Community Corner

Readers Sound Off: Cell Service in the Hamptons

Cell users say cell service has been terrible.

We been hearing that cell service in the Hamptons is the worst it has ever been and  on Tuesday, we asked Patch readers if they have been having a hard time with their cell service especially when it comes to ATT&T.  

Readers confirmed there is a problem. The following is a round-up of what they had to say. 

jksAT T service has been terrible. The AT&T store could not help with this problem. At times phone does not even ring when a call comes in.

BojamesT- mobile often more dependable than Optimum "land line."

ddad856I am a year round visitor to water mill and surrounding area. It doesnt matter what time of year you visit. The cell service is terrible. you would think that with all the money out there the service would be better.

Robert FlorioProblems are likely due to left-over weather-related circuits in the spring (we see a decline in call quality as people come out and expose the bad voice channels), and then the lack of good engineering forecasts on capacity (if AT&T does not anticipate usage well, it takes longer to bring in the backhaul circuits and/or antenna capacity to handle the traffic). Happens every year, and they never quite catch up. Signal quality is still an issue as well.

Besim CukajWorst service ever. But if you don't pay your bill on time, they sure don't hesitate to cut your service immediately. I spent 45 minutes resetting, powering down, etc...., in there assumption that my phone had the problem. Two to three bars in SH village, five bars in the middle of a farm field in BH, make sense? Unfortunately this, like my convo with the tech, will only fall on deaf ears. Really sad, unfortunately.

Evelyne BizeYes, we are having intermittent problems with Verizon signal in Montauk, which we never experienced in the past. Used to be able to place and receive calls anywhere, and now we have to get out of the house and walk around catching the bars.

S.B. BonackerVerizon = absolutely the WORST, and has gotten worse over the past several months. When I called to complain, I was told it was "volume" and there was nothing they could do (and no apologies!)

christine_bridgeAT&T works fine for us in Montauk and most other places on the East End, with a few dead spots. We went to AT&T after having to cancel our T-Mobile service, which was completely dead in the entire Ditch Plains area. Most of our neighbors in Montauk told us that AT&T was the only service that worked at all.

Sophie7: Just switched to Verizon God help us...ATT has gotten SO bad. HATE them both...quite sure their phones batteries progressively fail,as does the reception, on purpose...total racket.

JRWCell service in EH and on the East End is a joke for which there is no excuse! With all the towers erected for cable tv when ther signals came in over the air, there should be no excuse for mandating that cell companies install antennas immediately. But with town boards intent on driving out the "summer folk" I guess this will never happen.

Susa SteinThis year has been the worst with AT&T. Must go out of house to get service and am near EH village. Friends in Clearwater get NO service. Either we need more towers and town MUST approve or something must be done with all vendors. There's better service in the hinterlands of Lithuania and China than EH. That's true and unforgivable. We need more towers. Let's do a petition to get some action.

Barbara FeldmanI have this from AT&T corporate. (1)East Hampton and surrounding areas are considered "rural." We do not get the same service as other areas as a result. (2) We have ONE degraded tower servicing the area, which has been "degraded" for more than two years. It was scheduled to be fixed in mid July. Needless to say, that did not happen and now nobody seems to know when or if that is going to happen. (3) They do not have an obligation to provide service as per their contract. What they fail to acknowledge is that they are required by law to provide service at the customer's home address and are technically in breach of their own contract. My service is untenable. The phone doesn't even ring in my house, and I am unable to make or hold calls on an regular basis. I SUGGEST WE FORGET THE PETITION AND TAKE UNIFIED ACTION.


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