Fix My Berry

How They Work
Whether it’s handling simple phone calls or 12Mbps WiMax data, cell sites are organized with more or less the same flow:

• A cellphone or modem radios the nearest towers, saying, basically, “I’m here!” When you make a call or logon, your phone then sends a message via radio that’s picked up by the antenna array.

• A wire or fiberoptic line carries the call down to the wireless access point, connected to a multi-port switch.

• The call, along with many others, gets routed to a backhaul, usually down to an underground wired T1 or T3 line, but sometimes back up the mast to a powerful line-of-sight wireless microwave antenna. They resort to wireless either when they don’t have a ground connection, or when the ground connection sucks.

• The incoming call or data comes back from the backhaul and up through the switch to the antenna, where it then hits your phone wirelessly, presuming your phone is still communicating with the same site. If you are moving, then there’s a handoff-a new but more or less identical cell site transmits the data to your phone, once your phone checks in and says “I’m here.”

All of this happens in the blink of an eye.

The Gear

Clearwire, who gave me the tour of the cell site during my WiMax test run, is a new company, only just now deploying their network, one that is only focused on data, and not on voice calls. This means they don’t have a bunch of sites already established like other carriers (though their recent acquisition by Sprint may change this). But it also means their cellular gear is modern and compact compared to the others.

For instance, the carrier whose name probably starts with A keeps its gear in a bunker like the Endor moon one that Han Solo & Co. were trying to bust into in Jedi. The backup batteries must be enormous, because there’s a sign on the door that says, “Danger – Corrosive Liquids – Wear Protective Equipment.”

Clearwire, by comparison, has a high-school locker for its gear-one that is built somewhere else and just trucked to the location. You attach it to the on-site power, run lines and antennas up the mast, and either bolt the sucker to a cement foundation or to the side of a steel post, and voila, you are done. It uses two car batteries for its backup power-enough juice to last six hours and they don’t have to wear a hazmat suit to service it. (It can also run off of a portable generator.)

In this particular site, the carrier whose name may start with a V had a set of three larger lockers, not the huge bunker that its competitor had, but a serious array nonetheless. As you probably guessed, each carrier locks up its own facility, so I wasn’t at liberty to fully inspect the other guys’ gear-or even confirm their identities.

Clearwire also runs skinny fiberoptics up to the top of the tower, instead of the thick insulated copper cables that the old boys’ networks run. Again, this has more to do with newness than simple common sense, but it may mean cell towers could be a little slimmer in the future.

So what happens up top?

The real demystification was the antenna array itself. I for one did not know a lot about how things were set up, and now I know a tiny bit more, which I will share:

• The huge antenna masts can have multiple carriers, each with its own triangular platform and antenna array.

• The reason the platforms are triangular is so the 360-degree coverage can be split into 120-degree pie pieces, which-if you look closely-can be subdivided again into 40-degree slices for increased, pinpointed coverage.

• If there’s a white disk-shaped antenna among the array, it means that the carrier has a line-of-sight microwave backhaul. Clearwire’s can handle 80Mbps at the moment, but must be directly in line with another microwave antenna. (Speaking of fried nuts, I wouldn’t want to stand between two of those.)

data-mined from i.gizmodo.com

Description: Outlines when data usage incurs, how chargeable data usage get measures, in addition to some examples per single usage as well as per month usage. 

Examples for Blackberry usage: 

Data Usage – What You Get

 How does chargeable data usage get measured?

Data usage can be measured as follows:

Some cellular providers can offer you a service commonly referred to as Second Voice Line, which is basically two cellular numbers assigned to one SIM card. This is especially useful to people who may travel from city to city or to another province. For Second Voice Line to work, certain criteria must be met:

• Your service provider must offer the service and you must be subscribing to the service.
• Your hardware must support the service.
• You must be using your device on your Home network.

The most common call driver in regards to supporting this Second Voice Line is educating the consumer on how to use the service. Having said that, here are some common issues:

• How to select your Second Voice Line?
  • To select which cellular number will be the active number for placing outgoing calls, go to the Home screen and press the Phone button. This will bring up the Call Log screen.
  • While in this screen, press the Menu button.
  • Select the Change Line option. This will allow you to choose what line is “active” depending on what area you are in.
    • FYI: This will allow you to use the appropriate line to make local calls and reduce any long distance charges that could have been incurred. In order for this service to be beneficial, the user must remember to switch between lines depending on which exchange the are in.
    • FYI: Some phone menu’s vary depending on device and software. Another common path to switch lines is: Phone > Menu > Options > General Options > Active Line.

• How do I know which line a call is coming in on?
  • When an imcoming call comes through to the cellular phone, the numbers “1” or “2” will display on the screen indicating which line is receiving the call. Most times these notifiers will appear somewhere near the top of screen, most likely in the same area you would see other notifications for voice-mail, text messages missed calls, etc.
    • FYI: A very common reason you will not see a notifier on the screen has to do with the OS on the hardware device being used. There are a limited amount of devices that support this service.  An Upgrade of the device operating system may help resolve the issue but is not always guaranteed.

• Can I place a call on hold on one line and answer a call coming in on the other?
  • No. You cannot put one line on hold while using the other. If your line is in use, the incoming call from the other line will go directly to voicemail. If you do not have voicemail, the caller will hear a busy signal or not available recording.
    • FYI: If you are using one line, and a second call comes in to the same line, call waiting will function normally.

These are a collection of common error messages that can appear on your BlackBerry. By clicking on each error message, it will link to the BlackBerry Technical Solution Center with the appropriate steps to ensure resolution.

• General send failure: please try again
  • Related link: How to perform a hard reset on a BlackBerry smartphone or RIM device
  • Related link: Reasons to perform a hard reset
• Desktop email program unable to store message
  • The following are possible causes for this issue:
    • A network failure occurred between the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the Microsoft® Exchange Server.
    • The BlackBerry smartphone user’s mailbox has been modified or moved.
    • The BlackBerry smartphone user’s mailbox has reached its storage limit.
    • The BlackBerry Enterprise Server or BlackBerry® Desktop Redirector could not redirect the email message.
    • The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) address is specified incorrectly in the BlackBerry Desktop Redirector settings.
    • The BlackBerry Enterprise Server requires restarting.
• Redirector transaction failure or Transaction error failure at service
  • Summary of Causes:
    • Configurations of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server or BlackBerry Desktop Redirector are corrupt or incomplete.
    • The Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) profile has been modified or the mailbox has been moved to a different Microsoft Exchange Server. (Applicable to Microsoft Exchange users only).
    • The BlackBerry Enterprise Server administration mailbox is corrupt or has been moved. (Applicable to Microsoft Exchange users only).
    • Information stored in the BlackBerry profiles database is corrupt. (Applicable to IBM Lotus Notes® users only).
    • There is an incorrect access control list (ACL) entry in the mail file. (Applicable to IBM Lotus Notes users only).
    • Insufficient permissions on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to access the BlackBerry device user’s mailbox (Applicable to IBM Lotus Notes users only).
    • Service books for the BlackBerry Internet Service could be corrupt.
    • The encryption key generated on the computer may not have completed successfully as a result of interference from other applications.
    • The BlackBerry device user was removed from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and is now using the BlackBerry Internet Service.
• Sending failed – Please resend and watch for error message
  • Related link: Register a BlackBerry smartphone or RIM device over the wireless network
• Transaction error – failure at service
  • Summary of Causes:
    • A temporary network issue is delaying email message delivery.
    • The BlackBerry Enterprise Server does not have Manager access to the BlackBerry smartphone user’s IBM® Lotus Notes® email client.
    • The BlackBerry smartphone service books are corrupt or out of date.
    • A new IT policy has been implemented or an IT policy has been modified.
    • There are insufficient permissions on the Microsoft® Exchange Server.
    • Multiple Desktop[CMIME] service books exist on the BlackBerry smartphone.
    • There may be multiple instances of the same BlackBerry smartphone user account.

    • There are two BlackBerry Enterprise Servers connecting to the BlackBerry® Infrastructure with the same Server Routing Protocol (SRP).

Links are directed to the BlackBerry Technical Solution Center