EL PASO, Texas -- Mobile phone is supposed to give you the freedom of going wherever you want, while still being able to talk on the phone.

It's not uncommon to find residents who live in the subdivision near High Ridge Drive and Redd Road sitting in their front yard talking on their cell phones. For many of them, it's not an option. They tell KFOX cell phone signal is not good.

"We get no calls, no reception and the only reception I get is when I lay in my bed, and I only get one bar," said Ryan Matthews, who lives on Couger Ridge and has service through AT&T.

"I have perfect signal on the roof," he said. It may seem extreme but it's the only way Matthews said he can use his cell phone without the calls dropping.

When AT&T says it's raising the bar, Matthews said he doesn't expect it to improve in his neighborhood because it hasn't in the past five years he's lived there.

"I sit around for 10 or 20 minutes just waiting for at least one bar of signal. I can hardly send out text messages. I have to retry it 10 or 15 times just to finally get signal," he said.

Susan Lee lives in the same neighborhood, and she tells KFOX she doesn't bother taking her cell phone in her house because the signal is weak. She's a Sprint customer.

"The signal's coming in and out. I'll call you back on the home phone," she told her relative as she tried using her cell phone at home.

"If I have a bar, I can usually dial out, but it usually drops the call. That's frustrating. It works everywhere else. It works at the gym and other places, but up here on the mountain it doesn't," said Lee.

The area between High Ridge Road, Cougar Ridge Road, Redd Road and Franklin Hills has been developed and populated for the past five years. Hunt Communities is building more homes and crews are also laying the ground work for two schools in the area.

Matthews said he thought his service would improve as the neighborhood grew, but he told KFOX he hasn't seen any improvements.

"Maybe they should put up a tower up here so we can get better signal. (When I) Try to make a call it says, emergency calls only (sometimes)," he said.

There are several cell phone towers located down hill from the neighborhood.

KFOX contacted AT&T representatives and specific questions regarding the problem went answered. Instead, the company released this statement:

"We are working within the required tower deployment and height zoning requirements with the goal of providing the best possible service within those parameters." -- Jill Roundtree.

Sprint representatives said they are still gathering information to respond to this story.

KFOX went door to door asking several residents which provider they had and how coverage faired in their area. Those who had Verizon said they had no problems with signal in this neighborhood. It varied for customers with other providers.