Verizon wireless - Weird Happenings

Author

Weird Happenings

RVer Don

2005-09-26, 5:48 pm

Sometimes when my cell phone is called the caller will immediately get the
voice mail message. The phone will ring once but there will be no one there
when answered. I was told this might be because the phone was in a weak
signal area. So I tried calling it at home from my landline. The signal
there is four or five bars.

Sometimes it will ring more than once and can be answered before going to
voice mail. Other times, with the cell phone in the same exact place, it
will immediately go to voice mail. It will ring but one time only and there
is no chance to answer the call before it goes to voice mail. Anybody got
any idea what's going on here?

Don in Tracy, Calif.

NoneHere

2005-09-26, 5:48 pm

Some time your phone feels like a chat, sometimes it don't

"RVer Don" < burallymaster@comcas
t.net> wrote in message
news:WvydneGBPbtTiaX
enZ2dnUVZ_tCdnZ2d@co
mcast.com...
> Sometimes when my cell phone is called the caller will immediately get the
> voice mail message. The phone will ring once but there will be no one
> there when answered. I was told this might be because the phone was in a
> weak signal area. So I tried calling it at home from my landline. The
> signal there is four or five bars.
>
> Sometimes it will ring more than once and can be answered before going to
> voice mail. Other times, with the cell phone in the same exact place, it
> will immediately go to voice mail. It will ring but one time only and
> there is no chance to answer the call before it goes to voice mail.
> Anybody got any idea what's going on here?
>
> Don in Tracy, Calif.
>
>
>

David L

2005-09-27, 5:48 pm

Weak signal sounds ike a good explanation. IIRC, there may be some
incorrect settings on Verizons end that could lead to the phone not
getting calls. But that's unusual.

Set the phone in a good signal area, upright, with the antenna extended
and see if that improves the number of calls that go through.

You can actually see exactly what kind of signal your getting by going
into the debug mode and reading the -RX (Receive signal strength).
Google your phone's model and debug screen. Or state it, i have a list
of many debug codes.
It's a code to get to a sub menu. RX-60 (very good signal) through
RX-80 (OK signal) are examples, but if your phone is only getting
RX-90, -95 or less you have a weak signal. Calls are almost impossible
around RX-100 or so, depending.

Don't fool with any of the settings in debug mode, but it's a read out
for the most part. Getting out of the debug may be easy or require
turning off the phone.

-
Dave

Isaiah Beard

2005-09-27, 5:48 pm

RVer Don wrote:
> Sometimes when my cell phone is called the caller will immediately get the
> voice mail message. The phone will ring once but there will be no one there
> when answered. I was told this might be because the phone was in a weak
> signal area. So I tried calling it at home from my landline. The signal
> there is four or five bars.
>
> Sometimes it will ring more than once and can be answered before going to
> voice mail. Other times, with the cell phone in the same exact place, it
> will immediately go to voice mail. It will ring but one time only and there
> is no chance to answer the call before it goes to voice mail. Anybody got
> any idea what's going on here?

From what you describe, one of two things might be happening:

1. There's enough signal attenuation inside your house that although
you're getting a good signal strength FROM the tower, the signal
strength TO the tower isn't so great. Wireless phones must work both
ways, and sometimes it's possible for your phone to "hear" the cell
tower just fine, but the cell site can't receive your phone's much
weaker signal quite as well. You might have to reposition the phone,
say, nearer to a window.

2. The network in your area is congested. If enough people are yapping
on their cell phones at the same time near where you live, the "noise
floor" increases, and it gets harder for the cell site to distinguish
which phones are transmitting. An overloaded cell network would mean
that an incoming call might roll to voicemail before your phone has a
chance to ring. Are there particular tiems of the day or night when
this happens more often? If you're getting more blocked calls in the
evening and on the weekends, then network congestion is probably the
cause (people talk more on cell phones during off-peak times, when it's
"free").

A less likely, but still plausible, cause is that your phone could be
performing poorly either because it's old or defective. It wouldn't
hurt to take the phone into a store and get it checked out. Back in the
day, cellular companies would tell their customers (correctly) that cell
phones can "drift" over time and need to be adjusted, and bringing the
phone back to the shop for "re-tuning" was a recommended annual ritual.
Nowadays, cell providers largely expect the phones to be disposable,
and assume that most people will just toss their phone in the trash and
get a new one about every two years, or as soon as it starts to act up
on them.

