I have a very strange issue. At home I get outside / inside I get 1 - 2 bars. If i drive two / three blocks left or right from my house I get 5 bars 3G. I have called t-mobile, and they have sent engs to test. First eng said its the phone and not their service. I explained to them I have 2 blackberrys and two android phones. Same signal on each! They sent another tech out and he said they are not going to improve the coverage in my area. I've been looking around for repeaters, boosters, etc, but I see that nobody makes a booster for the 1700 MHz.
Does anyone have any ideas?
im in chicago and i get the same thing. i get 1 bar 3g, or 2-3 bars on edge. sometimes, my signal drops all together and then comes back a few seconds later. i've told tmobile about this and they said there is no outage in my area. however, my dad's phone is fine; granted it's us cellular but still fine. just has to be tmobile. any of my friends who have tmobile, always lose signal at my place.
but good luck finding any company who will admit that their is something wrong with their service.
I am having the same problem in my house but outside is perfect. I notice that many Samsung Vibrant user has same problem at their residential. Why? Don't know...
im thinkin it could be the phone. cuz i didnt have problems with my old iphone..
It is not the phone. This is typical behavior for 2100 mhz signal. (t-mobile uplink frequency)
Yeah, I know the higher the mhz the harder it is to reach through buildings...one reason why hand radios such as police, fire, ems still use 700 / 800 range.
For my location its like the 3G towers get so close they lose signal near me. There are 3 tmobile towers within a 1 mile radius of me. Im right in the middle of all three.
This has been confirmed by tmobile and their tower website.
http://www.t-mobiletowers.com
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
i was using tmobile when i had my iphone.. so i still think the phone plays a role in this also
If you've never had a 3G device on T-Mobile there is no comparison to be made.
Secondly just because you're near a tower doesn't mean all of them will have 3G. 1 of those towers could be 3G while the other two are 2G.
T-Mobile's legacy 2G network is PCS AKA 1900 - already a high frequency network. There are a NUMBER of reasons why 3G isn't as strong as 2G. First of all 2G and 3G signal strength is measured differently. 1 bar (or 0 on the Vibrant) can mean choppy, garbling calls on 2G/GSM but on 3G, 1 bar can give you crystal clear calls and good-enough data service. EDGE with 1 bar is next to unbearable.
I actually have a problem because my neighbor has an illegal repeater that is tagged for AT&T. Because AT&T has really poor service in this area, he has it cranked up so high that if you get within half a block of his house all other GSM/EDGE/3G devices start to flake out. I doubt he even gets much better service in his house (I'm sure the repeater is just amplifying garbage signal anyway).
quetwo said:
I actually have a problem because my neighbor has an illegal repeater that is tagged for AT&T. Because AT&T has really poor service in this area, he has it cranked up so high that if you get within half a block of his house all other GSM/EDGE/3G devices start to flake out. I doubt he even gets much better service in his house (I'm sure the repeater is just amplifying garbage signal anyway).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
report him to the feds and that'll get rid of all your problems
Yeah, report him to the FCC. There is the threat of a $10K fine but usually thats all it takes to get them to turn of the repeater. If you don't want to be the bad guy, call t-mobile and rat him out.
quetwo said:
I actually have a problem because my neighbor has an illegal repeater that is tagged for AT&T. Because AT&T has really poor service in this area, he has it cranked up so high that if you get within half a block of his house all other GSM/EDGE/3G devices start to flake out. I doubt he even gets much better service in his house (I'm sure the repeater is just amplifying garbage signal anyway).
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Click to collapse
I wonder if thats why my signal just drops like a rock. I literally turn the corner and I go from 5 bars to 2 bars.
The Vibrant has 4 bars max, not 5. The bar display is very sensitive on the Vibrant, just the same as any other Samsung. Stop focusing on the bars, they're totally different when compared to any other Android phone.
heygrl said:
The Vibrant has 4 bars max, not 5. The bar display is very sensitive on the Vibrant, just the same as any other Samsung. Stop focusing on the bars, they're totally different when compared to any other Android phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, I have 0 bars inside my house but I am able to place calls upstairs but not downstairs. During my testing I used the bar status and *#*#197328640#*#* for the reading. You can tell with bar status though that it will be 5 bars and drive 2 more blocks its down to 2 bars. Same with *#*#197328640#*#* by the signal numbers.
I didn't read everything just wanted to give a reply really quick to the OP, I live in the chicago land area, work closer to the city and live in the west burbs, on Tmo, at work and around work area i get 3-5 bars all day long on 3g but once i get intside of my house it drops down to 0-1 and phone call quility is very poor.
To help my issue, once i get home i switch to "Use only 2G networks" under Mobile network settings, and once it switchs over i have full 5 everywhere with in my house on edge only and use my wifi if i want to surf the web. But the thing is call quility is back up to 100% when switching over once at home.
