Cell phone signal questions

Hi! I'm running into some problems with my cell phone signal and want to compare experiences before I do an exchange and possibly end up with a worse phone.

I'm in an area that has very limited WiMAX coverage (it's not even on Sprint's map, we have a Clear tower here that is used for point to point WiMAX, but it handles cellular WiMAX as well). I actually live outside this limited coverage area, so use 3G most of the time to connect unless I go into town for some reason, so it's the 3G connection I'm concerned with more than the 4G.

I live about a mile from the closest local Sprint tower, and about 5 miles or so from the second closest. Normally I get 6-bars on the Freedom Phone and 6-bars on the Overdrive Pro (both are full bars).

What I'm experiencing is the Freedom Phone's signal will hold at 5-6 bars for a while then start bouncing around to 2 or 3, and then maybe drop to 1 bar, or even 0 bars with the '3G' indicator going away and then coming back with the indicator showing it's back up to 6 bars. Sometimes the signal will fluctuate and then downshift to '1X' (1xRTT) and will not go back to '3G' unless I power cycle the phone or turn Airplane mode on then off, even when there's 6 bars on the signal strength.

During some of my observation of this I powered up the Overdrive Pro hotspot to compare signal strength and while the phone is fluctuating between 1 and 6 bars, the hotspot shows a solid 5 bars full strength signal, or a slight fluctuation between 5 and 6 bars. I observed several times when the signal dropped to 1 or 0 on the phone for almost a minute and the signal on the hotspot didn't budge. Generally the hotspot is very solid, though there are occasions when I need to power cycle it to get a better 3G data connection, this usually only happens after right I first power it up for use.

What do other people see, is your signal fluctuating a lot even when you are standing still? Are you seeing signal dropouts and downshifting of the data speeds to '1X'?

My other cell phone is a GSM Tracfone which uses AT&T for service, so can't compare it to the Sprint service. I have only the Overdrive Pro to compare to since it's also Sprint, but it's a different type of equipment and I'm not sure if that is affecting what I'm seeing (I don't think it is, but I just don't know).

Thanks,

James

Quick update. Most of the issues I mention in my previous message seem to be resolved. It may have simply been Sprint working on the local towers, I'll likely never know. But the phone is working fine and I've REAL happy I didn't have to exchange it since I have it configured to my liking now!

James