Anyone used one of the Signal Booster things that goes inside the case?  Just got a Nokia 3360 and the reception SUCKS!!  Could be Cingular's service too...but my 6161 worked ALOT better.  Any suggestions?

They don't work , the signal is transmitted off the antenna . Right now several of the manufacturers/retailers are being sued by the Feds for fraud right now . As a forrmer radio/radar tech tech I can tell you if its not attached to the antenna and externally powered it doesn't work !

The Nokia 3360 is a Digital only phone, 2or3 bands.
Your 6161 is a Analog and Digital (I have one).

the digital signal is weaker and covers less area, more blind spots.

The tape on signal boosters DID help some on my Nokia 51xx, 61xx and 7160. These are Analog and Digital phones.

If you want 2000 mins for $39.95, you can only have a Digital phone.

A Digital network is cheaper to setup and run than a Analog network.(and you get less)

If you got Cinular you did not get that digital only price, Cinular only has pricing for a Analog and Digital network, and sells people Digital only phones = more profit, these people were screwed.

I have Cinular also and I have to bitch at them to get my way on billing issues, and I do.

Turn that phone in for a Analog and Digital phone.

SSD

ps, nokia accessories are cheapest at www.nokia.com

The "signal booster" is indeed a complete waste of money.

The problem could be your service. In my experience, the older analog systems have much better performance in rural areas than digital/PCS systems — in areas where the latter work at all, that is.

I just got a Kyocera 2135 with a new Verizon package. It was the cheapest phone being offered. Works great for me. Clear, distortion-free reception.
Two weeks later my sister got a new Motorola v60 or vt60 or something. I think it's one of the more expensive models. Every other word cuts out. It's almost impossible to have a conversation.
She went with Cingular because she's an exec with Ameritech.
I don't know if it's the phone or service, maybe both, but my cheapo cell outperforms her Motorola by a huge margin.

To establish some measure of credibility, I work for Verizon Wireless, but God knows I'm no expert. I'll just tell you what I've learned. In almost all cases the poor reception you get with a particular phone has more to do with the service provider you use than the phone itself.  Just like crookshanks brought up... the Motorola V60 is a very high-end cell phone, but on a mediocre system it has lots of issues. Conversly, the Kyocera 2135, while a much more modest piece of equipment, functions better because the network is stronger.  The best phone in the world can't help a deficient network.

And as far as that Nokia 3360 goes, the consensus I've gotten from our network guys is that they suck ass... we can't get them to function in our test environment, much less out in the real world! They're cute, and small and that's about it.
My opinion on phones (the ones we sell at least) is go with a Kyocera, any model.  They have very few issues, are efficiently designed, and just work well. They're not as big a name as Nokia or Motorola, but IMHO their equipment is better, easier to use and generally cheaper.

SSD, yep I knew the 6161 was trimode, but NOKIA says that the 3360 is trimode too...hmmm.  What I'm wondering and was wondering when I bought it was how Cingular conned all the other providers into letting them tap their towers for national coverage, and we still only get charged 29.95.  I'm thinking the answer is...THEY DON"T.  I'm no expert on this stuff, just have read a little bit.  I thought that the phone worked in whatever coverage area and company area you were in at the time, but from everyones comments I take it if it isn't in Cingular's coverage area, it doesn't grab another signal.  So, it looks like external antenna, or less cool phone with better antenna, or US cellular again. Yuck.  Thanks guys for the info....is what I've said above on target or completely off in lala land?

I think a 3ed digital band was added = trimode.

Cingular all ready had many regional cell companys under diffrent names, Cingular to me was Houston Cellular, my sister in NC was a Bell system cell service, now Cingular.


I just got a magnet mount, 3 inch tall and 6 foot antenna lead  for my 71xx at the Cingular store for $12. It works VERY well!
I stick with phones that can use the accessories from my old phones, chargers, batteries... (I be cheap)

SSD

Gunbert has it right. I work for AT&T (not the wireless division, so AWS users please don't bitch at me!), and we are in direct competition with Verizon. Who did I choose as my cell phone service provider?  Verizon Wireless! They are the only cell company that has useable rural coverage, at least in the east. My Nokia 3285 almost NEVER drops out, while my official AT&T Wireless company phone (tri-mode as well) completely quits working about half way home from work. In the city they are equal, but as soon as you get out in the country, Verizon has the only coverage available.

While we're on the subject, does anyone know someone who has the equipment to remove the service provider (SP) lock on my Motorola Startac?

Thanks...

I have a Kyo-2035 very nice unit. very well laid out menu system. I like the way their phonebook works. one name with multipul numbers under that one name. there are 5 number types Home, Work , Beeper, home, Fax (a 6th type would be no-type (just looks like a phone handset) you scroll down to the name and you can then left/right scroll the the icon for the right number. or select the name and scroll for the number as well.

plus it can be hooked up to a PC. (any respectable phone can be) and download your phonebook to it. just dont try it on XP(compatiblity mode doesnt work). else you run the chance of losing the phonebook in the phone if you dont have a older PC. it downloads it but if you try to upload a change it will wipe out the list then fail to copy the new one. with a 2000 pc i was able to load the phonebook back in place. they should have new software out in a month i think.

