Nokia 3120 dropouts?

Hi,

Just signed on with a cingular family plan and two Nokia 3120's after
researching cell reception in our local area and hearing cingular was
the tops.

But I've been noticing that the reception seems a bit fussy -
sometimes, in the same part of the house, it'll be at full strength,
and then at others (again, same location) drop to 2 bars. There have
also been a fair number of dropped calls.

Another odd thing: my husband will leave his phone on his desk, and the
reception will be listed at full strength. I'll move his phone and
place mine in the same locale, and it won't move up from low reception
to full. Should I take the phone(s) back?

sally

---

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[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on 14 Dec 2004
17:10:41 -0800, [email protected] wrote:

>Just signed on with a cingular family plan and two Nokia 3120's after
>researching cell reception in our local area and hearing cingular was
>the tops.
>
>But I've been noticing that the reception seems a bit fussy -
>sometimes, in the same part of the house, it'll be at full strength,
>and then at others (again, same location) drop to 2 bars. There have
>also been a fair number of dropped calls.
>
>Another odd thing: my husband will leave his phone on his desk, and the
>reception will be listed at full strength. I'll move his phone and
>place mine in the same locale, and it won't move up from low reception
>to full. Should I take the phone(s) back?

Sounds like network hunting -- for best results, make sure the phones support
ENS and that you have 64K SIMs.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

John Navas wrote:
> [POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>

>
> Sounds like network hunting -- for best results, make sure the phones
support
> ENS and that you have 64K SIMs.
>
> --
> Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
> John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>


Thanks for the advice. I'm a bit of a cell phone newbie though - how do
I be sure that phones support ENS (=?) and have the 64K SIM. Do I ask
for a particular make/model, or?

Many thanks! Sally

Follow-up: just found my SIM (i.e. cingular SMARTchip card, I assume)
and it's 64K. Also just found a previous post with a definition
(thanks) of ENS. Q: how do I know if my Nokia 3120 has ENS? sally



* Enhanced Network Services, which extends GSM by making it possible
for the
handset to effectively treat two different networks (ATTWS and
Cingular) as
one combined Home network, so that the other network can be selected
even when
the real Home network has a usable signal. (Without ENS, the handset
will
only select the other network when the real Home network doesn't have a
usable
signal, even when the other network has a better signal or when the
real Home
network has run out of capacity.)

Triple-follow-up (and apologies, moving slow this morning). Just found
a code on the phone's original box that includes the designation
IB-ENS. Looks like I've got 64K and ENS. I'm guessing the problem's
due to a problem with the internal antenna...

sally

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on 15 Dec 2004
05:51:20 -0800, [email protected] wrote:

>Triple-follow-up (and apologies, moving slow this morning). Just found
>a code on the phone's original box that includes the designation
>IB-ENS. Looks like I've got 64K and ENS. I'm guessing the problem's
>due to a problem with the internal antenna...

1. Ask to have the latest network updates "pushed" to your phone.

If that doesn't help:

2. Try a different phone.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

On 14 Dec 2004 17:10:41 -0800, [email protected] wrote:
>Another odd thing: my husband will leave his phone on his desk, and the
>reception will be listed at full strength. I'll move his phone and
>place mine in the same locale, and it won't move up from low reception
>to full. Should I take the phone(s) back?

Swap out the SIMs and see what happens.

I'm having the very same problem in my home with two Motorola v551s.
It isn't a phone issue. Swapping the SIMs verifies that. One number
constantly gets full signal, the other one only one or two bars,
regardless of which phone it's in.

I'm at wit's end with Cingular CS on the phone. They're very nice and
try to help but they're clueless. I'm taking the "bad" phone/SIM to a
Cingular store in just a few minutes. I'll post the results.

I bought the 3120 in November and couldn't hear well from it as there was an
air noise in the ear piece ... so I sent it back and got another one just
like it. I gave up and switched to a Motorola phone although ... Motorola's
are "cute" but they are no match for a GOOD Nokia.


___________________
Ann
Motorola V551
iPAQ 4355
<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi,
>
> Just signed on with a cingular family plan and two Nokia 3120's after
> researching cell reception in our local area and hearing cingular was
> the tops.
>
> But I've been noticing that the reception seems a bit fussy -
> sometimes, in the same part of the house, it'll be at full strength,
> and then at others (again, same location) drop to 2 bars. There have
> also been a fair number of dropped calls.
>
> Another odd thing: my husband will leave his phone on his desk, and the
> reception will be listed at full strength. I'll move his phone and
> place mine in the same locale, and it won't move up from low reception
> to full. Should I take the phone(s) back?
>
> sally
>

>Motorola's
>are "cute" but they are no match for a GOOD Nokia.
>

The old saying again - "You can ALWAYS buy BETTER than Motorola, you just can't
pay more!

--
John S.
e-mail responses to - john at kiana dot net

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 06:46:51 -0500, "Ann" <[email protected]> wrote:

>I gave up and switched to a Motorola phone although ... Motorola's
>are "cute" but they are no match for a GOOD Nokia.

Isn't that the truth!!! I wish Nokia would produce a decent
clamshell-style phone.

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Thu, 16 Dec 2004 06:46:51
-0500, "Ann" <[email protected]> wrote:

>... Motorola's
>are "cute" but they are no match for a GOOD Nokia.

I personally think the current batch of Motorola phones (e.g., V551) are as
good or better than anything from Nokia.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

John Navas <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> [POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
> In <[email protected]> on Thu, 16 Dec 2004
> 06:46:51 -0500, "Ann" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>... Motorola's
>>are "cute" but they are no match for a GOOD Nokia.
>
> I personally think the current batch of Motorola phones (e.g., V551)
> are as good or better than anything from Nokia.
>

_______________
I agree. I use a V551 and a V3 -both perform with excelence, although i
prefer the V551's shape - it is less awkward on my belt. My previous
hansets have been Nokia 6230 and 3595 among some older ones. Although i
miss the speed of the Edge class 10 Nokia 6230...I rarley use my phone for
laptop connection any more.

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Wed, 03 Aug 2005
02:21:56 GMT, Phone Guy <[email protected]> wrote:

>John Navas <[email protected]> wrote in
>news:[email protected]:
>
>> In <[email protected]> on Thu, 16 Dec 2004
>> 06:46:51 -0500, "Ann" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>... Motorola's
>>>are "cute" but they are no match for a GOOD Nokia.
>>
>> I personally think the current batch of Motorola phones (e.g., V551)
>> are as good or better than anything from Nokia.

>I agree. I use a V551 and a V3 -both perform with excelence, although i
>prefer the V551's shape - it is less awkward on my belt. My previous
>hansets have been Nokia 6230 and 3595 among some older ones. Although i
>miss the speed of the Edge class 10 Nokia 6230...I rarley use my phone for
>laptop connection any more.

I currently use a Sony Ericsson GC82 PC Card for "laptop" (notebook)
connections, which gives me the best available EGPRS (EDGE) speeds (up to
about 150 Kbps downlink), but I can't get incoming calls while I'm doing that,
so I'm still looking for a good EGPRS Class 10 handset with Bluetooth. (The
V551 is only EGPRS Class 4, up to about 100 Kbps.) I just couldn't get
excited about the Nokia 6230 (I prefer folder form factor to bar form factor)
or Sony Ericsson Z500a (no Bluetooth), so now I'm waiting for the
announced-but-not-yet-available Motorola V360.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>