One day, in the office, some office mates with phones under Smart Communications network were complaining that they couldn’t call nor they’re receiving calls while in their area.  However, a few steps from this area, their phones were working properly.

While passing by this area, they explained to me the situation and I was requested to call their phones. Using my Nokia E90, I called up their numbers and other numbers outside of this area.  The messages were “network busy”.  I went a little farther and called them up.  “The number you dialed is either unattended or out of coverage area” were the answers I received.  I called up the other numbers I called up earlier from their area and I got through.  Something, I thought, was not right. We tried to diagnose the problem.

In the office, there are ceiling signal domes of Globe and Sun scattered all over but nary from Smart.  It happened that this particular area has two ceiling signal domes (one from each network), which is just about a foot apart from each other.  In other areas, they are farther apart.

An office mate suspected that the signal domes were the culprits.  He opined that the proximity of these domes blocked Smart signal in that area.  Could it be the domes?  But, they have been there for almost a year now.  Since then, nary a complain had been made until that one day.

Also, we noticed that the affected phones were the latest models and high end phones only.  Phone of older models were working properly.

Nonetheless, we requested for the removal of the domes in the area or they be placed farther apart from each other.

Representatives from Sun came and diagnosed the problems.  They explained that the culprit wasn’t Globe or Sun or both but Smart itself.  The affected phones were the latest models, which were set to “Dual Mode”.  The area is a dead spot for Smart 3G signal at that time; but, it wasn’t caused by the domes.  We switched our latest model phones from "Dual Mode" to "GSM" and, voila!, they’re working properly.  The affected office mates stuck to the GSM mode; as, they are not using the 3G features anyway.

When I returned to my area, I switched back to Dual Mode to use the 3G features of my E90, particularly the video call.  And, in case I’m in 3G dead spot areas, I knew what to do.

Now, the Smart 3G signal in the area is already working.

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