Surprising Places with Bad Internet Access

[giff57]

So I just got back from spending a few days with my friends in Dunwoody GA. The connectivity outright sucked. My friends had Cox cable internet and it was bad. My Verizon iphone couldn't get a data connection and even had trouble with voice at times. Tried to get work done at McDonald's and Starbucks, again very poor connectivity. Dunwoody is an affluent suburb of Atlanta and not some place in the sticks. Anywhere else?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2C7fChb1c

 

[Dan]

Free wifi is harder to find in the Buffalo area than in similarly sized cities. In the affluent northeastern suburbs, the only place you'll find reliable free wifi is Starbucks, McDonald's, and Tim Horton's. Indie coffeehouses mostly offer free wifi, but it's usually very spotty; either slow, prone to disconnection, or with no Internet connection to the router period. It's nonexistent everyplace else; take a tablet into any bar and restaurant, and you'll only see a few weak protected signals from nearby businesses or houses.

 

[DetroitPlanner]

I can't get free wifi out by my cabin in the area around the Huron National Forest/AuSable State forest. The nerve! I keep hoping that some yokel will leave something unsecure, but it seems that the grizzled have no need for them internets. Well maybe for e-bay, but there is a McDonalds 20 miles away.

 

[ofos]

Despite the fact that NE Texas is bisected by two heavily traveled interstate highways, I-30 & I-20, cell phone/wifi is problematic once you get 30 or 40 miles east of the DFW area. Not only are there areas of weak coverage, there are numerous dead zones where you can't get any service at all.

 

[Dan]

I keep hoping that some yokel will leave something unsecure, but it seems that the grizzled have no need for them internets.

Slight hijack: sounds like tradio country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeQ3UrnG-eE

 

[illinoisplanner]

When I took Amtrak earlier this year, I was surprised by the lack of cell phone coverage only 65 to 100 miles southwest of Chicago. The area between Plano and Princeton has very poor cell phone coverage and there were many spots that were virtual dead zones. I was trying to call to have a cab ready to pick me up when I got back home and it kept cutting out before the call even went through. I would assume that wifi internet is also bad down this way if the cell phone coverage sucks. Granted the area is rural, but it's not backwoods West Virginia or anything. LaSalle County has 110,000 people and is considered by some to be a very far extension of the Chicago metro area. You'd think they'd get with the times down there. I also did call during a snowstorm, but that shouldn't be a problem, should it?

 

[WSU MUP Student]

On a slightly related note: I spent much of the long holiday weekend at my in-laws in Port Huron, MI. The city (and the rest of the county for that matter) are relatively sparsely populated but it is part of the Detroit Metro area, is the eastern terminus of two major interstate highways (I-69 and I-94) and home to one of the busiest border crossings in the country. Yet, if you use AT&T for cellular or mobile wifi service, you are more likely to be pinging off of a Rogers Wireless tower out of Sarnia, Ontario than an AT&T tower in the states and incurring all the associated international roaming charges.

At least this past weekend I finally found an opportunity to use for that iPhone my employer issued me!

 

[Planit]

My office!

The computer is wired of course to our main hub, but the wireless here in downtown is awful. If I go outside in the parking lot, I get 2 bars on a good day.

 

[arcplans]

If your on AT&T, in Downtown San Francisco/Union Square and the Financial District, you get speeds that are down right "Edge" network like even though your phone says 4G. It freakin sucks.

 

[Vancity]

Penticton, town of 42000, awful reception, everywhere. Pretty much couldn't use my phone

 

[illinoisplanner]

If your on AT&T, in Downtown San Francisco/Union Square and the Financial District, you get speeds that are down right "Edge" network like even though your phone says 4G. It freakin sucks.

That's very bizarre considering San Francisco is not only a major city, but also that the Giants' ballpark is called "AT&T Park".

 

[zman]

I had trouble in the Philadelphia airport recently and in my experience, airports are usually pretty reliable.

 

[kjel]

If your on AT&T, in Downtown San Francisco/Union Square and the Financial District, you get speeds that are down right "Edge" network like even though your phone says 4G. It freakin sucks.

Manhattan as well. Just total overload of the system. It's gotten better recently though.

I went to school in Greenwood, South Carolina which had some of the worst internet speeds I've ever experienced. Then it was owned by Embarq and take over in 2009 by another provider which didn't do any better according to a friend.

 

[btrage]

On a slightly related note: I spent much of the long holiday weekend at my in-laws in Port Huron, MI. The city (and the rest of the county for that matter) are relatively sparsely populated but it is part of the Detroit Metro area, is the eastern terminus of two major interstate highways (I-69 and I-94) and home to one of the busiest border crossings in the country. Yet, if you use AT&T for cellular or mobile wifi service, you are more likely to be pinging off of a Rogers Wireless tower out of Sarnia, Ontario than an AT&T tower in the states and incurring all the associated international roaming charges.

At least this past weekend I finally found an opportunity to use for that iPhone my employer issued me!

During my recent temporary stay up there I never had and general problems with my Verizone iPhone. Whenever we would go to the Birchwood Mall though, I could never get wifi service inside. Which sucked, because what else was I supposed to do besides check scores and Tweet while my wife and daughters shopped.