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[Q] Post 4G outage battery drain?!

I live in non LTE and have had great battery life normally (w/o LTE switched off)... I am on a two week vacation in the DC area... I was getting great battery life with 4G connectivity... however, since the outage... i have regained 4G connectivity but my battery life is plunging! Anyone notice anything like this? (BTW, i have not made any changes on my phone recently)
I have noticed that whenever i turn my screen off, the phone is showing 0 signal bars and it takes 5-10 secs for it to go to 4 bars, which I have been getting regularly in DC.

I'm having bad battery life to after it. No 4g here
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

I have had a similar experience, but I also flashed a new rom that same day. I originally thought it was just the new rom. I live in a 4G area.

No change post-4G outage. But my battery was never great before the 4G outage either. Actually, it's always quite sucked.
Odd thing is, DURING the outage, I was either on 1x or had NO data service, and my battery didn't improve then either.

daniel178 said:
No change post-4G outage. But my battery was never great before the 4G outage either. Actually, it's always quite sucked.
Odd thing is, DURING the outage, I was either on 1x or had NO data service, and my battery didn't improve then either.
Click to expand...
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Sounds like a bad battery, I would try to exchange it through Verizon... These phones aren't crazy bad on batteries, most people either have a defect or have too much running at one time...
P.S. horrible service and battery after the outage here in Philly as well, was awesome before...
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

I don't think that was the case...when a 4g phone or any phone for that matter gets a signal less than it is supposed to, usually it will continue searching for 4g or 3g. That eats up more battery than even being connected to 4g at all. When the outage happened or I'm not in a 4g area I just turn 4g off.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

Mine spiked to about 300mA at idle from 40ish after the outage.
No new apps or settings. Reboot didn't work, setting to 3g only or 4g only or auto in the settings, reinstalling a lot of apps. Nothing I did could fix it, so I had to factory reset. Was a lot less painful than I thought it would be, the Market installing all my apps automatically was amazing to see.
Its OK now.

I'm having the same issue. Before the whole 3G/4G outage i could get 8 hours maybe a little more out of my battery and now that everything is working I'm lucky to get 4 hours at best and sometimes less. I even went so far as to factory reset my phone in an attempt to fix it but still no dice.

New Update = Better Battery Life?

i just installed the OTA update yesterday, and noticed that my battery life has been better today.
i'm wondering if it's the 3G reception that's better and in turn causing less battery strain to search for a network - i previously had a hard time getting any coverage at all at my work, and now i'm getting 1-2 bars with 3G.
also, no faulty reboots at all thus far. (knock on wood).
anybody else experiencing better battery life with this new update?

I was thinking the same thing. Not rooted, stock battery. Updated last night and today was the first time I have ever gotten more than 24hrs out of it. Not much more, but a milestone just the same. Uptime 24:35, awake time 2:55, 13% left. 4G all day, no reboots.

my battery life is actually worse, hard to believe....

im using cm7 beta. im not even going to think about the ota until i see that most users report it works. i bought an extended battery and its not perfect but much more tolerable
Sent from my ThunderBolt using XDA Premium App

Mine improved after ota.
-sent via 1.21 giggawatts of android.

getsoutalive said:
I was thinking the same thing. Not rooted, stock battery. Updated last night and today was the first time I have ever gotten more than 24hrs out of it. Not much more, but a milestone just the same. Uptime 24:35, awake time 2:55, 13% left. 4G all day, no reboots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More than 16 or 18 is just a luxury anyways, depending on how many hours per day you sleep.
Yes, I can think of situations where you can't charge overnight while you sleep, but for the vast majority of users and situations, as long as the phone lasts from the time the user wakes up to the time they go to bed, that's all the battery life they need. I don't see why people get so upset that they have to charge a battery powered device overnight while they sleep.
Along the same vein, not sure why people are so adverse to adding a little juice while in the car, or at the computer or at home.
All that said, I don't disagree that battery life is a serious bummer on the TBolt. Even with undervolted custom kernels if you're on the stock battery and actually use your phone a lot throughout the day, you're going to run into worries if you're not able to boost charge a time or two. I've got the extended battery and it makes a world of difference, but it's ugly and awkward and heavy. I much prefer the phone's look and feel with just the stock battery.

