text message going out w very weak cell service?

[k-bob]

forgot to send a message before fishing a remote ravine. with no bars visible or expected, tried sending it anyhow.. after a delay 15 min or so it went through, and I doubt I ever had one bar. I never count on my phone allowing communication in remote places, but can texts sometimes go at very low or very brief bit of service? that would not work for any call? thanks

 

[njk3395]

Yeah usually you can squeak out texts with a bar of service, at least in my experiences

 

[k-bob]

interesting and not a bad thing thanks...maybe we will get satellite (vs cell tower) texting some day, would be great for safety

 

[salmonoid]

The bars are just an indicator that roughly aligns to the strength of the cell tower signal. You can have no bars and have a message eventually go through. But you would most likely never get a call through in those situations.

Satellite texting already exists, albeit in a pretty expensive form (e.g. SPOT). If Elon Musk's vision for a low orbital satellite ISP service comes to fruition, then in theory, 3000 to 4000 satellites could be used as backups when towers on land are unreachable, if the carriers would sign on and have the motivation to wrap SMS messages in IP packets, although I think the satellites are more designed to function as a backbone for a network instead of access for remote end nodes.

 

[k-bob]

"The bars are just an indicator that roughly aligns to the strength of the cell tower signal. You can have no bars and have a message eventually go through."

thanks. think this is more likely walking around versus sitting still?

"If Elon Musk's vision for a low orbital satellite ISP service comes to fruition, then in theory, 3000 to 4000 satellites could be used as backups when towers on land are unreachable, if the carriers would sign on and have the motivation to wrap SMS messages in IP packets, although I think the satellites are more designed to function as a backbone for a network instead of access for remote end nodes."

thanks. and I got that on only two readings (btw, elon musk is not a type of ox, he's the tesla electric-car guy, right? )

I see delorme has a hardware based sat-text service as well. min monthly service is $35/ 40 messages, but it might be good for some people.

 

[lestrout]

k-bob

Amen to your observation that a text will often transmit when there is insufficient signal strength for a call. One of the WCOs told me if I was trying to call him to report a poacher and couldn't get a good signal,that a text would often get through. Once you 'send' the text, it resides on your phone until you move to a place with enough signal, then it will punch through.

 

[poopdeck]

Text messages use less bandwidth or less bytes. Less bandwidth means its quicker, much quicker. Your network is constantly seeking your phone and your phone is constantly sending data packets to the network. Text messages are included in these packets. It only needs a half of a blink if an eye to send these packets which is why text messages go thru when seemingly there is no service.

If you see it from the network side your phone may send the same text message 6 times before the receiving network receives the text message. It will only come up one time but the phone is constantly attempting to connect the message with receiving party network.

 

[k-bob]

thanks and interesting. I certainly won't count on a text going out from the back of the beyond - sometimes they don't got out from my house