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Cellular forums Home > Archive > Verizon wireless > September 2005 > Power drain on "Extended Network"
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Power drain on "Extended Network"
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| Savvy 1 2005-09-23, 11:48 pm |
| I spent a week and a half out of town in a digital signal "Extended Network"
area and found my battery draining down each day and had to recharge every
night despite lighter than average use. I usually get several days use on a
charge-- and as soon as I returned to my home area, battery usage returned
to normal.
Why was it draining in the EN area when the signal was digital?
S1
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| Quick 2005-09-23, 11:48 pm |
| Savvy 1 wrote:
> I spent a week and a half out of town in a digital signal
> "Extended Network" area and found my battery draining
> down each day and had to recharge every night despite
> lighter than average use. I usually get several days use
> on a charge-- and as soon as I returned to my home area,
> battery usage returned to normal.
>
> Why was it draining in the EN area when the signal was
> digital?
Because it probably wasn't there some times. EN or not
wouldn't make a difference. You either have a signal or you
don't. If you were in a marginal signal area and moving around
you may have been going back and forth between a signal
and "no signal". When the phone goes to No Signal it spends
a lot of energy looking for one. I think most will give up after
a while and then try again a while later but it varies. This would
cause a battery drain second to being on a call.
If you were in a marginal signal area and you were making calls
the phone would be using more power during those calls than
if you were closer to the tower. The tower tells each phone it's
listening to to turn up or down the transmit power so that the
tower "hears" everybody at the same "volume". This alleviates
a near phone "drowning" out a distant one. So one hour of talk
time here might use a lot less battery than one hour of talk time
there.
-Quick
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| Diamond Dave 2005-09-23, 11:48 pm |
| On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:10:44 -0400, "Savvy 1" <nospam@nospam> wrote:
>Why was it draining in the EN area when the signal was digital?
Your phone is constantly searching for a "priority 1" (Verizon
wireless) signal. Because of that constant searching, the phone is
eating up battery.
When a phone finds a native Verizon wireless signal, it doesn't
constantly search and keeps parked on the frequency once its there.
Do a Google search for your phone model and find out how to put your
phone in "field test mode" and watch how it works, especially in an
analog, roaming or extended service area. Its interesting :-)
Dave
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| Quaoar 2005-09-23, 11:48 pm |
| Diamond Dave wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:10:44 -0400, "Savvy 1" <nospam@nospam> wrote:
>
>
> Your phone is constantly searching for a "priority 1" (Verizon
> wireless) signal. Because of that constant searching, the phone is
> eating up battery.
>
> When a phone finds a native Verizon wireless signal, it doesn't
> constantly search and keeps parked on the frequency once its there.
>
> Do a Google search for your phone model and find out how to put your
> phone in "field test mode" and watch how it works, especially in an
> analog, roaming or extended service area. Its interesting :-)
>
> Dave
Heh! Make sure you can also recover from the test mode.
Q
| |
| Savvy 1 2005-09-23, 11:48 pm |
| "Quick" <quick7135-news@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:rh1Ze.3655$Ba2.2531@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net...
> Savvy 1 wrote:
>
> Because it probably wasn't there some times. EN or not
> wouldn't make a difference. You either have a signal or you
> don't. If you were in a marginal signal area and moving around
> you may have been going back and forth between a signal
> and "no signal". When the phone goes to No Signal it spends
> a lot of energy looking for one. I think most will give up after
> a while and then try again a while later but it varies. This would
> cause a battery drain second to being on a call.
>
> If you were in a marginal signal area and you were making calls
> the phone would be using more power during those calls than
> if you were closer to the tower. The tower tells each phone it's
> listening to to turn up or down the transmit power so that the
> tower "hears" everybody at the same "volume". This alleviates
> a near phone "drowning" out a distant one. So one hour of talk
> time here might use a lot less battery than one hour of talk time
> there.
>
> -Quick
>
No, that wasn't it. I always had a strong signal.
S1
| |
| Diamond Dave 2005-09-23, 11:48 pm |
| On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:33:22 -0600, "Quaoar" <quaoar@tenthplanet.net>
wrote:
>
>Heh! Make sure you can also recover from the test mode.
That is true :-)
Motorola's are fairly easy. Can't say for other brands.
Dave
| |
| IMHO IIRC 2005-09-23, 11:48 pm |
|
In news:yoOdnT7mNuM5Mqn
eRVn-vg@comcast.com,
Savvy 1 <nospam@ospam> typed:
> "Quick" <quick7135-news@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:rh1Ze.3655$Ba2.2531@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net...
>
> No, that wasn't it. I always had a strong signal.
>
> S1
The phone will still keep loking for a VZW native network to switch to.
Have had my phone change from a very strong Extended Network to a very weak
VZW native signal.
| |
| CharlesH 2005-09-24, 5:48 pm |
| Diamond Dave wrote:
> Your phone is constantly searching for a "priority 1" (Verizon
> wireless) signal. Because of that constant searching, the phone is
> eating up battery.
>
> When a phone finds a native Verizon wireless signal, it doesn't
> constantly search and keeps parked on the frequency once its there.
The PRL algorithm says that the phone should use the highest-priority
SID it can find. The lower the priority, the less desirable it is from
VZW's perspective (VZW vs. non-VZW, higher roaming charges, etc). One
time they messed up the PRL in the San Francisco area and put the VZW
SID at priority 2, so every minute or so the phone would search for a
higher-priority SID. Of course, there were none, so it settled back on
the priority 2 SID. Each time, it went through the registration process.
