• 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️
    link
    fedilink
    English
    34
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    OP might be inside a Walmart when they took the screenshot. Walmart either uses building materials that impede the signal or actively block it. I also can never get full 5G inside a Walmart, and sometimes I wonder if they are doing it on purpose to encourage using their local wifi. The only other time being inside a building messes with my phone is at the hospital, and I know they have a ton of equipment that could be responsible for that.

    • @tal@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      12
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Walmarts are big windowless boxes. A cell signal has to go through masonry walls to get out.

      5G Ultra Wideband, which is what OP’s map is showing to be in the area, and what he’s upset about not getting, uses millimeter-wave frequencies, which are fast if they have a clear line to the tower…but don’t penetrate material well.

      https://www.5gamericas.org/here-comes-millimeter-wave/

      On the challenging side of the equation, millimeter waves don’t propagate as far as low-band or mid-band signals, so there is a much smaller target area used to receive a signal, compared with sub-6 GHz signals. In addition, millimeter wave signals are subject to more diffused scattering when in contact with large objects, and they receive higher signal loss from foliage, object penetration, and from the atmosphere. This means you have to put a lot more millimeter wave signal repeaters around, so you get good mmWave coverage.

      I suspect that if WalMart wants, they could maybe pay to run femtocells inside the store or something to get more coverage, but if (a) they already have 4G coverage in the store and (b) they’re also providing WiFi access, they probably aren’t gonna be putting even more network infrastructure in.

    • @Kaboom@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      46 months ago

      I get it bad in any large store, mainly because its a very large metal box. Its basically a faraday cage.

    • DominusOfMegadeusOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      -126 months ago

      Nope. I know they do that. This was taken in the parking lot. I am starting to suspect there is something on the roof that is disrupting good cell signal.

      • @Moonrise2473@feddit.it
        link
        fedilink
        English
        17
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        Or maybe the service is degraded because there are thousands of people connecting to the same cell and Verizon can’t justify the $$$ of placing more transceivers/bandwidth in a supermarket placed in the middle of nowhere with zero residents.

        I don’t think Walmart is willing to pay millions in fines from the FCC by installing an illegal 5g jammer because reasons

        • DominusOfMegadeusOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          -86 months ago

          You make a couple of good points, however you may want to double check your knowledge of Eastern Massachusetts population densities. I also don’t think Walmart gives two shits about paltry FCC fines, because forcing you into their wifi where you are required to agree to a ridiculous amount of data sharing, is certainly a lucrative proposition for them.

          • @over_clox@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            11
            edit-2
            6 months ago

            Life pro tip:

            You can totally anonymously connect to Walmart WiFi…

            irrelevant@dispostable.com

            The password is Walmart1

            It’s registered in their system as Anonymous Human

            I set that anonymous “account” up a couple years ago just for my more or less anonymous phone that has never been signed into Google.

            You or anyone else is welcome to use that for Walmart WiFi, fuckem, milk that WiFi!