Woohoo.....everyone else seems to have gotten it right.....it ain't the phone, it's the service...trust me guys, there isn't a whole lot of difference between the actual phones themselves. This technology just gets barely better in each new model...has anyone heard of any big break through in radio? I haven't.
And as for aa777888-2---you like soliciting for felony behaviour on the web? Federal time now buddy....your service provider can unlock it and no one else....check my e-mail address.....

Yeah, I'll have to agree, it's the service.  I used Cellular One in my area and had terrible problems even with high end equipment.  I even installed the 3 watt car kit to try and improve on the reception.  After about a half a dozen trips to their tech department I finally got one of the reps to admitt that they didn't have enough towers and none in the area I frequently traveled.  I switched to Alltel, bought one of their Motorola 280 Timeports (a realy great phone with built in speaker phone and voice activated dialing) and all is right in the world.

Cingular sucks, I have a bunch of friends who's comapnie outfitted them with Cingular phones and their service is crap.
I have AllTel and am pleased with the service, though the company can be a pain.
Nextel is pretty good too, though they cost some dough and I wouldn't use them unless it was for biz... Though this could be my friends plan.

I've never had my AllTel phone not work... Except in Mountain Home, Texas and nobody elses phone worked either.

Uh, Scott, what the heck are you talking about? a) I own the equipment outright (my contract is over). b) There are no relevant laws. c) You yourself offered to unlock my Nokia for me.

As long as I don't download and sell or publish the firmware, or replace it with firmware I have no license for, or intend to steal cellular service, I can reprogram that phone any way I want. The same way I can change the software on my computer (done it). Or software in my car's ECU (done that, too). Or change frequencies and settings in a Motorola 2-way radio (that too). And so on. Pulleeze...

Anything that has " AS SEEN ON TV"
I stay away from.

Negative.  Its not just the service.  I'm a commo guy and these new phones with the totally internal antenna have got to suck for reception.  Your hand is blocking the signal on one side and your head on the other!  Service providers have been putting in cell towers just about everywhere in the hopes of getting you a stronger signal so the handsets can get smaller, but that doesn't always work.

Attach an external antenna to the cell phone (if it can take one) and watch the signal strength go WAY up.  Try to stay away from the thru window antenna mounts though.  You lose some signal going through the window mount thingy  (capacitive coupler).

Try to choose a handset with at least SOME of the antenna sticking out of the handset.  The pull out kind will get better reception than stubbies or the kind with no antenna showing at all.

Oh yeah, the little coil thingy on the commercial antennas don't help either.  Best antenna is a straight piece of wire 1/2 wavelength long.  Gotta watch the impedance matching and ground planes, but that for advanced students.....

Bonus question:  What is the ground plane for your handset antenna?  

Answer:  YOU!  OBTW:  you aren't a very good ground plane.....its a wonder this stuff even works at all.....if it wasn't for all the providers trying to microwave us all to death, every handset would have to have better antennas, sort of like the early cell phones.  Isn't that a pleasant thought?  You wonder why more and more people are getting weird cancers and tumors and stuff.....

rant off!

Point of order Mr.Chairman...virginiaM4...if you take off your tin-foil hat and your steel gloves you would get better functionality from your phone. Microwave us all to death.......please take a phone into your secret lab and measure the output.....you get more signal out of you computer monitor......

Here is a link to a text file with ways to get you unlock codes.  Social engineering ways on the phone, and if its a sprintPCS phone, you can even do it on-line.

[url]http://www.bridog.net/cellular/msl.txt[/url]

Thanks, Jack. That was *very* helpful.

aa777888-2, your welcome.

Hey, hound, I bet that would score you some big nose points back at the corporation to rat out aa! Do it dood! You could really move up!

Grimshaw...I wouldn't get points....and everyone else good morning....This won't die so i WILL JUST POST A COUPLE OF POINTERS---according to the Millenium copyright act it is illegal to cicumvent a security measure design to protect software. For example, all of the different kinds of security measures in mobile phones....and yes it is federal time.
So play nice and try not to post stupid junk when you all know the govt is watching....."a raid today on a international gun-owners board..discussion of illegal machine guns and modifying cellular phones"

I've had different phones on the same network (Verizon Wireless).  Verizon's network is [b]very[/b] solid as far as reception goes.  I tried LG, Nokia, and Motorola phones in the same year.  The Motorola's were the clear winners.  And no, I don't work for Verizon or Motorola.

[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/Chimborazo%2Fmotlogo%2Egif[/img]

Blame NEXTEL, not Motorola.  Tons of RF flying around hospitals.