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Just moved into a new house in southwest Phoenix and have a growing problem. As our house was being built we would check on it every week and never had any phone reception problems when we did. But now we get almost no service, and what we do have fluctuates radically minute to minute. Lots of no service times and dropped calls. This is with my and my girlfriends phones as well as her Mom and Dad and brother too. I checked the coverage maps and there doesn't seem to be any towers nearby, even though were are in the middle of a well populated area. We have called sprint many times and have been told we need to change our plan and our phones because they are too old. We were then told that we should have great service here. A trouble ticket was issued and a day later a local tech called my girlfriend and told here they went to our house. He said they all had full signal and could make and recieve calls with no problems. He was absolutely lying his but off. Right now looking at my phone I have one and then no bars and then no service and so on. My girlfriend called CS again and was told we had a tower 1.5 miles from our house and service should be fine, she even contacted the tech and he said he had great service at our house. Liar. They both told my girlfriend to get a new phone. The CS agent to my girlfriend to have me call back because my phone was newer. I did and was told there were no towers near our house. The two closest were about 15 miles away. My question is for all who live in or come to Phoenix regularly, have you noticed a large gap in sprint service along Baseline between 40th Street and 51st Ave??? This is where our problem is. If I drive 30 seconds west along Baseline from our subdivision I get a full signal. Seems really strange to me. Could there be something in the ground that is messing with the sprint signal?
Just moved into a new house in southwest Phoenix and have a growing problem. As our house was being built we would check on it every week and never had any phone reception problems when we did. But now we get almost no service, and what we do have fluctuates radically minute to minute. Lots of no service times and dropped calls. This is with my and my girlfriends phones as well as her Mom and Dad and brother too. I checked the coverage maps and there doesn't seem to be any towers nearby, even though were are in the middle of a well populated area. We have called sprint many times and have been told we need to change our plan and our phones because they are too old. We were then told that we should have great service here. A trouble ticket was issued and a day later a local tech called my girlfriend and told here they went to our house. He said they all had full signal and could make and recieve calls with no problems. He was absolutely lying his but off. Right now looking at my phone I have one and then no bars and then no service and so on. My girlfriend called CS again and was told we had a tower 1.5 miles from our house and service should be fine, she even contacted the tech and he said he had great service at our house. Liar. They both told my girlfriend to get a new phone. The CS agent to my girlfriend to have me call back because my phone was newer. I did and was told there were no towers near our house. The two closest were about 15 miles away. My question is for all who live in or come to Phoenix regularly, have you noticed a large gap in sprint service along Baseline between 40th Street and 51st Ave??? This is where our problem is. If I drive 30 seconds west along Baseline from our subdivision I get a full signal. Seems really strange to me. Could there be something in the ground that is messing with the sprint signal?
Well I Live In Phoenix And Get Full Service Everywhere Except For In My School (located At 51 And Union Hills). Sorry If Im No Help.
bobbylingo
10-21-2004, 01:11 AM
Is there a church near or next to your house? Lots of churches are installing cell phone jammers that can and will diminish your signal down to nothing. The legality of these jammers is a whole nother topic. Also, how long has your problem been going on? Sometimes a tower problem or a tower upgrade can take a few days and usually the CSR's don't and won't know anything about it. As far as the tech. goes, if you or your girlfriend didn't see him at or near your house, you will really never know if he ever even came close to your area at all to check. I, personally, have a repeater at my house to ensure full coverage - even in the basement. Good Luck.
bobbylingo
10-21-2004, 01:17 AM
Hey, just checked the tower map for your area and either Sprint is adding a load of new towers, or they are acquiring a bunch from the Qwest deal or something. Reguardless, this could deffinetely be your problem as they work to re-adjust, re-aim, and integrate these new towers. Hang in there, it will probably get better.
larry
10-21-2004, 01:25 AM
Yes Sprint has acquired many towers from Qwest in Phoenix and is converting them over and turning them on every week.
