Originally Posted by Anonymatt
Yes, I'll show 1, sometimes even 2 bars, and phone calls won't come in. I have this problem mainly at work, so I spent a while using my work phone to call my cell while my cell was in different "trouble" spots. I would monitor the signal by dialing ##DEBUG# (using the bars alone is kinda unreliable).
I posted my findings in another thread, but I'll summarize.
My phone setup: pretty much stock, but I did flash to the Telus radio. Didn't really see any improvement in anything, but didn't see anything negative, either, so didn't bother flashing back. I also did the "Roam Only" tweak so that I could test my results when roaming on Verizon.
First I wanted to see what Rx Power levels corresponded to what bar # is displayed. (I'm not sure the EXACT value it would change at, so I include the limits in both the high and low range)
It looks like anything worse than -105 dbm is 0 bars
-100 to -105 is 1 bar
-95 to -100 is 2 bars
-90 to -95 is 3 bars
-85 to -90 is 4 bars
-80 to -85 is 5 bars
Unfortunately there is another value that seems important to cell reception, and that is the Rx Ec/Io value (which someone said corresponds to signal noise, while the Power corresponds to strength), but this value doesn't seem to influence the "bars". It seems that 0-15 is good, 15-30 is ok, 30-45 is poor, and anything over 45 is really bad, and 60 or worse is unusable, but it might even be unusable at lower values. These aren't "accurate", since it was hard to control it (while the Power was easier to control, I would just place it farther from the window, or with more things "blocking" it). Also, these Ec/Io values seem to correlate with the Power values, but not 100% (ie usually poor Power means poor Ec/Io, but I've had poor Ec/Io even with good Power, and sometimes even vice versa)
So anyway, I've found that I do get slightly better signal (5-10 dbm better) with Verizon, but I'll still miss calls, even with forced roaming, especially if I have the phone in my pocket (where it is most of the time, unless I remember to put it on my desk, and where I have the most problems). The reason I point this out, though, is that with my previous setup, a Treo 700w on Verizon, I never missed calls ANYWHERE. Maybe since it is roaming, they aren't as generous with the service or something, but I would think that I'd at least get the same signal strength roaming on Verizon as I did when I was actually ON Verizon. This is what leads me to conclude that the Touch Pro (at least the one I own) has inferior signal reception, at least in comparison to the phones I've previously owned and operated on Verizon (Treo 700w, and prior to that an LG flip phone).
I've also noticed something that seems to complicate the problem, and that is that if I am on "Automatic" or "Sprint Only", and my Rx Power drops to worse than -105 (and usually the Ec/Io are bad also), then even when my Power and Ec/Io values drop to ~ -90 dbm and under 30 db, I still won't be able to receive a call, and sometimes my "bars" will go into "searching for signal" mode. I haven't been able to replicate this when set on "roaming only", so it makes me wonder if something about re-establishing a connection with Sprint takes longer than it should.
This could potentially cause more problems for me, since I seem to be in a "fringe" area (especially with my phone in my pocket...on my desk less than a foot away I'll have 3-4 bars), and dropping out of signal for just a couple of seconds will cause my phone to miss calls for the next minute or so.
Edit: also, I switched to Sprint from Verizon for a couple reasons. One "bonus" reason was to get the "better" (and cheaper!) Touch Pro, but the main reason was that having 900 minutes, and unlimited everything else (plus the "extra" stuff) on Sprint costs me less than half of what I paid for 450 minutes, unlimited data, locked (at the time) GPS, and none of the "extra" stuff, while on Verizon. I (perhaps erroneously) thought that being on Sprint I could at least roam on Verizon whenever I needed to, and Sprint supposedly has great signal in this area (just apparently not in the spot I spend most of the day in). Unfortunately, during my 30 day trial period I didn't notice that I was missing calls, and every time I looked at my bar level I was in the 1-3 bar range which seemed to be good enough. Of course about 2 days after my 30 days ended, I started having people ***** at me for never picking up my phone, and I realized that I was never even getting the calls (no missed call notifications, and they often didn't leave voicemails, but sometimes they would, and I'd usually get those notifications pretty instantly...which also annoys me. How is my phone so good at getting voicemail instantly, but 2 seconds earlier, in the same exat spot, the signal was't good enough to get a call).
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02-09-2009, 12:16 PM
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