--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

Quaoar

2005-09-27, 11:48 pm

Isaiah Beard wrote:
> RVer Don wrote:
>
> From what you describe, one of two things might be happening:
>
> 1. There's enough signal attenuation inside your house that although
> you're getting a good signal strength FROM the tower, the signal
> strength TO the tower isn't so great. Wireless phones must work both
> ways, and sometimes it's possible for your phone to "hear" the cell
> tower just fine, but the cell site can't receive your phone's much
> weaker signal quite as well. You might have to reposition the phone,
> say, nearer to a window.
>
> 2. The network in your area is congested. If enough people are
> yapping on their cell phones at the same time near where you live,
> the "noise floor" increases, and it gets harder for the cell site to
> distinguish which phones are transmitting. An overloaded cell
> network would mean that an incoming call might roll to voicemail
> before your phone has a chance to ring. Are there particular tiems
> of the day or night when this happens more often? If you're getting
> more blocked calls in the evening and on the weekends, then network
> congestion is probably the cause (people talk more on cell phones
> during off-peak times, when it's "free").
>
> A less likely, but still plausible, cause is that your phone could be
> performing poorly either because it's old or defective. It wouldn't
> hurt to take the phone into a store and get it checked out. Back in
> the day, cellular companies would tell their customers (correctly)
> that cell phones can "drift" over time and need to be adjusted, and
> bringing the phone back to the shop for "re-tuning" was a recommended
> annual ritual. Nowadays, cell providers largely expect the phones to
> be disposable, and assume that most people will just toss their phone
> in the trash and get a new one about every two years, or as soon as
> it starts to act up on them.

I vote for network congestion. I can duplicate this easily at 8:00 am
and 5:00 pm in my area. Repeated calls often result in a full ring and
connection.

Q

David L

2005-09-27, 11:48 pm

Isaiah Beard wrote:
> RVer Don wrote:
>
> From what you describe, one of two things might be happening:
>
> 1. There's enough signal attenuation inside your house that although
> you're getting a good signal strength FROM the tower, the signal
> strength TO the tower isn't so great. Wireless phones must work both
> ways, and sometimes it's possible for your phone to "hear" the cell
> tower just fine, but the cell site can't receive your phone's much
> weaker signal quite as well. You might have to reposition the phone,
> say, nearer to a window.
>

Good point.
So could the first ring be the tower sending the info, but then when
the phone tries to reply it doesn't have the power to "answer " with
sufficient power to carry a voice call back to the tower, so it stops
and goes to VM? Reduced range or cell breathing, could definitely be
caused by high traffic at peak calling times.
I know there is two way communication established before the first
ring, but that may take less power than what is required to open up a
voice slot. The phone has to be "found" in the first place.
Anyway, that's how I think it works basically. Could you clarify the
call set up connection sequence any better?

Turning on the debug screen and checking the other reading, TX for
phone's output power, during good and missed calls might provide some
clues. See if the phone is putting out max TX power and not able to
connect back, once it rings.

Thanks, Dave

Steve Johnson

2005-09-28, 2:48 am

On 9/26/05 9:33 AM, in article WvydneGBPbtTiaXenZ2d
nUVZ_tCdnZ2d@comcast
.com,
"RVer Don" < burallymaster@comcas
t.net> wrote:

> Sometimes when my cell phone is called the caller will immediately get the
> voice mail message. The phone will ring once but there will be no one there
> when answered. I was told this might be because the phone was in a weak
> signal area. So I tried calling it at home from my landline. The signal
> there is four or five bars.
>
> Sometimes it will ring more than once and can be answered before going to
> voice mail. Other times, with the cell phone in the same exact place, it
> will immediately go to voice mail. It will ring but one time only and there
> is no chance to answer the call before it goes to voice mail. Anybody got
> any idea what's going on here?
>
> Don in Tracy, Calif.
>
You sure you're on VZW and not Sprint PCS? Just kidding, but this is
extremely common problem on Sprint, but I've never heard anyone on VZW have
this problem. I was on Sprint for 5 years in Dallas, TX and always had this
problem on both my wife's and my phones. We constantly get a beep telling us
we had voicemail when we know the phone didn't ring. I've been on VZW in
Colorado now for a couple years and have never had this problem once. My
boss and another co-worker on Sprint (in Dallas and Atlanta areas) always
complain about this problem on their Sprint service and I've heard it from
several others on Sprint elsewhere.

