voicestream and "tower adjustment"

I'm a new subscriber to voicestream and after my phone (v60g) was activated, I could not even make acall from my home. The display clearly shows "no service". I made a call to voicestream customer support, which was very helpful, but I was told if the problem persists, to call back and they would have a technician make a tower adjustment. What exactley is a tower adjustment and is it possible this may help with my phones signal strength?

[bobolito]

WOW! I never heard a company would go out and adjust a tower for a single customer complaint. I hope they actually do it and it works for you. How long have you had the phone already? I would call them right away again and put pressure on them to act on what they promised. I am not sure what they meant by "tower adjustment" but I tell you right now you're going to have that problem for a long time.

[aiwapro]

If the 'tower adjustment' is done then you won't have the problem anymore, obviously bobolito.

[larry]

Very few tower adjustments will solve a no signal problem. I'd be very surprised if this happened. I doubt any carrier would actually do it for one customer complaint anyway.

if they do it for one; they do it for everybody..

[larry]

True, but then why didn't they properly adjust the tower in the first place?

I don't think "tower adjustment" is the correct term here. I think they just fixed something like a bad radio or antanna. It would cost a ton of money just to have a tower crew come out and turn the antennas for one customer. If they did that, then they shifted coverage. The only kind of tower adjustment I can think of that they can make is repairing or replacing is a downtilt bracket.

[bobolito]

Thank you Larry. Maybe Aiwa understands what I mean now.

[rbw411]

HAHAHA... They have been telling that to people since I worked for Aerial... All it means is you are coming up on you trial period and then you can't cancel.. So we will fool you into believing that we are going to re-aim a tower at your house. Never in a million years will they do it. The only other thing is a tower is down in the area and they are sending someone out to look at it.. But they usually would have told you that. Cancel your account and get a different carrier.
Does the service work outside of you house, how far away till you get anything?

When I had Powertel about 3 years ago, they told me the same thing. But the service never got any better. I then swiched to at that time BellSouth Mobility and had good luck with them. I can sometimes get a one bar outside of my house with Voicestream, but even the voices are choppy and not understandable. I also cannot receive text messaging in that area. At the time I had Powertel, I did not know as much as I do know about how wireless services work. The only reason I chose Voicestream is thier current map seemed to have better coveage than Powertel in the last few years. Im staying with my current provider and cancelling wth voicestream. I feel that many of thier practices are unethical. I was just in a local store a few days ago where thier was someone returing a phone with same problem as I am having. They could not pick up a signal anywhere around thier neighborhood. The rep told the guy that the service would be fine outside of his neighborhood and asked him in an akward maaner did he really need service at his home? Eventually GSM coverage will be good for travelers, especially when qaud-band phones are available, but this may take a while. For now I think the best choice will either be Verizon or ATT and Cingular when te GAIT phones are available.

service at home , service at the office , servie in your own neighborhood nah.. - the salesman's response in the previous is (unfortunately ) very typical and hilarious .

[MTS2000]

Take the phone back, switch to another provider- DO IT WHILE YOU ARE WITHIN THE TRIAL PERIOD. Do not believe promises of more towers or "adjustments"...if it doesn't work where you need it to, take it back!

It is VERY UNLIKELY that anything can be done, you are too far from a VS site..only thing that can solve that is them putting up another site- takes months and lots of money- depends on several factors. PCS companies have a tough time getting their signals into many residential areas, no one wants "ugly towers in my backyard" but these are the same people who want their phone to work at their homes. go figure.

[larry]

Good post. I agree.

"PCS companies have a tough time getting their signals into many residential areas, no one wants "ugly towers in my backyard" but these are the same people who want their phone to work at their homes. go figure."Text

Actually, I understand how frequency and signals work and that GSM 1900MHz has a more difficult time through terrain and trees, which lend themselves to absorption of these signals. What tics me is that a provider looks your address in thier system and tells you the great coverage that the area has,when it turns out not to be that way. I also checked at local stores whose voicestream maps also confirm this coverage. Verizon and Cingular both have towers along the river by my home, but the towers are nicely hidden by lines of trees and landscae. So the towers are acceptable to most in the area. I personally don't want towers in my back yard, but there are ways of making towers less noticeable and still funtional, even with strict commercial and residental zoning laws and ordinances.

