Q45 Mobile phone problem

[Jerry Parks]

Just got back from having my mobile phone turned on at thelocal cell phone Co. It works swell on incoming calls, butcannot call out. It tries to put me over to a roaming service. Its a motorola/Ameritck phone. I just wonder if I needto have a password or some prefix code to make outgoingcalls. Any ideas will help.

It has a rectangler aluminim box about the size of a cheese box in the trunk that controls the thing. Its also an old analog phone, so it may have come new with theQ45.

I had it programmed to my regular cell phone number, which works good on incoming calls.

[Woodmister]

Ya, could someone elaborate on the phone in my 93Q? Ive got an antenena, mic (above driver), and phone jack in the passanger area. I have no idea how to work it, does anyone know?...

[maxnix]

Analog is kind of like leaded gas, it's outmoded and not very compatible in today's digital world. Kind of like trying to use a buggy whip to control a car.

[szh]

Ah! A question in my field, finally!

The "Infiniti" mobile phone in the early Q's was/is a Motorola OEM unit that was AMPS (analog) only. Unless you already have service from an existing carrier, none of the cellular carriers will be willing to start new analog service without a serious arm-twist (and you probably will have to find some one high up to approve it). Verizon and Cingular will be the only ones who will consider it; AT&T will reject it out of hand. You best bet is to find some small rural carrier and get them to activate service, but then the roaming charges may be prohibitive.

In other words, if you do not have clout with a cellular carrier, don't hold your breath to get it in service. About all you are guaranteed is that if you make a legitimate 911 emergency call, you will get through. And even that is subject to a lot of doubt after February 2008 when the FCC analog mandate is due to expire.

Z

[szh]

Analog is kind of like leaded gas, it's outmoded and not very compatible in today's digital world. Kind of like trying to use a buggy whip to control a car.

Yeah, but ... one important difference: the voice quality on a good analog phone is still superior to any of the digital cellular phones available today.

That is because the bandwidth available for voice channels in analog AMPS was substantially more than is allowed for digital cellular, and the vocoders used for the conversion from analog to digital are not as good as you might be led to believe.

Z

[szh]

Ya, could someone elaborate on the phone in my 93Q? Ive got an antenena, mic (above driver), and phone jack in the passanger area. I have no idea how to work it, does anyone know?...

The antenna, mic and phone jack are useless without the trunk-mounted cell phone unit and the handset itself. If you do not have these, then you do not really have a built-in cell-phone. Infiniti merely pre-wired the cars with the above (with the exception of the actual antenna above the rear glass) to save a bunch of labor costs when installing a cell phone.

Z

[maxnix]

...the voice quality on a good analog phone is still superior to any of the digital cellular phones available today.

That is because the bandwidth available for voice channels in analog AMPS was substantially more than is allowed for digital cellular, and the vocoders used for the conversion from analog to digital are not as good as you might be led to believe.

Z

Z, I'll defer to you, but my experience is CDMA is superior to most analogs, and definitely superior to GSM (really an embedded TDMA schema) and TDMA.

[szh]

Z, I'll defer to you, but my experience is CDMA is superior to most analogs, and definitely superior to GSM (really an embedded TDMA schema) and TDMA.

Side by side testing always shows the differences! I have an old Nokia 232 analog phone that is superior to the CDMA phones we have compared to (Motorola Startac - various CDMA models, Motorola T720, LG VX 10, Qualcomm QCP 800, etc.) Of course, I am talking about voice quality in decent signal strength conditions - not other parameters! One other interesting difference is that with analog phones, in bad signal conditions, you can still "get through" and make yourself understood over the static. With a digital phone, the fringe conditions usually result in no service at all - or completely unintelliigible voice cutouts. Much worse situation in TDMA, of course - particularly with older TDMA handsets - as used by AT&T and Cingular.

The reason for this voice quality difference has to do with the bandwidth available to typical analog calls - about 30kHz. With CDMA or the later generation of TDMA (early ones of TDMA were far worse with 8kHz vocoders), the vocoder uses a 13kHz "voice-shaped" algorithm to do the conversion from analog to digital. This results in an artificial quality to the voice of the caller - the voice sometimes does not sound like the person at all. Whereas, with analog, the voice is much more "real", if you will. Much easier to recognize the person who is calling, etc. I will agree that newer CDMA phones have come a long way, though! If you have an old phone, consider getting the Motorola T720 or LG VX10 - you will be much happier.

Z

[Jerry Parks]

The odd thing, though. The cell Co. did a half job. I can receive calls on both my hand held cell phone and the mobile phone in the car. I just cant call out. The phone tries to switch me to a roamer service. Any idea how I can just get the mobile phone to call out, and still keep my regular cell phone on the same number? Can yougive the tech steps I need to take to get the job done. You seem to have the Motoroala mobile home specs down pat. - Jerry

[szh]

The odd thing, though. The cell Co. did a half job. I can receive calls on both my hand held cell phone and the mobile phone in the car. I just cant call out. The phone tries to switch me to a roamer service. Any idea how I can just get the mobile phone to call out, and still keep my regular cell phone on the same number? Can you give the tech steps I need to take to get the job done. You seem to have the Motorola mobile home specs down pat. - Jerry

I am not entirely sure what you are actually experiencing. So, some questions and thoughts:

1. Is your handheld phones also an analog phone? If not, then what you are trying to do is not possible with a single phone number. The phone characteristics in the network database (called an HLR for the geeks ) are set differently for analog and digital cellular handsets. So, it cannot be done cleanly. In some circumstances, you may still be able to receive phone calls (too long an explanation why, so I will not go int it) and this seems to be what you are seeing.

2. If your handheld is also an analog phone, then what you are trying to is theoretically possible, yes, (but there are caveats). Two entires would be made in the HLR - one for each phone (since they have separate serial numbers). Only GTE - pre Verizon merger - used to allow this in the past, and I do not know if any other carrier ever allowed it. But it is doable (I had this with GTE many years ago!), and both phones would work as you expect most of the time - of course, if both phones are on simultaneously, then the network can occasionally get confused as to which phone answered/made the call, etc. I also experienced this and made sure to only keep one phone on at any given time. It was my way of having a portable handheld phone and yet have a speakerphone in my car - both with the same number!

3. Another possibility is that the phone is your car is set to the wrong "Home" carrier position. In other words, your service might be with the A-side carrier (usually Cellular One or an AT&T affiliate) and the phone is set to work on B-side (likely to be Verizon) and your call originations end up with the wrong company whose roaming department does not want to provide you with service..

4. Or the "Home" SID (System Identification Number) in the phone does not match your carrier. For example, Verizon in the Bay Area broadcasts SID 40 over the air - if a phone does not treat that as the Home SID, then it will act like a roamer. You can receive calls, but all call originations are sent to the roaming department at the carrier. Then, depending on your rate plan, this may be an issue!

Does the phone in the car have its "Roam light" always on? This is indicative of the above two types of problems.

Hope this gets you on the right track! I do not have the specific programming instructions for the Infiniti phone available anymore, unfortunately, else I might have been able to walk you through the sequences to check these issues out. However, an Infiniti dealer may have these old programming instructions handy and check it out for you!

Z