in those really sparse areas and yet still many are left with poor service and little choice.
If you compare VA and Scotland you get a broadly similar area. Population sizes are within 15%. VA has high population density in NoVA, Scotland has it in the Central Belt.
Scotland has 99% ADSL coverage with a wide choice of providers, right down to many sparsely populated island communities. The Government is investing to fill in the e
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Yeah but its sad when Australia beats you at broadband and mobile coverage. :P
Ahh the benefits of having a consumer and competition comission.
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Australia is the same size as mainland US, and it has 8% of the population.
Go whinge somewhere else.
Where's the motivation (Score:5, Insightful)
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What sort of improvements should be made to handle an extreme peak not likely to happen again? I think it worked out pretty damn well, being that I was two miles from the ceremonies and suffered no outages at all.
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Can't agree more.. Please don't actually TALK on your unlimited plan. Please use text messaging, as its basically free for us to send through the network, and we get to charge you $0.25 each for them! (and in reality, they charge twice for one message sent/received)
Re:Where's the motivation (Score:4, Informative)
$0.25 US Dollars per text message??
That's just... insane
Here in Mexico I pay 80 peso cents for each text message sent (aprox. 0.057 USD). I pay nothing for messages received. ...and that's because I am using a prepaid phone, most people with monthly plans have unlimited text messaging.
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If people continue to pay high prices for shit service then where is the motivation to improve the infrastructure?
To beat out the competition, of course.
It might not have been feasible to improve the infrastructure with wired connections, but with Cell Towers, most people are going to go with the service that gives the most bars. -I- switched after I noticed all my friends getting full reception in my neighborhood while I constantly went in and out of signal.