Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

I live in rural, north central Missouri and I'm between two cell towers about 9 miles apart. I believe I live in a "fringe" area as it seems the signal in my home is not as strong as outside or at work. Half the time I receive calls, the other half I don't. They come in as missed calls without the phone ever ringing or a voicemail will show up without the phone ringing. Sometimes when I go to make a call with a picture contact, it does not go through. I have to bring up the phone dialer and have to hit that button 3-4 times just to bring it up. Before it comes up, my phone shows the tower having no service. All this has happened for 6 months now since I first got the phone brand new, and I've finally had enough of it. This happens at home mostly, but has happened at work and when outside occasionally. I work for an ambulance service so you can just imagine not getting that phone call when all hell is breaking lose! It suck ass for my patients.

Calling sprint is like pulling teeth. Of course they never heard of this particular problem before...I call bullshit!

Took the phone to the sprint store. Came back all fine after testing it. They would not replace it. My wife has a TP2 as well, no problems on her end. I think the radio is going out on it or has issues, however, the tests are coming back that all is well with the phone. What do you all think? Please don't ask me to hard reset the phone. I have done it in the past several times 100% properly and that has never resolved the issue. I have stock WM6.1 and use mobile shell 3.5. I know it's not mobile shell because I ran the phone without MS after a hard reset for 2 weeks and it still did it. Again, using MS so I'm not using the standard volume with two seperate volume levels. Any suggestions different than what I covered gladly accepted. Thanks.

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

1. how can you live in "North Central" anywhere?? your either North, or in the center lol j/k

2. if your wife has exact same device and her service is fine, then your whole "fringe area" theory is out the window

3. radios dont "go bad" - but you can try flashing a new radio to see if you get better service.. theres lots to chose from

4. have you tried updating your PRL?

5. what does using MS have to do with volume keys?? i thought this was about signal strength, not call volume?

6. Sprint will give you an Airwave, and comp the monthly service fee if you just ask... lots of users here have got theirselves one and for free.. this boots your cell signal while in your house..

7. thats about all i got right now

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

I have much the same problem with AT$T, but I live in the middle of a bustling metropolis called Los Angeles (maybe you've heard of it). :) It is so annoying that the voicemail alert comes through fine, but not the original call. :(

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

Ditto, but in North East Missouri. And yes bored it's possible to be in both the North and the East, haha.

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

Thanks for your suggestions. Yes the PRL is updated. I've tweaked the programming on both our phones so that they poll the tower more frequently as well so it will ring quicker. Will look into flashing a new radio and the Airwave. Somone in another post said something about that they didn't have their volume up on phone side and never heard their phone ring, that's why the MS comment.

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

yes radios can go bad. back when i had my TP i would have to hard reset every month because the phone would always indicate no service and i even have a thread about it ,however when i flashed different radios it didn't happen anymore.

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

AT&T is also like the worst network for signal, so that explains that lol

of course theres North-East(NE).. but North Central?? come on lol

so your radio went bad?? like it expired? turned sour? got moldy? LOL j/k theres probably a million reasons you signal disappeared..

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

I will try to flash a new radio and see if that helps any. I can't believe you guys are laughing about north central missouri! LOL Look it up, Brookfield, MO. North part of missouri and central between the east/west state lines. We have a college named North Central Missouri State. This is funny!

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

I would call and talk to retentions at sprint. Tell them your cellphone reception in your house sucks, the sprint store says your phone works as advertised, but you need better reception in your house or you will have to change carriers.
The other poster is right, they should give you an airwave. Make sure they don't charge you for it and comp your acct 10.00 a month to cover it. Some phone antennas just are better than others (even the same model phone).

p.s. Make sure you are holding it properly as well!!!

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

Yeah, wait until Verizon customers get the iPhone in January. They'll discover how bad their system is, too.:laughing6:

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

in chicago where my signal is perfect everywhere I've been within the city? i don't think so i had perfect signal that morning before i went to class,came out and it was searching signal i thought that was normal since i got low signal in that class anyway, went outside so still was searching signal decided to soft reset and found a screw icon next to the antenna performed hard reset signal was perfect again. this happened twice before i switched radios but now im on a TP2 with the current Sprint radio with no issues. only area where i don't get signal now is the locker room at work.

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

I did call them and they are sending me an airave free of cost with no monthly charges. I love my phone as a PDA but to make and receive calls is a nightmare at home. Was about to go back to the basics with my trusty Sanyo 7050 and forget about the fun stuff. I hope this works like it has for many others. Should be here in a few days and will post my results. Thanks a bunch!

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

umm, since you both have the same phone have you thought about swapping and see if the problem follows phone.

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

It doesn't miss calls etc. when I'm not at home so swapping wouldn't do anything but make her miss calls. My wife says it has happened to her once or twice in the 6 months with her phone and that was at home. Mine has done it probably 50 times in 3 months and is very annoying. Both phones are updated and running the same radio, rom, and most of the same programs. Both have been tweaked to poll the tower the same. Both are on CDMA only in the settings. Everything is identical. When I check service on them together, mine has more often, less bars than hers. It doesn't matter if the phone is in my pocket or out on the table, still miss calls the same. Phone has been tested again just 4 days ago at sprint store and came back with a clean bill of health. The sprint tech (on the phone, not the store) said the phone could be bad and pass all the tests. The sprint store tech said that's hogwash and was not going to give me new phone since it passed the tests. They took it apart. Nothing wrong with the phone that they found. I wonder if their tests can't tell a bad antenna or not. Don't really know at this point. I'm dumbfounded on this. Hoping the airave makes a difference.

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

basically what I was getting at is that if you swap and she starts having the problem and you don't then they can't pull an apple on ya and blame it on you holding it wrong.
it is within the realm of possibility that there is a network issue with your # and it's not the phone.
troubleshooting 101; isolate the problem. (which would have been easier if they had simply swapped out your phone.. ;b )

Re: Problems receiving/making calls...anyone else?
 

Called sprint retentions and only paid $1.05 for the airave! No activation fee or montly service fee. Airave has arrived and took only 20 minutes for GPS acquisition! They say it can take up to an hour. I have 5 bars almost constantly on all my phones. Called sprint to verify the no activation fee or monthly service fee and they said I was good to go with no fees! My phone dropped two calls at home waiting on sprint customer service so I don't know if the airave lost signal, DSL had a glich or if it was sprint dumping me. I make sure I'm holding the phone correct for those that question that. The call is supposed to transfer over to the cell tower is what the paperwork says, it did not. However, I called a friend and talked for 10 minutes without any problems. Crystal clear call quality as well! I'm leaning now toward, sprint dumped me off. Time will tell when I receive calls if I miss any. If I do, it's got to be because the airave is having issues, DSL is out temporarily, or bad weather etc. All things should be on more than they are off and I should miss less calls. Also called At&T who our DSL is with. Two months ago, they didn't have DSL Elite available in my area. They do now!!! Will be transferred to their fastest speed tomorrow so running the computers and airave should have absolutely no problems! We will see. Would like to see the airave 2 come out soon. That would be interesting from what I read. AT&T already has the 3g MicroCell and Verizon is coming out with one as well. Sprint should be behind them shortly. Keep your fingers crossed for me!