I've seen advice on the web about adjusting a tunable parameter in phones to
have them check in with the towers more often, but I can't say whether that
helps or not. But as someone else mentioned, you might try googling for your
phone model and look for web pages dedicated to it that document the
programming/service menus of your phone. Just heed any warnings they
mention.

Steve

David L

2005-09-28, 5:48 pm

Steve Johnson wrote:
> On 9/26/05 9:33 AM, in article WvydneGBPbtTiaXenZ2d
nUVZ_tCdnZ2d@comcast
.com,
> "RVer Don" < burallymaster@comcas
t.net> wrote:
>
> You sure you're on VZW and not Sprint PCS? Just kidding, but this is
> extremely common problem on Sprint, but I've never heard anyone on VZW have
> this problem. I was on Sprint for 5 years in Dallas, TX and always had this
> problem on both my wife's and my phones. We constantly get a beep telling us
> we had voicemail when we know the phone didn't ring.

It's quite possible for anyone around the SF Bay Area, Tracy or
Northern California to be on the Sprint Wireless network. Free SPCS
roaming was allowed here until the upgrade August 1st, when SPCS was
removed from the PRL roaming list. Anyone who hasn't done a *228
roaming update on an old phone (or new) can probably roam on Sprint.

Verizon has had some poor coverage, areas especially in some suburbs,
which Sprint has covered well. But with the new PRL, VZW subscribers
won't know what their missing... Probably not too much, but some
coverage for sure!
Tracy is very similar to the kind of sprawling suburb, where I have
found myself forcing my phone to use the SPCS network to get a good
signal. Some phones can be made to aquire SPCS easily, some not so
easily through sub-menus.

Usually that little triangle pops up when using Sprint 1900Mhz and the
OP didn't mention that.

-
Dave

Quick

2005-09-28, 5:48 pm

Steve Johnson wrote:
> On 9/26/05 9:33 AM, in article
> WvydneGBPbtTiaXenZ2d
nUVZ_tCdnZ2d@comcast
.com, "RVer Don"
> < burallymaster@comcas
t.net> wrote:
>
> You sure you're on VZW and not Sprint PCS? Just kidding,
> but this is extremely common problem on Sprint, but I've
> never heard anyone on VZW have this problem. I was on
> Sprint for 5 years in Dallas, TX and always had this
> problem on both my wife's and my phones. We constantly
> get a beep telling us we had voicemail when we know the
> phone didn't ring. I've been on VZW in Colorado now for a
> couple years and have never had this problem once. My
> boss and another co-worker on Sprint (in Dallas and
> Atlanta areas) always complain about this problem on
> their Sprint service and I've heard it from several
> others on Sprint elsewhere.
>
> I've seen advice on the web about adjusting a tunable
> parameter in phones to have them check in with the towers
> more often, but I can't say whether that helps or not.
> But as someone else mentioned, you might try googling for
> your phone model and look for web pages dedicated to it
> that document the programming/service menus of your
> phone. Just heed any warnings they mention.

I believe you are talking about the "slot"? which basically
determines how often the phone checks to see if it has
been paged -- how long before it starts ringing after the
tower has notified it of an incoming call. We're talking
a couple of seconds or less here. I remember tinkering
with this on my LG TM-510 a few years back to see if it
would effect battery life. Didn't seem to make much of a
difference and I can't remember if the tower overides this
setting. It wasn't something I was able to measure by
calling myself.

-Quick

CharlesH

2005-09-29, 2:48 am

Quick wrote:
> I believe you are talking about the "slot"? which basically
> determines how often the phone checks to see if it has
> been paged -- how long before it starts ringing after the
> tower has notified it of an incoming call. We're talking
> a couple of seconds or less here. I remember tinkering
> with this on my LG TM-510 a few years back to see if it
> would effect battery life. Didn't seem to make much of a
> difference and I can't remember if the tower overides this
> setting.

The "slot cycle" is a setting agreed on between the phone and the cell
site when the phone registers with a cell site. It specifies the times
the phone will wake up for a very brief time to listen for a page
(incoming call, text message, etc) from the cell site. Starting a
specified reference mark, the phone will wake up every (say) 1.28
seconds (slot cycle 0). More precisely, the interval is 1.28*2^(slot
cycle) seconds. Note that the cell site knows exactly when a given phone
will be listening, so a large slot cycle won't result in a missed call.
But if it is too long, the call will go to voicemail before the phone
ever gets the page! And the caller hears "ringing" all that time. The
phone may suggest a slot cycle when registering, but the cell site tells
it what to use, and may totally ignore the suggestion from the phone.

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