3. Debunking Myths

Based on my interaction with more wireless customers than I care to remember, here are some common myths and realities about wireless networks, phones and services.

Wireless phone problems that occur while I'm traveling are the fault of the network.

To respond to this myth, I need to spend a little time discussing connections to towers and describing what happens while you're traveling. Let's start at home. When the phone is powered on, it connects to the nearest tower. When the phone is taken on the road, it will stay connected to the original tower as long as it can. As I said earlier, that can be anywhere from 7-10 miles. At that point, the connection will drop and the phone will search for a closer tower to connect to.

Now speed that up to 60 miles per hour. Every ten minutes or even less, you may reach the limit of a tower's range and the phone will be searching for a new tower. Your phone may not be able to find a closer tower to connect to because the old one is the only one it recognizes at the moment or maybe because by the time it does find a new tower to hook up to, you've reached the range limit again and it has to start all over again. Have you ever been on the phone while driving on the freeway (in an area that usually has great service) and had the call drop repeatedly? What I have described here might explain what's happening.

The best way to fix a problem like this is to power the phone off, wait 10 seconds, and power it right back on. The ten second wait clears the phone's memory (kind of like the cache on your browser or a page-file on your computer) and then turn it on. Power cycling allows the phone to connect to a more local tower. If you still experience problems, contact your technical support representative. Oh, and do be careful turning that phone off and on while driving.

Summary: It's the phone, not the network.

A phone that won't make a call out of the box is broken and needs to be returned.

An incredibly large number of people replace a brand new phone because it won't make a call right away when they receive it. As in, they open the box, rip off the screen protector, plug in the battery, turn it on and try to make a call. So, they blame the phone. Why the phone? It's not the phone! It's the GHLR stepping in. Unless the phone has been activated in a store or activated prior to shipment, it will not work until a call is made to customer service or a trip made to the local vendor.

When a phone is pulled out of a box, a SIM card put in and the phone turned on, the phone sends information about itself to the GHLR. The GHLR has to be told to recognize the phone's information before a call can be made. This process is known as activation and has to be done with a representative. Sometimes, the old phone is still active. I have also seen situations where the new phone is activated and the old phone disconnected while the new phone is still being shipped to the customer. This causes massive frustration because the customer doesn't have a phone to use at that point. The GHLR doesn't recognize the old phone anymore. There's only one way to fix this problem. Yep, that's right; another call to customer service. So, don't blame a non-functional phone on the phone itself. Check to see if there is an activation problem somewhere.

A phone battery must be replaced if it won't hold a charge.

[The following applies primarily to NiCAD batteries, but NiMH batteries can also have this problem if your phone is stored for extended periods without recharging. If your phone uses Li-Ion or Li-Poly (lithium-ion or lithium-polymer) batteries you shouldn't have to worry about this issue.]

When a battery won't hold a charge it's possible that it has been charged incorrectly. If certain types of batteries are charged before they have been fully discharged, they will only take a charge up to the point of the remaining charge. So, if a battery is half charged when you charge it, it will only charge up to half capacity. Solution? Recondition the battery. That is done by discharging the battery (letting the phone die) and charging the battery until the phone indicates a full charge. Some recommend doing this three times. A reconditioned battery may last up to another year and you can recondition the battery multiple times, in fact NiCD and NiMH battery vendors suggest reconditioning once every month. Only if reconditioning doesn't work might something else be wrong with the battery, the charger or the phone.

The GPS on a phone can be used to track the phone if it's lost or stolen.

Can't be done? Not by any carrier. True, in 1994, the Federal government passed a law requiring all new mobile phones to be equipped with GPS devices. But this does not give a wireless carrier the ability to track a phone. There may be GPS services that can be purchased that can be used by an individual to track a phone, but that requires the phone to be on and entails a monthly surcharge. The only way a phone can be tracked is when you dial 911 on the phone. This activates transmitters that broadcast the location of the phone to emergency response units. The phone can be tracked to within one foot of its location.

Poor wireless service means poor network design.

Most networks work the way they were designed and sometimes support more phones than originally intended. The problem is the number of subscribers on a given network. From 1995 to 2005, the growth of the mobile phone market in the US has caused a painful number of subscribers to be "bumped off" of the network during peak hours. For an extreme illustration of this, suppose we build a network that is designed to support up to 1,000 subscribers in a specific area. Ten years down the road, we have 20,000 subscribers. The same network that was designed to provide service to 1,000 subscribers might actually be able to support 15,000 subscribers as long as only 1,000 or not too many more try to use it at the same time. At any given time 5,000 of the 20,000 subscribers can become the straw that broke the camel's back, putting a load on the network greater than it can handle. The network is working as designed, but at this point it needs to be redesigned to support all current subscribers.