Improving signal strength on the mpx200

[Guest muerte8]

I like many users here have noticed that my mpx200 gets horrible service. Here in the states GSM isnt really as reliable as Digital is, but there has to be some type of way of improving the signal. If anyone knows a way of improving the signal on the phone tell me. Also if anyone knows of a pending rom upgrade that will bring the phone to either dual or tri-band modes (voice only, not GPRS) tell me about it.

[Guest flashflash]

errr, GSM is digital!! , it replaced analog in Europe many years ago....

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Also in the US the phone is already dual band and in Europe triband.

also GSM is the world standard :)

[Guest muerte8]

sorry, i was misinformed about the phone - forgive my ignorance. Is the phone dual band in voice signal or a voice signal and one data? Also is there any way to improve the signal strength on the phone? Here in the states CDMA or TDMA service is alot better then GSM service. Im in NYC and get no service when my brothers verizon CDMA phone has 3 bars. Is there any possible way to improve the signal strength or should i just wait and tough it out till the tri-band mpx comes out (i read an article saying is was going to be triband, most notable having 850 and 900 reception).

[Guest mike-oh]

I'll let one of the pros help you out here but bands doesn't refer to one band for voice and one for data. It refers to the phones ability to switch to different frequencys so it can operate on different networks both at home and abroad. In europe we need triband phones to work on the networks in the USA. Standard dual band phones over here will work on the european networks but wont be able to operate on the frequencys that the US networks operate on.

The MPX200 here is tri band! *EDIT* or is it, i can't find band selection anywhere?

The fact that your brother gets a better signal could be because he is on a different mobile phone companys network.

Over to the pros.....

[Guest IronHide]

Hi muerte8,

The MPx200 sold in the US is a "dual-band" GSM phone, this means it can operate on two different frequencies for voice calls, those being 1800 and 1900. In total, there are four GSM bands: 850, 900, 1800, and 1900. The US is the only place that currently uses 850 and not all US carriers take advantage of it...as far as I know, only ATT and Cingular use 850, T-Mobile does not. In the US we cannot use 900 for mobile devices because our cordless home phones run on that frequency. Also, I don't belive there is any 1800MHz coverage, so we're stuck with 850 and 1900 -two out of four possible bands.

So, to answer your question:

Since the phone is limited to 1800/1900MHz, and I assume you have ATT Wireless (right?), then you can only get a 1900MHz signal. ATT uses 850 and 1900 - since your phone does not support the 850 band, you're limited to one frequency. It may be that ATT's 1900MHz coverage in NYC is poor as they put a lot into their 850 network.

I have an 02 Xphone on Cingular's network (they use 850/1900) and pay for national roaming coverage. I'm from Mass and go to NYC and NJ often. Since my phone is a 900/1800/1900, the only signal I can use in the US is 1900. When in NYC, I roam onto T-Mobile's network, but NEVER ATT, indicating that T-Mobile has better coverage there.

Your options:

Find out if ATT allows roaming onto T-Mobile's network and upgrade your plan.

See if your MPx200 is sim unlocked and switch to T-Mobile (you should be able to use number portability to keep the same phone #).

-or-

Wait for the Motorola MPx100 which is rumored to have a US compliant version that will be 850/1800/1900 so you can use ATTs 850MHz network.

If you have any questions at all, I'd be happy to help out as I know this can be really confusing!! :)

[Guest TANKERx]

The MPX200 here is tri band! *EDIT* or is it, i can't find band selection anywhere?

Settings -> Phone Settings -> Preferred Band

[Guest muerte8]

actually you pretty much answered my question, thanks. My only option is to wait for the mpx (i dont like the design of the mpx100 and really want a ppc phone) and hope ATTs merger with cingular improves the sevice and coverage area. thanks again for clearing up the whole frequency mess for me.

[Guest mike-oh]

Settings -> Phone Settings -> Preferred Band

What's it doing in there :oops: ? :)

I was expeceting it to be in network settings somewhere, i thought that menu was just for the external LCD, obviously i'm wrong!

Cheers

[Guest Varnson]

Ok, a topic I can really relate to. Here in Boston, my reception is great everywhere...except my apartment. There I get two bars, only until I start using the phone and then it drops to one/none.

So what I'm wondering is if someone can speak to how the phone's software/hardware controls the power delivered to the radio. As any one of us can attest, the battery life on these and most cell phones is a function of signal strength, presumably because as the signal gets stronger you need less juice to transmit/recieve. I'm guessing that phone adjusts the radio power to achieve a happy medium between signal strength and battery power. Except that in some cases, it does a poor job of estimating signal strength and gets too conservative with the battery.

I'm hoping that somewhere in the software/registry that behaviour can be adjusted to deliver a better singal (albeit at the cost of battery life).

Anyone with ideas?

I'm new to this, so don't hurt me!!!

[Guest IronHide]

muerte8, you're welcome! Glad I could help. I'm undecided between the MPx and MPx100 myself...hmmm, we'll have to see!

Varnson,

I think I can give you some info as well. To the best of my knowledge there isn't any way to use the phone's registry or setting to really increase your signal strength in the manner you'd like to do it. However, your problem may be related to the different GSM bands available to you in any given location.

You live in Boston (I live in Brockton, MA) and have a GSM phone, depending on your service you can access 850 and/or 1900MHz service. Now, I have heard from a number of different sources that while the 850 band takes a lot of heat for being "older technology" in reality it exists because it gets better indoor reception over the 1900MHz band. I DO NOT KNOW if this is actually true, but a lot of people I've spoken to, engineer-type guys, say this is so.

I can give a real-world explanation of that. I have Cingular (uses 850 and 1900) and by roommate has T-Mobile (uses 1900 only). In our apartment, I get full signal using an 850/1900 phone but his phone only works in one room with very poor signal (his phone is 1900 only). If I switch to my Xphone which does not run on 1900, I get similarly crappy service. This is what you might be experiencing.

Again, ATT and Cingular use 850/1900 in the US and T-Mobile uses 1900 only. It's possible to say that the only way to improve your signal other than your provider updates their network is to see if there's 850 coverage in your area, switch to that provider, and make certain your device uses 850 as well!

That's a lot of crap to go through, but unless someone else knows how to pump up the signal on your phone, that's about it.

PS - some quad-band or 850 phones allow you to "lock" the phone to a specific frequency, not something I've found on a smartphone yet.

[Guest rh0926]

You might find this article interesting about the AT&T and Cingular merger:

HERE

Particualrily, this:

The company is also allowing customers with GSM phones to automatically roam onto other companies' networks in their home cities at no extra charge. This could help users who run into dead spots with no AT&T Wireless coverage but a Cingular or T-Mobile USA tower.

[Guest actionj]

The reason why the MPX200 gets such poor reception indoors and in buildings is because it doesn't support the 850 band. The 850 band is what gives AT&T and Cingular better building penetration and reception. I'm just as mad as anyone else as I love my mpx200 but the reception is downright horrible with only the 1900 band

[Guest raw_toe]

no one has answered the original question yet... what can be done to improve the reception? is there an add on antenna available?? or something else? i think by now we all understand the 850/1900 issues and that the mpx200 only gets 1900. so now what do we do?

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

There is not an add on antenna as the phone relies on an internal one that cannot be accessed. I may try playing with the one on my phone and see if I can add anything inside.

[Guest spludgey]

well please let us know if you find something that helps

[Guest Sasuke]

Unlocking my MPx200 and using O2 has helped a helluva lot, i now get full signal indoors as opposed to Orange which generally has 0-1 bars. :twisted: