NYC: CMDA problems in building & exteral atennas?

ASSuming you have VZW service with both phones, & 1 fone is fine in the same location that the other can't make calls, it would seem you have a lemon of a phone there, )or all of that 1 particlar model have bad RF performance).
*228 updates will do Absolutely nothing for reception in the NYC area, good or bad, there is no roaming partner in the PRL in NY/NJ, only VZW's home system, so an update can't remove any coverage, & also won't give any more in that area either, since you already have access to VZW NY.. *228 updates are only useful to a NYC user after you jet away from your home system & need to roam....

You may want to look into a wireless in building dual band repeater, if exchanging the fone is no option or help:

http://www.phonemerchants.com/poda3w60gadu.html

THese work well & should give you more than enough signal indoors... although you will need to shell out over $300......

 

There is No way to make a non-analog phone work on analog channels.
I really doubt that the tri-mode phone is switching over to analog in your situation.
Almost all CDMA phones have a "1x" or "D" icon in the display that shows in the display to signify that it is Not on / using analog channels. Check your working phone..... Many phones also show an "A" icon when on analog or at the least the "1x" or "D" isn't there......

 

Is there another phone that you may be able to trade for? Maybe one of the BlackBerry models?

 

If you don't mind being tethered to a wire, an external antenna should also solve your problem.
You may just have a bum fone, although many models (such as the Nokia CDMA's) are better at getting a signal than others, but in your case it seems a little too severe between the 2 phones.

 

External antennas are VERY effective. Here in Kentucky, even the best carriers cant penetrate the hills and the hollers. I personally use a glass-mount 3db on my truck, and a mag-mount 3db in my shop at the house. They usually have about 16ft of coax on them, so it's no different than using a landline phone. And although they may be rated at only 3db of gain, just getting the antenna outside the building is a huge boost, so you may see gains of 15-20db or more. One of the best things about digital is the ability to have a clear conversation at very low signal levels, so just a 3db boost could help you out ALOT.

You could get a mini-mag (about 4 inches tall) and stick it on top of a filing cabinet or something.

In CDMA, some of the biggest RF performance differences are the result of the effectiveness of the rake receiver in the phone. If you are not familiar with a rake receiver, let me explain.

Its a radio receiver that is tuned to a maximum of 6 voice channels simultaneously (in CDMA). In this way, the phone is able to receive signal from multiple towers and/or sectors simultaneously, and talk via ALL of them! The rake receiver can even take advantage of signals bounced off of nearby buildings or structures, called multi-path. In multi-path situations, the rake receiver has to time correct the signal because bounced signals take longer to reach your phone than line of sight signals. Then the rake takes all these signals, and combines them together for maximum effect.

This is the short short explanation of rake theory, but if the rake in your phone is poorly engineered, it will have a hard time taking advantage of all the signal that is available. If the time correction algorithms are a little off, the rake may be ignoring some signals alltogther.

I highly recommend Nokia's for their RF performance, as well as some of the higher-end Kyoceras for their CDMA RF performance. Others may disagree with me on the Kyoceras, but by the numbers, they technically perform very well.