larry
10-21-2004, 01:28 AM
Just moved into a new house in southwest Phoenix and have a growing problem. As our house was being built we would check on it every week and never had any phone reception problems when we did. But now we get almost no service, and what we do have fluctuates radically minute to minute. Lots of no service times and dropped calls. This is with my and my girlfriends phones as well as her Mom and Dad and brother too. I checked the coverage maps and there doesn't seem to be any towers nearby, even though were are in the middle of a well populated area. We have called sprint many times and have been told we need to change our plan and our phones because they are too old. We were then told that we should have great service here. A trouble ticket was issued and a day later a local tech called my girlfriend and told here they went to our house. He said they all had full signal and could make and recieve calls with no problems. He was absolutely lying his but off. Right now looking at my phone I have one and then no bars and then no service and so on. My girlfriend called CS again and was told we had a tower 1.5 miles from our house and service should be fine, she even contacted the tech and he said he had great service at our house. Liar. They both told my girlfriend to get a new phone. The CS agent to my girlfriend to have me call back because my phone was newer. I did and was told there were no towers near our house. The two closest were about 15 miles away. My question is for all who live in or come to Phoenix regularly, have you noticed a large gap in sprint service along Baseline between 40th Street and 51st Ave??? This is where our problem is. If I drive 30 seconds west along Baseline from our subdivision I get a full signal. Seems really strange to me. Could there be something in the ground that is messing with the sprint signal?
Well I can tell you one thing. You certainly have many towers closer than 15 miles away. In populated areas such as Phoenix a tower only has a maximum range of about 1.5 miles and sometimes not even that much.
Noodle
10-21-2004, 01:51 AM
Well I can tell you one thing. You certainly have many towers closer than 15 miles away. In populated areas such as Phoenix a tower only has a maximum range of about 1.5 miles and sometimes not even that much.
You also have to take into effect the amount of users on certain towers too. I don't live in a town as big as Phoenix, but Iowa City being a big college town we have a ton of students who use sprint and if you wanna go by the tower maps then the closest tower is 35 - 40 miles north... I know there are towers closer than that. you can't just base your signal off a paper map. You can get a general idea but come on.
Well I can tell you one thing. You certainly have many towers closer than 15 miles away. In populated areas such as Phoenix a tower only has a maximum range of about 1.5 miles and sometimes not even that much.
You also have to take into effect the amount of users on certain towers too. I don't live in a town as big as Phoenix, but Iowa City being a big college town we have a ton of students who use sprint and if you wanna go by the tower maps then the closest tower is 35 - 40 miles north... I know there are towers closer than that. you can't just base your signal off a paper map. You can get a general idea but come on.
Keep in mind that the tower map only shows Sprint owned towers, hat is why it doesn't show any for Iowa City. There are a few towers in Iowa City but they are all owned by an affiliate.
I wish Sprint would be honest with me. If there is no signal at my house I'll deal with it, if there should be I wish they would fix it.
sprintboy01
10-21-2004, 08:00 PM
Maby its EV-DO upgrades
SPCSTSR326
10-22-2004, 09:15 AM
Your issue may simply be caused by the building materials used in your house (i.e. roofing, insulation or siding). It may also be a side effect of the construction going on near your house. If the cell site is 1.5 miles away; you're at the edge of it's range and will have problems like in-building coverage. When the tech checked your area, he has a "meter" that reads the density of signal in your area. There is a range that it must fall into. They do not go inside houses. They drive the neighborhood.
bigsmiley
10-22-2004, 09:49 AM
Your issue may simply be caused by the building materials used in your house (i.e. roofing, insulation or siding). It may also be a side effect of the construction going on near your house. If the cell site is 1.5 miles away; you're at the edge of it's range and will have problems like in-building coverage. When the tech checked your area, he has a "meter" that reads the density of signal in your area. There is a range that it must fall into. They do not go inside houses. They drive the neighborhood.
I know all this. Besides the problem is not just in the house, it is outside too. And all along Baseline from 40th street to 51st ave. Just after 40th street it is like I hit a wall, at the same point every time the phone goes from full signal to nothing and then fluctuates back and forth from no signal to 2 bars. Looking around the area I can't see anything that would cause it. I am baffled.
Maddcovv
10-22-2004, 09:49 AM
Maybe get your phone firmware upgraded to reflect new tower locations?
bigsmiley
10-22-2004, 10:44 AM
Maybe get your phone firmware upgraded to reflect new tower locations?
<---prl 10025 here. No dice.
