UMTS Signal Strength problems - 8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam Software Upgradin

I am a Los Angeles resident an am noticing UMTS starting to appear in the area, and in particular in the Foothills area of LA. I have a HTC TyTN rinning on the Cingular network which is SuperCID and which is running the South African HTC ROM which includes Radio ver 1.18.00.10.
When UMTS is picked up by my phone the reported strength of the signal drops dramatically. I may go from 4 bars on the GSM network to 1 or no bars with the "U" showing. I have DK Today loaded and under UMTS it often reports single digit % fpr signal strength.
Has anyone else experienced the same? Could this be just teething problems as Cingular rolls out UMTS in LA, or could this be showing up a problem within HTC's South African Radio ROM interfacing with Cingular?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Your GSM is using 850MHz band with stronger propagation characteristics while your UMTS network is on 1900 MHz. In LA thery will be island of UMTS for a while

That makes sense that UMTS will be "islands of presence" for a while, but does it make sense that when I am in a UMTS area the signal strength is virtually zero?
Could there be anything in the Cingular Radio ROM that might tuen into the signal better if I changed to that radio ROM?
Thanks

try it and let us know if you notice a difference.. make a back up of your current stuff so its easy to switch back.. but IMHO the 1.16 radio in the current cingular rom sucks, i had serious issues with it here in st. louis.. but 1.20 radio seemed to clear up some major issues, i still have some minor issues, but im patient and know that will be fixed in due time!

robjhellis said:
I am a Los Angeles resident an am noticing UMTS starting to appear in the area, and in particular in the Foothills area of LA. I have a HTC TyTN rinning on the Cingular network which is SuperCID and which is running the South African HTC ROM which includes Radio ver 1.18.00.10.
When UMTS is picked up by my phone the reported strength of the signal drops dramatically. I may go from 4 bars on the GSM network to 1 or no bars with the "U" showing. I have DK Today loaded and under UMTS it often reports single digit % fpr signal strength.
Has anyone else experienced the same? Could this be just teething problems as Cingular rolls out UMTS in LA, or could this be showing up a problem within HTC's South African Radio ROM interfacing with Cingular?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its normal, mine does the same thing and i have the 8525. My guess is the phones priority is to pickup 3g if available. If the signal is there, it will pick it up whether or not the signal is as strong as the edge signal. If theres no 3g, then it'll pickup edge. If your not close to the 3g tower, then the signal will be very faint. If you're 1 to no bars with the the 3g signal, then you'll most likely switch to the edge signal with full bars because your probably closer to an edge tower than you are to a 3g tower! Someone please correct me if im wrong!!!!

Update
Thanks for the input. As posted elsewhere, I was having difficulty upgrading the Radio ROM. Today I was successful in upgrading to 1.20.31.10, however, I shall be away from my place of work where the UMTS signal is most prevelent until after Christmas. I can report back later next week. In the meantime 1.20 at least initially seems not much different to 1.18, but time will tell on that also.
I've also invested in an external aerial for the car. Unfortunately the connector is very tight so might not be as pratical as I had hoped, but we'll see on that score also.
One final point. I have the "ShowUMTS" cab loaded, although perhaps it was not necessary on my TyTN. My understanding is that UMTS is only broadcast on the 850 & 1900 bands, whereas GSM could be strongest on any one of 850, 900, 1800 & 1900. That seems to only allow 2 of the 4 choices under the band selection, being "Auto" or "GSM(1900+800)+UMTS(1900+850)". I'll keep it on "Auto" firstly, and then will switch to the other selection after. If any one has suggestions for what else to try it would be terrific to read them.
Happy Christmas all.

the 1.20 radio didnt solve any signal issues for me(but im always in decent coverage anyway), however it did solve some weird feedback issues... with 1.16 from cingular i would have choppy calls on GSM and on 3G i would have this really weird digital feedback, was the weirdest thing i ever heard.. 1.20 got rid of those problems for me...

princeasi said:
My guess is the phones priority is to pickup 3g if available. If the signal is there, it will pick it up whether or not the signal is as strong as the edge signal. If theres no 3g, then it'll pickup edge. Someone please correct me if im wrong!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong!!!
Selection is based on network preferences. Your network provider can do almost everthing within its network range with your avaliable service. Right now that is true - if you have 3G coverage it will select it, then GSM. But for example - if company is testing 3G network in Someplace and it is not ready for customers even thou 3G signal is avaliable your handset will not log to that network.
Hope this clarify. It's always network not phone.

