Any Opinions on Signal Problem and Solution?

I don't know for sure, but IMHO, I think that you might be getting the runaround.

 

The cell site in your area must be down, being worked on or otherwise having trouble. I would guess that it will be back within another 5 to 10 days max. ... Keep us posted.

 

if thats the case then his bill should be prorated

 

I had a similar problem with Verizon in NJ. I had no signal inside my home so I called VZW and they issued a trouble ticket and told me they would call me back in 48 hours. Much to my surprise they called me back exactly 48 hours later as they had determined my home was in a dead zone. I was subsequently released from my contract without penalty and now I'm an AT&T subscriber.

 

Well... see with VZW they do not have much of their own coverage [don't know about your area] but mostly it is their roaming parteners. So they will try to fix it but usually it is a roaming parteners problem either: Alltel, Sprint PCS and Qwest Wireless or possibly US Cellular. Even though it says home coverage and you do not get charged roaming it is another carriers network.

 

This is only the case in the far NW corner of CT. I challenge you to find a provider with a larger native coverage footprint. I didn't think you could.
(in reference to your sig): I challenge you to find a more reliable luxury car than a Lexus. You can't do that either? You better regroup and come back tomorrow


rich6880: Situations like this are why its always a good idea to know where your local serving towers are. The more specific you can be about the problem, the better.

 

Did you ever have a decent signal in that same location Before?

 

I get 0-1 bars in my house (-101 to -104/-105) and the quality and reception is DEFINITELY better than Cingular tdma ever was...:biggrin: :browani:

I guess it just depends on your phone and location relative to the tower.

 

Sounds like a foliage problem. In the winter, when there's no leaves in the trees, 1900Mhz signals reach a bit further. After March, when trees grow leaves, 1900Mhz signals get worse. The only way to solve this is if Verizon installs a tower closer to you, and unfortunately that won't happen simply because you are calling them.

 

your phone still gets reception with -101 to -104?!?!? my LG4500 says no service when i get to about -95 to -97. Hmm, at what RX do other people go into a "No Service" area??

 

Below -106 is when the VX 4400 gives it up.

 

Most GSM and CDMA phones give up around -106dB. TDMA phones usually gives up around -109dB.

 

If they can't resolve your problem, then i guess VZW should let you off the contract.

 

I can make, (or should say have made..), a call with -109 on my 3586i (Same as a 3589i) ... Different phones will give different results in fringe areas...
Yes, Tree Foliage will effect both 800 & 1900, although it is worse with 1900...
Other possibilities besides a "problem" at the cell site are: 1 - A building, Power lines or some other obstruction has been installed in the cell sites path to your home...
2 - The cell panels on the site were recently angled differently to increase coverage/capacity in another area, & caused you to lose bars at your home.

 

I held a call at -109 on my VX4400. The call was in the dead of night in a valley in Vermont with an Ec/Io of about -03.0, but it held, and I heard, "Welcome to PCS Customer Solutions! Briefly tell me how I can help you."


My mother had a VX4500 and it would drop calls like crazy in our house where my VX4400 and my father's StarTAC 7868W would do great. It's about a -090 to -095 signal area, which is perfectly clear on most phones, but the VX4500 is awful for that. She complained to the corporate store's CS rep, who said, "Let me go talk to the manager," and brought out a brand new Audiovox CDM-8600 to replace it. No more problems.

 

Get out! I guess if there's no other interference (or users on the network) it can pull off a connection like that. I assume you had Verizon and were roaming on Sprint at the time?

 

Yes.

My Samsung VGA 1000 looses a signal when it hits -107.

At my house, I get anywhere from -101 to -104 regardless if the antenna is extended or not, which like I said in a previous post is better than Cingular TDMA was. :biggrin:

 

I keep telling this story...

Okay, it was 12:30AM. Sprint PCS is not in the PRL (Sprint PCS coverage is worse than Verizon's in Vermont - there's really no point to having it in there), so I was connecting via a *228xx, which, instead of giving me a "The function is incorrect" message connected me to PCS Customer Solutions.

I was in Bristol, Vermont. If you put Bristol's only ZIP code on the SPCS Website, it says that you're shopping for service in Middlebury. Now that's quite a ways away. If that's the nearest tower, coverage is impossible. (There's no way a 1900MHz signal can carry nearly 20 miles through hilly terrain!) I've had sources that say the tower is just outside the village, which is impossible (if there is a tower there, it was down). I was in the center of the village and had no signal. If you say that just outside could be far away, it was a 15-minute walk from where I was to any corner of the village. Nobody in Bristol uses Sprint PCS; there's no point, since you'd lose coverage on your way to the nearest 24-hour anything. The entire town was asleep. I had just gotten in from a full day of traveling (I hate Continental) and was playing with my phone. I sent HoFo user vermontcellboy a PM talking about it:

So...it worked. I don't know why, and there was no one on the network at all, but the call connected and held. What can I say - the VX4400 has quite good RF!

 

good story, but you know, I wouldn't be surprised if you DID get a PCS signal from 15-20 miles away, especially at night, in the mountains of new england. The mountains and tropospheric ducting can do crazy things.

So while we're sitting around the campfire, I have one too...

It was Spring of '03, VERY early in the morning. I was at Mid State Airport (Centre County PA) for an AutoX event but I wasn't running that day, so I decided to play field tech. Now Mid state airport is in the middle of nowhere on a hilltop (very open area). Wireless coverage in the area is all but nonexistant most days, even Verizon, but if you stand facing southwest with the phone on your right side in the middle of the front parking lot you can make a call out on AT&T TDMA. This particular morning I had brought my mag mount external antenna for the S46 since I was on AT&T multiband then, and let the phone sit next to me. I look down at the phone a minute later and what does it say but "VoiceStream"!! Now T-mobile has NO network constructed in Centre county (T-mo users roam onto 'Conestoga wireless', now 'Immx'), and everywhere else AT&T users are barred. Zero bars on the display I pick it up and call voicemail. The call timer started! I got a severely muffled "Plea--" from "Please enter your password" before the dreaded (but familiar, with AT&T ) call drop tones sounded. I pulled up the monitor as fast as I could but couldn't copy down the site ID before it blanked. I tried for a half hour, and got it to show up again in the search a couple times, but it wouldn't register after that. The nearest T-mobile network is about 15 miles SSW of Mid State Airport in Blair county. Anyway, I dont know how it happened, but it did, even more of a mystery was how the phone registered since AWS GSM users are usually barred. Tropospheric ducting? Blair witch? I donno. But join us again next time for...

TALES from BELOW THE NOISE FLOOR!!​

 

You said you get about 4 bars 500 feet from your house. If they are sending field testers out to check signal on your street, that will pass as more than acceptable and they will find no problem. Don't forget that little clause about in-building coverage in your contract. As long as they can stand there in the street and make a phone call that doesn't drop, that counts as service.

 

Since you in CT; Try CINGULAR inside your House.
You may just be closer to another carrier's cell site, which will work inside your house.
where i live i'm 6 blocks from a shared tower, and 13 blocks from a verizon roof top site. 15 blocks from a Sprint tower where sprint is not sharing it.

 

How many months left on the Contact? 22 months? You have to live w/ it for the next 22 months then.

There are places where one carrier is stronger than the other.

 

Cell towers do Not go down for days. These sites are monitored, they will know if something is wrong in less than an hour.