Do TDMA phones use more power when roaming?

I have a Dobson Cellular One Nokia 6360, and an AT&T 6360. When I am
home, the Cell One is roaming. It gets one-third the battery life of
the AT&T phone, and I use the AT&T more at home, since it is not
roaming here.

I have tried swapping the batteries. The Cell One phone was
reconditioned. Basically it last 4 days on standby, and my AT&T lasts
close to two weeks and I use more.

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› See More: Do TDMA phones use more power when roaming?

In article <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]> wrote:
>I have a Dobson Cellular One Nokia 6360, and an AT&T 6360. When I am
>home, the Cell One is roaming. It gets one-third the battery life of
>the AT&T phone, and I use the AT&T more at home, since it is not
>roaming here.
>
>I have tried swapping the batteries. The Cell One phone was
>reconditioned. Basically it last 4 days on standby, and my AT&T lasts
>close to two weeks and I use more.

If the towers are further away, the phone's transmit power will be higher
and battery life will suffer.

Further, if you are roaming on a non-TDMA system, the phone will have to
use AMPS (analog) mode, which uses MUCH more power and reduces battery
life accordingly.

Mike S. wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Further, if you are roaming on a non-TDMA system, the phone will have
to
> use AMPS (analog) mode, which uses MUCH more power and reduces
battery
> life accordingly.
Does the phone spend more energy searching for the home carrier when
roaming on digital? I have 6 out of 7 bars on both phones, and both
are using AT&T/Cingular on digital. One is a Dobson phone that is
roaming. The other is AT&T branded.

Also, is it possible that Dobson phones poll the network more
frequently than AT&T phones?

> Further, if you are roaming on a non-TDMA system, the phone will have to
> use AMPS (analog) mode, which uses MUCH more power and reduces battery
> life accordingly.

Unless you're using a GAIT phone, then you can roam on GSM.