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FWIW, if they are intentionally (or unintentionally) blocking your cell signal with an electronic signal (And since you mentioned that they didn't remodel, this

FWIW, if they are intentionally (or unintentionally) blocking your cell signal with an electronic signal (And since you mentioned that they didn't remodel, this is the only way they could feasibly do it), they're breaking a very serious FCC law - https://www.fcc.gov/general/jammer-enforcement https://www.fcc.gov/general/jammer-enforcement. I know that the FCC is kind of regarded as a joke lately, but this is a law they take pretty seriously as jammers can interfere with E911 calls. It would just take one emergency that 911 couldn't respond to for the FCC to realize what was going on, and no large store is going to take those odds. It's likely something else. That said, if you really believe that they are blocking cell signals, you should probably file a tipoff, as they could honestly be putting lives at risk (go to https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us and click "phone"). As far as I know there's no penalty if you are wrong (as long as you honestly believe there might be an active jammer in the area and you aren't abusing their system somehow), worst case you'll get a call confirming they don't use one.

wcunning 8y ago
Yeah, I think it's more what lgats suggested, and simply that they have a naturally impermeable building in the middle. Not even the cabinets, more the metal shelving up to the ceiling and such. I also notice that my current phone does a terrible job of falling back on the much more long distance 3G, so maybe that's part of it.
- mygo 8y ago
  > Yeah, I think it's more what lgats suggested, and simply that they have a naturally impermeable building in the middle. That kind of contradicts the OP... since they said that it was only recently that the signal stopped working, and that the building was not being remodeled during that time. So if the building is now impenetrable then something changed. Maybe modern phones just have a horrible time falling back from LTE to 4G/3G.. But if that’s the case then I feel like the OP would have checked for that since he seems to have already been tracking his connection strength over different locations and over time.
  - wcunning 8y ago
    I was the OP... I noticed this recently, but cell towers get upgraded/replaced at intervals unrelated to "nationwide rollout of LTE!" from carriers.
    - mygo 8y ago
      Why you contradict yo self...
dundercoder 8y ago
A spectrum analyzer or SDR dongle would tip you off really quickly if there’s active jamming, and the FCC doesn’t play games with those types of violations.

wcunning 8y ago

Yeah, I think it's more what lgats suggested, and simply that they have a naturally impermeable building in the middle. Not even the cabinets, more the metal shelving up to the ceiling and such. I also notice that my current phone does a terrible job of falling back on the much more long distance 3G, so maybe that's part of it.

mygo 8y ago
> Yeah, I think it's more what lgats suggested, and simply that they have a naturally impermeable building in the middle. That kind of contradicts the OP... since they said that it was only recently that the signal stopped working, and that the building was not being remodeled during that time. So if the building is now impenetrable then something changed. Maybe modern phones just have a horrible time falling back from LTE to 4G/3G.. But if that’s the case then I feel like the OP would have checked for that since he seems to have already been tracking his connection strength over different locations and over time.
- wcunning 8y ago
  I was the OP... I noticed this recently, but cell towers get upgraded/replaced at intervals unrelated to "nationwide rollout of LTE!" from carriers.
  - mygo 8y ago
    Why you contradict yo self...

dundercoder 8y ago

A spectrum analyzer or SDR dongle would tip you off really quickly if there’s active jamming, and the FCC doesn’t play games with those types of violations.