Old Moto e815 vs. new Moto Q - Sprint or Verizon?

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Brian Goodheim - 27 Apr 2007 18:36 GMT

I have been a Verizon wireless customer for 2 years now (4 lines, family
share plan, 1400 minutes) and have been reasonably happy except for one
chronic problem. Despite living up on a hill, enjoying virtual line of
sight to most area towers, and showing 5 bars of signal strength, we get
dropped calls all the time, constant audio clipping, and frequent full
duplex contention when both parties try to speak at the same time.

Since our contract is up for renewal, I would like to consider switching to
Sprint as an alternative to Verizon to see what signal and call quality we
get here at the house. The coverage maps published at the Sprint website
indicate very good signal level at our location, while the Verizon coverage
map just indicates that our location is within the EVDO coverage area, with
no indication of signal level. Does anyone know how accurate or reliable
these maps are?

I am also considering switching from a Motorola e815 to the Moto Q. I
originally selected the e815 because its radio characteristics were superior
and I was concerned about signal quality. Based on the past 2 years
experience with many dropped and unintelligible calls despite 5 bars of
signal strength on the Verizon network, maybe the phone's radio
characteristics aren't the problem. Does anyone have any first-hand
comparative experience with the e815 and Moto Q, as implemented either on
Verizon or Sprint?

I may just order new Moto Q phones on new lines from both Sprint and Verizon
to see how the phones compare side-by-side in this location, and return the
loser, reporting back my findings to the newsgroup. But before I do, anyone
have any suggestions?

Thanks,

-Brian

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Dennis Ferguson - 27 Apr 2007 20:41 GMT

> I have been a Verizon wireless customer for 2 years now (4 lines, family
> share plan, 1400 minutes) and have been reasonably happy except for one
> chronic problem. Despite living up on a hill, enjoying virtual line of
> sight to most area towers, and showing 5 bars of signal strength, we get
> dropped calls all the time, constant audio clipping, and frequent full
> duplex contention when both parties try to speak at the same time.

I associate those symptoms (except maybe the 5-bar signal strength; maybe
bar inflation by the phone?) with CDMA tower overload. It doesn't
cleanly fail calls when it approaches capacity but the guys furthest from
the tower begin to get increasingly crappy service. Does it get better if
you use the phone in the middle of the night?

If it doesn't get better at low-load times it could also be a problem
with the equipment at your tower, I guess (I thought the "Can you hear
me now?" guy was supposed to catch all these). Phoning customer service
and complaining that you are considering leaving if service at your
house doesn't improve might prompt someone to take a look.

I'm not sure how much one can trust the signal strength display on
phones but I can tell you that the CDMA phones I've had (mostly Motorola
and LG) make perfectly good quality calls with one bar showing, both
at my house and when visiting Mexico where this happens all the time.
Your problem seems to be something other than coverage.

> Since our contract is up for renewal, I would like to consider switching to
> Sprint as an alternative to Verizon to see what signal and call quality we
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> no indication of signal level. Does anyone know how accurate or reliable
> these maps are?

Neither the Sprint nor the Verizon coverage maps are very accurate, for
what that's worth (look at T-Mobile to see a good one). I'm not sure it
matters, though, since your problem doesn't seem to be coverage.

> I may just order new Moto Q phones on new lines from both Sprint and Verizon
> to see how the phones compare side-by-side in this location, and return the
> loser, reporting back my findings to the newsgroup. But before I do, anyone
> have any suggestions?

Please do this, this is an excellent test! I did exactly this a few
years ago and discovered that Verizon service at my house was no better
than Sprint even though the closest towers are on the same building
downtown and Verizon's cellular frequencies were supposed to make
it better. Note, however, that the problem you are describing doesn't
seem like a coverage problem so, if you like Verizon, giving them a
chance to fix it might help.

Dennis Ferguson

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Larry - 28 Apr 2007 02:28 GMT

"Brian Goodheim" <goodheim@colorado.edu> wrote in news:25idnS_2G-
FZqa_bnZ2dnUVZ_rWnnZ2d@comcast.com:

Could this guy be experiencing interference between two systems his phone
can hear up at that altitude?

______Him on Phone____
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
Cell System X Cell System Y

His phone hears both systems but locks to home system X. When there's a
call the phone hears data from X then Y comes on the air with someone
else's call.

I've heard what he describes flying in light aircraft at 3000'. The
cellphone becomes pretty much useless as altitude increases.....

Larry
--

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Mellowed - 30 Apr 2007 00:30 GMT

>I have been a Verizon wireless customer for 2 years now (4 lines, family
>share plan, 1400 minutes) and have been reasonably happy except for one
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>
> -Brian

If you plan to travel outside your area I would avoid Sprint. Consider
T-Mobile.

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