Mobile Phone standby Time: Often BS IMHO Sagem MyC2-2

The standby time is dependent on network activity. It is quoted under optimim
network
conditions (ie right next to the cell, low tx power etc).

If you're between cells, far away from yr cell or in a busy area your phone will
be
constantly talking to the base station. This reduces standby time from the
optimum.

-Andrew M

Each network carrier polls your phone every once in a while too. Telstra
polls your phone more than Vodafone, and Vodafone polls more than Optus. So
for the greatest standby time, Optus is best. But because it polls least
often, there is a greater chance of losing a call, especially when on the
move.

BTW moving on a freeway causes your phone to keep changing towers,therefore
decreasing standby time too.

Lots of factors.

Agreed.


What's supposed to be the the reason for this greater
possibility of losing a call?  Are you saying that the location
update procedure sometimes fails, requiring fallback to the
T3212 timer to update the HLR?  And if so, where's the fault,
handset, network, or what?



And what's the reason for this?  If these new cells have the
same Location Area Code (LAC), I can't see how changes of
serving cell in idle mode could affect standby time.  If the
LAC changes frequently, then yes (but that'd indicate a poorly
laid-out network).

John

Agreed.
 


If the signal's very weak or non-existent, then the phone will
be busy scanning ("listening") for something better.  The
scanning activity level under these conditions can be
configured on some phones, but would usually decrease when
nothing's found in a reasonable time.  Increased scanning
activity does use more power.

But there's no need for the phone to transmit unless 1) a call
is instigated, 2) it camps on a new cell with a different
Location Area Code, 3) the T3212 timer (set by the network)
expires, or 4) it isn't registered ("logged in"), and finds an
opportunity to do so.

John

Agreed, though if you are between one or more cells and they are busy then
it's possible that your phone will be repeatedly camping onto a new cell.

Ken

Camping on a cell in idle mode (no call active) is done without
regard to how busy the cell is.  Only when a call is instigated
does this become inportant, and is catered for by the phone
transmitting its measurements (Network Measurement Results) at
that time so that handovers can be negotiated.  NMR is done for
the neighbouring cell list (it's been monitoring the channel
list that's broadcast by the cell it's camped on).

In any case, frequent changes of camped-on cell (serving cell)
consume no additional power unless a change of LAC is involved,
and this should be rare.

John

Fair enough. I thought that if the phone was re-registering it needed to
transmit ('x' amount of data), and that a full cell would push it over
elsewhere. But there's been a lot of water flow under the Wheatstone Bridge
since I looked at the principles of cell hand-over.  :-)

Cheers.

Ken

I know what you mean.  There's just too much to know, and it's
all too easy to forget important bits.  I've done it too often.

Those "primitive" GSM communications happen on a non-traffic
channel.

John