Full bars + Static???

I back in 2003 I had many calls where I would be at full bars and they said it sounded like I was in a well or a deep hole. I have not heard that in a long time so the problem was fixed.

 

does it happena ll the time or just sometimes? if it happens all teh time, see if you can take your phone intot the cing store and have em put your sim in another phone and se if you still have problems

 

The amount of bars showing on a phone has very little to do with the strength of the signal you are receiving. This is why the ads about bars are misleading. Different manufacturers have different standards of measuring signal in relation to bars. Some are more generous with bars than others. In reality a phone with two bars showing can work better than one with four bars.

The 1900mhz signal will not penetrate buildings as well as the lower frequencies. If you are not near a tower this could make a difference. Cingular was sharing towers with T Mobile but with the ATT merger I don't know if it is still the case.

If you weren't having problems with Verizon why did you switch?

 

iT MAY be hanging to a weak signal
like a 1900 and not switching to 850.
Or there is Congestion.
This happens w/ VZW
it clings to Analog when Digital is congested.

 

C_Spec if you can describe in more detail what you mean by "static" maybe we can give you a better answer. There is no such thing as static on digital networks, so I am sure you are talking about something else. Please give us more details or a better description of the problem.

 

If you are still in your trial period with Cingular see if you can port back to Verizon. Or cancel and set up a new account with Verizon.

I'm sorry you're having this experience but you have learned a valuable lesson.

Choose a carrier based on service not the "cool" factor.

 

Sound's like a tower problem, since it's in a small area. Call CS & ask for an OTA Update to your SIM, there may be a blue tower that you can pickup near you that doesn't have a problem with it & also report the problem to them, hopefully 1 of these can get the problem fixed quickly for you.

You can also click on the link in my Signature line, it will bring you to a report a problem tech site to report this problem.

 

Sounds like you are in a bad area. Does the problem seem to be worse at certain times of the day or night? If so, I'd be willing to take the chance to diagnose your problem. More than likely, you are already picking up Cingular Blue towers (formerly AT&T Wireless). This is because Cingular has stopped issuing SIM cards that prefer T-mobile towers since January. Their new SIM cards now prefer the blue towers, so more than likely you are already using 850Mhz.

The problem you are describing is very similar to that happening in certain areas of North NJ and to which I have been a witness myself. Constant breakup becomes annoying at times and gets in the way of the conversation. It happens every few seconds and sometimes the audio blanks out totally for a few seconds giving the impression that the call has dropped. If this is the case, then your problem is due to several factors:

- Dual band nature of the network constantly switches your phone between 850Mhz and 1900Mhz causing unnecessary handoffs that produce some of those brief and annoying breakups. The number of handoffs appears to grow significantly during times of high network load.

- Dual transfer rate nature of the network's codec constantly switches your phone between Full Rate and Half Rate mode. Every time your phone switches modes, it briefly cuts out sound adding more sound interruptions. These mode changes become significantly more frequent during high network load periods.

- Half Rate mode codec has an error correction problem. During periods of high network congestion and interference, the Half Rate codec appears to break up audio every few seconds for no apparent reason. There is no channel change, handoffs or rate mode change when this happens, only a persistent brief interruption of sound every few seconds that can chop words from a conversation. This period of choppy audio persists for about 30 seconds and then normal audio is restored as the codec decides to switch back to Full Rate mode. While in Full Rate mode, this problem never happens. However, back in Half Rate mode, in some less common occasions, these brief interruptions suddenly turns into a single long interruption of incoming audio that can last about 10 seconds or more. The affected user usually believes the call has dropped and often times they hang up. However, if they wait long enough they realize the audio is restored. All the while, the other party was listening to everything they said just fine.

Cingular's current patch to this problem is to add more capacity to the network so that they can serve more customers at a lower percent load and therefore temporarily hide the problems. But as the number of users grows, the problems quickly resurface. They have significantly reduced the number of these problems in NJ due to the increase in available spectrum, performing software upgrades on their systems and fine-tuning network capacity utilization.

Now, it is perfectly normal to have these brief cut outs in sound every once in a while especially when traveling in a car. However, you should rarely experience breakups while standing still in one place because there should be no reason the phone has to switch channels or rate modes, although one brief breakup every minute or two is still normal because network conditions (user load, etc.) also change with time. However, the excessive cut outs every few seconds is definitely not acceptable as they prevent the normal flow of a conversation. You determine what's acceptable or not by looking at how these brief dropouts in sound affect your conversation. In your case, it appears they are excessive and therefore, not acceptable.

If this is the case, your immediate neighboring area probably has many AT&T and Cingular users and this is why when you go to another area everything seems fine. Again, I ask, does the problem seem to be worse at certain times of the day or night?

 

Looks like a Congestion Problem to me.
This happens too w/ my VZW phone
where it would lock to Analog
because the Digital is Congested.

 

The problem described here is exactly what is happening to Cingular's TDMA/GSM network in my area. Very choppy/garbly conversations all the time. Users drop tons of calls; they do seem to have enough towers to cover the area(they have more towers than VZW in some areas of town) but still have those problems. Also, Verizon has many more users in my area than Cingular so I'm not sure why they are having this problem...?

 

Depends on how much spectrum is dedicated to each network.

 

Well they sure have enough of that here

 

Sure. However, the question is how much of that spectrum they are actually dedicating to those towers.

 

You say you use an SE s710a??

I notice on that phone it seems to have a REAL HOT microphone.

When you have it up against ur face it causes static (when's the last time u shaved, LOL...) . Try holding it away from ur face, I'll bet u hear no static.

Anyway, I don't think you are seeing an RF issue, or any sort of network problem, just he nature of the beast (the phone). Other than that it is a nice phone though. I kinda complained about the static myself too.

 

I understand and agree, but if I had the spectrum(and needed it) why not use it? How hard is it to start using/implement new/unused spectrum? Their network would be awesome here if they could sort out those problems. Don't get me wrong, they have more towers than Verizon in a lot of areas around here, voice quality/dropped calls are the only problem.

 

If you have a friend with a different phone for Cingular, swap SIM's & see if you still have the problem, this would help you figure out if it's a Network issue or phone issue.

 

I know nothing about the system in Northern NJ or NYC, but I do know that that phone did sound annoying enough to me to not use it, as cool as it is.
At least until I realized it was the HOT MIC causing my problem. After that I was a little more careful how I used it, and the problem stopped, although I can still make it happen at will if I wanted to. The system around here, while it does get busy in certain areas, would certainly be nowhere near what ya might see in an area like NJ/NYC in terms of traffic, subscribers, etc. Go with Fire14's suggestion, see if ya can find another halfway decent phone to try your SIM card in, and see if that helps, then u'll know for sure.

P.S.- I hope ya realize I was only jokin re: the shavin thing. Can't stand myself sometimes...hehe

 

Dear Santa: I really doubt it is a phone issue. As I said, this is a problem that occurs in pocket areas of NYC/NJ. I've experienced this annoying problem myself. It just varies from one neighborhood to another. Lucky for me, it doesn't happen at home or at work, but it does happen in some small areas in between.

Just for the hell of it, I would try another phone, though, to see how it behaves under these conditions.

 

I'm sure they know about them, and I'm sure that when time comes they will fix them. Sooner or later, unless they don't do anything, but keep on signing up new customers.

 

did you get a trouble ticket #?

 

yes, sometimes they call
it a reference Number.
So when you follow up
on your complaint
you just give them the ref. #
especially if
you talk to a CS.