I'll take B, Gene

Auto A, or B means that it will scan the A, or B band first.

In NewJersy, you want it set to Auto B if you are a verizon customer.
Or auto A if you are a cingular or ATT customer.

There was probably an apparent reason as far as the phone knew,
but a person looking at it from the outside, can't see much. :-0
If the signal level is to erratic, or too high of noise level,
a strong digital signal can be totally unusable,
and the phone will go to analog.

Not ringing all the time is a common problem with CDMA phones
during high usage periods.
The call will go right to voicemail even though the phone is turned
on and the phone is receiving a strong signal.
And audio quality will degrade during high usage periods.

But, considering that you haven't see the same problems with different
phones,
it is more likely manufacturing problems.
Or slight manufacturing variations that is aggravated by a bad signal
environment.
(ie) Abnormally high cellular usage in the area.
The phones may work fine in a better RF environment,
like in the country, but in the city, they fall victim to high noise,
and a messy RF environment..

Some time around Fri, 27 Feb 2004 04:37:10 GMT (give or take a month), someone who says they are
named "K2NNJ" <ktwonnj@NOSPAMoptonline.net> fired up the tubes on the teletype and rambled on about:

I was told use Auto B for the South East and Auto A for the north East by someone in the store.

-W