Ted
10-22-2004, 11:19 AM
cells are smaller in cities. you need a trouble ticket to tweak your cell.
bigsmiley
10-22-2004, 11:36 AM
cells are smaller in cities. you need a trouble ticket to tweak your cell.
Got a trouble ticket already. The tech called back the next day and said they went to our house and had full signal and made and received calls fine. Told us we need newer phones.
larry
10-22-2004, 12:27 PM
Maybe get your phone firmware upgraded to reflect new tower locations?
Getting a firmware upgarde or PRL update will not make any difference in reflecting new tower locations. That's just an old myth that never seems to die out.
zipdrive007
10-22-2004, 01:07 PM
Getting a firmware upgarde or PRL update will not make any difference in reflecting new tower locations. That's just an old myth that never seems to die out.
Correct me if I am wrong but the PRL ONLY helps with roaming and setting the priority of ROAMING towers .....hence the name "Perfered Roaming List"
As to original issue I have noticed that the Tower load GREATLY effects the signal and when it is an overloaded location the signal jumps around and I drop calls. In San Diego it happens to me all the time when out there. If you have had a sudden increase in the population in the area that may explain it. Sprint will most likly do something about it once they see a pattern of the tower load.
zócalo
10-22-2004, 04:13 PM
My question is for all who live in or come to Phoenix regularly, have you noticed a large gap in sprint service along Baseline between 40th Street and 51st Ave??? This is where our problem is. If I drive 30 seconds west along Baseline from our subdivision I get a full signal. Seems really strange to me. Could there be something in the ground that is messing with the sprint signal?
I haven't traveled the length of Baseline in the range you mentioned, but have been around Baseline and Central, and did not notice any loss or weakness of signal.
How recently did you move into the new house and the reception change dramatically?
goodeye18
10-22-2004, 05:05 PM
I have Sprint and when I worked Construction I was all Over the PHX Metro Area all thru Out the day. It seems in some areas It will do that Especially along Baseline. Even near the Sprint Store on Baseline and Stapley In the Mesa Grand Shopping center before you get to 60 my phone will do the same thing. I would suggest calling Executive Services @ 913-624-3000 since CS and the Tech(s) seem to be giving you trouble. Let them know the whole story they should be able to help ya out!
larry
10-22-2004, 05:08 PM
Correct me if I am wrong but the PRL ONLY helps with roaming and setting the priority of ROAMING towers .....hence the name "Perfered Roaming List"
As to original issue I have noticed that the Tower load GREATLY effects the signal and when it is an overloaded location the signal jumps around and I drop calls. In San Diego it happens to me all the time when out there. If you have had a sudden increase in the population in the area that may explain it. Sprint will most likly do something about it once they see a pattern of the tower load.
Correct about the PRL.
Most dropped calls are actually the result of tower handoff failures and are not related to tower load (capacity). Sprint has to program each tower with a neighbor list of towers (PN offsets) that each one can hand off to. Often times when new towers are put up it can actually make things worse as there is a lot of potential for error when programming these neighbor lists which results in what they call 'pilot pollution'. In addition when a new cell site is put up some of the neighboring towers to it should be redirected or reaimed as to not interfere and they usually forget to do that. I see it all the time here in Orange County.
bigsmiley
10-22-2004, 06:20 PM
I am calling executive services, actually just tried on my phone and a strange thing happened that has never happened to me in 2 years of sprint service. The phone was showing two bars when I dialed and all of a sudden a loud busy signal came out of the speaker phone and a message on the screen said "Sprint serviice is not available! Please switch to analog!" Ya sure so I can get charged for roaming.
bigsmiley
10-24-2004, 12:04 AM
Anyone have one of those free repeaters they don't need? It may at least help hold what little signal we do have.
Hola
10-24-2004, 12:13 AM
I think sprint has been recently adding new towers, yeah, but the amount of new customers have increased majorly.
Just in my friends pool, almost 85 % of my friends now have sprint. I like use no day mins anymore because of that. So it's true sprint might be adding new towers, but I don't think they are up to speed.
T-mobile seems alot better because alot convert from t-mobile else-where. I don't think T-mobile coverage is bad, but it is limited to certain areas. Also, they nickel and dime everything.
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