XT Cell Site Crossover?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › XT Cell Site Crossover?

TheHoss

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#116238 22-Apr-2013 22:58

Hi Everyone,

I have just recently moved and noticed that while walking through the house the signal strength on my iPhone changed dramatically and at the end of the day, my cellphone battery was drained (this doesn't usually occur).

Using this tool http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22487235/Address.html (provided by Geekzone user BarTender), I noticed that there were three Telecom XT cell towers all within equal distance from my location which formed a triangle (if you were to connect the dots) centring on my address. I used an app on a Samsung Galaxy SIII which told me that the phone seemed to jumping between the three different cell sites and when using Google Maps with WiFi and GPS turned off, my location on the map would jump around dramatically as I moved around the house. I also used field test mode on my iPhone 4 to get more specific readings of the signal strength moving around dramatically as I moved throughout the house.

Is this normal and is there something I can do to rectify the problem or am I just unlucky? I understand that all cell sites overlap in terms of their coverage but it seems unusual that my phones would be jumping between different cell sites!

Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

Phones: iPhone 4 (non-jailbroken), Galaxy SIII (rooted)
Network: Telecom XT
Location: Bishopdale, Christchurch

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cat
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#803997 22-Apr-2013 23:05

Hi Josh,

Could you please DM me with your address? I will check with the network guys tomorrow to see what's up.

Cheers.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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johnr

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#804002 22-Apr-2013 23:24

What is your house made of?

TheHoss

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#804004 22-Apr-2013 23:36

johnr: What is your house made of?

Wood framing with brick exterior.

johnr

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#804006 22-Apr-2013 23:42

TheHoss:
johnr: What is your house made of?

Wood framing with brick exterior.

Brick will not help

l43a2

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#804012 22-Apr-2013 23:49

hes not on vodafone john :P

mjb

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#804013 22-Apr-2013 23:52

l43a2: hes not on vodafone john :P

But if someone is wrong on the internet, he can't help himself ;)

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eXDee

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#804014 22-Apr-2013 23:52

l43a2: hes not on vodafone john :P

Yeah got to remember that bricks prevent vodafone's signal from entering your house but give VIP access to other networks, even offering to take their coat as they enter.

TheHoss

36 posts

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#804015 22-Apr-2013 23:53

johnr:
TheHoss:
johnr: What is your house made of?

Wood framing with brick exterior.

Brick will not help

Damn. Well, better get the sledgehammer out then

Thanks for your input anyway John!

jaidevp

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#804209 23-Apr-2013 11:53

Hi it's likely the issue you are seeing is due to there being no single dominant cell (signal) within your home.
This means the phone will have a tendency to switch between the sites and as you've notice this can have an effect on battery life.
Unfortunately there isn't too much that can be done about this without affecting the neighboring areas. You can log a fault with our helpdesk to get the issue checked to make sure it's not something else, if anything they (helpdesk) can put feedback into our coverage tool so the issue is highlighted when reported on.

LennonNZ

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#804211 23-Apr-2013 11:57

You could paint 3 sides of your house with this:

http://www.lessemf.com/paint.html

So you force only 1 cell site to be seen.

...... or maybe not .... :-)

michaelmurfy

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#804444 23-Apr-2013 17:54

jaidevp: Hi it's likely the issue you are seeing is due to there being no single dominant cell (signal) within your home.
This means the phone will have a tendency to switch between the sites and as you've notice this can have an effect on battery life.
Unfortunately there isn't too much that can be done about this without affecting the neighboring areas. You can log a fault with our helpdesk to get the issue checked to make sure it's not something else, if anything they (helpdesk) can put feedback into our coverage tool so the issue is highlighted when reported on.

^^ What he said, he's telling the truth, I've confirmed.

johnr

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#804448 23-Apr-2013 17:56

Remove the bricks from one side of the house

mxpress

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#804449 23-Apr-2013 17:59

WOW, useful tool. It even show up the Telecom COW ( cell on wheels) located just around the corner from me.

mxpress

johnr

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#804451 23-Apr-2013 18:03

If a COW is just around the corner from you then the handset should be camping onto that

TheHoss

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#804479 23-Apr-2013 19:08

michaelmurfy:
jaidevp: Hi it's likely the issue you are seeing is due to there being no single dominant cell (signal) within your home.
This means the phone will have a tendency to switch between the sites and as you've notice this can have an effect on battery life.
Unfortunately there isn't too much that can be done about this without affecting the neighboring areas. You can log a fault with our helpdesk to get the issue checked to make sure it's not something else, if anything they (helpdesk) can put feedback into our coverage tool so the issue is highlighted when reported on.

^^ What he said, he's telling the truth, I've confirmed.

Ah ok. Thanks for your help jaidevp and micahelmurphy. I will log the fault and see what comes of it. Nothing else I can do to ease the problem at least (except painting the walls with anti-emf paint and knocking down the walls)?

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