[jclark93]

I live on farm and Verizon made a deal with my father so that Verizon build a cell tower on a leased plot on my dad's farm. The construction was completed about a month ago. So that is one reason I decide to buy 7250 after using 7230 (T-Mobile) for about 2-3 years). I usually get 1-2 bar out of 5 for antenna strength on 7230 so it was kinda frustrating. So I figure with a new Verizon cell tower about 1,000 feet away from my home, I should get full 5 bars easily anywhere in my house. But to my surprise when I bought 7250 (Knowing I have 15 day Satisification Guarantee), I was only able to get 2-3 out of 5 bars. Plus battery runs out before I go bed in the night (I am looking for longest lasting battery for 7250 which I posted in other thread).

I saw a Verizon truck (SUV) parked by the cell tower so I ATV'ed to that location and met a cell tech. I asked him if tower is operational and he said no. The hardware is done, but now working on software side and it will be ready in two weeks. He said that when cell tower is operational, I will get 5 bars for sure, no question asked. He said that I ll get 800k download on 7250 which really surprised me. He said that tower also support 2mb download/200k upload broadband (is that Edge?).

He showed me the room of a small building right by the tower. It use OC3 fiber (155 mb) and it use Lucent telecom equipment.

I was wondering when tower is finally operational and my 7250 do get 5 bars, would it reduce battery usage when I get 5 bars rather than 2-3?

Jamie

[rcrivera03]

Having 5 bars on your bb is not going to reduce your battery life. If it is searching for signal all the time, it will reduce battery life. Nextel has a tower about a 1/4 mile from where I live and I get five bars at home. As long as I'm not using the BB my battery lasts two days without charging. Now if I use my bb, at the end of the day I still have two bars of battery left.

[Dawg]

I was getting about 16 hours out of a battery but I am a heavy user email phone and of coure BB messenger. Since I installed a new program I saw my battery life dwindle quickly, I deleted the program and now I am back up to my standard 16 hours. the point is I get sometimes a giant X for hours on some of my sites but that doesnt really affect my battery life its mainlythe programs I run.