SPV not compatible with GPRS Class B network?

[Guest strathclydezero]

The SPV is sold as a GPRS Class B phone. GSM World states:

Class B

Class B mobile phones can be attached to both GPRS and GSM services, using one service at a time. Class B enables making or receiving a voice call, or sending/receiving an SMS during a GPRS connection. During voice calls or SMS, GPRS services are suspended and then resumed automatically after the call or SMS session has ended.

Orange FAQs state:

Can I still receive voice calls while I?m using GPRS?

You?ll still be able to receive calls while using GPRS as the data session will pause and rejoin your data session where you left it.

I have found that I cannot receive voice calls while I have an active data flow, and I'm quite pissed off that the phone doesn't have this basic GPRS Class B functionality as written into the standards. Orange have sent this problem to Tech. Support for the third time after two unsatisfactory attempts to fix it. Do any of you have this problem?

Try downloading a large website to keep your data flow going and try phoning your mobile.

I get incoming calls when there is no active data flow - i.e. when there is a webpage loaded in the browser. It has been suggested that I may have to get a replacement phone if they cannot find a fix, and I'd be interested to know whether this is a problem exclusive to me or whether it's another Microsoft software 'feature'.

[Guest tomesy]

I am pretty sure this is happening with my phone too.

Although I hadn't associated it with active data flows - for a while I thought my internet connection was "dialing up", due to the misleading "Dialing.." when you first connect. I thought I'd confirmed this by going straight through to the answer phone when dialing my mobile number from another phone.

Bills and Orange soon confirmed I was altually using GPRS....., however what your saying would explain my phone effectively being engaged when using GPRS.

[Guest strathclydezero]

I've missed calls while having MSN messenger apparently idle - the call and the MSN ping to see who was online must have been at the same time - which is extremely annoying. I'm going to insist an Orange fix for this bug, as it reduces the value of the GPRS if it removes the phone capability.

[Guest XPClone]

Orange may not be fixing this bug - it may well be a fix that Microsoft have to do.

[Guest sarge]

Hmmm, not quite true. Class B relates to the ability to be simultaneously ATTACHED to GSM and GPRS networks and capable of initiating or receiving EITHER a packet switched OR circuit switched connection, not both at the same time. In order to do that you require a Class A phone. The comment relating to voice etc during data transactions is misleading as this is not simultaneous voice and data (which would require 2 RF stages!), basically the phone sends the network a TBF suspension and when this is confirmed the circuit switched bearers are configured and the voice call setup performed. when the voice call ends, a command is sent to resume the TBF and the data transaction continues.

Hope this helps

Sarge

[Guest strathclydezero]

I don't think I contradicted that sarge. I don't think their signalling is quite up to scratch - i.e. the phone is failing to pause the incoming GPRS data for a voice call. I realise that a class B phone can only use one or other, but it should be able to pause GPRS for a voice call, which this phone cannot.

[Guest sarge]

Yep, yer right, I've just tried it. Although it would be interesting to see if any other phones exhibit the same problem on orange, it could be a network problem.

[Guest toadvox]

I was on the phone arranging to go to the cinema, and managed to have a conversation and look up the cinema times on the orange website using the phone!

[Guest strathclydezero]

This problem still exists after the update.

[Guest PhilA]

Yep, yer right, I've just tried it.  Although it would be interesting to see if any other phones exhibit the same problem on orange, it could be a network problem.

I just tried phoning my phone whilst playing a streaming video. The first time I tried it was whilst Media player was initialising the playback, and I got put through to the answer machine. Once the video was playing, however, the call went straight through to the handset. I rejected the call, and media player came back and started playing again. Interestingly enough, my previous phone was a T68i (also on Orange), and that would never let a voice call through if it was being used as a modem. This phone was a replacement for a T68 which broke, and I seem to remember that the T68 allowed voice calls through whilst on a GPRS modem type connection - could be a recent modification to the Orange network?

[Guest strathclydezero]

I expect that the streaming video was buffered, and that the moment you chose to phone the handset was a moment in which the buffered video was being played - i.e. there wasn't actually any GPRS data traffic at that time.

[Guest PhilA]

Probably, but at least that's the sort of behaviour you'd expect from a class B GPRS phone, whereas some people seem to find that if a GPRS connection was active at all, voice calls weren't getting through.

[Guest strathclydezero]

My understanding of class B is that it ALWAYS pauses the data flow for a call to be made. Therefore the call should never go to the answerphone.