Here in the Orange County, CA area Sprint is now using slot cycle no. 1 instead of no. 2 like they had been using for years. This means that incoming calls, voicemail alerts, and text messages can come in on average of about 2 seconds faster now. But of course battery life in standby mode suffers by about 10 to 15 %. I now find myself having to recharge every day instead of every other day like before. But I like having less delay for incoming calls. So when people call my phone now they only have to hear about 1 ring on their end before my phone starts ringing whereas before it often took 2-3 rings. Just an FYI, switching the slot cycle settings on your handset does nothing because the network overrides it anyway. The slot cycle settings are network based not handset based despite what others might try to claim.
With my a900, I would like a slot cycle of 5. That way, my battery might just last a day or 2. Back with my Sanyo, every now and then while roaming on vzw i would recieve a slot cycle of 0. Good thing the battery on that thing is a tank! I have no way (that i know of) to check the slot cycle on my a900
remember that the settings on your phone are overridden by the network. So if your phone shows one number that doesn't necessarily mean that's what's being pushed from the network. My phone will still show the default setting of SC-2 even though Sprint is now using SC-1 here in my area.
Oh, i know. I never changed the slot cycle. This setting was applied by the network, and the phone reflected this in the field test screen.
That's great to hear. I wonder if this is a nationwide thing for Sprint? I know that at least a while ago, Sprint phones here took 2-3 times to ring, just like you described, Larry. I guess Verizon must have used slot cycle 1 ever since I had them because my phone usually rings during the callers' first ring or right thereafter. I wonder if people are going to think their battery has gone bad now with the slot cycle change.
Andy, yes you are correct. Verizon does use slot cycle 1 in most of their markets now. My phone now rings after only one ring on the caller's end instead of the 2-3 that it used to take. I suspect Sprint is in the process of converting over to slot cycle 1 in every market. Not sure how many have been changed over as of now. Ever since about Jan. 28th (the day I suspect the change took place) I noticed a decrease in battery life and after some experimenting I finally put my finger on the cause. But yes I'm sure a lot of sprint customers are wondering why their battery all of a sudden won't hold a charge as good as it used to. Also I have reason to believe that Sprint is now using a new CDMA software platform that is supposed to improve voicemail reliability as well.
Larry, What was wrong with the voicemail reliability in your area in the past? I thought that had long been fixed?
I've never had any problems with voicemail at all. It's always worked great for me and the people I know. But other people claimed they were getting late notifications.
Got it- the late notifications is what people in my area have experienced in the past. This would be great news for them!
Oddly my phone still continues to show slot cycle index 2 in debug mode. I'm wondering if what Sprint changed was simply a new and improved version of slot cycle 2 that acts as if it were slot cycle 1. But there's no doubt about it that incoming calls come in much faster now than before.
In slow service areas, the slot cycle can mean the different of the phone ringing...or not rining at all.
It appears as though it's just a new and improved version of slot cycle 2 which acts very much like sot cycle 1. But I can't see any real benefit by this other than to make the calling process shorter with less wait. The network gives up after what appears to be only one attempt by the phone to wake up and search for the incoming call and then (if unsucessful) it sends it right to VM. So the chances of receiving an incoming call haven't improved any.
For the longest time (the last five years or so), everyone in Texas that I know are on Sprint have complained that calls made to their PCS number would often go straight to voicemail. I wonder if this was why. In any case, the complaints seem to have subsided somewhat in the last several months. Of course the coverage there has always been pretty good.
