T-Mobile Coverage in Hollywood/W.Hollywood?

[TimInHollywood]

Hi all,

Last week, I signed up for the 1000 min/month plan on T-Mobile. I am using the next few days to determine whether I will keep it.

In the middle of the night (around 3:30am Thursday?), I was driving through Hollywood & LaBrea, Fountain & LaBrea, Cahuenga & Sunset. It was completely without service the entire time, because no signal was available. This has happened another time or two in this area, but usually seems to be OK. I haven't been to these areas since (particularly the Sunset and Fountain areas). Their customer service line said they were unable to find any maintenance in the area, but most customer service numbers have been quite unreliable with this type of information.

Is this the coverage I can expect around Hollywood? Does anyone on this forum use their T-Mobile in the Hollywood/West Hollywood areas?

Thanks,
Tim in Hollywood

[Rasputin]

I have a cousin that has Cingular he works in the near the design center in W. Hollywood, he seems to have problems north of Sunset in BH, and seems to break up on me in parts of Century City and in Hollywood by the new Kodak Center. He also never seems to have good coverage in the Beverly Center.

That is all that I know.

[larry]

I think the area North of Sunset in Beverly Hills is a nearly impossible area to cover for the 1900 Mhz providers like Sprint & Cingular/T-Mobile. I know Sprint has had three proposed antennas rejected up there near the movie stars homes. I can remember back in 1999 when I had a poor signal indoors at the Beverly Center. Then one day in the summer of 2000 I had a good signal. I located a new Sprint antenna across the street from the Center on the roof of the Movie Theater plaza.

[calbee]

I use my T-Mobile on Hollywood Blvd, Franklin, Fountain and Sunset between Los Feliz and La Cienega with no problems. I have used it in and around the Kodak Center, up and down Highland and La Brea and have not experienced any dropped calls.

[TimInHollywood]

Hi all,

Thanks for your feedback. I have a couple more questions/problems to discuss. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

On Monday evening around 9:45pm, I drove from NBC (Burbank along the 134 Fwy)... Service was available.

...then south/east along Cahuenga... No service.

...then south on Fairfax... Service was available.

I was at CBS Television City from 10:00pm to 11:30pm. Phone was in car. Don't know about service.

...I had no service at all along Beverly Blvd. (eastbound), north on LaBrea to Hollywood Blvd.

Upon calling 611 "customer service," I was told that if I was having trouble using my phone/getting a signal, it must be because they were working on the area. Their database says that the 90036 zip code is an area with "great" coverage.

However, upon further questioning, I got the person to admit that they always tell people that they "are working on your area," whether they really know that they are actually working on the area's towers or not! She said that is what they always say, because (technically) they are "working on" getting coverage everywhere!

Is there any way to determine whether I should be getting a signal in a particular area? Maybe it's just a defective phone? Maybe it is just lousy coverage by the network?

Absent a real answer, I don't have any choice but to return the phone and cancel my new T-Mobile service. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

Thanks,
Tim in Hollywood

[TNDan21]

If you are still in your trial period I would just return the phone and cancel the service. It sounds like T-Mobile just isn't for you. Try somebody else.

[ZaphodB]

Perhaps it's not the service... I have perfectly fine service on Pass, Barham, and Cahuenga all the way down into Hollywood. The Sunset Strip out to about Fairfax is fine. I don't go anywhere east of there so I couldn't tell you. The entire Hollywood and Highland complex has coverage. Laurel Canyon is OK though you may drop just south of Mulholland, for some reason that curve is iffy... Coldwater Canyon in Beverly Hills has that one long dead spot from Lago Vista and Coldwater Canyon all the way down juuuuuuust to the light at Sunset and Beverly. (The only provider with coverage in that area is Verizon, because they got in before the celebrities started opposing cell towers.)

Maybe your phone is bad? Either the phone model or your particular phone. I would demand a replacement before cancelling the service.

[calbee]

I'd give another phone a try. I drive through just about every one of the areas you have mentioned (The Grove, Beverly Blvd., Fairfax) and have never experienced a dropped call or bad connection. I'm using a free Motorola T-193.
However, if you're running out of trial time and obviously not happy don't get stuck!
Good luck

[Rasputin]

Phones normally do not work intermittantly, the RF might be bad, but you should notice it everywhere not just in certain places. I guess it is within the realm of possibilities it is your phone, but if not I would run away from the T-Mobile/Cingular. If you run around the hills of BH/Hollywood and the Canyons Verizon is your best bet.

[blcklab666]

I have Verizon and lose my signal on Fountain right around Crescent Heights or fairfax for a couple blocks.

[spyder22]

we had an outage...sorry...actually it was cingular that caused it. this does happen sometimes.