One word: skype

Two words: ear piece

We have this issue, too. our two solutions are to use skype for calls made from our desks, or alternately, prop the cell phone in the window where we do get reception and make calls using an earpiece.

Both solutions are much cheaper and smarter than asking your cell phone provider to install a mini tower or forwarding calls to a landline.

It is incredibly frustrating since there is a dead zone in my apartment. I tried the landline forwarding thing for a while. It was VOIP thru the cable company. But it was quite expensive (about $30 extra per month including taxes and fees). Not to mention that if you have no service whatsoever, your cell phone will not forward any calls to your landline. You have to have a trickle of service for the call to even go through.

I have an iPhone and plan on using Skype to send and receive calls over Wifi with the Skype app. It is not free but not as expensive as the land line.

I have not tried to call the cable company but I presume they will not install a tower near my area since I live in the middle of the city. Some cell phone companies have service extenders (femtocells) that you can buy to get signal in your house, but they are expensive and only in certain markets right now.

When I moved to my current place, phone reception was no problem...then my provider merged with another company, and I went from five bars to one overnight. They weren't willing to do anything about it, so I was eventually forced to install a land line...which is also extremely unreliable. Grrr.

I'm moving soon - to an apartment where I get crystal-clear reception in each room - and I can't wait.

It's not just about phone calls, kimg. Most people want to be able to text from anywhere in their home.

I go to a college in Ohio where service is very shaky in some parts of campus, especially AT&T. And of course my room is one that doesn't get service except in two places. I wonder if AT&T would install a tower here.

You might try a different provider too. My brother has this problem in his house using Verizon, but when I visited my Sprint phone had fine reception. So when friends come over, see if anyone is getting reception and ask what company they use.

This was a problem in a academic building for one of my engineering professors. Spending a lot of time inside he invested in a repeater
Example: http://www.repeaterstore.com/products/repeaterkits/wi-ex/zboost-dual-band.html

yes, it is about $350, but the advantage is you can take this to wherever you move and get a signal throughout your house/building.

Google voice might be a solution here for some. If you don't mind giving out a new number, you can set google voice up to send calls to certain numbers, or ring multiple lines at once.

This just happened to me!

Before I moved I even checked my coverage on AT&T's website and it said I was good.

But when I moved and I literally had nothing. I called AT&T and they verified that I didn't have coverage at my apartment and confirmed that yes, the "customer map" does show different coverage than the one the representatives have. The guys on the phone have a super duper map apparently, they can see stuff that you can't on att.com. They have now let my contract up and so if I choose I can go with a different provider.

AT&T also informed me of this extra 'baby tower' you can buy (or rent) that will help you with your coverage, "3G Microcell", unfortunately it wasn't available for my town.

A trick that I've been doing to survive in my house with less than desirable reception is turning off the 3G. If you have this option on your phone, that might do the trick. I just turn it back on when I leave.

here, in the heart of mission in SF, i have the shittiest at&t reception ever; but i work from home a lot too, plus have these "friends" who like to chat. so i do these:
1. landline for all conference calls that has 800 dial ins.
2. applied for a work phone (sprint)
3. ask my parents to call me on the landline (bless their heart, they still have a long distance plan ;) ) it's about $10 a month
4. my friends get to im/facebook/google voice and wave
5. my sister prefers skype,
6. i like leaning out my window when the weather is nice and talk loudly. sorry neighbors. :)

I have this problem only in my apartment which I can't figure out why. I can literally stop outside and have 5 bars but in the apartment, 1 - 2. I even get 5 bars at my Mom's place in Philly.

The only plausible explanation I heard was that a lot of the old buildings in LA had lead-based paint which interferes with reception but I don't know how true that is.

The land line thing sounds like the best solution depending on the price but it sucks having to pay more to talk at home.

I've been fortunate that ever since I got my first phone, the then ubiguious Nokia 5160 in 1999 throughh Voicestream before they became T-Mobile and at the time, I was living in a pre war studio on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, no issues with reception, when I switched carriers to Qwest that allowed me to bundle landline and DSL w/ my cell service, this time different apartment not far from the previous one, same thing, good reception.

Then after a year and a half or so of no cell phone, I then went to Verizon while still living w/ my Mom in Tacoma and found my current and even with a craptastic phone, got good coverage in my building, the only downside is at work at I work at a third party contractor at you guessed it, T-Mobiile, but still w/ Verizon 3 contracts later when I had to revert back to that craptastic phone, the Juke and my Blackberry storm do fine here now.

I guess I've been lucky so far. :-)

Liddybird, I don't live in the City, but I work here and you're right. Whoa, AT&T, you guys totally dropped the ball.