omniskye said:
i just installed the OTA update yesterday, and noticed that my battery life has been better today.
i'm wondering if it's the 3G reception that's better and in turn causing less battery strain to search for a network - i previously had a hard time getting any coverage at all at my work, and now i'm getting 1-2 bars with 3G.
also, no faulty reboots at all thus far. (knock on wood).
anybody else experiencing better battery life with this new update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I tried posting about this before, and people called me crazy, but even with LTE on, if your phone is having trouble finding 3G, it will destroy your battery life.
I had this happen when eHRPD when down, and my phone wasn't forced to the standard 3G network and kept searching for eHRPD and it killed my battery. I switched to the standard 3G, had a signal, and was fine since, then turned eHRPD back on before it was back up, and had 4G on, but my phone died in 2 hours, with 98% battery was it trying to find a signal. Switched back to standard 3G and back to perfect battery life.
SO I agree if they fix 3G it will help with the battery issue.

Same silly battery life for me. 4 hours "awake time" and I'm down 35% of my battery. With it just sitting on the arm of my couch. maybe 10 texts, no phone calls, no internet surfing, no email, no facebook, nothing. 11 hour battery life with no use? Absolutely amazing.

Is the battery that awful???

I have a Droid Inc 2, but I wanted to switch to the Tbolt, but have heard the battery is awful. As of right now I am in a 3G only area, but will have 4G soon. I see the Tbolt has a 1400mah battery while the Droid Inc 2 has a 1450Mah battery, so would the difference on 3G be that much??

My battery life is good...usually get 2 or 3 days on a full charge ..push exchange mail. Gmail. Friendstream.phone calls texts etc?
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

On 3g the battery is not that bad. I don't have 4g where Im at and when I was on a froyo rom the battery would last all day no problems.
When I go into SanFran I get 4g and it seems to way more battery if Im using the phone but it doesn't seem too bad. I just have to keep a charger handy butt that doesn't bother me.
Benefits of the thunderbolt are a bigger screen (part of the battery "problem"), 4g radio, and the development is here unlike with the dInc2.
Stock for stock I think the thunderbolt still wins for me. I was thinking about getting my wife a dInc2 but the lack of a development community kills it for me. Maybe it will pick up at some point but IMO its a step backwards for Verizon to release new phones without 4g.
If youre not going to root and stuff then it's not such an easy choice. If you are then IMO the choice is clear, get a thunderbolt.
Hope this helps.
Sent from Gingertits, I mean itis...

my thoughts
Yes, on 3G or WIFI the battery life is solid. I get a full day easily with gmail constantly syncing, gtalk on constantly and widgets such as beautiful widgets, calendar, twitter and face-book on constantly. Also, I work in a hospital and access patient data frequently on my phone. This is via the internet and data is refreshed at each access (50+ times per day). BTWI take the phone off the charger at 0530 and don't get home till 1930, and still have some juice left for the ride home. And I don't use any battery savers, or task killers.
But when I turn the 4G radio on, and there is frequent hand-off from 4G to 3G, the battery is dead in 6 hrs with the use stated above.
That said, when I go into the city where 4G is very strong and consistent, I can get a full day (8-10 hrs on 4G).
What I suspect happened when people first got the phone, is that they were so enamored with it; speed, screen, etc...(myself included), that the battery took huge hits, and everyone cried at how terrible the battery life was.
As with everything, wait for the dust to settle and you find the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Nevertheless, I still would like an 1800mah battery that fits the standard door.

Until 4G is fully developed in your area this phone isn't worth it. I've been through two of them that are frequently heating up when they're doing nothing but sitting in my pocket with auto sync off, brightness as low as possible, no notification LED, etc. It's pathetic. It over heats and drains into yellow by noon. 4G is amazingly fast, but since the outages it hasn't been the same. It comes and goes in areas where it used to be four bars.