[larry]

You can disguise a tower in the form of a tree, rock, water tower, etc, but there will still be people who aren't satisfied because they think it's dangerous. Sprint had both a windmill and boulder disguised antenna rejected last year up near Santa Cruz, CA because a bunch of people got together and claimed they were health hazzards. They also had one rejected in Laguna Beach, CA for the same reason. Sprint chose to sue the city on that one and they ended up winning in court and will be allowed to build it. That put a smile on my face. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[MTS2000]

Not to stray too far OT, but those disguise monopoles are EXPENSIVE....an extra 250,000 grand according to a rep from Spectrasite! So it would further have to be justified as a cost, many residential areas just may not yield the best results for a particular carrier.

Verizon and Cingular both operate on 800MHz in Atlanta and have built out their networks. The Verizon site that covers my home is about 1.5 miles away- how they got a 300 foot free standing tower in an old residential area must have been a challange, but they did it- literally right in a person's back yard! (Bet his neighboors just love him!). Sprint owns a tower about 1/4 mile away, and they have some co-locators being Nextel, AT&T, VoiceStream and more recently Metro PCS. All of the PCS providers go to squat when you turn down MY street (isn't that just life?), even though they are equidistant- and the Sprint USA site is actually over 100 feet higher in HAAT than Verizon's site.

Sprint just put up a fill-in site literally in a park behind our neighboorhood- again they do this after I cancel (Murphy's Law)- but remember folks it costs big bucks to build towers- and it just is not cost effective to string up a monopole on every block (and most neighboorhoods would say no anyway).

I don't mind the towers, they serve a purpose, these are "tenants" that always pay their taxes, don't get the cops called on them, and are never late on their rent/mortgage! Seriously, TRY IT AT YOUR HOUSE/OFFICE/WHEREVER- don't take a salesperson's word, they aren't RF experts and don't have access to every single trouble ticket ever written.

Hey Larry you gotta pic of that windmill thing? Have never seen one out here!

3G Americas Demystifies GSM Voice CapacityRysavy Research White Paper Confirms - GSM Doubles TDMA Capacity and Is Equal to or Better Than CDMA
7/18/2002
BELLEVUE, Wash., Jul 18, 2002 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- 3G Americas today published a white paper written by independent expert Peter Rysavy of Rysavy Research concluding that wireless carriers that transform their TDMA networks to the world standard GSM wireless technology can double their voice capacity.

The white paper will be discussed and reviewed on a free webcast, Opening Channels: GSM Voice Capacity Demystified at 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Eastern time today, July 18th featuring presentations by the author, Peter Rysavy, and testimonials based on GSM voice capacity network experiences by Bill Clift, Chairman of the Board of 3G Americas and Chief Technical Officer of Cingular Wireless, and Bob Berner, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Rogers AT&T Wireless.

Chris Pearson, Executive Vice President of 3G Americas and moderator of the interactive webcast stated, "The conclusions of the white paper, Voice Capacity Enhancements for GSM Evolution to UTMS, confirm yet another benefit of choosing the GSM evolutionary path to 3G, especially for TDMA operators." Pearson continued, "Though there is a great deal of focus on 2.5G and 3G wireless data services, voice will remain a key ingredient for success of carriers for years to come, and the efficient use of spectrum remains critical to the Americas region."

Rysavy Research utilized numerous internal and external sources including vendors and operators to compile a composite view of GSM voice capacity. "The conclusions in this white paper are well supported by the industry," stated the author, Peter Rysavy. "There are many enhancements available, both now and in the future, that will boost GSM capacity, such as frequency hopping, advanced radio planning, and new voice compression methods."

Conclusions of the paper indicate that with GSM innovations:


-- GSM maximizes capacity to sixteen times first generation analog wireless service (AMPS) using the new Adaptive Multi-rate Codec (AMR) -- GSM today has almost double the capacity of TDMA -- and with AMR the gains will quadruple -- GSM voice capacity is equal to, or better than, CDMA2000 -- Single Antenna Interference Cancellation (SAIC), still in development, will provide an additional increase of 60-100% in voice capacity, making GSM the most spectrally efficient technology for speech services -- Beyond GSM, UMTS provides additional capacity, quality-of-service mechanisms, and flexibility in managing resources between voice and data services

"There has been considerable speculation on the part of industry pundits regarding the issue of GSM capacity versus other technologies. This white paper by Rysavy Research provides the proper explanation of the technical benefits of the GSM standard that the industry has been waiting for," remarked Bill Clift.

