Sound quality comparison

The fact that your fathers Cingular phone has poor audio even as you say in an area with full signal strength leads me to believe that his mobile handset may be defective and should be taken in to be looked at by a tech. In my house I had full bars with Cingular and now I only get about 2 bars on my Verizon phones, but yet both Cingular and Verizon's audio sound the same to me.

The only difference that I will note here is that I can still make and receive calls with no bars of service showing on my Verizon phone, but on my old Cingular phones I could not make or receive calls without at least having one bar of service. That being said, we are comparing two different services here between GSM and CDMA, so the number of bars don't necessarily represent the true picture of service.

Now on to your signature. :lmao: How can Verizon's service be the best in the cell phone world when they haven't even fully deployed their over seas coverage yet? As to your comment about checking out the maps, I did and the area that I live in according to Verizons maps is listed as having "full" coverage when in fact they do not. To Verizon's credit they do state clearly on their maps :

This map is not a guarantee of coverage and may contain areas of no service. Even within a coverage area, there are many factors, including customer's equipment, terrain, proximity to buildings, foliage and weather, that may impact service. (This statement can be said about all of the leading wireless carrier maps. None of the carriers can guarantee that their customers are going to have service every where they go.

I'm almost done. In closing just to bring this back on topic, I've been using GSM and CDMA both for 3 weeks now, and can honestly say that I haven't noticed that much of a difference in terms of their sound quality. Except for tonight when I was talking to my sons teacher on my Verizon phone and I had to keep turning the volume up because she sounded so far away that I could hardly hear her. My faith was restored when at the end of our conversation she apologized for her laryngitis. :lmao:

Edit: I just wanted to add here that my above opinions are not in favor of any one of the leading carriers.

 

LOL! I think we've all rained on his parade enough so my doing so would be like beating a dead horse. If he got the message, I'm sure he'll change his signature to something more realistic. All cheerleaders eventually grow out of that phase.

I believe all phones (CDMA or GSM) are capable of doing this. It just depends on how clean the channels are in the time and place of your phone call. For instance, it is very hard to get any audio with no bars in my area, although I've seen it happen some times with any of my GSM phones. However, if I go to a rural area, where RF is cleaner, it's far easier to accomplish that.

 

In some places though, particularly here in Los Angeles, the local at&t mobility network sounds bad in many places with full signal. I think they are trying to accomodate too many people into slots to avoid call failures or dropped calls.

Unless you disable HR, you tend to get harsh robotic voice quality with somewhat garbled speech. There is distortion on almost every call I've made or received within the past few months. I've tested waaay too many phones in so many different areas locally to think its just a faulty phone problem.

Believe me, at&t has coverage practically everywhere around here so coverage itself is not the issue. It's the voice quality that is of concern.

I really hope this gets addressed. I don't believe for a minute that I'm the only one who experiences this. I made the plunge to at&t as my main line after years and years with VZW.

BTW: Is there anyone out there who can show me how to disable HR on a Motorola using a Macintosh - OSX 10.49?

 

You're not alone. LA has always been problematic for many people with Cingular on the network they bought from AT&T Wireless (310-380). I've read too many horror stories to think that it's their phone.

As for disabling HR with a Macintosh, I think it might be easier if you just get a PC. The programs needed to do it don't have Mac versions.

 

LOL. That's expensive! But you won't believe what this nerd will buy just for kicks.

The guys at work mod Moto's all the time on their desktops. I was curious if there is a way to do it on a Mac but apparently not.

Maybe I'll just have to break down and buy a new notebook.

 

Take a look at this link: http://mac.themotoguide.com/ and may be you find something. and here is a specific link: http://www.modmymoto.com/forums/downloads.php?do=cat&id=96

 

Cool. I'll take a look at these links. Thanks!

 

Heheheh, not gonna name any names but I can think of someone who hasn't

 

If this is the Old ATTWS then you are talking on Nokia GSM. Most of the Nokia network was 1900. If there is poor quality on more that one cell site and phones have been ruled out then there is a bigger issue at hand such as the backhaul or a BSC. Sounds like someone dropped the ball out there.

Do a couple of tests mobile to mobile and mobile to land just rule of switch trunk lines to a land line switch or other mobile switchs.

Have everyone and their brother call 611 and complain and put in a service ticket.

 

It's OK, you can name the person. We won't tell anyone.

 

Your explanation makes sense.

I've never pushed the issue with customer service. I've made mention of it casually, but they always tell you to take "your phone," to my local store to get it checked for bugs.

You guys know a whole bunch more on the technical side of things and its nice to know you guys "know," what I'm talking about.

Cali does have a big voice and its been known to the Telecom industry before, but I feel unless it hurts at&t's pocketbooks nothing will be done soon.

It would be nice to know that they're aware of it and actively working to improve the local quality. Any local employees have any insight?

 

I don't live in LA neither do I have any experience on how it is over there, but I constantly read what's going on over there and it seems like it has gotten better in the last few months. I don't hear much complaining about it in other forums, but when I do, it's always about the same voice problem. It's an old problem that seems to be slowly improving.

Luckily, here on the east coast, I haven't found any area where Cingular has that problem. It works great here in HR.

 

I have heard that Cingular uses a half rate codec in so. cal for capacity since they gave the network they built to t-mobile. Could that be the source?

 

Both Cingular and T-Mobile use Half Rate extensively across the US. T-Mobile is actually more strained in capacity than Cingular is.

