[Joel_Zimmerman]

Hi there.

I have noticed that going through two official OS 7 versions and now on the leaked OS 7.1, I have not been able to get signal in low signal areas. The most notable places are Holton-le-Clay village in Lincolnshire and Meopham Village in Kent, both in England. With my 9700, I was able to get both EDGE and GPRS in these locations, but it was GPRS most of the time. With my 9900, I am not able to get that much signal at all, GPRS at the most. When I lay my phone on a table, it gets EDGE. When I take hold of it, it drops down to GPRS and frequently cuts out to no signal. There are no accessible Wi-Fi points in the locations either. I don't mind the drops in signal too much, but I often do internet banking which doesn't allow me to log in due to the extremely low signal strengths. Even with 3G and the  symbol, I am unable to effectively do internet banking when in shopping centres and large structures, while with my 9700 it was flawless almost every time. Could it be due to the browser or aerial? Or the combination of the two?

I'm with Vodafone UK and I am also wondering if there is a service in which I am able to see where their signal masts are. Someone has done it for New Zealand and plotted them all on Google Earth.

Thanks.

[quattrojames]

Nice post, I'm glad it's not just me then! I have exactly the same issue's with my 9900 against my previous 9700 - also on UK Vodafone. How is your wifi signal?

I posted on their e-forum and got refered to this link here:

Blackberry 9900 no GPRS signal - Vodafone eForum

Suggesting post 18, or:

Found this on BlackBerry FORUM and so far so good, can't be sure if this was the cure or where it was the software update, although I did still have problems after I upgraded, It may have had something to do with the network being down for the whole morning on Tuesday last week, but either way my phone now works fine :smileyhappy:



There are some steps,
1. go to manage connection icon on desktop of blackberry handheld(BBHH). and press Enter
You have to choose your network provider by selecting Manual scan..
Now perform Hard reboot , by turning all connection off and turning on after 1 min.
It will work to be stable with network.

It didn't work for me though.

[Joel_Zimmerman]

I get GPRS signal, but it seems as though I can't get certain webpages to open even when I have sufficient signal. The attachment is a screenshot of my one of many failed attempts to sign into my internet banking account, after entering the password and memorable information. As you can clearly see, I have 4 bars of 3G signal, yet I cannot get in when my old 9700 had no problem with it on EDGE.

[Bossni]

Alot of problems. I'm on OS 7.1 on my 9900. Sometimes I' m on 3G full bars and out of nothing it drops to SOS when I' m not even moving.

When I' m on GPRS I cant even talk on the phone no more...it drops calls every couple of seconds.

While browsing on the internet with full 3G out of the blue it stops loading pages and say Unsufficient Network Coverage.

First the black screen with blinking LED, and now this...I' m getting tired of this phone...

[Joel_Zimmerman]

I understand your frustration with it. Since it's Christmas, the Bluewater Shopping Centre is just a mass of people with phones, so I don't even bother browsing too much. Every now and again, my signal drops from 3G to SOS, then back to 3G. I also got a JVM Error the other day so I had to reinstall the OS. Hopefully OS 7.1 will be officially released by Vodafone UK before the 31st of December… like RIM promised.

[cooljatt18]

The 9900/9930 signal strength and quality will never be as strong as other BB devices, as the antennae are wrapped in a solid stainless steel band... same as the iPhone 4

The 9700 however is just wrapped in plastic

[andino]

I had pretty decent reception until recently. I haven't changed OS' in a while either. I used to get good reception at my parents house but now when I walk into the kitchen, it drops the call. Happens nearly 95% of the time. I can usually send an SMS but the past 24 hours, it just fails and I have to walk upstairs in order for the phone to get any network (shows 1X or 3G though). So weird

[Tomo1971]

Remember with 3g/UMTS that the signal expands and contracts to how busy the cell site is. In theory, if a site gets busy then it will contract its footprint and an adjacent (if less busy) should expand to cover the 'gap'.

If your on the edge of 3g coverage though this won't happen as there is no adjacent cell to take over.

Use Vodas help section to see if there are any site issues near you?

Steve

[cooljatt18]

That is one of the five parameters that affects your QOS:

- Physical antenna
- Physical radio
- Radio software
- Signal strength (incoming)
- Bandwith and usage of same

care to elaborate on the five pints you have mentioned in detail, thanks