A couple of months ago, I had occasion to spend the day in a modern cancer treatment center. I made sure that my cell phone battery was fully charged so that I could keep family members updated on the patient’s progress. However, within 4 hours the battery was completely discharged, and on subsequent visits I noticed the battery discharging rapidly.
Two questions: What would cause this? Anyone else ever notice anything similar?
Cell phones talk to the cell towers periodically, even when you aren’t using the phone. Basically the cell tower asks the phone if he’s still there and the phone says yup I’m still here. This is the only way the cell phone network has any way of knowing where the phone is, and where to route phone calls to in the event of an incoming call.
Modern cell phones will adjust their power level in order to conserve their battery life. If you are in an area where you are getting poor signal strength (due perhaps to the materials used in the construction of the building) or you are in an area with a lot of radio frequency interference, then the cell phone has to boost its output in order for the cell tower to be able to hear it. The periodic communication that the cell phone does with the tower at this higher power level drains the battery fairly quickly.
If you are in an area with good signal strength and very little interference, the cell phone can reduce its transmitting power level and make the battery last much longer.
Basically, your cell phone is having to shout a lot for the tower to hear it, and the cell phone is getting tired sooner as a result.
I agree with engineer_comp_geek. I’d suggest turning your phone off when you aren’t using it to maximize the battery life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_strength#Cellphone_signals
Thanks for the answers. Reception in and around the hospital is poor, so that all makes sense.
What I do to preserve my outgoing call capability is remove the battery until I need to make a call. You could go weeks or more. The one in my glove box goes months between charges and it’s not dead then.
Or turn on what is often called “Airplane mode,” then you can leave it on for clock, note purposes, etc. but not search for a signal all the time.
I normally don’t use my iPhone much during the day while I’m at my office. I also don’t normally connect to my company’s wi-fi since the Verizon 3G signal is very strong in NY. And I always fully charge my phone every night. Thus, on 99% of days, my battery strength is somewhere between 85 and 90% when I leave my office.
I can’t remember the date, but a few months ago there was that big Blackberry issue where Blackberry devices weren’t receiving data. On that day, my iPhone only had 15% power when I left. I was concerned that something was wrong with my battery. But everything was back to normal the very next day.
I asked my IT guy if the Blackberry issue was somehow related to my iPhone battery drainage. He said that this wasn’t possible. I thought it was quite a coincidence that my iPhone battery mysteriously had accelerated battery drainage on that very day, and never on any other days. So I ask the question again to the SDMB.
If you are talking about the RIM outage in October, it seems unlikely.
The only effect on the Verizon network would be people using Verizon to make SMS, email and phone calls instead of the RIM network. Are you sure you weren’t in a different part of the building? From my experience, even 20 or 30 meters make can make a huge difference in your cell phone signal.
Yes, I always place it in the same spot next to my monitor.
I suppose it is possible that the antenna closest to your office was down that day and you were operating from a much more distant antenna.
I thought something similar, but then realized that my other colleagues that are on Verizon would have complained about the same thing. Also, I’m in midtown Manhattan so I figured that Verizon should have plenty of overlap should any antenna go down.
I suppose the one thing that I’m not entirely certain of is whether I was linked to my company’s wi-fi that day. Could a problem with the wi-fi have created this, even though I didn’t use my phone for any internet or data transfer?
Some of the worst cell phone coverage I’ve ever had was when I worked in Times Square. There were multiple massive neon signs outside and everyone, no matter the phone or the carrier, had issues. We also had a lot of problems with our wireless mouse & keyboard setup in the conference room. I’m not sure what the precise issue was, but it was one we never resolved.
I also had big issues in a different building right by Grand Central, although the people who had T Mobile had better reception than I did on AT&T. I’ve found midtown Manhattan coverage to suck much harder than other areas - just too much interference.
It isn’t always the phone’s decision. For UMTS, at least, the towers actually control the power level. They instruct the phones to increase or decrease as needed. But the message is the same - your ability to talk to the tower directly impacts your battery life.
I don’t remember if the same is true for GSM and CDMA…and I haven’t really dealt with the various 4G technologies yet.
I wouldn’t expect SMS to be impacted by the Blackberry outage. That effectively goes over the paging channel with the carrier, and should still work.
-D/a