If you're not in a 4G area then you should be good. Those of us with 4G are having a tougher time with battery. If I leave 4G running then my battery will die in less than 6 hours if with light use.
I most often turn off my mobile network though, letting me get around 8-10 hours.

On 3G, with the normal battery, it was much better than my old Fascinate.
With LTE, I went to the extended battery, and I struggle to get through the day on moderate-heavy use. (On LTE with the Regular battery your toast).
BTW, I am unrooted and am using Juice Defender.

There are apps on the Market which allow you to switch between 3G and 4G. I leave my Thunderbolt on 3G unless I am checking the internet, Facebook or Twitter. I usually get a full day on the stock battery. That is better than my battery usage on the LG Ally.

Well with the bamf gb remix i get 6 hrs full power all the time,everything possible running, slacker,maps,fb mail all syncin 10min,thats about 2 hrs better than my imagio, about 12hrs with just moderate use,i think thats pretty good.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

I live in a 3g area but I'm only a few miles away from 4g. As long as I'm in a 3g area my battery is good. But as soon as I enter a 4g area its not so good. It doesn't bother me too much since I have a car charger and have about ten usb cables and micro usb chargers laying around. But I probably will invest in an extended battery once VZW deploy 4g in my area a bit more.

Some good tips to get more out of the battery are...
1. For a good 10 - 15 days be sure to drain the battery all the way and then fully charge it.
2. When the phone is fully charged remove it from the charger. You may notice that if you leave it on the charger for a while after its fully charged it will go from 100% to 97% usually within minutes.
3. Screen protectors decrease the battery life due to holding heat into the phone.

brandoid said:
Some good tips to get more out of the battery are...
1. For a good 10 - 15 days be sure to drain the battery all the way and then fully charge it.
2. When the phone is fully charged remove it from the charger. You may notice that if you leave it on the charger for a while after its fully charged it will go from 100% to 97% usually within minutes.
3. Screen protectors decrease the battery life due to holding heat into the phone.
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You sure about that last one? I don't think screen protectors cause excess heat. Good tips otherwise.

I came from the Droid 1 and I think that the battery life is about the same. I have no complaints about it. I do live in a 3G area though.

Why do you suggest to fully charge and drain the battery for 10 - 15 days? I deained the battery fully a couple of times when I just got the phone. Do you think I should repeat the procedure?
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

fully draining the battery shortens its life span. and once it reaches 100% charge, it stops charging and begins to drain--taking it off/leaving it on are the same.

These batteries don't need to be "conditioned" by fully cycling them. All that'll do is help calibrate your gauge.

iastonish said:
You sure about that last one? I don't think screen protectors cause excess heat. Good tips otherwise.
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This is all information that came for HTC about the phone.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

I trialed the DInc2 for 2 weeks and switched to the Thunderbolt while my wife stuck with her DInc2, after rooting and installing Das Bamf 1.6.3 remix with adrynalyne's kernel, I easily make it through the day with moderate usage (autosync on, several hours of gaming, hundreds of txt, hour of phone calls) on 3g/wifi. DInc2 will get a couple extra hours in a day with the same usage, but you get a phone with 4g capability for the future, a larger screen, and all the support of the devs here for your rooted device while my wife's waiting for her DInc2 to still be rooted.

Best thing to do is just buy some cheap ebay batteries. I use those and I keep a few in my pocket just in case
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Classick206 said:
Until 4G is fully developed in your area this phone isn't worth it. I've been through two of them that are frequently heating up when they're doing nothing but sitting in my pocket with auto sync off, brightness as low as possible, no notification LED, etc. It's pathetic. It over heats and drains into yellow by noon. 4G is amazingly fast, but since the outages it hasn't been the same. It comes and goes in areas where it used to be four bars.
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Click to collapse
Sounds like you have got a rogue app you need to take care of, more so than the phone being bad.

[Q] Anyone notice crazy battery drain when signal is spotty?