Very painful on the battery. When they fixed the PRL to put the SF VZW
SID at priority one, the searching stopped and my battery was much happier.
| |
| Savvy 1 2005-09-24, 11:48 pm |
| "Diamond Dave" <dmine45.NOSPAM@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:6p99j1t027gauuu
odie35c4004vi1bdreu@
4ax.com...
> On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:10:44 -0400, "Savvy 1" <nospam@nospam> wrote:
>
>
> Your phone is constantly searching for a "priority 1" (Verizon
> wireless) signal. Because of that constant searching, the phone is
> eating up battery.
>
> When a phone finds a native Verizon wireless signal, it doesn't
> constantly search and keeps parked on the frequency once its there.
>
> Do a Google search for your phone model and find out how to put your
> phone in "field test mode" and watch how it works, especially in an
> analog, roaming or extended service area. Its interesting :-)
>
> Dave
>
Thanks for the explanation...
S1
| |
| Carl Keehn 2005-09-25, 5:48 pm |
|
"Quick" <quick7135-news@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:rh1Ze.3655$Ba2.2531@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net...
> Savvy 1 wrote:
>
> Because it probably wasn't there some times. EN or not
> wouldn't make a difference. You either have a signal or you
> don't. If you were in a marginal signal area and moving around
> you may have been going back and forth between a signal
> and "no signal". When the phone goes to No Signal it spends
> a lot of energy looking for one. I think most will give up after
> a while and then try again a while later but it varies. This would
> cause a battery drain second to being on a call.
>
> If you were in a marginal signal area and you were making calls
> the phone would be using more power during those calls than
> if you were closer to the tower. The tower tells each phone it's
> listening to to turn up or down the transmit power so that the
> tower "hears" everybody at the same "volume". This alleviates
> a near phone "drowning" out a distant one. So one hour of talk
> time here might use a lot less battery than one hour of talk time
> there.
>
> -Quick
>
>
I ran into that situation during the Labor Day weekend. My family was in
the mountains of VA, in an area in which I thought there was no service
(mainly because my phone said "No Service") I turned my phone off, it turns
out my wife had her phone in her purse. The next morning her purse was
beeping. When I looked at her phone, the battery was nearly drained and the
display was cycling between analog, digital and no service. Apparently
there was just enough of a signal for the phone to try and lock on to it and
the battery wore down from the phone trying to grab and lock on to a signal.
When I switched my phone on, I noticed that if I watched it a few minutes,
it was also cycling between the very weak digital, analog and no signal.
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Diamond Dave wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:10:44 -0400, "Savvy 1" <nospam@nospam> wrote:
>
>
> Your phone is constantly searching for a "priority 1" (Verizon
> wireless) signal. Because of that constant searching, the phone is
> eating up battery.
I thought it had to do with the signal strength on a CDMA system, and
the further one is away from the tower, the higher power the phone puts
out trying to keep in contact with the tower.
I have experienced the rapid rundown of the phone's battery in an
extended area, but thought it was due to weaker signals rather than
searching for VZW. If searching is the problem, is there a way to
instruct the phone to stop searching?
Lena
| |
|
| Lena wrote:
> Diamond Dave wrote:
>
> I thought it had to do with the signal strength on a CDMA
> system, and the further one is away from the tower, the
> higher power the phone puts out trying to keep in contact
> with the tower.
If you are not in a call the phone only transmits to the tower
relatively infrequently. Minimally once to register.
-Quick
| |
| Diamond Dave 2005-09-26, 11:48 pm |
| On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:32:40 GMT, "Quick"
<quick7135-news@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote:
>If you are not in a call the phone only transmits to the tower
>relatively infrequently. Minimally once to register.
The phone occasionally reregisters, but that wouldn't put that much
drain on the battery on an idle phone.
Now if the phone is in use for a call, that is a different matter, as
the power levels will go up if necessary.
But in this case, being on EN instead of native VZW network will drain
the battery due to the searching as mentioned further up in this
thread.
Dave
| |
| Jerome Zelinske 2005-09-26, 11:48 pm |
| If it does not have a signal, and you do not want it to search for a
signal, then why have it on?
Lena wrote:
> Diamond Dave wrote:
>
>
>
> I thought it had to do with the signal strength on a CDMA system, and
> the further one is away from the tower, the higher power the phone puts
> out trying to keep in contact with the tower.
>
> I have experienced the rapid rundown of the phone's battery in an
> extended area, but thought it was due to weaker signals rather than
> searching for VZW. If searching is the problem, is there a way to
> instruct the phone to stop searching?
>
> Lena
>
| |
| Quick 2005-09-26, 11:48 pm |
| Because the question was "If I get an EN signal can I
stop the phone from continuing to search for a Native
signal?".
The answer is that you would have to modify your PRL.
A few users have the ability to do that but for the OP
the practicle answer is NO.
If still interested you first need to figure out how to extract
the PRL from your phone or obtain it elsewhere. Once you
learn how to read it you will know how to modify it. Then
you would need to know the EN SIDs you want to spoof as
"priority" in the location of interest. Then you need to put
the modified PRL back on your phone. You would want to
keep track of new PRLs as they come out to track changes
of interest to you.
-Quick
Jerome Zelinske wrote:[color=darkred
]
> If it does not have a signal, and you do not want it to
> search for a signal, then why have it on?
>
> Lena wrote:
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