What is happening with 3G?
haunaben's profile

Tutor

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4 Messages

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 2:01 PM

When will you acknowledge / fix battery drain issue?

There are now hundreds of posts across the internet confirming that the microcell causes rapid battery drain on many phones, and the only solution is to disable cellular data on the phone.

 

When will this be addressed?  

 

 

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

11 years ago


@hydrogen3 wrote:

What's is at&t fanboy?


Don't understand your question.

Scholar

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181 Messages

11 years ago

The poster said "provide support out side the AT&T fanboy. Hense the question "what is at&T Fanboy"?

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

11 years ago


@hydrogen3 wrote:

The poster said "provide support out side the AT&T fanboy. Hense the question "what is at&T Fanboy"?


Ahh, didn't go back that far to see the comment. I guess he meant folks like me who don't seem to have the issues that others do and try to help based on our personal experience. I guess that's what he means by "AT&T Fanboy". Personally, the only AT&T service that I have is my cell phone, and I too had some real issues a couple of years ago when I first got my MicroCell but worked thru them and figured some things out for myself. Since then, I've seen the same issues, and some new ones, crop up and figured if I could help out in anyway, I would. But I don't think that qualifies as a "fanboy". Some people desperately need reliable cell phone service in their home so if I can help in any way....... Verizon, btw, has some of the same issues and they too offer a femtocell for in-home use when coverage is spotty on their network.

Teacher

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11 Messages

11 years ago

I don't think there's much doubt that my iPhone 5 has a reduced battery life on the Microcell.

It's not tragic...but definite.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

11 years ago


@George Knighton wrote:
I don't think there's much doubt that my iPhone 5 has a reduced battery life on the Microcell.

It's not tragic...but definite.

There are more and more reports that battery life on the iPhone 5 in general is not quite what people had hoped for. I routinely turn off all of the apps that I'm not using to preserve battery life which does seem to help, a little. The other day I ran my iPhone until it died altogether, 0% battery. I then charged it at work with my computer which took about 3 hours to go from 0% to 100%. I used it very little during that time. So far, I've gone about 50 hours and my battery is now at 17%. However, I'm not a heavy user of my phone nor do I stream any audio/video so my useage is probably different from a lot of folks but I do leave my phone on all of the time with nothing pushed.

Scholar

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151 Messages

11 years ago

I don't have any battery drain issues

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

11 years ago


@mendomar012 wrote:
I don't have any battery drain issues

Conditions vary and it's nice to hear from folks who don't have an issue. Thanks Smiley Happy

Mentor

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45 Messages

11 years ago

I had an origional Atrix that I used for ~1 year with a microcell and had no battery drain issues.  I recently switched to a Moto Razr i (not sold in the US, provided by my employer) and I now have the battery drain issue.  With a fully charged battery at bedtime, it will be down to 30-40% or less by morning.  When I'm at the office or elsewhere, I can go a full work day with regular use and it will be around 60%.  So yes, it is a real issue but seems to be dependant on the phone type or possibly how it's configured.  FYI, the Razr i is also 3G/HSPA+, same as the Atrix...

 

One other thing I noticed is that on my Atrix, the carrier showed AT&T Microcell as the service at home but this new Moto shows only AT&T whether or not I'm on the microcell (AT&T gave me a new micro sim and re-provisoned my number to work with the new Razr i).  Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but on my AT&T account my number now just shows a generic phone with no model associated with it.  

 

My wife did just get a Pantech Renue so maybe will try her phone overnight and see if that gets drained as well (she usually leaves it off at home)...

Contributor

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1 Message

11 years ago

The issue is caused by a phone that supports fast dormancy since the Microcell does not.  Because the Microcell does not, it never issues the command to the phone to go into deep sleep.  Because the phone never enters deep sleep, your battery will drain at a rate anywhere btw 8-15%/hr depending on the phone.

 

Fast dormancy works great at extending battery life when the network supports it, but when it doesn't you can kiss your battery goodbye.  AT&T's cell network fully supports fast dormancy, but the Microcell simply doesn't.  This is a major issue and AT&T just turns their back on their microcell customers and refuses to admit there's a problem. 

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

11 years ago

We don't see that problem to the extent that others are reporting and there can be up to 4 iPhones on our MicroCell (2 iPhone 5s, a 4S, and a 3GS) not to mention an old Samsung. What we do to minimize drain is leave WiFi on, close any apps that we are not using, and keep Push notifications to a minimum, as well as initiate Sleep after 5 minutes on non-use.  We just came back from a vacation in another state and used our iPhone 5 extensively (most places had WiFi), especially Google Maps, and the battery drain was about the same as when we are at home and on the MicroCell. Negotiation between the MicroCell and cell phones seems to vary between mfr and even within the same model so some phones handle the power issue better than others. As far as the iPhone go, especially with iOS 6.x, there are battery issues with some, with or without the MicroCell, so it's not always the MicroCell that's causing the battery issue.

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