I was watching a Cingular Engineer using an 8700 look at tower strengths and which tower he was on. Anybody know where we can get a copy (is it publically available?)

It would be so handy to troubleshoot issues so I can tell them exactly which tower is having the problem.

"ALT N M L L" will give you signal strength numerically. The signal meter replaces the "bars" in the upper right hand corner of the main screen.

No idea on the tower part.

Thanks this was some kind of app he was running.

Maybe I'll ask to see his blackberry and try to at least find the name of the app

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Ask him directly! There's a chance he's as geeky as us and would thrill to chat about it with someone who takes an interest.

Definitely an internal diagnostic app if it signals to the technician the tower tested.

I've never heard of a "field test" mode for a BlackBerry. That's what this sounds like. Are you sure the BlackBerry was doing this? I've got another phone I use to get this type of information.

cool -- thanks for the tip

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

If you do find out the name of the app, please do tell

Try this little gem, it was written by one of our members http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=30351

So is anyone using this app? Looks interesting...

I downloaded it and tried it. Gives you two selections once launched, Cell and Device

If you choose Cell (have to use trackwheel, enter key does not work) you get this.

Cell ID 41323
Routing Area Code 1
Location Area Code 3
Base Station Identity Code 7
Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number 158

Whatever any of that means????

If you choose device it shows you sim id, IMEI, battery temp(?)Voltage, % left

Along these lines, here is a web page from Cingular that might be of interest to some people:
http://63.241.153.180/coverageviewer/B2B.html

While this is a great little program, I would hazard a guess that the program that the Cingular tech was using was probably more advanced.

Dan

Thanks for the info. Below is a what I believe each of these mean.

Cell ID: Each antenna is given a unique cell ID (unique within a region for each carrier). Typically antennas on the same tower have the same first four digits.

Channel Number: < 500 is in the 850 Mhz band, > 500 is in the 1900 Mhz Band. For more info see http://tk.com/wireless/

If I am correct, the app is an internal app available only to the cell phone companies. Our T-Mobile engineer had the same type of app on his BlackBerry (I believe he used alt-cap-H to activate it), and he said that he had to have it initialized specifically by RIM. He tried to get it installed on my unit, but RIM denied the request.

~BigJohn~

Thanks for that info, but does not mean that much to me. What I would rather be able to do (and was hoping this would do) is have the BB actually display which carrier's tower it is actually using. When I had the Razr, there were seem edits you could do to change it so it would display the carrier name for the tower it was using instead of always saying Cingular. Not that any of it meant you were roaming just was interesting to see when you were in different areas whose tower you were actually using.

If he's cooperative, I wonder if a backup of his unit, and a selective restore to yours would work possibly?

Here's something what will help on GSM Blackberries. On your BB go to Options / [Advanced Options on some BB's] / Host Routing Table

There will be a list of entries with numbers. Look at see which one is active (in bold - you may have to scroll down). Embeded in the name of the Host Routing Table entry names is the MCC/MNC. This is a GSM code that tells you which carrier is associated with the HRT entry. So the MCC/MNC of the carrier you are currently using is embedded in the active HRT entry.

Cingular's MCC/MNC codes are : 310-410 [main one] 310-170 [Old Cingular one] 310-380 [ATTWS Network]. Here's a link to a pretty good list: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=657335

This takes a couple of steps, but you can figure out the carrier.

I came across a few interesting things. Hit alt-cap-h, then alt-back. The application that shows that info screen is net_rim_escreen_app. Check out the cod files from a firmware load. Interesting strings are "net.rim.device.internal.EScreens.EScreenControlle r" and some lyrics ("He was a boy, and she was a girl, can I make it any more obvious?")

Hmm, I discovered something on my 7130c by accident. Try options>network>trackwheel>My preferred network list. You'll see a list of towers with the preferred one based on your location on top. I even see cingular, voda, and other GSM providers in the list. Don't know if this is what you want, but I hope it helps.

That is demonstrative that your phone/sim is either unlocked for that option is enabled by the carrier. My 7100 would do this, but the 8700 will only show Cingular and will not let me manually select another network.