Every cell phone I check has this mysterious extra connector that never seems to be mentioned in the manual and doesn’t have an immediately obvious purpose. Its usually located on the back behind a plastic nubbin, but on my newest phone its in the battery case uncovered behind the actual battery. The connector itself looks like a mini female coaxial port, with a small center hole, the larger circle about the size of the hole at the end of a clicky pen. It is not the usual external mic/headphone jack. What function does it serve? Something suggests its not for general consumption behind behind the battery and all? External antenna? Secret government cell phone tapping project? Help me out.
When I bought a new phone from Sprint, when my old speaker died, they were able to extract my phone book and reload it into the new phone.
You already guessed it - external antenna.
I’m not sure who’s using these things enough to make the industry dig into their razor-thin margins to keep including them, though.
Back when I still lived on my dad’s farm in Iowa, about three years ago, I had to use one in order to use my phone at home. US Cellular’s coverage map showed the area as covered, but alas, I had no signal without an antenna until I got about three miles north of home. They wouldn’t let me out of the contract, and even if they did, they were one of only two cellular companies that claimed to have coverage in my area, and the other company sucked (and still sucks) even worse, so I had to use the antenna for about six months until they built a new tower.
I’m sure there are still areas that have spotty coverage where an antenna would be useful.
Absolute hit the nail on the head, it is for an external antenna. You won’t find them on any of the GSM based services (T-mobile, Cingular) but when you have the old analog and to some extent the older digital services (Analog, TDMA and CDMA for any one that cares) you could get some added signal strength from a mounted external. The thing to remember is that this doesn’t give you more signal power but redirects the signal you have past obstacles that are in the way of your stubby antenna. So in theory if you are standing in an open field the external won’t do anything more than your phone by it’s self. But if you are in a house and want to get a signal past your concrete wall putting this just outside the window could make a hell of a difference. As a mater of fact when I sold TDMA, I used to recommend this to my customers who had offices in their basements to get better service. You would run the external out the window and up to a higher ledge and 0 bars went to 2 maybe 3.