Related

Niki100 Triband GSM, AT&T Edge?

Will it be able to at least connect to AT&T's EDGE network? It's for the wife and 3G doesnt matter. Edge would be nice though. I have an 8525 that I've done a lot to so I'm not a complete noob, but some general direction/help would be great.
What I'm working with:
I purchased a UK (orange) touch dual through ebay. It arrived this morning and I have already flashed the hard-spl and then flashed Tom Codons v2 rom. The first splash screen (orange) says "security unlocked" at the top ... does this mean it is super cid already?? I then ran the connection wizard setting everything for AT&T. With the default connection set to media net it would not connect or update weather from htc home or anything to i set it to my isp and it works; I can browse the internet, download weather from htc home, everything she needs to do on the phone.
The only thing I'm not sure about is at the top bar of the today screen, it shows a small G icon (data im assuming), and where the larger connection icon normally is I have an icon with 2 arrows and an x. Is something not fully functioning?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It really depends on what bands ATT has in your local area. In my geography (central PA), there used to be legacy orange/blue ATT networks as Cingular and ATT merged years back, so we have pretty good overlapping coverage of 850/900 bands. In this area, 900 is pretty solid but it flips between G and E often.
If I drive to other regions though, such as northern Baltimore, MD, the coverage is much worse and there are miles of highway where I get no signal at all.
mskovrinskie said:
It really depends on what bands ATT has in your local area. In my geography (central PA), there used to be legacy orange/blue ATT networks as Cingular and ATT merged years back, so we have pretty good overlapping coverage of 850/900 bands. In this area, 900 is pretty solid but it flips between G and E often.
If I drive to other regions though, such as northern Baltimore, MD, the coverage is much worse and there are miles of highway where I get no signal at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like in a few months I'll switch her to t-mob, functioning enough for now though.
Thanks

