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Your Home and Signal Loss - Information from the AT&T Community
Learn how your home can affect your wireless signal
Your home can affect your signal. If you did not know that, now you do. Each home is different. The materials used to build it, where it is built, and the overall environment of your home can affect how the signal travels through it which in turn, may affect your call, text, and data experience.
The Pieces of Your Home
Metal Roofs
Metal is like kryptonite when it comes to signals. The reason, a wireless signal consists of radio waves. Metal conducts electricity and in turn, absorbs it. This means if your home has a metal roof, your LTE signal is affected. The best option to address this is Wi-Fi Calling. Check out my personal story about metal roofs.
Wall thickness
The thicker a wall, the more trouble the signal has making to your home and through it. What is in the wall can impact service too, like metal beams, concrete, and rebar. Check out how my experience helping an AT&T customer.
Electronics
Electronics emit electromagnetic interference. The more electronics, the more interference. So if you have a private office and have a lot of electronics, this may not only affect your wireless signal, but Wi-Fi as well. The same is for your office or business. There are many devices, computers, wiring, and when you factor in building design, it only adds to the trouble you may see. Read about my experience regarding electronics and wireless signals.
Dead Spots
You may notice certain rooms get poor LTE signals. This could be caused by your roof, walls, ground elements, and electronics.
- Roofs: Depending on what your roof is made out of, can impact your reception.
- Walls: depending on the thickness of your walls and how they are made, can affect the signal. Especially if it is reinforced with rebar.
- Ground elements: Depending on what is under you can impact signals. Rocks, metals, even water can affect wireless signals.
- Electronics: Electronics emit electromagnetic interference. This can interfere with the wireless signal.
You factor in everything we mentioned above and dead spots, you can see why your service may not be the same while in your home, office, or even outside. Check out my story when a dead spot affected my ability to get text messages.
Inside vs Outside
If you notice your signal improves when you step outside, this is a good indicator that your home may be the culprit. If you have internet service, consider using Wi-Fi Calling. Especially when you factor everything above. The video below will give an idea of what we are talking about.
Did you recently experience signal loss?
Timing is everything.
- Did you drop your phone recently or around the time you noticed signal loss? If so, the components may be damaged.
- Were there any recent storms or loss of power? As we all know, some storms are not friendly and there is a chance a tower was affected.
- Did anyone get any new electronics? They can emit interference as mentioned above.
Improve your call experience by
- Utilizing Wi-Fi Calling
- Sometimes toggling Airplane Mode can improve service
- Understand where calls drop and improve the environment
- Turn off electronics not in use
- Improve your device's performance
ChrisZ, AT&T Community Specialist
*I am an AT&T employee, and the postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent AT&T's position, strategies or opinions.
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Check out the info above to learn how your home can affect the wireless signal.
ChrisZ, AT&T Community Specialist
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ATTHelpForums
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Metal Roofs
I stayed in a cabin a few years ago, outside of a state park. It was cold and I was not up for camping in a tent.
To pass time, I read, wrote, and streamed. While attempting to stream from my phone, I noticed the movie would take time to load. Not only that, web pages loaded slowly. When I stepped outside, speeds returned to normal.
The cabin was made out of wood and had metal siding and a metal roof. As mentioned above, the metal weakened the LTE signal. There was nothing I could do as it was the nature of where I was staying.
Chris
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Walls
I was working with a customer whose Wi-Fi signal was poor in every room with the exception of where the modem was. Extenders did not help. After a month, I decided to check out his house via an online map. My thought, maybe his neighbor has a HAMM radio. Once I saw the actual issue, I gave him a call. Without going into the long conversation, I noticed his house was in a mountainous area of California. In some houses, rebar is used. So, his Wi-Fi issues were caused by the metal in his walls. While this affected his Wi-Fi, there is a possibility this can affect wireless phone signals.
Chris
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Electronics
So, I donate platelets often. Having my phone is key to help the time pass. On this particular donation, I noticed my DIRECTV Stream service not working as it should. Normally I had no issue.
When I looked around, I was not the only person donating platelets. There was a total of 6 machines in use. On top of that, I was closer to a wall. You factor the EMI being created, it made sense why I was having trouble.
The same may happen in large server rooms, gyms with treadmills, and areas with a lot of electronics.
Chris
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Dead Spots
In my sister's home, there is a spot in the living room where I do not get texts messages. Nothing is around that should cause this. Outside of this spot, the texts come in no problem.
There were two possible causes of this, ground elements under the house or the roof. I leaned towards the ground elements since other parts of the house did not have issues. Wi-Fi Calling helped resolve this.
Chris
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