 

Wow. Clear calls like VZW. Just did the mod.for MAC. I'm not even the type that would normally go that far. After installing Moto4lin, I went to this link: http://www.motox.info/archive/index.php/t-38074.html

No garbles or muffled (underwater) sounding speech. Sounds like the old PacBell Wireless service I tried years ago before all the problems.

I somehow disabled my speakerphone and MMS, but I'll work on that next. Haha. :lmao:

Clear calls matters most to me. I feel empowered. The real test is on the 26th floor where my office is. Call quality is usually pretty horrid up there with all carriers.

 

I don't know, I've been told that Cingular uses half rate in so cal for capacity and T-mobile doesn't since the inherited network and what they have added on far out paces the actual T-mobile customers.....

 

Cingular is running Nokia (ATTWS) and Nortel (Cingular). We run the same Nortel that Cingular has and Nortel just did an upgrade on ours that allows for auto half rate. So at the Cell site level when a site gets loaded up it will make the new calls coming in go to half rate, when the capacity goes down the site will auto go back to full rate, even when on a call.

Half rate works good but you need 1. good signal 2. good quality. 3. good phone.

If your in a building with -90 off a 1900 MHZ tower in the middle of a city, these arent going to be the best conditions. I would think T-Mobile would have a bigger problem with poor audio in LA due to now having as much spectrum.

You have to think about auto UL and DL as well with Half Rate. Your phone and the network cuts back power on the phone to save battery life, so if your signal degrades fast, the auto DL can actually cause a dropped call.

When you make a call with GSM look at your bars, they will go up and down. When your not on a call they will be solid.

enuff rambling for today.

 

T-Mobile is pretty bad in our building. With the exception of the first floor lobby, you'd be hard pressed to have a pleasant conversation. My blackberry 8700g gets around -98 at my desk as long as I don't move or place it to my head. I can call out if I leave the device on my desk in speakerphone mode, but the call is really broken up and sounds bad.

T-Mobile is the preferred provider for our company so if we want free service, we have no other choice. As I write this, I see two guys standing next to the windows trying to hold a conversation.

T-Mobile has zero service in any of our elevators or bathrooms. The signal just can't seem to penetrate our walls effectively.

I normally use my AVAYA VOIP desk phone with a bluetooth headset. That seems to be the way to go around here.

 

No carrier guarantees in-building coverage. It's your luck that you happen to be not very near a base station/tower. If you're near enough to a base station the problems you describe will not happen.

 

Hehe...the same thing happens here at home and at work. Inside my office T-mobile gets near -100dBm reception and here at home in certain spots it's in the 90's but overall you can't reliably have a conversation unless you stand by a window. It's been like this for years.

Yes, they all use Half Rate for capacity. CDMA went from the 13K codec down to the 8K EVRC for the same reasons. On GSM, Half Rate is roughly the same rate as EVRC on CDMA. Both are variable and max around 8kbps.

 

What do you mean "auto UL and DL"?

In idle mode, your phone can jump around easier and take the best signal available. When you are in connected mode, you're locked on one (and not necessarily the best) signal, plus it's harder to HO to another cell, so the signal will vary more.

 

I don't know what he means by UL and DL. Maybe Uplink and Downlink?

I've noticed that those quick signal variations during a call happen because the phone jumps channels more often. At least that's what I've noticed by looking at the test screens. When the phone is idle it will most likely stay put on one channel for a longer period of time as long as you are not driving or something like that.

 

Yes auto uplink and downlink. if your phone has field test get on a strong BCCH then make a call. While on the call look at the DB reading, you will see it move up and down. If you have good signal and are close to the tower, the Base Station will cut back your phones power down to save battery life.
I have seen a GSM code to deactive this.


As far as 1900 on Tmobile in the city, should talk to your boss about a in building repeater. They are usually good for 1000 square feet.

 

Very interesting you mention that. I have always found GSM to sound much, much worse at half rate than CDMA sounds at 8k. I have my phone forced to 13k(very easy to do on CDMA phones) and sometimes I actually prefer 8k because it seems to get rid of mumbling/garbling better than 13k. It seems to me like 8k sounds much better on CDMA than half rate on GSM. Half Rate on GSM, at least in my area as well as Los Angeles garbles so bad!

 

I think this all depends on the tower load factor the higher the load the worse it gets and that goes for both CDMA and GSM. In all honesty, I find them to be equal in their issues. When I travel overseas, using my phones I always say I wish it was like this back at home. The calls are always as good as a land line and can keep a conversation for a long time and not miss a heart beat.

 

I'm trying not to be biased but even on a very well loaded CDMA tower I have found the quality, at least in the areas I've been to with both a CDMA and Cingular GSM phone, to be much better on CDMA than on the half rate GSM. I have used half rate GSM at one in the morning with tons of garbling.
I agree, though, overseas the call quality is amazing!

 

I never expected you to be biased. I was just trying to figure something out over here in the NYC are using them both seem to be the same. I can say when using a phone that is set on full rate on Cingular, the calls are perfect even at 1 bar while the half rate are not so good. The VZW phone that i used was the Razr and I switched with its owner to see the diference and we both concluded the same.

 

That's called "power control"

...and it's a bad idea to disable it in your phone, because when you're constantly transmiting on full power, you're 1) exposing your head to more radiation than is necessary, 2) maybe causing unnecessary interference in the network.

With power control, if you need the extra power, your phone will give it to you. if you're close to the base station it will reduce your transmit power. You aren't gaining anything by transmitting on full power next to the base station.

 

His phone is brand new and it is a clicking noise and it is very annoying

 

yes a generic (layman) term would be power control. Sometimes this power control can cause a drop call especially were a hybid 850/1900 handoff is.