3G or H? you can only have one

well through testing almost all of the roms here in this section i have found out that every rom does have 3g but if you select HSDPA/HSUPA you will lose your 3G connection and can only have it again if you disable HSDPA/HSUPA. This seems very odd because the hermes and kaiser would switch between the two depending on which one had the stronger connection. i welcome others to test this as i think it is interesting and should be looked into.
HackMimic said:
well through testing almost all of the roms here in this section i have found out that every rom does have 3g but if you select HSDPA/HSUPA you will lose your 3G connection and can only have it again if you disable HSDPA/HSUPA. This seems very odd because the hermes and kaiser would switch between the two depending on which one had the stronger connection. i welcome others to test this as i think it is interesting and should be looked into.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm Curious..
I am currently running RomeOS 1.21 and am about to update to 1.51.
mine switches no problem between the two.
If i can't get a HSDPA signal then it auto switches to 3G..
will see if the new rom changes anything.
Dean
let me know because i have been observing and have only seen it auto change from H to E or G whichs sucks when it use to go from H to 3G. travel the entire bay area for my job and both phones side by side with me act different. so wierd.
HackMimic said:
let me know because i have been observing and have only seen it auto change from H to E or G whichs sucks when it use to go from H to 3G. travel the entire bay area for my job and both phones side by side with me act different. so wierd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I Thought H was the same as 3g. Isn't Att's 3G network run on HSDPA?
HackMimic said:
well through testing almost all of the roms here in this section i have found out that every rom does have 3g but if you select HSDPA/HSUPA you will lose your 3G connection and can only have it again if you disable HSDPA/HSUPA. This seems very odd because the hermes and kaiser would switch between the two depending on which one had the stronger connection. i welcome others to test this as i think it is interesting and should be looked into.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HSDPA/HSUPS is 3G. If you are referring to WCDMA vs HSPA there would not be a stronger connection for either because they are on the same frequency.
Fact is on the Hermes/Kaiser the HSPA was downstream only (HSDPA) , on the raph its has bi-directional HSPA (HSDPA and HSUPA) therefor the towers you are broadcasting to with the device will have HSPA mode on continuously as apposed to only when you are receiving from them since the device is receiving and transmitting using HSPA.....which is why the HSDPA mode "H" symbol only appeared during data transfer on the older devices, there was normally a short delay (when using the device as a modem for example) before the "H" appeared and the data began coming in.
Notice how you need to reboot if you choose to deactive HSPA alltogether? The radio stack probably needs to start a new session on the network to change from HSPA back to UMTS only. Indeed when you set standard 3G mode you should get the "3G" symbol rather than "H".
The service rep at ATT told me the other day that HSDPA is actually different then 3G. THe HSDPA is typically meant for the Laptop Connect cards. Since the inception of the iPhone on 3G if you haven't noticed your speeds have dropped significantly.
How true is this I don't know...but when I am using a ROM like RRE that has HSDPA my speeds are much faster then with 3G.
ryncppr said:
The service rep at ATT told me the other day that HSDPA is actually different then 3G. THe HSDPA is typically meant for the Laptop Connect cards. Since the inception of the iPhone on 3G if you haven't noticed your speeds have dropped significantly.
How true is this I don't know...but when I am using a ROM like RRE that has HSDPA my speeds are much faster then with 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HSPA (3.5G) is just another coding method, it still uses the 3G frequencies as with UMTS (aka normal 3G). The theoretical bandwidth due to the more complex an efficient coding method means you can get ALOT more bandwidth down the same frequency than with UMTS. So technically UMTS and HSPA can both be encompassed into the "3G" terminology although they use different coding techniques, the video calling and voice stuff are handled identically afaik, data transmission is where they differ.
This kind of improvement can be seen in the 2G technologies with GSM/GPRS/EDGE.
HSDPA is a "higher speed" data connection than 3G... but its still a "3G" frequency data connection. So on-the-face-of-it, they are one and same, just one is faster than the other.
thank you so much. i am a very visual and analytical person. love to compare behavour. glad i got a real answer about this as i have been reading for days on this and it seems kind of cloudy with the fuze on information. thank you again for the replys.
Wow, there's quite a bit of information, some conflicting, about the various 3G-related terminologies here. So I might as well add my take on it all
Let's compare 2G terminologies to 3G ones, as that should make it easier for some to understand.
GSM - the very basic 2G standard
UMTS - the very basic 3G standard
GPRS - upgraded GSM to packet switching - faster data access - dubbed 2.5G
HSDPA - upgraded UMTS to faster downlink speeds - dubbed 3.5G
EDGE - upgraded GPRS to faster data access - dubbed 2.75G
HSUPA - upgraded UMTS to faster uplink speeds - dubbed 3.75G (occasionally)
Finally, HSPA is simply a term encompassing HSDPA and HSUPA.
I hope this helps more than it hurts
Trancecoder said:
GSM - the very basic 2G standard
UMTS - the very basic 3G standard
GPRS - upgraded GSM to packet switching - faster data access - dubbed 2.5G
HSDPA - upgraded UMTS to faster downlink speeds - dubbed 3.5G
EDGE - upgraded GPRS to faster data access - dubbed 2.75G
HSUPA - upgraded UMTS to faster uplink speeds - dubbed 3.75G (occasionally)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There i fixed it for you
shotta35 said:
There i fixed it for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WCDMA is the air interface for UMTS as
TDMA is the air interface for GSM.
At the same time, GSM is used to describe a phone system that uses GSM/TDMA and UMTS/WCDMA versus the CDMA phone system used by Sprint/Verizon/Qualcomm.
Confused yet?
NuShrike said:
WCDMA is the air interface for UMTS as
TDMA is the air interface for GSM.
At the same time, GSM is used to describe a phone system that uses GSM/TDMA and UMTS/WCDMA versus the CDMA phone system used by Sprint/Verizon/Qualcomm.
Confused yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PLEAAAASEEE can we go into how OFDM and QPSK work?? i want to see some heads explode...scanners style.
NuShrike said:
WCDMA is the air interface for UMTS as
TDMA is the air interface for GSM.
At the same time, GSM is used to describe a phone system that uses GSM/TDMA and UMTS/WCDMA versus the CDMA phone system used by Sprint/Verizon/Qualcomm.
Confused yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, newbs reading this will and should be confused. I only edited it to make his comparisons between GSM and UMTS which is should be, not GSM and WCDMA which aren't in the same "group"
shotta35 said:
LOL, newbs reading this will and should be confused. I only edited it to make his comparisons between GSM and UMTS which is should be, not GSM and WCDMA which aren't in the same "group"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*head explode*
what are decent speeds for HSPA connections?
shotta35 said:
There i fixed it for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I really shouldn't post anything when it's late, especially when my head feels twice its size due to a particularly annoying cold
NuShrike and Mr. Vanx has explained it.
These jargons always confusing for us, laymans. Easiest term is i think CDMA (2000,1X, EVDO) is used almost exclusively in US, while GSM and WCDMA (UMTS) is in almost everywhere else of the world (around 3.5 billon users as of now - open www.gsmworld.com). Except Japan, they have their own customized system.
Reasons of difference? Matter of choice, more like when you decide using VHS instead of BetaMax. I think part of the reason why US choose CDMA instead of GSM you may ask Qualcomm's technical people, as they hold majority of the copyrights and licenses in CDMA technology. Not only in driverless chipsets... LoL.
Actually, we in Indonesia also adopt CDMA in smaller and narrower market. But the gov limit them to be Fixed Wireless. Now, what does the jargon: Fixed Wireless means?? Another head exploded... LoL =D
3G icon shows when the phone's sitting idle, H shows when data's being transferred.
My phone shows H all the time now because this market has moved on from UMTS + HSPDA to a HSPA market now. This is ONLY as a result of using the non-AT&T ROM, if you use that it will say 3G because AT&T has disabled it (the icon, not speeds) to cause less confusion.
As for what's typical HSPA speeds? Well on the AT&T network i've seen as high as 2Mbps (on a 3.6Mbps HSPA network) but there are places in Europe that are deploying 7.2Mbps and in Australia they are launching 21Mbps!!!

