Sprint U720 Going Bad? Or, tower problems?

futrader · EVDO Newbie Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 7

Here's the short question. Would a heavily loaded tower (lots of users) result in decreased signal strength? Or, is there anything about colder weather (no precipitation) that would cause decreased signal strength?

And then, what is best way to test if U720 is going bad. Find someone else with one and compare at same location and/or swap temporarily?

Here's the background. I got a U720 on Jan 3. Worked great until Jan 17. Used it first in my home area Wisconsin (53058) and it surpassed my best expectations in speed, reliability and signal strength. EVDO-RevA, signal strength -80 to -90db in what Sprint maps showed as just outside an EVDO RevA area. Got signal strength -70 to -80db with an antenna. (Antenna and U720 both bought from booster-antenna.com). Download 1200-1300 kbps, upload 250-600kbps, pings 100-120ms to NYC. Traveled to Clevland, EVDO Rev 0 area, still worked great, but slower as expected.

Traveled to Northampton MA (01060). First few days worked great. Solid continuous EVDO Rev A, signal strength -80 to -85db or so. 1200+kbps download, 200-300kbps upload, pings 160-180ms to NYC.

Then woke up Jan 17, laptop in same room, same desk, same spot as prior few days. Got 1xRTT. After a while it would migrate EVDO Rev A, EVDO only (Rev 0 ?) and 1xRTT and back and forth. Signal strength -98 to -107db. Weather clear but about 30 degrees colder (maybe 5 or 7 F). Same pattern all day. Borrowed a DSL connection and ignored U720.

Next AM, Jan 18, about same, but a little better. Still switched among 1xRRT and EVDO (sometimes showing Rev A, sometimes not). Best strength maybe -93db, but very unstable. Called Sprint CS. Said there was a tower problem here, put me thru to Tech Support for more info. TS says no tower problem at all. Can see which tower I'm on, about 1.2 miles away, but the tower has 53 users at that moment which they indicate is high, and that load is fairly heavy. They say it should impact my speeds. Probably would, but my issue was simply maintaining EVDO connection. They told me user load should not impact signal strength, but I wonder? Told me to monitor and they would call this AM for update.

This AM. Jan 19, still better. Can maintain EVDO Rev A most ly, but was bumped to 1xRTT once. Best signal strength about -90db, but still fluctuates greatly. Download speeds ok 800-1000kbps. Upload speeds suck. Best is maybe 50kbps. Pings to NYC 180-400 ms, but mostly under 200ms. Weather still a little warmer with light snow.

Semi75 · EVDO Junkie Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 230

The first thing to do is set the device to evdo only and see if that helps at all. There could possibly be two towers in your area, one is EVDO enabled, one isn't and you card is loosing signal from the evdo tower and switching to the stronger 1xRTT signal.

Have you changed anything in relation to how your u720 is hooked up? Are you using the y cable with both connectors into a usb port? Was your laptop unplugged at one point and not the other possibly signaling a power problem?

I am curious to learn what exactly the problem is if and when you find out?

As a side not this likely isn't your problem but I have been having wierd signal issues this week because they are testing the 1xRTT tower near me with EVDO. It's there with a good signal one minute and gone shortly later. Luckily for me in EVDO only mode I can pick up a tower about 6-7 miles away that has had EVDO enabled about three weeks now, the signal is poor and data rates are similiar to your poor rates. My s620 can't even pick up the signal most days but the u720 generally always can with or without an antenna in the -100 to -93 range.

jackrodgers · EVDO Addict Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 1131

53 Users is High?

Does that mean the most they have had at one time or that 53 users is too many for the tower to perform properly?

If 53 users is more than one tower can handle, then we have a problem here...

futrader · EVDO Newbie Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 7

This AM, Jan 20, same place, same room. same desk, connection seems rock solid, signal strength is -79 to -81db. Weather clear and 28F. No changes to anything on my end.

Will be curious to see if the problems revert after the weekend is over, or not.

BTW, the Sprint rep who promised to follow up with a call yesterday AM never called.