Forget Yosemite. How’s your cellphone coverage in LA?

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

We recently wrote about how it’s nearly impossible to get cellphone reception in remote areas of California’s national parks, especially with some cellular companies (we’re talking to you, T-Mobile). Judging by the reader response, we should have written about how it’s nearly impossible to get cellphone reception in some heavily populated regions of Los Angeles.

Readers let me know about calls dropped consistently in places like Old Town Pasadena, Chinatown and Ventura Boulevard (more on dead zones later). Peter Linney, a Norwegian auto photographer, wrote that compared with Europe and Japan, when it comes to cellphone reception the U.S. ‘is still driving a ’69 Volkswagen.’

‘I call it Swiss cheese coverage,’ says Wayne Coombs, a Hollywood resident. He’s thinking of ditching Verizon for AT&T, because he travels a lot for work and is sick of not being able to make calls even in some urban areas. Although he’s not sure AT&T will be any better.

There are a few reasons you might be experiencing dropped calls, even in the middle of the city. Maybe too many people are gabbing on their phones at the same time, and the network just can’t handle your call. Or maybe there’s a hill or other impediment blocking the signal. If you’re dropping them consistently in the same place, you are probably switching from one cell tower to the next, and there’s something about the transition that doesn’t quite work. Or maybe you’re just in West Virginia.

There’s not much you can do except complain to your carrier. Make sure to include the time of day that the call is usually dropped: Your carrier can shift coverage in different directions at certain times of day, Verizon spokesman Ken Muche said.

Or else you can just take solace in the fact that you’re not the only one who suffers from dropped calls at the weirdest of locations. After the jump we’ve included a list of places where people commonly lose their reception -- and we have a feeling you’ll tell us about more once Californians start chatting up a storm today, trying to get their money’s worth on their new hands-free devices. Any dead areas that you know of? Speak up or forever drop your calls!

The list is ...

... by no means a complete catalog of dead zones in Southern California. For that you could try DeadCellZones or Signal Map (although, in describing itself, the latter says ‘Beta is an understatement’). This is just a list of places where some L.A. Times readers and staffers have had particular trouble with reception.

Los Angeles

Silver Lake Boulevard and Duane Street (Sprint)

Kenilworth Avenue and Angus Street (T-Mobile)

Getting on the 110 Freeway from 3rd Street (T-Mobile)

Broadway and the 101 Freeway (AT&T)

2nd Street between Figueroa Street and Broadway (T-Mobile)

Broadway between Temple Street and Cesar Chavez Avenue (AT&T)

Olympic Boulevard east of La Brea Avenue (T-Mobile)

Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street (Verizon)

Getting on the 2 Freeway from Glendale Boulevard to the 5 Freeway (T-Mobile)

Stadium Way and Academy Road (T-Mobile)

Beverly Boulevard and Temple Street (T-Mobile)

2nd and Hill streets (T-Mobile)

The Valley and points north

Vanalden Avenue south of Ventura Boulevard, Tarzana (Verizon)

Foothill Freeway between Sunland Boulevard and La Tuna Canyon Road exits (Verizon)

110 Freeway at Glenarm Street (AT&T)

In Altadena, Lake Avenue and E Loma Alta Drive (T-Mobile)

South Bay and Orange County

On the 710 Freeway between the 405 and the 91 freeways (T-Mobile)

In Long Beach, Spring Street between Los Alamitos Boulevard and Palo Verde Avenue (Verizon)

In Fullerton, Euclid Street and Rosecrans Avenue (Verizon)

In Orange, Chapman Avenue near the bottom of the hill (T-Mobile)

73 toll road near Laguna Canyon Road (Verizon)

Patches along Newport Coast Drive (Verizon)

Eastbound

In Upland, near the intersection of Mountain Avenue and 19th Street (T-Mobile)

In Pomona, the 10 Freeway at the 57 Freeway, near Forest Lawn (T-Mobile)

The 210 Freeway just past the Mountain Avenue exit (AT&T)

The intersection of the 5 and the 710 freeways (AT&T)

-- Alana Semuels