HTC Touch Pro Reception Problem

Hi All,
Few months ago, I've bought an HTC Touch Pro from Newpan Tellcom in Israel.
Yesterday I've left my Mobile Carrier (Cellcom) and I moved to Pelephone - Other Mobile Carrier.
Since I moved to Pelephone I've some reception/signal problems.
I know that Pelephone are working with UMTS/HSPA 850+2100 MHZ bands,
but my Touch Pro supports only HSPA/WCDMA 900/2100 MHz bands.
When I've tried to switch to UMTS band, the only option that I've got was UMTS 2100+800 MHZ bands.
In order to have good reception, I must be connected to UMTS/HSPA 850+2100 MHZ bands.
I've tried to Upgrade my phone's ROM to the latest EnergyROM 'Phoenix 2' buit 21877 and still I've reception problem.
Is there any way to solve this issue?
Please Help Me!
I think Touch Pro is known to be weak on radio reception. I myself in US am suffering the same problem. While my wife's Samsung phone gets four bars around our house, I gets only one on my Fuze. And my data connection keeps bouncing between 3G and EDGE or even GPRS.
I did some googling about the Fuze receptionn problem, and it seems to me that a lot of people suffer the same problem.
http://www.htcwiki.com/thread/2216970/HTC+Fuze+Radio+Reception
But somebody in US claimed that a newer version of SIM card from AT&T will help the problem a little, and it was confirmed by some of the people went for the "solution", while the rest think it does not work.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=460234
Don't know if the same possibility is available in Israel.

Best setup for UK ONE on AT&T

So I love my HTC ONE.... Fantastic phone.. No question about it.
As I posted else where I have the UK model and I am on AT&T in the USA. It's working, but the HSDPA and 3G is bouncing around quite a bit and it jumps to E really quickly. And it loses the signal quickly in low signal areas. More than any other phone. If I switch the network to GSM, I have full signal almost everywhere.... But no data bandwidth.
It was suggested that I might need to look at my setup.
So here is what I have.
I have a STD LTE data plan
I have a STD sim that work on all my other LTE enabled phones
My APN is Called Phone and has the same setting as I find on the forum for a 4G setup...ie it is NOT the wap and cingular setup.
I have selected WCDMA and GSM networks (I know the phone is not compatible with AT&T LTE bands), but it acted the same way even when it was on the default GSM WCDMA and LTE Auto setting.
Does anyone know else I should check or change?
PS. I will likely buy the developer model, or the AT&T model as soon as it is available... this phone is that good!!!
Thanks for your help.
Nick
PS. I will be in Korea next week, so I am curious how the LTE will function there.... I will let you know. I think they have the 2600 band on one provider and that overlaps with the UK bands

GT-i9100 network trouble!!

