mglobe

Haven't had a phone discussion in a while. I searched and did not find any comments on this, so here goes:

I've got the phone option in my car. I wouldn't have ordered one that way, but the car I found had one in it. When it works, it works great. But I get a LOT of dropped calls. The signal will be strong, and drop to one bar, then the call drops. Signal picks back up, I redial, and the call is great. Then it drops again. When we were driving back from Austin last weekend, we checked the signal on the car vs my wife's cell phone. She had a signal where my car was picking up none at all. What kind of experiences are others having with this option?

gmaier

Actually, I'm surprised by how effective it's been. I use Cingular and, with the in-car phone being tri-band, rather than quad-band, I was anticipating the loss of the 850 band to result in lots of dead spots. Thankfully, that hasn't been the case.

OCBen

https://rennlist.com/forums/showpost...21&postcount=6

mglobe

I'm using Cingular in the Houston area. When I have a signal, the phone works great, but driving through parts of town where I rarely drop a call on my cell phone, the car phone drops over and over again. So... It's sounding like maybe I have a problem? Or could it be that the Texas GSM networks rely more on the frequency band that Porsche doesn't support? Right now unlike you two guys, this is a $960 dissapointment.

JFScheck

Mine is great - better than the onstar in the Audi!!!

Worth the money!

gravedgr

Mine is currently sucking wind with my wife's 64k cingular SIM

SKYSTAK

I'm in Austin, cingular and nobody can hear me.

kwsmith6

I am also in Houston and my phone went from being quite good to being terrible. It frequently drops calls and often has no signal. At one time, it worked great. My guess is that not having 850 is the problem. I might take it out and put in a Bluetooth system since my regular phone works well in the same areas where the 666 does not.

I have not looked at it yet, but I had hoped to at least use the antenna lead, power and mute. I guess the other alternative is to switch to T-mobile.

MMA93

So what is the conclusion? The option does not work well with cingular? I live on the Tex Mex border and cannot get the phone to pick up a U.S. signal.

mglobe

With some reporting excellent experiences, and others (particularly Texans) having experiences similar to mine, I'm thinking kwsmith may have it right. Maybe in places where the network relies more heavily on the frequency that is missing from the PCM phone option, the problems we are seeing are more common? The only problem with this theory is that when I checked GSM coverage maps on the 850 frequency band, it shows very good coverage over south east Texas. So...???

kwsmith6

I think, but I am not sure, that the reception problems started when Cingular turned on UTMS in Houston. I thought the 666 option was lacking 850.

Weasel

I'm in Atlanta. 666 option with Cingular works as well as, if not better than, my handheld. Hope you guys in Texas are able to sort out the probs you're having.

tlsmithx

I live in Dallas, have the 666 option with Cingular, and I am experiencing EXACTLY the same issues as mglobe. This is my second 997 w/ the 666 option and now both have had the dropped call issue. I guess I am going to need to switch carriers although that is expensive since this "extra" line only costs me $10 / month.

Before switching carriers could someone in Texas who is using a non-Cingular network respond with the performance of the 666 option?

Thanks,
Tom

JFScheck

I have Cingular here in the DC area and it works great...

Very, very, strange...

Edgy01

I have Cingular here in Santa Barbara and it is always spotty,--without having it in the car. These comments have convinced me that I did the right thing not to integrate it into the car. I suspect the antenna would have an even more difficult time getting the signal.