Call signal is terrible, call feedback is terrible, almost want to leave Veriizon

[netentropy]

I have long been a major proponent of verizon, on my venus I could get calls where no one could. My parents live in a town of 100 families where local service barely works and there I was talking and surfing.

With my Droid, in the middle of downtown Atlanta, I can barely talk in my apartment.

My brother won't talk to me because I sound muffled.

And heaven forbid someone call me while driving because I can hear everything but them.

I hate talking on this , man I don't know if i can even call it, a  phone.

It is fun, it is quick but it is a mini mini texting computer not a phone, at least not yet.

I don't think Verizon can do anything about it, I think it is the phone make but they may lose this customer over it.

They should say , Droid does everything but phone calls.

[AFguy]

Just a thought, have u tried dialing *228, then option 2 (I think) to update your PRL list?  That will help  you tremendously.

[willanaya]

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netentropy wrote:

I have long been a major proponent of verizon, on my venus I could get calls where no one could. My parents live in a town of 100 families where local service barely works and there I was talking and surfing.

With my Droid, in the middle of downtown Atlanta, I can barely talk in my apartment.

My brother won't talk to me because I sound muffled.

And heaven forbid someone call me while driving because I can hear everything but them.

I hate talking on this , man I don't know if i can even call it, a  phone.

It is fun, it is quick but it is a mini mini texting computer not a phone, at least not yet.

I don't think Verizon can do anything about it, I think it is the phone make but they may lose this customer over it.

They should say , Droid does everything but phone calls.

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i did what AFguy said after my update and i can say i now get more bars than before.

when i sat down in front of my computer i often go 2 bars (on a good night 3). now i am at full strength all the time.

try AFguy's method first, i hope it works for you

[netentropy]

yes i have been a verizon customer for many years so i know that trick

i didn't work.

also the bars represent your network connection not your phone signal as on previous phones.

[willanaya]

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netentropy wrote:

yes i have been a verizon customer for many years so i know that trick

i didn't work.

also the bars represent your network connection not your phone signal as on previous phones.

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actually the bars represent the strength of voice and texting. and in some cases, if you are missing the 3g icon, it can also tell you how strong your browsing strength will be, not necessarily 3g strength, but some form of browsing.

but i digress,

if you have tried that then the only other factors i could see is if, and you said you lived in the middle of Atlanta, what about the building structures around you? that cant be good for signal strength.  it would be the same as when i find myself in buildings and my signal diminishes a little.

or you could have a bad hardware problem.  something fixable.  just exchange, assuming you are within your 30 day trial, but still it should be under warranty through Motorola.

[snorkel]

Wrong the bars you see on the home screen are for 3g data only, when you make a call or turn on wifi, then you see the actual call signal strength and it's complete crap.  You can have 4 bars 3g, place a call or turn on wifi and bam.... you have 0 bars and the call quality is trash.

People if you are having call quality issues simply return the device, no matter how much you like the other features.

[willanaya]

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snorkel wrote:

Wrong the bars you see on the home screen are for 3g data only, when you make a call or turn on wifi, then you see the actual call signal strength and it's complete crap.  You can have 4 bars 3g, place a call or turn on wifi and bam.... you have 0 bars and the call quality is trash.

People if you are having call quality issues simply return the device, no matter how much you like the other features.

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actually that is wrong. the 3g icon is, in a way, not dependent on the bars.

the bars are for VOICE and DATA strengh.

if you ever lose 3g data, sometimes a 1x will appear.  the 1x is just the lowest level of 3g which produces slow downloads/uploads

i have travelled from san antonio to eagle pass or del rio or mcallen and have lost 3g service because of the vast stretches of nothing but i still get voice calling abilities, albeit one bar with distortions..

[snorkel]

nope the bars you see with the 3g icon are just for 3g signal strength, not both combined.

The droid has two antennas, one for 3g and one for 1x.  It has been verifed that the device works this way.

The droid has a problem with 1x signal strength, if you are not really close to the towers you will see good 3g signal, make a call and at that point it switches to 1x for the voice call and you then get very bad signal strength.

When they designed the phone they made the default bars show 3g data strength, not voice as is the norm for all other phones.

If you enable wifi it turns off the 3g radio and then it shows 1x, same as when you make a call.

Believe me the bars you see while on the home screen and not in a call are for 3g data only.

This behavior might also be easier to notice in the area where you live depending on what frequencies they use.  Not all areas use the same freqs, so you might be gettting very good 1x signal in your area and in my area it's complete crap.

If you get good 1x signal you would not notice when it switches because the bars won't change, or the change is minimal and you don't notice the 1 bar difference.

I went through two droids and everywhere I went in SE wisc, the same deal, very good 3g data and **bleep** poor 1x. I would have 4 bars 3g, make a call and it would drop to 0.   This is no bull, it's fact.

[Groid]

Snorkel, you are wrong.  The vertical bars just to the left of the battery gauge represent the phone signal strength.

[meister]

OK, while you two are in a [edit] contest I'll fix the problem for netentropy.

I had the EXACT same problem you described. One bar, 1x for browsing, drop or broken calls. So here is how I was able to fix mine, and I'm guessing a lot of people are having call quality problems too. Now you will have to call customer service to get the numbers you need to do this, but when I dialed ## and then the number they gave me. I had to enter 000000 to verify and then I was into a setup screen that gave me detailed info about my phone- namely how and where my phone connected to Verizon. I found that my phones default tower that it was connecting to first was in Chicago! I live in Columbus, Ohio. I was able to change the tower number to my location and bingo! I then did a *228 and then option 1, not 2 like most do(which does next to nothing) My phone is up to date and signal is strong. Hope this helps!