I have a new sim card now so I will see what it will do now.

Vote please

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9238

did u get a new simcard? I got one and it solved dropped call problems with T-mobile.

A new card? The one i have i got in January and i suspect T-mobile isn't going to just hand out another. Are you saying some are defective or that old ones don't work as well?

I think the rule of thumb is to replace it every 2 years or so. I doubt getting a new one if yours is only ~6 months old would make a difference.

I do think they will give you a new one for free though if you go into the store and say you are experiencing connection problems (worked for me anyways ) I have gotten a slightly better signal and have been dropping less calls, but the problem with it failing to reconnect in low signal areas still remains.

I did get a new sim card for free , it helped some but not a lot. This did not happen with AT&T so I may go back to them. But that's F up to no 3G with them. All I want is to be able to talk on my phone at home.

here's the picture of the new one I got.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...pgrade+simcard

I had the T-mobile's signal problem prior to PR1.2 firmware update. However, after installing PR1.2 firmware, my problem with the signal strength is gone. I think it is N900 problem - judging from the firmware upgrade history.

Submitting a bug on this wont result in a fix - the problem is exceedingly unlikely to be on the phone itself.

There is no rule of thumb measure for replacing sim cards. They last for many years. (decades) Possibly when 4G services start appearing there might be a need, but that's a year or three away yet - aside from this, you'll need a new device to support those features anyway. 3G has been around for several years already, as have SIM cards that support it all.

You will not get a better signal if you swap your SIM card. Ever. The SIM simply stores an identity that the carrier uses to bill you (along with encryption info, address book, and a couple of other odds and ends - none of which are related to signal quality)

The problem you describe is the RF gap - this is handled by the RF Modem and Baseband in the phone - but equally as important is the picture the cell tower has about you as well.

To simplify things quite a bit - the post mentions they are interacting with the system at very minimal signal levels. The tower will periodically poll the phone, if it gets no answer it'll ask around but eventually conclude you're out of coverage area. Phone becomes an expensive clock. Switching modes on the phone will simply re-establish your phone as being active on the network, it might or might not be able to do this on its own - as was mentioned, it could take several minutes for things to come good on their own, or just not at all.

Issues at either end could see your cell phone lose signal for several minutes or more at a time. GSM is an extremely complicated system, to understand it to the degree needed to resolve the problem would require a few months of in depth study.

Short answer: Harass your service provider. They may be oversubscribing the cell system you are connecting to, might be that coverage is just crappy in your area and you need another tower installed to improve signal quality at your location.

Don't misunderstand me good sir, I'm not flaming you or criticizing, just that changing sim unfortunately will not resolve the issue.

I don't necessarily believe that the sim card will play a role in this problem but the symptoms i'm talking about could be and i think are due to poor handling of the cell on the phone side. As several people have mentioned, this isn't a problem observed with other phones in the same place and network, so your sweeping statement that this not being a bug is not constructive in the overall context of the thread. I realize you are talking specifically about the sim card but that's not the main idea here.