General U.S. network connectivity question

[mojophone]

This isn't specific to Windows Phone, but hopefully someone may have an answer for me. I've been in two large football stadiums (open air, no roof) in the past month and was unable to access the internet (or apps using the internet) when in my seat, even if the phone showed 4 bars. At first I thought it was simply due to a large number of the 100,000 people using nearby cell towers, but if I simply went to the concession area, I had no problem connecting.

The first time I had the problem I thought maybe it was my phone. Last weekend, though, my friends that had iPhones had the same issue (others nearby appeared to be operating fine, however). Could it simply be that the walls of the stadium were interfering and by moving to the concourse, all was well? It just seems weird to have open skies above and not get a signal.

Thanks for any theories!

 

[RumoredNow]

T-Mobile? Sprint?

Both have penetration issues with their frequencies. It could very well be a thick structure (stadium wall) that is causing this.

 

[kg4icg]

It depends all on who your on , and if even 10 percent of the people there was on the same network and the carrier didn't provide any additional capacity, than yes your going to be out of luck. Regular cell towers can only handle so much at one time before being brought down to a crawl.

 

[mojophone]

That was my initial thought, but that would've been the same issue out in the concession area, eh? Strange...

 

[mojophone]

I'm on AT&T (via Cricket) -- I'm not sure what carrier my friends are using. The structure walls seems to make most sense since all worked fine out in the concession area. Just surprising. Thanks!