Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)
I've been using cellular for a little more than five years (cannot remember
exactly). Started on GSM (then voicestream),
then used IS-136 TDMA (then AT&T Wireless), and now on CDMA via Verizon.
Each technology seems to have good to excellent sound quality under ideal
signal conditions. Each seems to degrade somewhat differently as signal
quality becomes poor. To me, the way IS-136 TDMA sounds when in a deficient
signal quality area sounds the worst- whole words missing, the tone of voice
may become very low- almost sounds like you're talking with darth vader. I
don't remember much distortion of GSM. It seemed more likely the GSM call
would simply drop at a certain point when sufficient signal was not
available. When I started with Verizon several years ago, I would have said
the same of CDMA.
Lately, here in my area, the quality of my Verizon CDMA calls has gone down
in many but not all cases. It's the difference between the best case, which
sounds close but not quite as good as landline, to cases where I hear quite
a bit of distortion but can still understand what the person is saying. My
phone service as of late, has been plenty adequate to understand what the
person is saying, but is poor enough quality that it's annoying to the
uninitiated.
The other odd bit, and I have no actual data to back this up, but it almost
seems to me that someone at the network level can control the amount of
compression the codec is using, and can turn it up to accomodate more calls.
In other words, I may be insane, but I think the quality of all my calls,
even the "good" ones, are less good than they used to be. I only notice
this because I have family who aren't cellular users, and they didn't used
to complain about the quality of audio when I called them in the past, but
they consistently do now. I've tested by leaving myself messages, and
retrieving them (with landline) to hear how I sound. Sounds "OK" to me, but
definitely identifiable as a cell phone which I don't remember being so
pronounced.
Tonight I was on a call that was especially bad, where the quality was just
barely usable, and in an area where I have used my phone previously.
Anyway, maybe all I'm seeing is capacity related issues. I would be curious
if there is any merit to my guess that the network operator can tweak the
codec compression level...
-Dan
PS: I know it's not my handset, because I own several. I can also force
Sprint connection on my phone, and to me, calls do sound clearer on Sprint
(and no, I don't believe their CDMA is any different than Verizon's CDMA-
just less busy, or maybe the codec compression setting really exists).
--
Eugene, Oregon -- Pacific Northwest
http://cell.uoregon.edu
I've been using cellular for a little more than five years (cannot remember
exactly). Started on GSM (then voicestream),
then used IS-136 TDMA (then AT&T Wireless), and now on CDMA via Verizon.
Each technology seems to have good to excellent sound quality under ideal
signal conditions. Each seems to degrade somewhat differently as signal
quality becomes poor. To me, the way IS-136 TDMA sounds when in a deficient
signal quality area sounds the worst- whole words missing, the tone of voice
may become very low- almost sounds like you're talking with darth vader. I
don't remember much distortion of GSM. It seemed more likely the GSM call
would simply drop at a certain point when sufficient signal was not
available. When I started with Verizon several years ago, I would have said
the same of CDMA.
Lately, here in my area, the quality of my Verizon CDMA calls has gone down
in many but not all cases. It's the difference between the best case, which
sounds close but not quite as good as landline, to cases where I hear quite
a bit of distortion but can still understand what the person is saying. My
phone service as of late, has been plenty adequate to understand what the
person is saying, but is poor enough quality that it's annoying to the
uninitiated.
The other odd bit, and I have no actual data to back this up, but it almost
seems to me that someone at the network level can control the amount of
compression the codec is using, and can turn it up to accomodate more calls.
In other words, I may be insane, but I think the quality of all my calls,
even the "good" ones, are less good than they used to be. I only notice
this because I have family who aren't cellular users, and they didn't used
to complain about the quality of audio when I called them in the past, but
they consistently do now. I've tested by leaving myself messages, and
retrieving them (with landline) to hear how I sound. Sounds "OK" to me, but
definitely identifiable as a cell phone which I don't remember being so
pronounced.
Tonight I was on a call that was especially bad, where the quality was just
barely usable, and in an area where I have used my phone previously.
Anyway, maybe all I'm seeing is capacity related issues. I would be curious
if there is any merit to my guess that the network operator can tweak the
codec compression level...
-Dan
PS: I know it's not my handset, because I own several. I can also force
Sprint connection on my phone, and to me, calls do sound clearer on Sprint
(and no, I don't believe their CDMA is any different than Verizon's CDMA-
just less busy, or maybe the codec compression setting really exists).
--
Eugene, Oregon -- Pacific Northwest
http://cell.uoregon.edu
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