Manhattan west side - an insoluble problem?

[louise]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

In the last two months my service has deteriorated greatly. I've been
experiencing dropped calls, breaking up conversations and missed some
calls I should have gotten. Tonight, between 9:15 and 11:30 PM, I was
able to complete 3 out of the 40 calls I made. Every other one seemed
to start to dial and then I got the message "call lost".

So far 4 trouble tickets have been opened and closed. Each time
something was done to fix it. The last time, the service really did
seem to improve for about 3 days and now it's as bad as it's ever been.

I'm located on the upper west side of Manhattan facing the Hudson River.
According to Tech support, I'm getting the cell site north of Jersey
City which is pretty much right across the river from me.

I went to part of my home where I get 5 bars of signal at the window.
And...with five bars of signal, I still could't complete a call without
losing it. Also an enormous amount of breakup.

Phone has been switched out twice and my old StarTac was tried with the
same issues.

I'm very confused: if I have 5 bars of signal, shouldn't I be able to
make a solid call where I can be heard, I don't break up, and the call
doesn't get dropped? (at least most of the time)?

I was on the phone with tech support for quite a while (level 2) because
this is the 4th trouble ticket I've opened in 2-3 months and I've never
opened one before in the previous 6 years of servous.

He states I pick up a cell site in NJ - right accross the river from me.
The switching point is in West NYack which is in Rockland County. He
led me to believe it could be a difficulty with the switch.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

Service is so bad, they acknowledged the possibility of letting me out
of my contract. I've had good experience for 6 years - really not in a
hurry to leave.....

But where do I go? Who would be the next best to try - with the idea
that I'm usually in Manhattan but am situated at home so that I'm very
likely to pick up a Jersey cell tower?

TIA

Louise

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

In article <MPG.1b4349bb4e23a50198972a@news.newsguy.com>,
Louise <none@nospam.com> wrote:
>I'm very confused: if I have 5 bars of signal, shouldn't I be able to
>make a solid call where I can be heard, I don't break up, and the call
>doesn't get dropped? (at least most of the time)?

Sounds like you have plenty of signal, but ...

There may just be too many people on that tower, raising the "noise"
level so high your phone cannot extract the call from the other babble
(i.e, other calls). On CDMA, as VZW uses, everyone shares the same
frequency at the same time. If you can complete the calls, but they are
breaking up/getting dropped, then this is a likely scenario. Likewise if
you can make calls in the middle of the night but not during the day.
On the other hand, if the usual scenario is that you cannot receive a
call (calls go directly to VM) or initiate a call (fast busy), the cell
site could be running out of "backhaul" capacity to route your call back
into their network.

 

[louise]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

In article <cbcnhd028mn@news4.newsguy.com>, hoch@exemplary.invalid
says...
> In article <MPG.1b4349bb4e23a50198972a@news.newsguy.com>,
> Louise <none@nospam.com> wrote:
> >I'm very confused: if I have 5 bars of signal, shouldn't I be able to
> >make a solid call where I can be heard, I don't break up, and the call
> >doesn't get dropped? (at least most of the time)?
>
> Sounds like you have plenty of signal, but ...
>
> There may just be too many people on that tower, raising the "noise"
> level so high your phone cannot extract the call from the other babble
> (i.e, other calls). On CDMA, as VZW uses, everyone shares the same
> frequency at the same time. If you can complete the calls, but they are
> breaking up/getting dropped, then this is a likely scenario. Likewise if
> you can make calls in the middle of the night but not during the day.
> On the other hand, if the usual scenario is that you cannot receive a
> call (calls go directly to VM) or initiate a call (fast busy), the cell
> site could be running out of "backhaul" capacity to route your call back
> into their network.
>
That's very interesting for two reasons:

Last night at 1 AM I was able to complete calls that were dropped
immediately at 10 PM. The ability to make calls changed a lot at 1 AM,
but most people don't want to hear from me at that time 🙂

Also, and now perhaps it makes sense, when I made a call at 10 PM,
before I got the visual notification on my phone that the call had been
lost, I often heard a momentary sound that most resembled a tiny piece
of conversation (not even a whole word).

Both of these events relate to the "noise" that you describe when the
cell is overloaded.

The frustrating thing is that because I'm facing the Hudson River, I'm
picking up a cell site in Jersey City and there doesn't seem to be
anything I can do about that.

If I attach a car antenna and increase my signal strength (which I have
been doing), would I also be increasing the noise and outsmarting
myself?

TIA

Louise

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

A DIRECTIONAL antenna would be called for.


