Cell Phone Users in the Boonies
Many cell phone users today mistakingly think that their phones should work everywhere.
If you live in the boonies and you're annoyed your phone doesn't work all that well, you need to blame your sorry self.
Not the cell phone company.
"But why can't the wireless provider just put up new towers?" For starters, they already have a bunch of sites up along the highways that lead to your town.
And they probably have a few sites in your town too, but that'll depend on the size of your town.
But do you live right in town, on the fringe, or way outside of town? If you're on the fringe, you should expect to have poor indoor signal.
If you're way outside of the town limits, you're probably up the creek.
Keep in mind that wireless providers often put up sites in areas where they know the site will break-even in around a year.
If your town has under 1000 people, you may have to wait a while for any new "network build".
If a normal site costs between 200k and 1 million depending on the technology your provider uses, it could take many years before they'd expect to see a return on their money.
Yes, there's sometimes an important rural area that needs to be covered, like a popular vacation or cottage area, and those sites may not break-even for a while.
But if the area is important enough, it'll get covered.
But you can't expect your home area to be considered "important" just because you live there! Many cell phone users think that because the main town in their area is very well covered by cell sites, they should expect great coverage all around the surrounding towns, villages, and back-woods roads and highways.
These types of areas are ALWAYS going to have challenges.
There's trees, there's hills and mountains, there's valleys, and there's huge distances between sites.
Oh, and did I mention there's trees? There are at least two possible solutions to this issue.
If you live out in the boonies, you need to either a) buy a huge cell phone that has a huge antenna, or b) install an in-car kit in your vehicle that comes with a tall antenna to put on your roof.
All in all, if you live in the boonies, you need to take some positive steps using one of the above solutions and stop thinking of your phone as being magic.
If you live in the boonies and you're annoyed your phone doesn't work all that well, you need to blame your sorry self.
Not the cell phone company.
"But why can't the wireless provider just put up new towers?" For starters, they already have a bunch of sites up along the highways that lead to your town.
And they probably have a few sites in your town too, but that'll depend on the size of your town.
But do you live right in town, on the fringe, or way outside of town? If you're on the fringe, you should expect to have poor indoor signal.
If you're way outside of the town limits, you're probably up the creek.
Keep in mind that wireless providers often put up sites in areas where they know the site will break-even in around a year.
If your town has under 1000 people, you may have to wait a while for any new "network build".
If a normal site costs between 200k and 1 million depending on the technology your provider uses, it could take many years before they'd expect to see a return on their money.
Yes, there's sometimes an important rural area that needs to be covered, like a popular vacation or cottage area, and those sites may not break-even for a while.
But if the area is important enough, it'll get covered.
But you can't expect your home area to be considered "important" just because you live there! Many cell phone users think that because the main town in their area is very well covered by cell sites, they should expect great coverage all around the surrounding towns, villages, and back-woods roads and highways.
These types of areas are ALWAYS going to have challenges.
There's trees, there's hills and mountains, there's valleys, and there's huge distances between sites.
Oh, and did I mention there's trees? There are at least two possible solutions to this issue.
If you live out in the boonies, you need to either a) buy a huge cell phone that has a huge antenna, or b) install an in-car kit in your vehicle that comes with a tall antenna to put on your roof.
All in all, if you live in the boonies, you need to take some positive steps using one of the above solutions and stop thinking of your phone as being magic.
