Technology always advances. Yesterday, the best broadband connection was a wire line service from providers like the cable television or telephone companies. Today, FWA has started to bring us wireless broadband.
This is coming from wireless carriers like AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. While users love the idea because it’s quick and easy and less expensive, based on several factors only some customers are having a good experience. This will get better, but let me explain why, and how to improve your experience.
One reason is your homes distance from nearest cell tower. As you have noticed on your smartphone, performance depends on signal strength. How many bars you get on your smartphone home screen.
Some wireless internet users are too far from cell tower
The more bars, the better. The fewer bars, the worse connection and the worse experience. This seems to be the same with wireless broadband.
Expect the same strengths and weaknesses from your wireless broadband. Strong signal, better service. Weak signal, slower and less stable service.
This is why some users will love it while others will hate it. It’s not the service. It all depends on how close you are to the nearest cell tower, and how busy it is.
Cell tower wireless internet capacity and speed are all different
Another reason is not all cell towers are created equal.
Some are newer and others are older. Some have more capacity compared to others. Some are faster than others. Some are full of users while others have plenty of extra room.
These are some of the reasons why the experience can be different for different users.
Another reason is wiring. Apartments, condos and villa residents or even office buildings have an additional problem to wrestle with. Interior wiring. Some is old. Others were not installed well from the beginning.
Also, those who provide the service could have faulty or ancient wiring into the building or inside to your home or office.
Bad wiring could be why your broadband internet has problems
You see, sometimes builders install the broadband wiring. They are often not as precise as broadband specialists.
Their workers can put a staple right through the wire, interfering with performance. This problem can last for years before discovered.
I had this problem at a property in the Charter Spectrum region of the country. After years of struggle, once they put a specialist on it, and rewired the place, the problem was fixed.
5G Wireless broadband connections are not all created equal
Remember, a wireless or wire line broadband connection is not the same for all customers. Some are better and faster and more stable than others.
Who is to blame when something goes wrong? That’s another good question.
Sometimes it is the wire line or wireless broadband provider like Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, Altice, Cox, AT&T, Verizon, AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and others.
Sometimes it’s the distance from the nearest cell phone tower or something else getting in the way of a strong signal.
Sometimes it’s an old or faulty router.
Have you noticed that two smartphones in the same building can have different performance depending on the side of the building? One side is has a direct line sight to the tower while the other has to go through the building.
No easy answers. Each problem must be carefully determined
There are no easy answers. The lesson to be learned here is all broadband connections are not created equally. It’s the same with any wire line or wireless connection.
So, bottom line… why are some wireless broadband customers happy and others not? It all depends.
Plus, do not think the company you use today is always the best for you. When you move or travel or go to the office you may find your connection is no longer adequate, while a competitor may be.
Years ago, I used AT&T Mobility with low signal strength. I eventually switched to Verizon Wireless and got better performance. Not the best signal, but better.
So, no wireless carrier is the best. They all have strengths and weaknesses. It all depends on where you are located, your building, your location in that building, the kind of cell tower you connect to and so much more.
With this knowledge, I hope you can understand the challenge and why there is no single, best provider, no matter what the television commercials say.
The bottom line… it all depends.
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