Shows "SPRINT PCS" service... but no service....

Last weekend...(07/16) I was up in the area of N. of Brunswick, ME,. on the
coast, at a place called Sebasco Harbor Resort on Casco Bay...

Strange thing happened on my phone and others there....
5 'bars' of signal indication,,,,,
No inbound call would complete...
No outbound calls would complete....
Multiple people... multiple phones....multiple brands, multiple PRLs'

Once in a while it would 'drop out' and you would be back to 'analog roam'.

Called *2 when back in a solid signal area.
Support says they have NO towers in the area,,,,(Nearest tower is 11 miles
away)
No towers are planned either...
They kicked in a trouble ticket...
Evidently some systems is identifying themselves as SPRINT.

Any other theories as to why the phone showed in "Sprint' territory?

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› See More: Shows "SPRINT PCS" service... but no service....

You were picking up pilot pollution from Sprint towers too far away to
be of any use. Your phone could receive the signal but could not
transmit from it because there was too much noise. This is common.

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> You were picking up pilot pollution from Sprint towers too far away to
> be of any use. Your phone could receive the signal but could not
> transmit from it because there was too much noise. This is common.
>

Thanks for the response....
Just to clarify for me....
If the towers were to far away.. why would I be indicating such a strong
signal ('5 bars')?

Joe Gill wrote:
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> You were picking up pilot pollution from Sprint towers too far away to
>> be of any use. Your phone could receive the signal but could not
>> transmit from it because there was too much noise. This is common.
>>
>
> Thanks for the response....
> Just to clarify for me....
> If the towers were to far away.. why would I be indicating such a strong
> signal ('5 bars')?

No trees or buildings attenuating the signal. The tower was probably
up on a hilltop.

--
John Richards

On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 22:29:39 GMT, "Joe Gill"
>Thanks for the response....
>Just to clarify for me....
>If the towers were to far away.. why would I be indicating such a strong
>signal ('5 bars')?

Could it be that your phone is getting a strong signal from the tower,
but the tower isn't getting a sufficiently strong signal from your
phone???

Perhpas someone more knowledgable can clarify this, but I recall
reading here something about how Sprint towers (or CDMA towers in
general??) can be set to reject connections from phones beyond a
certain distance from the tower, regardless of the signal quality.

Joe Huber
[email protected]

Because a tower can have that much range. The problem is the signal
picks up a lot of noise the further it goes. So your phone can
indicate a good signal but there's too much noise in that signal (which
the meter doesn't always take into consideration). I can remember
picking up a "ghost signal" in the desert one time when the nearest
tower was 20 miles away. My phone showed two or three bars and
appeared to have a good signal but when I tried to place a call nothing
would go through.

This same problem happened to my friend when we were in Toronto,
Ontario. He was unable to use his phone, even though he had full bars.
I on the other hand was able to use my phone, with no problems at all.
When we got back into the states he called Sprint to find out why this
happened. It turns out he had only a Regional plan, whereas I had a
National plan.

[email protected] wrote:
> This same problem happened to my friend when we were in Toronto,
> Ontario. He was unable to use his phone, even though he had full bars.
> I on the other hand was able to use my phone, with no problems at all.
> When we got back into the states he called Sprint to find out why this
> happened. It turns out he had only a Regional plan, whereas I had a
> National plan.

Eh?

That shouldn't make a difference - do the regional plans give you a PRL that
doesn't allow you onto Canadian cell networks?

Most carriers' regional plans allow you to roam but you get charged.




--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Every Sprint phone has the same PRL and romaing capabilities so it
wouldn't matter if you were on a regional plan or not. That sounds
like BS from customer service looking to get someone off the phone
quickly.

[email protected] wrote:
>
> Every Sprint phone has the same PRL and romaing capabilities so it
> wouldn't matter if you were on a regional plan or not. That sounds
> like BS from customer service looking to get someone off the phone
> quickly.

Wrong! Unless you *actively* update the phone's PRL, it won't change.

Notan