CDMA delayed ring issue finally coming to an end soon??

[larry]

This is from somone who works in the industry as posted on SU:

CDMA uses only one paging channel, but can do zone-based paging so the your phone isn't getting bombarded with pages. CDMA paging channel is usually set up to check for pages approximately every 5 seconds, this is what causes the delayed ring that people complain about in CDMA. I recently learned that CDMA vendors are going to be adding multiple paging channels in a future software release. That might then improve battery life, as well as the delayed ring issue, plus possibly some other issues as well like VM problems and such.

This was supposed to be a feature (for nortel) of MTX/NBSS 13.0. Sprint just upgraded it's nortel markets to 12.1. There is usually 6-12 months between software loads so if it's in 13 that would be the timeframe, plus a little time to get everything figured out and set up. I'm not sure where Lucent is with this, but Nortel and them are usually neck and neck with releasing this kinda stuff.

[WirelessBeachBum]

With some carriers they will allow you to change the settings as to how often the phone checks the paging channel. Of course the more often it checks the higher your battery consumption. Most carriers have switched to make the tower control this setting, I assume to control network resources better.

In the past a worked for a small carrier and we would move that setting up higher on phones that would perform less than perfect in poor coverage areas, this would sometimes help because the more often your phone is looking for a ring the more likely it's going to catch one.

[larry]

I think it's been a CDMA technology flaw that hopefully will finally be fixed some time in the near future. Only searching for an incoming call every 5 seconds is sometimes not good enough if you're in a weak signal area or an area with too many PN offsets in the neighbor lists. If this software revision does happen I think it will show that the CDMA carriers and vendors are finally admitting there's a problem.

[WirelessBeachBum]

Part of the problem with upgrades like this is the expense for the upgrade, Switch manufacturers have to make their money, but for small carriers (heck even large carriers) switch upgrades are a huge expense, and usually it's money that the customers don't see or think about. If a carrier adds a new tower that gets customer attention. If they spend money on a switch...so what.

When I worked at that small carrier we had a tough time affording switch upgrades (and that was with only one Lucent switch.)

[Andy]

Larry, do you think this information is credible from the source you heard it from?

Do you think most national(Sprint and Verizon) will quickly do this upgrade once available? But let me get something right, if someone calls me, the network does not page the phone, but the phone pages the network every five seconds, and if someone calls me, once the phone pages the network it will receive the incoming call page? I always thought that if there's an incoming call, the network will force a page to the phone.

[larry]

Yes it's from a credible source. The timeframe however is unclear. We would like to hope it could happen in less than a year.

[Hokie Pride]

From what you are describing, it is called "Quick Page". You now have Pilot, Page, Sync and Qucik Page channels. Quick page is already deployed.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by larry Yes it's from a credible source. The timeframe however is unclear. We would like to hope it could happen in less than a year.

And you'd expect both, Sprint and VZW to deploy this?

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by Andy84094 And you'd expect both, Sprint and VZW to deploy this?

That would definitely be cool.

I have only experienced the ring delay once.....maybe twice.

[Yankees368]

I experience this problem all the time. I tell people to call me 3 or 4 times just to make sure my phone gets the call.

[larry]

Originally Posted by Andy84094 And you'd expect both, Sprint and VZW to deploy this?

Yes all CDMA carriers will eventually deploy it.

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by larry Yes all CDMA carriers will eventually deploy it.

Larry, you will have to keep us updated on the deployment of this.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Yankees368 I experience this problem all the time. I tell people to call me 3 or 4 times just to make sure my phone gets the call.

It was horrible when I had Sprint, it would definitely be worth to fix it!

[larry]

Originally Posted by Gamer03 Larry, you will have to keep us updated on the deployment of this.

You know I will! This will be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[larry]

Originally Posted by Yankees368 I experience this problem all the time. I tell people to call me 3 or 4 times just to make sure my phone gets the call.

It seems to be area specific. It happens all the time in some places and never in others. Very hard to predict. It doesn't have anything to do with having a weak signal. It has more to do with how many PN offsets are showing up in the cycle system and whether those offsets are in the same neighbor list or not.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by larry You know I will! This will be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Agreed this will make a huge difference!!!

[EdwardP]

Could this have been the root cause of the Simple Freedom problems (in a VZW area) of last summer, when both phones would not detect incoming calls 90% of the time?

[Andy]

Well if all phones on the Verizon network did the same thing then yes.

[EdwardP]

Originally Posted by Andy84094 Well if all phones on the Verizon network did the same thing then yes.

Just thought of something... Since the SF service is actually an Alltel service, I'm wondering if maybe Verizon saw these phones as Alltel phones and the calls went to Verizon first, then to Alltel - who could not locate the phones, hence the lack of call detection.

[larry]

Originally Posted by EdwardP Could this have been the root cause of the Simple Freedom problems (in a VZW area) of last summer, when both phones would not detect incoming calls 90% of the time?

90% incoming failure rate seems very extreme to me. I'm sure it was something else. I've observed Sprint phones to have about a 10-15% incoming call failure rate on average here in So. Cal. The Sprint network operations people claim it's only about 5% but we all know that's not true.

[EdwardP]

Originally Posted by larry 90% incoming failure rate seems very extreme to me. I'm sure it was something else. I've observed Sprint phones to have about a 10-15% incoming call failure rate on average here in So. Cal. The Sprint network operations people claim it's only about 5% but we all know that's not true.

This occurred with two of their phones, in the span of nine (9) days. I was on a three-way call with Alltel and VZW Network Services regarding the first phone. Verizon only saw the phone when it was on an active call, once the call ended, the phone dropped off the network. It was determined that the phone was defective, it was exchanged for another. A few days later, the second phone acted in the same manner as the first.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by EdwardP This occurred with two of their phones, in the span of nine (9) days. I was on a three-way call with Alltel and VZW Network Services regarding the first phone. Verizon only saw the phone when it was on an active call, once the call ended, the phone dropped off the network. It was determined that the phone was defective, it was exchanged for another. A few days later, the second phone acted in the same manner as the first.

Some kind of network problem, maybe even authentication or something, but not a cellsite problem, if the network didn't even see the phone most of the time.

[larry]

I agree it's an authentication problem. This is unrelated but I remember hearing that when WLNP first came about some Sprint phones that were ported over had some authentication trouble because when they were programmed the MSID was different than the MDN. Some phones (such as the Samsung A500) had a software bug that caused the network to sometimes not be able recognize it during incoming calls. So the person calling would get a message like "the number you have reached is temporarily not in service".