"Louise" <none@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1b43c50ad086e6869896b1@news-server.nyc.rr.com...
> In article <cbcnhd028mn@news4.newsguy.com>, hoch@exemplary.invalid
> says...
> > In article <MPG.1b4349bb4e23a50198972a@news.newsguy.com>,
> > Louise <none@nospam.com> wrote:
> > >I'm very confused: if I have 5 bars of signal, shouldn't I be able to
> > >make a solid call where I can be heard, I don't break up, and the call
> > >doesn't get dropped? (at least most of the time)?
> >
> > Sounds like you have plenty of signal, but ...
> >
> > There may just be too many people on that tower, raising the "noise"
> > level so high your phone cannot extract the call from the other babble
> > (i.e, other calls). On CDMA, as VZW uses, everyone shares the same
> > frequency at the same time. If you can complete the calls, but they are
> > breaking up/getting dropped, then this is a likely scenario. Likewise if
> > you can make calls in the middle of the night but not during the day.
> > On the other hand, if the usual scenario is that you cannot receive a
> > call (calls go directly to VM) or initiate a call (fast busy), the cell
> > site could be running out of "backhaul" capacity to route your call back
> > into their network.
> >
> That's very interesting for two reasons:
>
> Last night at 1 AM I was able to complete calls that were dropped
> immediately at 10 PM. The ability to make calls changed a lot at 1 AM,
> but most people don't want to hear from me at that time 🙂
>
> Also, and now perhaps it makes sense, when I made a call at 10 PM,
> before I got the visual notification on my phone that the call had been
> lost, I often heard a momentary sound that most resembled a tiny piece
> of conversation (not even a whole word).
>
> Both of these events relate to the "noise" that you describe when the
> cell is overloaded.
>
> The frustrating thing is that because I'm facing the Hudson River, I'm
> picking up a cell site in Jersey City and there doesn't seem to be
> anything I can do about that.
>
> If I attach a car antenna and increase my signal strength (which I have
> been doing), would I also be increasing the noise and outsmarting
> myself?
>
> TIA
>
> Louise

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

In article <MPG.1b43c50ad086e6869896b1@news-server.nyc.rr.com>,
Louise <none@nospam.com> wrote:
>The frustrating thing is that because I'm facing the Hudson River, I'm
>picking up a cell site in Jersey City and there doesn't seem to be
>anything I can do about that.
>
>If I attach a car antenna and increase my signal strength (which I have
>been doing), would I also be increasing the noise and outsmarting
>myself?

Could be. Since signal strength is NOT your problem, you might try to
REDUCE the efficiency, and thus the range, of your phone, by NOT using
an external antenna, and by NOT extending the antenna on your phone
(if your phone has an extendable antenna).

I have a booster in our car for use when we go on vacations in the
boondocks. Sometimes it behaves WORSE when the booster is being used
near population areas. I suspect that the problem is it picking up more
distant towers in addition to the nearer towers, which confuses things.

 

[louise]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

In article <WL-dnRMCsb9MYETd4p2dnA@giganews.com>,
richard.no@damnspam.nessnet.com says...
> A DIRECTIONAL antenna would be called for.
>
>
> "Louise" <none@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:MPG.1b43c50ad086e6869896b1@news-server.nyc.rr.com...
> > In article <cbcnhd028mn@news4.newsguy.com>, hoch@exemplary.invalid
> > says...
> > > In article <MPG.1b4349bb4e23a50198972a@news.newsguy.com>,
> > > Louise <none@nospam.com> wrote:
> > > >I'm very confused: if I have 5 bars of signal, shouldn't I be able to
> > > >make a solid call where I can be heard, I don't break up, and the call
> > > >doesn't get dropped? (at least most of the time)?
> > >
> > > Sounds like you have plenty of signal, but ...
> > >
> > > There may just be too many people on that tower, raising the "noise"
> > > level so high your phone cannot extract the call from the other babble
> > > (i.e, other calls). On CDMA, as VZW uses, everyone shares the same
> > > frequency at the same time. If you can complete the calls, but they are
> > > breaking up/getting dropped, then this is a likely scenario. Likewise if
> > > you can make calls in the middle of the night but not during the day.
> > > On the other hand, if the usual scenario is that you cannot receive a
> > > call (calls go directly to VM) or initiate a call (fast busy), the cell
> > > site could be running out of "backhaul" capacity to route your call back
> > > into their network.
> > >
> > That's very interesting for two reasons:
> >
> > Last night at 1 AM I was able to complete calls that were dropped
> > immediately at 10 PM. The ability to make calls changed a lot at 1 AM,
> > but most people don't want to hear from me at that time 🙂
> >
> > Also, and now perhaps it makes sense, when I made a call at 10 PM,
> > before I got the visual notification on my phone that the call had been
> > lost, I often heard a momentary sound that most resembled a tiny piece
> > of conversation (not even a whole word).
> >
> > Both of these events relate to the "noise" that you describe when the
> > cell is overloaded.
> >
> > The frustrating thing is that because I'm facing the Hudson River, I'm
> > picking up a cell site in Jersey City and there doesn't seem to be
> > anything I can do about that.
> >
> > If I attach a car antenna and increase my signal strength (which I have
> > been doing), would I also be increasing the noise and outsmarting
> > myself?
> >
> > TIA
> >
Do you mean a roof antenna? If so, I can't - the landlord would have a
nervous breakdown.

The only thing I'm familiar with is Yagis which, I believe, need a roof!

Is there an indoor, or, at windowsill, directional antenna? I've only
seen the pole-like auto antennas which appear to be omni-directional.

TIA

Louise