Nextel signal issues

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~¢яуѕтαℓ●*

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Let me start by saying to all of the Nextel customers that all of your signal problems are not in your motorola phone. I used to work for a large cellular provider here in the U.S. I can tell you that Nextel has so many system problems that I don't even know where to begin. I will try to make this as simple as I can. All of the cellular providers in the area where I live are covering the entire area with 6 to 8 cell sites, except Nextel. Nextel is covering the same area with about 26 cell sites. The reason for this is that Nextel has 10 times the number of customers that it has in bandwidth to handle them. Their solution is to constantly turn down the power at a given site and add another one right next to it. This allows them to "re-use" the same frequencies at every other cell site. The problem is that now your phone may be picking up 10 or 15 different sites, and therefore becomes "confused" and can not decide what to do. The end result of this is your signal strength meter bouncing all over the place from full signal to no service and everything in between. The end result is that you the customer suffers with the dropped calls, the user not available, and the please try again. If you would like to test this I would suggest visiting another provider in your area and requesting a "demo" phone for a day. I would bet that if you watch the signal on the demo phone it will be much more stable even if it is weak. 7 years ago Nextel was by far the best, but now they have the same number of channels and 20 times the customers so you suffer the results. Now they have taken over some cities police,fire,etc. channels because they know it will take years for the city to get them in court to stop them. Also be sure to check your minutes, and look for all of the meaningless charges on your bill. Last but not least I wish you luck and think it would make a great snickers candy commercial when you try to call customer service to get anything fixed.... "not going anywhere for awhile?"

Sincerely,
Raymond Babbitt
A.K.A. rain man
 
interesting perspective...y don't u show everyone the pdf that has all the cell sites for the particular area that u talk of so we can all count ourselves.

otherwise welcome...and informative first post
 
I can get you a list of the number of sites that Nextel has covering the Kalamazoo, Michigan area, as I still have friends that work for all of the major providers in this area. The number of 26 that I gave you I can assure you is accurate because it came directly from a Nextel field engineer who is a friend of mine. He was attempting to correct the major service problem near my home after they put up 2 more towers near my home. He was unalble to help because he did not have the authority to change power levels and hand-off parameters at those sites. I can drive to the end of my street and see 3 nextel sites within "shooting" distance which you can imagine causes big service problems just like the rest of the Kalamazoo area. There are a few service/programming commands you can do that will help a little, but the service is still a joke.
Raymond
 
at the present time this is all they can do to try to accomidate the large customer base. the are very limited with their current frequecy, when the finally move to all of the new bandwidth that they have purchased it will be infinitely better as the higher frequency can handle significantly more volume of users per tower.
 
Dear Ray Babbit: I have often wondered why on Earth my nextel signal goes up and down constantly, just as you described...my Verizon phone never did that. Well, now I know..thanks. I am curious about something a Nextel Store worker told me. I had been describing what the signal strength indicator did and he told me that you can "program" the phone to force it to only stay with the strongest signal and not just bounce from one to another. What he recommended was to press the "pound" key, the "star" key, the "menu" key, and finally the right hand key in the center of the phone (I have an I-730) all in quick succession and voila, it will force the phone to hang with the strongest signal. I have tried this and I can't say whether it works any better or not. I do notice a few numbers and letters appear over where the signal strength is indicated..what they mean, I have no idea. I was also told that Sprint's ultimate goal is to have Nextel arrays on all of their towers and vice versa..to improve service..this seems contradictory to good business sense to me...I've heard that Sprint will be phasing out the IDEN system by 2010, and if so, why keep putting up more and more arrays on either existing towers of Sprint's, or putting up brand new towers just for Nextels. What do you think.
 
It looks like Nextel will have good service when some day all cell phones will reliable service, i think Verizon is as reliable as you can get today. i live just outside NYC so could imagine how cell phone users are between NYC and Philly area, and it seems Verizon is capable of handling it, they base their reputation on it according to their commercials..
 
Latest News
Sprint To Rein In Boost
Yesterday, 5:33 PM source: Kansas City Star
Sprint COO Len Lauer said that the carrier will make changes to halt the
growth of its youth-focused MVNO Boost. Boost is outpacing Sprint growth,
and is getting large enough that it will soon put a strain on Sprint's iDEN
network. The iDEN network is already under pressure because Sprint was asked
to give up a portion of its iDEN spectrum to the FCC in order to create
clear public safety bands. The growing population of Boost users are
straining the shrunken network even further, and Sprint would prefer that
the limited capacity was used to serve Nextel customers, who typically pay
more per month to use iDEN handsets. Sprint has not detailed how they will
curtail Boost's growth, however Sprint previously announced another
initiative that should thin out Nextel's crowded 800 MHz spectrum. The
carrier intends to launch dual mode handsets that use CDMA for voice and
data calls, and only relies on iDEN for Push To Talk. Sprint's first dual
mode handset, the ic502, has already been cleared by the FCC.
 
I can fully understand the gravity, of the first post, as "number of cells, in a given area" being the main contributor, to the "growing-Nextel, dropped-call" problem. But, there is definately "something to the phone issue", as well. As I've mentioned in a previous post (so I'll keep this one MUCH shorter :o), I've been noticing the same thing, in Columbus, OH, "as described, in the first post", but, I've also noticed "even worse problems", with using the newer-model phones.

It all started when we were forced to replace my wife's 730 (got stolen), and decided on a 930. It's a cool phone, but it drops calls so often, that we can't really use it. I have a hard time "keeping a call", right in my house, never mind traveling. My 305, on the other hand, DOES NOT exhibit the same problem. Sure, it drops calls, at an annoying rate (2 or 3 times a day), but is MUCH more stable, than the 930's been; drops calls 90% of the time. The 730 performed much better as well; much like my 305.

I can definately see the problem being mainly due to the number of cells, in a given area, causing "confusion" for the phone. But, there's definately a difference, that I've noticed, between how the older phones, and the newer phones "descriminate" between the cell-coverage problem.

It's gotten so bad, that I'm replacing my 930, under the 30-day return policy, but don't know which phone to replace it with. If all of the new-available phones (minus the 355 maybe) all have the same transceiver technology, then it won't matter which phone I get. In that case, Nextel can have my 930 back, and I'll eBay a 730, if I have too. If anyone out there knows of a new phone, that's not as "problematic" as my 930's been...let me know about it; thanks in advance.

Best regard,

Wulleymammoth
 
I've got one more "tid bit" to add, and then I'll shut "the pie hole" :o).

This problem (as described in the first post) seems very much like experiences that I've had, with wireless PC networks; I'm a network engineer. If you make the wireless nic "more sticky", in how it handles "which access point" to hang with, as transmission strength changes, then it usually won't drop the LAN connection, as much; keeps "hanging with" the same access point, until the signal strenght REALLY gets low. This may be what's making my older phones "more reliable", with regards to dropped calls.

Is there a way to change the "stickyness" on the new phones, with regards to signal discrimination, between various cells? There's got to be a part of the transcevier technology, that handles this. Whether or not it's "addressable" or "configurable" (by us), outside of any "hard-coded values", is what we need to know. If it's a "hard-coded thing", then none of the newer phones are going to "discriminate less", without a firmware update, "for the area that the problem exists in".

Best regards,

Wulleymammoth
 
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