Re: New LG VX5200 phone gets no signal indoors...


kj wrote:
> My new LG VX5200 phone barely gets a signal in my apartment.
> Practically every phone call gets dropped at least once, and/or
> the signal fades in and out, so one can't understand what the other
> person is saying. I live on a 3rd floor of a modern-construction
> (1989) building, two blocks from the center of town. I never had
> such problems with my previous phone (an LG VX10). This problem
> has become much worse in the last two weeks (right after the 15-day
> grace period after I bought the phone, interestingly enough).
.....
> In fact it seems that "blame the government" was his favorite reply.
> He claimed that the reason my service had deteriorated lately was
> that Verizon continues to add new customers, but it is not adding
> any new towers in my area, and therefore I can expect a steady
> increase in dropped calls. He advised me to lobby my city's
> government to get them to build more towers. Furthermore, he said
> that I'd have the same problems irrespective of carrier or telephone
> manufacturer.

Sadly, the budget to fix this has been diverted for legal issues:

"In a decision hearkening back to the days of vendor financing, Lucent
Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU - message board) was ordered yesterday to
pay $244 million to settle a 2001 case filed by the trustee of former
carrier Winstar Communications.

The ruling was handed down by judge Joel B. Rosenthal in U.S.
bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del. The trial, in which Lucent was
accused of breach of contract, had ended in June. (See Lucent Could Pay
$244M.)

Back in the day, Winstar combined some of the most glamorous elements
of the telecom bubble: overexuberant investors, LMDS technology, Jack
Grubman, and Lucent's vendor financing. (See Wireless Wonders, Winstar
Secures Another $1.02 Billion, Winstar Investors Sue Grubman, and
Salomon Slammed in Settlement.)

There's a bit of irony to all this. Lucent helped pay for Winstar's
rise, eventually making possible the lawsuit whereby Lucent is now
giving... more money."

.