I'm currently out at a client site, but it's super bad reception here in the conference room they stuck us in. First of all, no 4G in colorado springs, so i disabled LTE, and hit CDMA in the network settings.
3G is near impossible inside, so i usually get 1X, and voice connection is next to impossible also.
So i noticed that from unplugging in the morning at 7:30am. at around 2pm, my battery was already down to 10%!
And i didn't even use it.
I did see from my battery usage, that Android system was ABOVE screen in power usage.
Anyone have the same issue?

I've had the same problem with EVERY phone ever, even non-smartphones have this problem. The lower the signal, the more the phone will scan for a good signal. If it has no service, it scans very frequently. If you're on a smartphone, it's even worse because then when the phone does get service, all the data apps attempt to use what little bandwidth you do have all at once. If you're in an area with poor coverage, put your phone into download mode or disable the data connection. Nothing short of putting a network extender or new tower will solve this.

Yes, but this is typical of most phones really. Searching for a signal, acquiring it, losing it, etc, uses a lot of battery. You just have to disable data. If there is wifi available, then use that, if not, just have to wait until you go outside. I have no reception in my building at work, if I leave data on, my battery is dead in a couple hours, on wifi I can go all day

Yes and my phone got very hot in my pocket at the time as well.

got_rice64 said:
I'm currently out at a client site, but it's super bad reception here in the conference room they stuck us in. First of all, no 4G in colorado springs, so i disabled LTE, and hit CDMA in the network settings.
3G is near impossible inside, so i usually get 1X, and voice connection is next to impossible also.
So i noticed that from unplugging in the morning at 7:30am. at around 2pm, my battery was already down to 10%!
And i didn't even use it.
I did see from my battery usage, that Android system was ABOVE screen in power usage.
Anyone have the same issue?
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Click to collapse
I have this issue at work. I get anwhere from 10-15% battery drain an hour. I have determined that it is NOT because of the data signal though becuase I can turn that off and still get about the same excessive drain. It appears to be because of the voice signal. It varies anywhere from -85dm to -115dbm and is constantly changing. When I get outside of work environment, everthing is fine again and battery usage returns to normal. My Droid X did not have this issue.

-115db? How do you have signal at that rating? lol. Phone gets to about 1 bar when it reaches 101 for me.

I have the same issue in my office. I just barely get voice/text service. My solution is to turn off mobile data and plug my phone in to balance out the battery drain from the weak signal. I know it is bad to have my phone plugged in all of the time but it is better to be able to have sms and not have a dead phone when I am done at work.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App

Samsuck said:
-115db? How do you have signal at that rating? lol. Phone gets to about 1 bar when it reaches 101 for me.
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Yeah. Tell me about it. I am using Mobile Signal Widget to measure this. When It gets that bad, a little android face appears in the widget and it is crying.

YES! easily drains 10-15% an hour at a local pub that has 1 bar of signal.

It makes perfect sense... Your phone is fighting hard for that signal.
Sent from my Droid Charge running GummyFroyo 1.9.1

I drive 50+ miles to get to work and I always notice it drains a lot during my commute even when not used. I figured it was because of all the cell site swaps and searches bc I'm sure there's some spotty areas.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App

Same experience. Dropped to 5% in 9 hours yesterday when I forgot to turn off data while at work. Today, I'm still at 75% after 9 hours with data off.
Juice defender solved this on my fascinate. It turned data on only once every 30 minutes. But, I can't get it to turn my data back on with this phone.
I really wish data signal aggressiveness was managed better by the operating system. It could be a real boon to the average battery life. Perhaps a smart developer could come up with some sort of "conservative" governor for 3g/4g connections. Rather than increasing power draw, it could just "sleep" until a stronger signal is detected... Imnuts? Is this even possible or just a pipedream?
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

I can't reach my dad on his cell phone while at the pentagon for obvious reasons. He has to turn his phone off during the day or it'll die in a few short hours, as a previous poster mentioned searching for a signal is a huge battery drain.

Strange. I did not have this problem with my OG Doid or Droid X in the same environment. Maybe the Moto phones simply have a better radio than the Charge.

