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Thursday, 1 July 2010

Reception

Posted on 09:33 by hony
The world is abuzz with the iPhone 4's sketchy call reception. So much so that the new Droid X ad actually calls out the iPhone:
"It comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make crystal clear calls."

Whether or not the iPhone 4 has reception issues, the fact remains: cell phone reception and call quality are sketchy at best on most phones, be they smartphones or not.

TAE posits the question: why is that? Here's why I am confused: Yesterday I woke up to the alarm on my phone, which automatically (when turned on) stops push notification so I don't get pinged while I am asleep. I then checked the weather on it which first found my location via GPS and then gave me an updated 36-hour forecast. On my way to work, I could have used google maps with voice navigation, which would also utilize GPS. Instead, I used the 3G signal to listen to crystal clear Pandora radio. Before reaching work, I checked my gmail and work email with my phone. I sent a Facebook message and responded to a google chat request. While I am at work, my phone notifies me whenever someone emails or texts me, if someone wants to gchat with me, and is synced to my outlook calendar and therefore can notify me of upcoming meetings and appointments.

And yet call quality is still pretty poor. Reception is sketchy. Touching the wrong part of your phone can actually cause a call to end. Number of bars can change within a space of 10 feet, due to proximity of a window, or whether you are indoors or out. Cars can become a semi-opaque Faraday cage. Line of sight with nearby antennas can matter.

Why does cell phone reception suck so bad??

TAE thinks that the blame lies solely with us. Because as a society we are afraid the radio waves are cooking our brains, or that they might cause cancer, we have established strict FCC guidelines for transmittance power of information. And we choose to keep our cell phone radio power down at a very, very safe level, where call quality suffers, instead of letting our phones glow bright with the heat of 100 dB gain antennas blasting microwaves into the air around us, giving us high-definition sound quality in our ears.

Is there a solution? TAE thinks there always is a solution. In this case, why not drop the FCC regulation to limit broadcast strength and instead institute an FCC regulation that prohibits manufacturers from making phones that you hold up to your ear?

Honestly, the idea of a "phone" as a linear device with a speaker on one end and a microphone on the other is really a carry-over from a century ago when the technology was developed. There is no reason a savvy designer (forced to end hand-held phones) could not create a phone system that integrated a wireless earpiece into the phone design...oh wait they already have, it's called Bluetooth technology. Or a "hands-free attachment". Or a "headset."

I'm serious about this. Why not eliminate (or increase) maximum limits on broadcast strength, thereby increasing call quality and decreasing dropout, and instead institute a law that cellular devices can no longer have the speaker on them for your ear. Keep the speaker used for "speakerphone" mode. Keep the microphone. That would keep the phone away from the head...which is what the paranoid are afraid is killing us all.


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