My dad thinks I should buy a repeater but I have gone with the bluetooth headset solution. I can't have the phone in the kitchen but if I leave it in the dining room and wear the headset it works like a charm. There are also a couple of phones where you can dock your cell in a base unit and then it will send the calls to handsets but I can't remember how much they were or where I saw them.

Something I've learned in my years of moving from dead-zone to dead-zone: bring your cell with you and make a test call when you see the place. Knowing you're in a dead-zone before you sign the lease is good.

Dang, keep hitting post too soon, when I found my current apartment over on Seattle's Capitol Hill, still no reception problems at home.

When I first moved in to my current place, reception was not an issue at all until I got the iPhone. AT&T says there is 3G coverage in my area, but because it's up on the hill, it is better if I switch off 3G when I'm home. And, Viola, that hit the nail. Switching off 3G is as easy as touching the button, literally.

So, if you are using one of those smart phones, check with your provider to see if there's any alternative to work around it.

all national carriers offer femocell service (att, verizon, sprint, tmobile)... some are one time fees some are monthly fees of $5-$10 depending on service... its essentially a router that you plug up at home that boosts your signal... that may work...

Try the GE Cell Fusion phone.

It does not need to be connected to a landline. You can put your cell phone in the place where it gets the best reception and then use the cordless to roam freely around your place. It works really well for me as I live in a concrete fortress and all I have to do is place my mobile by the window.

All you need is a femtocell. Most providers offer some form of one under various names.

i have some friends that only get reception (ATT) near the window. So they bought some Bluetooth headsets and leave the phones sitting on the window sill.

Great post! I feel awful for anyone in this scenario but these seem like great tips! I would never have thought of asking for a femtocell or going with a Bluetooth solution and/or skype. All of these are great tips.

Sometimes you can use the settings on your phone to select different providers that are available in your area and have an agreement for "roaming" with your provider. This is often found in the "network" settings of your particular phone model.

Once Gizmo5 reopens (might just become a part of Google Voice) I would suggest a VoIP landline tied to your GV number (which also points at your cell phone).

That way you can give people one number, and it will ring your "land line" and your cell at the same time.

I live in a back apartment on the first floor of a brownstone, I have an iPhone 3g w ATT. I get NO reception anywhere but near windows.

I bought a Bluetooth about four years ago for about a $100, for another phone, and use it w my iPhone. It has saved me so much trouble of having to stand by a window while talking and ALSO, my hands are free to do whatever! SOOO two for the price of one!

I never though have had the urge to take my Bluetooth remotely, I purely use it in my home. Say you do move, you still can use it in your new place for the sole reason of being hands free. Most Bluetooth's, good ones, tend to have about a 40-50 ft range and spend a decent amount on it. Nothing worse than using an earpiece that sounds and gets worse reception than your 1-bar of service phone. Use it anywhere in your home, given your home is as small as a NYC apt. :) I think Bluetooth is the best solution just because it has saved me so much hassle!

Good Luck!

I lived like this for 3 years. I lived on Mount Washington in Pittsburgh and have Verizon... for three years I would run to the kitchen window at the very back of the house, usually miss the call, then spend the next few minutes attempting to find the sweet spot that would let me call the person back...

It turned into a game, because sometimes you would discover a sweet spot somewhere else in the house... usually it would only last a few minutes and then click, call was cut off.

Cell service at home is definitely something you take for granted until you don't have any...

my husband and i lived with this for a while. i spend a lot of time on the phone and it drove me crazy to have every single phone call get dropped. we got a vonage home line to remedy it. i lowered my cell phone minutes (i never use it when i'm out anyway) and the extra cost was negligible. (side note- time warner's internet connection is so horrible that we often can't have one of us using the internet and the other on the phone. but that's another topic for another day).

the thing is, about two or three months after we moved in, our cell coverage improved. we've been here a year now, and we have full strength, all the time. no more dropped calls, ever. not sure if others have experienced this, or just us, but i feel fortunate that we didn't have to change providers...

This is in Australia, not America, but my Optus phone will NOT get reception anywhere inside the house. Or rather, it gets so pitifully little that it'll allow the phone to ring... but then not let anything go through. Every time it rings, I have to grab it, sprint to the back deck, and hope I get there before it stops ringing!

Huh, I didn't realize this could happen! But while taking a walk-through of our newish apartment I got a phonecall and walked through the rooms while talking on it so I guess that's one way to know if it works or not. I'm also in Southwestern Ontario and have coverage through Bell Canada so I was always under the impression that we have good coverage throughout the region here.

I'm not sure if this was said already because I haven't read all the comments but I went through this exact thing a few months ago. I contacted my cell phone service and told them my problem. After about a month of them trying to fix things (unsuccessfully) they let me cancel my service and waived the $200 cancellation fee. I talked to a couple people in my buildind to see what service they had and just got new service with AT&T. It worked out really well since I had been wanting an iPhone anyway.