My brand new GT-i9100 is barely usable. I've spent the last week wrestling with it (bought it new from ebay) to get it to work, but I'm at my wit's end. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here's the problem:
My Galaxy S 2 (now rooted and currently running SlimRom) partially or completely loses cellular signal about 60% of the time, often in places where I know there is reception. I'm using Telus' network in Canada. It will lose data, lose ability to make or receive calls, and fail to send text messages. The indication of signal loss is not clear, IE it will say "emergency calls only", "no service available", or even say I have service but I really don't. However the cutting out seems to occur consistently depending on where I am located. For example I seem to get OK signal at my house, but zero at my friend's house. I know it's not the network in this case, since my friend is also on Telus and they get fine reception. I've done some testing and here are some possible causes that I can think of:
network cold spot - No, see example above. It also cuts out in urban populated areas where the signal is strong
phone compatibility - unlikely, since Bell offered the i9100M, which I'm led to believe is physically identical to the normal i9100, and Bell and Telus operate over the same frequencies. Also when it does get signal it can transmit data fine
SIM card - No. The first thing I did when I discovered this problem was get a new SIM card. Nothing changed
SlimRom - No. The phone was acting like this out of the box with the stock image.
Radio firmware - Unlikely. I've flashed at least 6 different firmwares, including KG6, KH3, LQ6, LP6, KI4, and even LD3, which I believe is the firmware the Canadian i9100-M ships with, so would logically work fine. The carrier for that was Bell, and I believe Bell and Telus operate on the same frequencies
a hardware defect in the design of the phone or the antenna itself - the last possible option I can think of. I hope it's not this, because then I would have to undo all the modifications I've done in an attempt to fix my phone, and pray the seller accepts the return
Please, if anyone could offer any assistance that would be great.
Telus frequencies:
2G
CDMA 850/1900
EVDO 850/1900
3G (and fake 4G)
HSDPA 850/1900
HSPA+ 850/1900
UMTS 850/1900
WCDMA 850/1900
1x EV-DO CDMA2000
4G (called 4G+)
LTE 1700/2100
Indoril said:
My brand new GT-i9100 is barely usable. I've spent the last week wrestling with it (bought it new from ebay) to get it to work, but I'm at my wit's end. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here's the problem:
My Galaxy S 2 (now rooted and currently running SlimRom) partially or completely loses cellular signal about 60% of the time, often in places where I know there is reception. I'm using Telus' network in Canada. It will lose data, lose ability to make or receive calls, and fail to send text messages. The indication of signal loss is not clear, IE it will say "emergency calls only", "no service available", or even say I have service but I really don't. However the cutting out seems to occur consistently depending on where I am located. For example I seem to get OK signal at my house, but zero at my friend's house. I know it's not the network in this case, since my friend is also on Telus and they get fine reception. I've done some testing and here are some possible causes that I can think of:
network cold spot - No, see example above. It also cuts out in urban populated areas where the signal is strong
phone compatibility - unlikely, since Bell offered the i9100M, which I'm led to believe is physically identical to the normal i9100, and Bell and Telus operate over the same frequencies. Also when it does get signal it can transmit data fine
SIM card - No. The first thing I did when I discovered this problem was get a new SIM card. Nothing changed
SlimRom - No. The phone was acting like this out of the box with the stock image.
Radio firmware - Unlikely. I've flashed at least 6 different firmwares, including KG6, KH3, LQ6, LP6, KI4, and even LD3, which I believe is the firmware the Canadian i9100-M ships with, so would logically work fine. The carrier for that was Bell, and I believe Bell and Telus operate on the same frequencies
a hardware defect in the design of the phone or the antenna itself - the last possible option I can think of. I hope it's not this, because then I would have to undo all the modifications I've done in an attempt to fix my phone, and pray the seller accepts the return
Please, if anyone could offer any assistance that would be great.
Telus frequencies:
2G
CDMA 850/1900
EVDO 850/1900
3G (and fake 4G)
HSDPA 850/1900
HSPA+ 850/1900
UMTS 850/1900
WCDMA 850/1900
1x EV-DO CDMA2000
4G (called 4G+)
LTE 1700/2100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well.. I think you got one of the Korean ones.. There is someone in China or Korea, or who knows maybe Samsung who is taking the SHW-M250S, a horrid Korean version of the S2 and changing the housing and software to make them look as the GT-I9100. Even the back labels say GT-I9100 and the software itself.. however, you can tell them apart because they are way lighter and very flimsy and also because the SIM Card tray is different from the one on the original GT-I9100.
So, I know it's very late but the problem is not you, is the phone. It might look brand new, but it is not compatible with networks in the US and many countries as Korea seems to use a different network standard. I was not able to get any data working on this model when I was in the Dominican Republic. I recently got a few of them in a lot of devices I bought for resale after I moved to the US and I couldn't get any of the 14 phones I got to connect to cellular. I decided to strip them off for parts.

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