Cell Phone Connectivity

UnimatrixZero

Last two years ATT coverage has been terrible. Convention center wifi was ridiculously overpriced if I recall, or didn't work. Anyone know if the signal quality has improved any since last year?

shimwood

I don't think anyone can really answer that at this point. I'm sure any mobile carriers in the area would have made upgrades to their towers since January, but a lot of the quality you receive is a factor of saturation on the towers. Maybe some of the Comic Con attendees can give their two cents, but we won't truly know until January 28, 2017.

macrogeek

My family is on AT&T. We didn't have any issues with service last year.

Singsalot

My phone worked fine, but Wi-Fi was nonexistant as far as I could tell. Hopefully something that gets rectified by 2018 if not this year with the renovations.

xThanatoSx

The last 2 years I've generally been ok with Verizon as far as overall connectivity goes. Things may have loaded very slowly at times, but I've never not been able to connect.

Things being slow at times though is pretty much a given when you've got that many people in a confined space all trying to use their phones at once.

futiles

My group was entirely AT&T, and we had no issues with service, at all.

DigitalCarnage

Anyone know how well Fi worked last year. it works off t-mo Sprint and USC

Yarrr ImA Pirate

Att here, my phone worked for the most part throughout the expo hall etc. however my tablet that's also LTE connected was almost impossible to download apps on when I went to play board games that required apps i.e. Xcom The Board Game. That might be the only issue you run into.

ahstoddard

DigitalCarnage wrote: »

Anyone know how well Fi worked last year. it works off t-mo Sprint and USC

My Sprint phone worked fine the last two years, as did my wife's T-Mobile
My AT&T phone also worked, for that matter

We have a lot of phones.

sirena

My AT&T service worked fine in the main expo hall during Alamo City Comic Con a couple months ago. I didn't really use my phone during panels in the upstairs rooms but I don't recall hearing anyone complain about service.

hobbseltoff

AT&T worked fine 99% of the time, the only issues were on Market St where all the taxis were parked. That spot was an issue both years I've gone.

AztdkMom

I work in HBGCC. There is now free WiFi in the public spaces of the center that is provided by the city, but this does NOT work in the exhibit halls or meeting rooms unless PAX decided to pay to offer it from SmartCity, or you decide to buy it yourself. Exhibitors, of course, must purchase connectivity through SmartCity, but I've heard that it's a little better working in the new space. It is nice to know you can reliably go out to the hallways to check messages though.

Cell phone service is primarily an issue due to number of people, the towers just can't handle it. This is not unique to PAX. Any time really large groups are in, it gets terrible. Annectdotaly, from what I've seen, AT&T customers have it the best, Verizon comes in second and Sprint a distant 3rd. Due to whatever priority protocols are used by the carriers, pretty much anything except the big 3 is hopeless. However all 3 will go in and out depending on where you are in the building .

Animal-_-

AT&T user, my ability to text and make calls has been fine the last two years however my 4G LTE network speed inside the building was almost non-existent most of the time. As @AztdkMom said before me, when you have that many people trying to use their networks in such a small space there really is not much you can do. Maybe with the new space this year things might be better but I wouldn't count on it.

LuisS

There is a spot right next the the main merch booth where signal is great (T-Mobile)

electricstorm

AT&T was okay during the comic con. There were a few dead spots closer towards the middle of the con floor. Last year, I had issues with service in the handheld lounge but nowhere else.

besweeet

AztdkMom wrote: »

I work in HBGCC. There is now free WiFi in the public spaces of the center that is provided by the city, but this does NOT work in the exhibit halls or meeting rooms unless PAX decided to pay to offer it from SmartCity, or you decide to buy it yourself. Exhibitors, of course, must purchase connectivity through SmartCity, but I've heard that it's a little better working in the new space. It is nice to know you can reliably go out to the hallways to check messages though.

Cell phone service is primarily an issue due to number of people, the towers just can't handle it. This is not unique to PAX. Any time really large groups are in, it gets terrible. Annectdotaly, from what I've seen, AT&T customers have it the best, Verizon comes in second and Sprint a distant 3rd. Due to whatever priority protocols are used by the carriers, pretty much anything except the big 3 is hopeless. However all 3 will go in and out depending on where you are in the building .

You failed to acknowledge the existence of T-Mobile .

T-Mobile recently rolled out band 2 LTE (10x10 chunk) downtown, so 3-way carrier aggregation should definitely help with capacity and speeds. I don't foresee any issues with them.

sammyHD1

I had Sprint last year. Anytime i was on my phone I could do what I needed.
The only day I had any kind of a slow connection was Saturday and that was only from 11:30 am- 1:30 pm(Lunch time).

Murf

AztdkMom wrote: »

I work in HBGCC. There is now free WiFi in the public spaces of the center that is provided by the city, but this does NOT work in the exhibit halls or meeting rooms unless PAX decided to pay to offer it from SmartCity, or you decide to buy it yourself. Exhibitors, of course, must purchase connectivity through SmartCity, but I've heard that it's a little better working in the new space. It is nice to know you can reliably go out to the hallways to check messages though.

Cell phone service is primarily an issue due to number of people, the towers just can't handle it. This is not unique to PAX. Any time really large groups are in, it gets terrible. Annectdotaly, from what I've seen, AT&T customers have it the best, Verizon comes in second and Sprint a distant 3rd. Due to whatever priority protocols are used by the carriers, pretty much anything except the big 3 is hopeless. However all 3 will go in and out depending on where you are in the building .

How much is the wifi through SmartCity? Is it something I can purchase before hand?

BiffTannen

You can make calls, but for data, the lower floors of Henry B Gonzales are not kind to any carriers. TMobile I can confirm will NOT have data unless you're on the upper levels of the convention center. Service and Data I guess seem to be two different things here.

Casti

Yeah. Last year I would go outside the convention to the sidewalk and get a bunch of notifications. Answer them...and walk back in. Haha. Its good for people who take smoke breaks or need a bit of fresh air everyone once in a while.