Any Phone Improvements for 2014?

[CarlOrton]

It's been awhile, and I'm not really sure where things were left off, but have there been any plans implemented for better phone coverage this year? Those of us with ATT service always seemed to be left in the lurch. I do know there are bandwidth issues in a city the size of OSH.

Just for background, I can't talk to my wife during convention when we're both on the grounds. I can call my Sprint buddy, who then calls her just fine, and relays the message. Inconvenient, but better than nothing.

Each year has gotten incrementally better (THANKS!!), so I just thought I'd re-ping the topic for a refresher.

[jjhoneck]

When my first child was about to be born, in 1990, my wife was barred by the doctor from attending Oshkosh.

She was FURIOUS at her doctor, but complied. (He wasn't born until August 10th, long after OSH, which REALLY irked her. But I digress.)

I attended alone, and called her every two hours FROM A PAY PHONE on the AirVenture grounds, to make sure she hadn't gone into labor.

Are there still any payphones on the EAA grounds?

It's amazing how far we've come since then. Now, I'm right there with you, cursing the slow WiFi and poor cell coverage. lol!

[MEdwards]

I thought AT&T was the one that set up a temporary tower on-site the last two years and so their service was good?

[CarlOrton]

I know there were a few COWs set up, dunno by whom.

My call success APPEARS to be related to ATTs capacity at the tower level. As in, if one of us is over by the museum, the call gets thru. If I'm by the Plaza and she's at the welcome center, nada. It's like ATT is saying, Hey, you're close enough, go talk in person!

That also supports my assertion of calling a non-ATT middleman to relay a msg.

[FlyingRon]

ATT was completely dead during the show a few years back (yes they set up a temporary cell). They screwed up the capacity planning with the proliferation of smart phones (primarily iPhones) that were beating on things. It's been somewhat better. I extensively used my iPhone to call pilots to move their planes the sloshkosh year.

[dmbleess]

Sprint has lit up 4 towers surrounding the airport. Two are on the edges of airport property east and west. One is across the river to the north, the fourth is across 41 on the west side between 9th and 20th.

With the exception of the north site across the river, the rest should be lit with 4g LTE and sprint's new band 26 to add better structures penetration to their band 25.

With the "spark" upgrades normally comes more bandwidth so sprint's normally good service there should be even better this year.

http://www.s4gru.com tracks the upgrades.

http://www.sensorly.com uses smart phone apps to help users track coverage and signal strengths.

[dmbleess]

I'm leaving for Wisconsin tomorrow, out to the show Saturday. Anyone have any experiences to report so far?

[CarlOrton]

I'm an AT&T user and all I can say is a WOW. Call completion was 100%, and data use was running about 95%. Simple stuff like wx mail, stocks, etc. Most of the unsat stuff was overcome by moving just a bit. Sometimes was a bit slower but such an improvement over past years I didn't even realize I was having any issue. THANKS to whomever worked this issue; you deserve a raise.

[Tom Steber]

AT&T user here and not having anywhere the kind of luck you've had Cal. Most of the time I'm using my own data. Once in a while I'm able to connect to the Wifi Public Hotspot or EAA Wifi. That includes standing next to one of their "hot spots". But usually not for long.
Or it shows it's there but not able to connect. Using iPhone 5C

[CarlOrton]

Tom, my biggest problem was always call completion. I'd try to call my wife for lunch,not knowing where she was. Turns out that she was frequently within 500' of me. The calls would NOT go thru 95% of the time. Now, as I said, I didn't have a single failed call.

I found myself usually connected to ATTs data network. I'd occasionally see the wifi indicator, but like you 95% of the time my/ATTs data worked well enough.