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  1. #1
    Oscar_Lives
    Guest
    I spent a couple of days this week in a small town located about 12 miles
    off the interstate. At the motel, I had full power (every bar) on my Sprint
    phone, (no roaming), but yet I could not make any calls, nor could I receive
    any calls.

    When I tried to place a call, I got a "redialing" message and then it would
    hang up.

    I tried making calls several times for three days and had the same results.
    When I got back to the interstate, my phone resumed normal operation.

    Why could I not make or receive calls, even though I had a full strength
    signal?





    See More: a wierd bars issue




  2. #2
    Frank Harris
    Guest

    Re: a weird bars issue

    One possibility is that you were close to a brand-new Sprint PCS cell
    site (tower) that was being tested and hadn't gone into service yet.
    Just a guess, and 3 days is a long time for such a condition. If you
    can tell us where the small town is then maybe someone else on the
    newsgroup will have some info on it.

    Oscar_Lives wrote:
    > I spent a couple of days this week in a small town located about 12 miles
    > off the interstate. At the motel, I had full power (every bar) on my Sprint
    > phone, (no roaming), but yet I could not make any calls, nor could I receive
    > any calls.
    >
    > When I tried to place a call, I got a "redialing" message and then it would
    > hang up.
    >
    > I tried making calls several times for three days and had the same results.
    > When I got back to the interstate, my phone resumed normal operation.
    >
    > Why could I not make or receive calls, even though I had a full strength
    > signal?
    >
    >


    --
    Frank Harris in San Francisco with an A680



  3. #3

    Re: a wierd bars issue

    Most likely the result of signal pilot pollution. Your phone could
    receive a strong signal from the tower but could not transmit from it
    because it was simply too far away. This is very common in areas with
    hills.




  4. #4
    Central
    Guest

    Re: a wierd bars issue

    On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 03:09:00 +0000, Oscar_Lives wrote:

    > I spent a couple of days this week in a small town located about 12 miles
    > off the interstate. At the motel, I had full power (every bar) on my Sprint
    > phone, (no roaming), but yet I could not make any calls, nor could I receive
    > any calls.
    >
    > When I tried to place a call, I got a "redialing" message and then it would
    > hang up.
    >
    > I tried making calls several times for three days and had the same results.
    > When I got back to the interstate, my phone resumed normal operation.
    >
    > Why could I not make or receive calls, even though I had a full strength
    > signal?


    It was most likely a network/tower issue. SprintPCS phones lock into the
    tower but that makes no guarantees that the tower->network is functioning.
    So even tho the phone says it is on the network because it connected to a
    sprintpcs tower the tower may not be. If your phone is set to sprintpcs
    network only then after the dial/redial attempt fails the phone should
    start to re-search for a sprintpcs signal finding the same tower and
    repeating the process. I have ran into this problem only a handful of
    times, one of which was new year's at midnight when the network was
    overloaded but the towers were not. If you have F&CA roaming option you
    could always switch over to another network if you find yourself in such a
    problematic area. Getting a PRL update might help if sprintpcs has
    deployed other towers in the area your phone may not be seeing.




  5. #5

    Re: a wierd bars issue

    A PRL update would not do anything to help. Sprint phones do not need
    the most recent PRL to see every tower. That's an old myth.




  6. #6
    Oscar_Lives
    Guest

    Re: a weird bars issue

    This was in Marshall, Missouri. Just north of I-70 in west-central
    Missouri.


    "Frank Harris" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    news:[email protected]...
    > One possibility is that you were close to a brand-new Sprint PCS cell site
    > (tower) that was being tested and hadn't gone into service yet. Just a
    > guess, and 3 days is a long time for such a condition. If you can tell us
    > where the small town is then maybe someone else on the newsgroup will have
    > some info on it.
    >
    > Oscar_Lives wrote:
    >> I spent a couple of days this week in a small town located about 12 miles
    >> off the interstate. At the motel, I had full power (every bar) on my
    >> Sprint phone, (no roaming), but yet I could not make any calls, nor could
    >> I receive any calls.
    >>
    >> When I tried to place a call, I got a "redialing" message and then it
    >> would hang up.
    >>
    >> I tried making calls several times for three days and had the same
    >> results. When I got back to the interstate, my phone resumed normal
    >> operation.
    >>
    >> Why could I not make or receive calls, even though I had a full strength
    >> signal?

    >
    > --
    > Frank Harris in San Francisco with an A680






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