[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Attention Cell Phone Users (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 6/18/2007 8:02:26 AM EDT
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My dad told me something that concerns me a LOT, because it is happening to me too. He started noticing that he would be notified he had a voice mail message, even though his phone never rang. He called his provider to complain of a problem, and got transferred all over creation until he found someone who would answer his questions to his satisfaction. It turns out that all cellular providers are overwhelmed. (all but Sprint, which is using an older system than Verizon, U.S. Cellular, etc) They can't support every single call being made. During busy times of the day, if your phone has been inactive for more than a couple of hours, OR if you have moved out of your "home" area, the system acts like you shut your phone off. A person trying to call you will get voice mail, and you will be notifed you have a message waiting... if they left one. My wife and I have gotten into arguments because of this. She said she called but I didn't answer. I said she never called because I had my phone in my hand, and it never rang. I've missed calls and got voice mail... when my phone had 5 bars, and was right next to me. Who knows how many calls I've gotten for important things, since my home number auto forwards to my cell phone when I'm not home. Dad says that his provider told him that there is nothing that can be done at this time, because new customers are signing up faster than they can handle. I'm expecting a phone call right now, and can only hope they leave a message because my phone might not ring the call through to me. |
ditto, except I'm still in the same area. Some calls just don't get through. Cingular/ATT bastards. 
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Unless you have a business plan with a QoS guarantee, you get what you pay for. The contract you signed had all this stuff spelled out. I don't see a problem. eta: I'll bet this thread is going to be just like the HOA rant threads: "[XYZ] sucks because I don't read what I sign!" |
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Simple economics. People want cheap service. Cell sites and systems have finite capacity. Maximum economy is to use the system at close to capacity. When traffic fluctuations bring the total need to higher than what the system can support, someones call doesnt go through. 911 calls and some other kinds of traffic do get priority. As has been discussed repeatedly (in SHTF contexts and such), use text messaging to get through if you can't get through with a phone call. |
Fuck that. The profits these pirates make are obscene. They should be forced to provide enough capacity for EVERY PHONE BILLED. Because in certain circumstances (9/11 comes to mind  ), everyone DOES call all at once. If they don't have to provide gauranteed service, why do we have to provide gauranteed payments? |
You filthy communist...you disgust me! How dare you begrudge corporations the right to make profits by not delievering the service their customers expect! How dare you demand what you pay for! |
Because they can grease the palms of the politicians more than you can. Vulcan94 |
Yup...Happenned to me too  Thinking to move on to another carrier but it seems that all of them are on the same boat.  |
Great way to ruin a dumb and dumber quote.
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Can't the same be said about your land line service? Yet the telephone company has been sued for failure to maintain telephone lines when a service interruption resulted in the inability to dial 911, and someone died. |
Not the same. They are not held to the same standards. I think part of it has to do with the fact that landline service was at one time a regulated utility service. [eta: also, radio service is inherently less reliable than wired, so cannot be held to the same standard] To the person who said that the cell companies should have to be able to provide 100% service all the time.... even the landline companies are not required to handle 100% capacity. Landlines are designed for around 16% capacity. Cell systems are designed around 5% capacity (approximately, depending on environment (rural, suburban, urban)). The more capacity a company supports, the more equipment they need to buy and maintain and the more people they need to maintain and operate them (cell or landline). If there is growth in a particular market, it may take time for the provider to scale up their system to handle the increased capacities. That includes more towers, more basestation transceiver systems, more wireline or microwave setups to link to the network, etc. If you want to go back to the time of $100 phone bills with no included minutes, then you could probably get that capacity turned up. As for profits... That I don't know, but engineering wise, that is what is going on. ETA: Also wanted to add that theoretically, for better service, you want to go with a provider that uses a CDMA system rather than TDMA (GSM). CDMA should give the system greater flexibility in terms of handled capacity as well as better signal reception. |
Our experience in the field doesn't support that... I know that's what has been discussed for many years but our experience in a rural area doesn't support it. IME a loaded CDMA system suffers from a large loss in available range from tower to mobile (which varies along with current system load) as well as a noticable loss in audio quality (same). GSM systems have held up better under load, but they do have a hard limit to the number of calls per sector/cell depending on how that particular base station is set up. GSM also has the ER mod available, AFAIK CDMA has nothing comparable for remote area service. Urban/suburban systems have a different set of challenges and CDMA seems to hold up better there, although GSM systems still seem to have the advantage in real world performance. |
Nope....current commercial for one of the networks. I would have nailed the quote from Dumb and Dumber. |
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Might want to check your phone. My Verizon RAZR v3c would not ring when people called. The first indication I got was a beep saying I had a voicemail. The people on the other line would call and hear the ringing but to no avail. I even tried calling myself from a landline and got the same result. Took it to the Verizon store and they did a master reset. Now my phone rings when people call me. Just sayin' it might be your equipment. |
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This has happened to me on EVERY carrier I've been on since digital cellular phones came out. Sprint, AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile. In fact, it happened yesterday. I got into the office, looked at my phone, and it said I had voicemail. No missed call, just voicemail. It did cause difficulty with a woman I was dating a few years ago... she'd call me ONCE, and NOT leave a voice mail. So one day I'm waiting for her to call, so we can formulate a plan and go out that evening. Evening rolls around, and I had both my cell phone and home phone right next to me. Nothin. The next day I call her, and I don't know how it came up -if I asked why she didn't call, or if she asked why I didn't answer. I told her I sat there watching TV with my phones right next to me. Neither one rang. I figured she called but went to my voicemail, and being HER, she didn't leave a message. Oh well, her loss. I dumped her shortly after that. She sucked at communication. |
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Happens to me as well. Recently a client called my cell and left a message. As my cell notified me of the message, he called on the land line at my office and asked if my cell was turned off. I checked it and it was on with full signal strength. Since I switched from Alltel to Verizon, all kinds of shit happens. I also get solicitation calls now too. I hate cell phones. They are, however, a necessary evil. 
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| Happens to me sometimes. My mom will call, and I dont know she does. Then latter she calls again and starts yelling at me why didint I pick up the phone, when it never rang at all. My phone also has a problem of not saying missed call or voice mail untill 30-40 minutes latter sometimes. |
That's horsecrap and you know it. It's not like I got to negotiate.  ETA: I didn't vote for Clinton, either.
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Yes. Buy the other common method of placing phone calls from a portable device which you carry with you at all times. That will show them. |
Yep, updates your PRL (preferred roaming list - basically, all the phone companies your carrier has service-sharing agreements with to extend your 'home area').... Used to sell cell phones as a college student... Sprint has one too (*611, I think)... |
Your local telco, at the time of most of those cases, was a GOVERNMENT REGULATED MONOPOLY... Kind of like suing the power company for service interruption... Since the cell phone industry has never been set up as a public utility (regulated by the public service commission of your state, in exchange for NO competition) that doctrine does not apply... It will cease to apply with land-line carriers soon, as land-line service is no longer publicly-regulated in most areas (eg you can get phone service from about 5 companies plus the cable company, and maybe phone-over-WiFi if you have wifi internet in your area).... |
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This happens to about 30% of my incoming calls. Phone doesnt ring, just goes to voicemail. Verizon here. I tried to explain this to the "customer service rep" several times over the course of 2 years, but they just blow me off and put me on hold. I just learned to live with it. because I cant prove that its happening. My contract is up in a couple of months with them. I will be seeking other service, not Sprint though thats for certain. |