Yeah for some reason, the samsung radio are junk. I have my Droid Charge (personal) and an Lg phone (business) and the lg blows the sammy out of the water. Now i am in 3g fringe (forget about 4g), and the sammy loses data all together while my lg still has the signal. I hate when i am trying to search for something on the charge and it says connection failed or network unavailable retry. Even when i call verizon, they all have me do a reset and stuff, and nothing works. The best answer i get is that iam in a 3g fringe area. When i tell them that my lg works and still has signal, all i get is silence or hmmmmmm. Gota love it. Yes they exchanged the phone with a new one and it still does the same thing. Forget about battery life. I actually carry 3 batteries with me and on a good day i only use 2 but usually it is 3. Before anyone says use wifi, unfortunatly we do not have free wifi where i work. anyway that should not be the answer to this problem. We are paying for a service that i can barely use.
end rant.
91point6 said:
Strange. I did not have this problem with my OG Doid or Droid X in the same environment. Maybe the Moto phones simply have a better radio than the Charge.
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Click to collapse

galaxyuser88 said:
Yeah for some reason, the samsung radio are junk. I have my Droid Charge (personal) and an Lg phone (business) and the lg blows the sammy out of the water. Now i am in 3g fringe (forget about 4g), and the sammy loses data all together while my lg still has the signal. I hate when i am trying to search for something on the charge and it says connection failed or network unavailable retry. Even when i call verizon, they all have me do a reset and stuff, and nothing works. The best answer i get is that iam in a 3g fringe area. When i tell them that my lg works and still has signal, all i get is silence or hmmmmmm. Gota love it. Yes they exchanged the phone with a new one and it still does the same thing. Forget about battery life. I actually carry 3 batteries with me and on a good day i only use 2 but usually it is 3. Before anyone says use wifi, unfortunatly we do not have free wifi where i work. anyway that should not be the answer to this problem. We are paying for a service that i can barely use.
end rant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went through the whole VZW customer service thing both on the phone and in person. They weren't much help but they gave me a brand new phone and it does the same thing. Then there were a lot of suggstions on different forums suggesting apps killers, turning data off, turing on 3g only data, rooting, trying different ROMs, battery clalibration, etc. None of this helps. The kind of drain I am seeing goes way beyond any benefits I would see out of any of these things. For example, I am at work now. When I left the house, it takes about 15 minutes for me to get to work. The rest of the time I have been inside my work building. I have been on battery for 2 hours & 24 minutes and I am at 76% already. Thats >10% drain per hour. When I am outside the building it is more like 3-5%. VZW customer service never suggested this as a problem. They DID suggest that 4g uses more battery but that is not the problem. I have proved that time and again by simply turning data off.

Hmm..sounds like a bad phone..I am in a fringe area at work and it definitely kills by battery faster but..it's only like 8% and hour so I still get 10 hrs a day or so...in a bad area. In a good 4 G area..I will get 24 hrs or so out of the phone.

galaxyuser88 said:
Yeah for some reason, the samsung radio are junk. I have my Droid Charge (personal) and an Lg phone (business) and the lg blows the sammy out of the water. Now i am in 3g fringe (forget about 4g), and the sammy loses data all together while my lg still has the signal. I hate when i am trying to search for something on the charge and it says connection failed or network unavailable retry. Even when i call verizon, they all have me do a reset and stuff, and nothing works. The best answer i get is that iam in a 3g fringe area. When i tell them that my lg works and still has signal, all i get is silence or hmmmmmm. Gota love it. Yes they exchanged the phone with a new one and it still does the same thing. Forget about battery life. I actually carry 3 batteries with me and on a good day i only use 2 but usually it is 3. Before anyone says use wifi, unfortunatly we do not have free wifi where i work. anyway that should not be the answer to this problem. We are paying for a service that i can barely use.
end rant.
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Click to collapse
Wow, that is the complete opposite of my experience. I've never had good signal with any LG phone - from flip phones to smartphones. Samsungs in my experience are middle of the road - not great, but not bad either. Motorolas usually do well, but there are certainly exceptions. HTC seems to be fairly good, but again, there are exceptions. Oh, and I did have one Audiovox phone on VZW, and it was garbage.