As the world's leading wireless technology, GSM is used in more than 75% of the world's digital wireless phones and in more than 175 countries.

[bobolito]

I've seen those towers disguised as a tree and I have to tell you that those make some ugly ___ trees! They look like the tree is sick or something and it doesn't look natural since they are much taller than the rest of the trees around. I think they look better without the disguise. Just my opinion.

Those of you in the NYC area have probably noticed the tree/tower on the Hutchinson Parkway a couple of miles south of I-287 in NY. It's about twice the height of everything around it. Also, the tower on the Garden State Parkway a couple of miles south of exit 135. Doesn't it look like a dead pine tree?

[larry]

MTS2000,
I'll see if I can find a pic of a windwill tower. I've heard that there are couple of them here in So. CA but they are rare. The water tanks seem to be more common.

bobolito,
The fake tree towers can vary greatly in height and design. The new ones have improved quite a bit over the first generation from about 5 years ago. There are at least 3 varieties that I've seen. Pine, Palm and Cyprus. The Cyprus seem to look the most real followed by the pine. Some of the palm trees don't look that real at all. Sprint has just come out with a new version pine tree that looks very real and has many branches. I had to look twice to notice the panels.

[bobolito]

Hehe, they don't have those around here....I've seen only pines.

[cryogenic]

http://www.dielectric.com/centraltow...stealthing.asp

That's some info on stealthing towers... although that particular site applies to more than just PCS towers. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Also, I found this really interesting... it pertains to city ordinances on tower construction... This happens to be for the city of Syracuse City, UT; though I would be willing to bet that other cities are similar.

http://www.syracuseut.com/chapters_19_-_20.htm

[Matt]

Originally posted by: bobolito Also, the tower on the Garden State Parkway a couple of miles south of exit 135. Doesn't it look like a dead pine tree?

Yes it does I've seen that one. There's another on 287, around exit 25 or so.....it's southbound side about 15 miles or so south of 287/80.

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

yeah bobolito ive only seen two pine ones in jersey. one huge on near exit 130 on the parkway on the North side......and one on 287 south a bit north of bridgewater.

[larry]

Come out to California and you will see many different trees. They seem to be the preferred way of disguising these days.

[bobolito]

Yes, I've seen the one on I-287 southbound near Bridgewater. It is a bit concealed by the trees in front of it so is not that visible and not as tall. There's another one on Rt. 78 going west a few miles from I-287. In all these trees I've seen, AT&T either owns the tower or collocates a cell site there. I have seen so many towers in the middle of trees in Atlanta area suburbs and all over Florida but no disguises there. I wonder why...

[WirelessBeachBum]

Should try putting up a tower on Hilton Head Island sometime...they don't allow street lights, neon or backlit signs...and your business signs have to be made of wood and netural colors.

Our newest cellsite on the island is a flag pole. I've personally placed sites inside of church steeples, on top of resorts...(had to actually build an entire new roof on top of a hotel once.)

A few years ago we were trying to put up a site on the backside of the island in a residential neighborhood, we found a site that could only be seen from one golf hole and then only if you looked straight up...the property owners rejected our plans. To this day that neighborhood still does not have coverage...(from any carrier) But all I hear from the residents is complaints...boo...hoo...

Ironically the General Manager and Area Manager of that company live in the dead zone...they have to forward their wireless phones to their home phones....very sad.

[bobolito]

Too bad that those communities want to have their cake and eat it too.

take the phone back and cancel service. this is only the beginning of a terrible period in your life. voicestream probably doesn't even have record of your initial call.

[Airb330]

Bobolito, I was just on the Garden State Parkway yesterday (and sat. too). That pole looks so bad! It does look like a dead pine tree, it was taller than the other trees too. It stood out like a sore thumb. Why was that tower "hidden", I didn't see any houses where people would complain over a tower. One strange thing I saw on that road and the turnpike was a small pole (maybe 20-30ft) with two small panels facing the highway. What are those? Some sort of filler tower?

[bobolito]

Airbus, believe it or not, behind the trees there are houses that can't be seen from the Parkway. But residents is not the only reason they disguise towers, they get faster approval when they disguise them because on the GSP everything is supposed to have a "parkway" look (you know trees, green, nature, etc.). Those small poles are micro-cells, used a lot by PCS carriers to cover small coverage holes common in 1900Mhz networks.