Love the Touch but one huge Sprint problem, help me techies!!!

[KK20]

I'm nearing the last week of my 30 day Sprint Touch eval and for the most part I love the phone!!! I've been with VZW since, literally, day one (Airtouch or PacTel, whatever it was when I carried the old bricks they had) and their cell service has been great, however, like most of you, I'm tired of the poor phone selection and they're not the most cost effective compared to the SERO plan I'm demoing.

My HUGE problem is that where I live (in the hills of So. Cal. - Orange County), I get great VZW coverage, Sprint is at best marginal. The EVDO Sprint data signal works great but the voice signal is very poor and varies on my location in my home. Compound that with the fact that my house is steel framed which can interfere with the signal as well.

I spoke to Doug, a CSR for Sprint in OK last night (I must say, I've had ZERO issues with Sprint's "bad" customer service/tech support) who was better than any VZW tech person I ever spoke with! He's a knowledgeable ham radio guy who mapped my coverage area and said I should get coverage but the hills can play tricks on the signal. Outside of my hose, I get good reception so I asked him about the possibility of some type of external antenna/repeater system an he got my very intrigued noting that if I did that correctly, I'd get great coverage! SO here goes...

I'd like to move my family of 4 to Sprint via SERO as we'd save, literally over $1000/year in monthly service fees, but to do so, I'd need to work on the antenna repeater idea. I've googled it and found companies that sell systems but $400-$500 is a bit excessive. This forum has been a wealth of information in setting up my Touch so know I'm looking for any tips on setting up some type of inexpensive external antenna/2 way amplifier/internal relay antenna system. Also wondered about other folks success or failure at attempting this.

I'd like to kepp the Touch so any help is appreciated!!!

Why don't you call sprint back and ask about the Airave. It's a little device that plugs into your broadband internet connection, and creates a femtocell (like a mini cell tower) in your house, and it works for all Sprint phones. Its like 10$ a month I believe, and theres a 50$ deposit. I could be wrong about the pricing, but that per month fee includes unlimited calling while in the zone that the airave creates.

[VW]

Why dont use just switch to roaming at home and use VZs towers? I imagine there is a mortscript out there to make it easy to switch into and out of roam

[hippity.hoppity]

Why not just get the Airave? It's $50 plus the monthly fee. You could also check for one of the old "pizza boxes" and see if you can find one used. Otherwise, repeaters are typically around $300.

[adammaas]

I'm using a cellphone repeater. There are many to choose from but this model also does data. Just put the antenna on your roof and run a coax cable into your house and hook it up. I was bareley getting a signal at my house. Now I have 5 bars in every room.


Wi-Ex zBoost YX500-CEL Cell Phone Repeater Kit


http://cgi.ebay.com/Wi-Ex-zBoost-YX5...QQcmdZViewItem

[touchfan]

if your saving $1000 a year... $400 for a repeater still sounds like a good idea.

[Edwood]

I use a Spotcell Z1900.

Really made a huge difference in battery life for my phones since they are using very little power to communicate with the repeater rather than the tower which is much farther away.

Unfortunately for me, my problem is dropped calls, there must be something interfering with my cell phones because it only happens in my condo. And the dropped calls are frustratingly random. Happens within 30 seconds or 15 minutes sometimes. But it happens more often than not.

But the key to cell phone repeaters is that you DO have good reception somewhere you can place the antenna, either inside where you get good reception, or outside if need be. If you don't get good reception anywhere, don't even bother with a repeater.

-Ed

[KK20]

Originally Posted by hippity.hoppity

Why not just get the Airave? It's $50 plus the monthly fee. You could also check for one of the old "pizza boxes" and see if you can find one used. Otherwise, repeaters are typically around $300.

Not yet available in my area, looking into becoming a beta.

[meatlocker]

I have the exact same problem as the OP. I live on the central Atlantic coast of Florida on a barrier island. I work two miles from where I live, on the mainland. Both areas have zero reception while I am indoors, and these are the two places I spend most of my time. My work location is listed on the coverage map as a "good" coverage area, and home is listed as "fair". In actuality, both locations suck for voice. I do get EVDO in both. I got three things out of repeated calls to Sprint about this issue (3 total discussions about it), the last one a few weeks ago:
1. A promise that someone would come out and measure the signal in my area
2. 15% off of my total monthly bill (for both my wife, who is on Nextel, and me on Sprint)
3. One of many sticking points in my argument for swapping the Mogul for the Touch

I had all but blown off #1, since there was no promise for a follow-up call or anything, and to my pleasant surprise, I got a call from a nice woman at Sprint last week, who told me that they had indeed come out to measure, found the signal weak, and would be putting a tower up in "early Q1" in my area to address it. Cool. Whether or not this pans out, we will see. But at least I have acknowledgment that it is a problem in my area, which is a step in the right direction.

[kellybrf]

id get a repeater for now, then the airave when it comes out. if you pick that one up off ebay for $250 id bet you can sell it again for $150-200 when airave goes live nationwide this summer