Signal trouble...help please

It could be the Freq Channel your fone "hashes" to . That freq channel is determined by your phone number, so doing an ESN change would not help, and as you notice any phone that ends up with your mobile number has the problem.
They should then be able to get a tech out to that cell site to correct the problem, but you have to speak to a support rep that understands channel hashing.. Also , if they change your mobile number to one that hashes to a different channel, that would solve your problem too (but not fix that channel in that cell site)..

 

Yes, that is quite annoying. I have several phones that can "hit" Verizon, and each one ends on a different channel, with varying signal strength. My closest tower gives a -75 dBm signal, but each phone then goes off to some other channel, and some can only get -90 dBm which is not that great.

I have noticed even after changing phone numbers the phone still ends up on the same channel, so its more than just the phone number.

Out of the five phones I can hit Verizon CDMA with (I won't go into why I have that many LOL), I get:
384 (excellent), 425(excellent), 466 (okay), 548 (fair), 589 (fair)
That also makes it difficult to compare phones RF capability.

 

In that case, how does an inactive phone (which does not have a phone number) selects which channel to stay on?

Sorry, but I am an ignorant when it comes to CDMA.

 

I did some testing, and sure enough, the phone number alone, seems to select a specific channel.

I tried various combinatsions with NAM1, and the channel always followed the phone number, regardless of what phone I used (and I have several).

Using a different NAM yields a different channel number, so that comes into play somehow as well.

It does not matter if the phone number is valid, its just used as part of the algorithm.

 

I wonder how much of the phone number has to be different? Maybe just the last number? Just wondering if it is related to the ACCOLC parameter (which is usually set to the last number of the phone number). Even though it is not currently used for priority communications, it would seem logical that that value would have an effect on channel used. Maybe someone could try changing it in long-programming mode (but not the phone number), and see if it makes a difference.

 

Even an inactive fone has zeros (if new), or the old number, or somesuch as a "number" before it is programmed.
The system then hashes it to a channel.
A call attempt will cause an ESN mismatch in an inactive fone & that will route the call to an error message or roam company.

 

I had exactly the same problem with Verizon back around Jun 20.

It took me multiple calls, the last one taking two hours to convince them they had a problem.

Once they finally logged it as a trouble ticket, and gave me the tt #, it took them 2 weeks to get around to fixing it.

When I called them back ( after the phone starting working again ) to inquire what the problem was, the CR rep. said a "card" was replaced.

Sounds like you have it resolved, but if I could help by digging up the TT # , let me know.