Haha you can whine about it in my rage thread
Sent from my Droid Charge running GummyFroyo 1.9.1

[Q] AT&T and T-Mobile battery life differences?

I've been using both AT&T and T-Mobile (StraightTalk and T-Mobile) contract free for several months now and regardless of what my signal is on the two, I always seem to get worse battery life with StraightTalk/AT&T. Has anyone else played around with using both in the same places for an extended period of time and had the same results?
I'm trying to decide which I'm going to go with and so far even though I get LTE service in less areas with T-Mobile, I'm almost tempted to stick with them just because 1) when I do have LTE service, it's a ton faster then AT&T and 2) I get much less battery drain on T-Mobile then I do with AT&T.
Even in places where I had worse reception with T-Mobile (which less face it, is very often), I still get less battery drain then when I switch to AT&T and have a much better signal. Not sure if I'm hallucinating or if anyone else has experienced the same.
For example, at the hotel I'm currently at, while on T-Mobile my signal isn't quite as good as it is with AT&T but it takes several HOURS before my battery % drops below 90%. On AT&T I have a much better signal but yet I'll be within the low 80s after 3 or so hours.
Has anyone else tried this and if so have you noticed the same thing?

battery life is dependent on how you personally use the phone, how you set it up, and, most importantly, the quality of your phone/data connection. the quality of your phone/data connection could make or brake your battery life, by 1 or 2 screen on hours. thats a huge difference.

simms22 said:
battery life is dependent on how you personally use the phone, how you set it up, and, most importantly, the quality of your phone/data connection. the quality of your phone/data connection could make or brake your battery life, by 1 or 2 screen on hours. thats a huge difference.
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Oh I realize all of that. When home and not on travel I pretty much utilize my phone at two locations. Home and Work. In both locations I used each network for about 2 weeks checking cell signals etc and using the phone the same way the entire time. During this time I've noticed one constant, my phone with AT&T always drains the battery much faster. To be honest I thought I was crazy but I double checked and ran for another couple of weeks..this time basically logging battery life with usage and connection quality. AT&T on average had a better signal but also drained the battery faster...usage was about the same through the test. So I did the same thing while basically sitting in a hotel for a few days and just letting the phone sit as I was mainly using a separate phone on Sprint. Same thing..the time I had the phone sitting there with AT&T it had almost a perfect signal but the phone drained quite a bit faster then T-Mobile with practically no utilization. Obviously I rebooted prior to each.
I realize this doesn't make any sense at all but it's something I'm noticing.

I just found your post, and I'm experiencing the exact same issue. To quote a post I just made on reddit:
I've been a T-mobile prepaid customer (the $30 5gb plan) since I've had the N5, and recently I decided to switch to Straight Talk for the better coverage (I got the AT&T compatible SIM). I've been using the Straight Talk SIM for the past week, and I've notice two very odd things:
1. Battery life is significantly worse on Straight Talk. Unfortunately I don't have any before and after screen shots, but to provide context, a typical day of usage on T-mobile would leave me with ~50% battery life at the end of the day. Now, with Straight Talk and that same usage, I'm down to 10-20%.
2. With Straight Talk, I consistently have 4-5 bars of LTE, but oftentimes when I try and load a web page, there can be about a 5 second delay before the page starts loading. Even when running the Speed Test app, when it's testing the download speed, it will sometimes completely stop mid-download for a few seconds.
Have you found any solution to the battery issue you cited in your post?

I knew I wasn't nuts!
http://bgr.com/2014/08/06/best-smartphone-battery-life-t-mobile/

ParadingLunatic said:
I knew I wasn't nuts!
http://bgr.com/2014/08/06/best-smartphone-battery-life-t-mobile/
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Click to collapse
again, it still fits right in, its the data/phone signal quality that decides the battery life, as i wrote earlier. lowered quality = lowered battery life, period.