IDK if this will help you but worth a shot.
or you might try a more neighborly approach, ie warn him first
i had a problem years ago with a new neighbor (young kid) had rented a house few doors down from me - and was obviously selling drugs - this was in the inner city, the historic district, cars would pull up from time to time and the driver would jump out and run in his back door, spend 5 - 15 minutes and leave, and there'd be 5 to 10 cars a night when he had a shipment in. Problem was, the guy or guys left waiting in his car would be eyeballing the BMWs, volvos etc parked in the center of the block (center of block had two alleys, with a small private parking lot between them. they see or think these cars were easy prey for breakins, and they were - after he moved in we started seeing a breakin every 2-3 weeks
i told him one of the neighbors had asked me was he dealing drugs, as it sure looked like it, and hoping he'd get the hint, i told him it's none of my business but if you are, you might ask the customers to come to the front of your house - we've had way too many breakins into the cars and that neighbor that asked is ready to call the cops.
he didn't get the hint - cops were called, but only after giving him a chance, and they ended up raiding him
you get the point - use a "hypothetical" neighbor that had complained to you, so you don't unnecessarrily start a fence war
dougE24 said:
I didn't read everything just wanted to give a reply really quick to the OP, I live in the chicago land area, work closer to the city and live in the west burbs, on Tmo, at work and around work area i get 3-5 bars all day long on 3g but once i get intside of my house it drops down to 0-1 and phone call quility is very poor.
To help my issue, once i get home i switch to "Use only 2G networks" under Mobile network settings, and once it switchs over i have full 5 everywhere with in my house on edge only and use my wifi if i want to surf the web. But the thing is call quility is back up to 100% when switching over once at home.
IDK if this will help you but worth a shot.
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Click to collapse
I usually get maybe 1-2 bars of service at my house, and on a lot of days it's worse. Sometimes I can't maintain a call at all because the conversation is so broken. I tried doing what you've mentioned here and was surprised when my bars immediately jumped to full and stayed that way....for about 1 minute lol. Then I watched as they slowly dropped again to 1 bar. Which it then flickered up to 2 occasionally. I'm glad it works for you though. It was just funny for me because I'm yelling at my girlfriend "LOOK LOOK!! I HAVE FULL SIGNAL NOW!! Then I got sad face lol.
dougE24 said:
I didn't read everything just wanted to give a reply really quick to the OP, I live in the chicago land area, work closer to the city and live in the west burbs, on Tmo, at work and around work area i get 3-5 bars all day long on 3g but once i get intside of my house it drops down to 0-1 and phone call quility is very poor.
To help my issue, once i get home i switch to "Use only 2G networks" under Mobile network settings, and once it switchs over i have full 5 everywhere with in my house on edge only and use my wifi if i want to surf the web. But the thing is call quility is back up to 100% when switching over once at home.
IDK if this will help you but worth a shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx Doug, This actually helped a lot in the house
laristech said:
..................., but I see that nobody makes a booster for the 1700 MHz.
Does anyone have any ideas?
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Click to collapse
actually there are quite a few wireless repeaters / boosters for 1700/2100
do a google for 1700/2100 repeaters, it'll pull up quite a few
here's one http://www.jdteck.com/jd55-pr-consumer-repeaters-p-2.html
I have had many phones with tmobile and a previous android the euro hero and never had I only had 0 to 1 bars on 3g in my house and best 3 bars on edge. All my previous had full 3g signal in my house til I got my vibrant so I can say that is the phone and not the service.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Related
How is your 3G reception on the Vibrant? I just purchased a Vibrant as a replacement for my aging and bluetooth handicapped G1 and I am disappointed with the 3G reception.
T-Mobile's coverage in my area is moderate, and the G1 has been able to hold on to a 3G signal in most locations. Typically, at home the G1 will hold on to 2-3 bars of 3G, and at work I am lucky to get 1 -- usually camps out on 2G with 4 or 5 bars.
The Vibrant pretty much always shows 0 bars of 3G while indoors, and may even flop back to 2G. It is fairly consistently on 2G in my home at 2 bars and at work I can only get 1 bar of 2G with this phone and spend the majority of the time with no signal at all.
I sat down and did some comparison between the Vibrant and the G1 and have found the following:
1. *#*#4636#*#* menu shows significantly worse signal levels on the Vibrant than on the G1, often times showing 0db and 0asu in the same location I am seeing -89db to -101db 3G on the G1.
2. The service menu on the Vibrant indicates a signal level which on 3G is fairly consistently 8db better than the one shown on the info menu. Interestingly, 2G signal levels as shown on the service menu seem fairly spot on with those shown from the info menu in Android.
3. The service menu 3G signal levels on the Vibrant seem consistent with those that I see on the G1 with a variation of perhaps only a couple of decibels.
That said, it seems interesting that battery usage on the Vibrant seems to indicate nearly 60% of its time with no service under cell standby when I get 0% in the same location with the G1. I am wondering if the time being recorded here is in fact the time spent with 0 bars being displayed even if the phone does, in fact, have a signal.
It is apparent that there is at least a software issue with the display here, as has been concluded in prior threads. However, ignoring the bar display I am wondering what others feel of the signal coverage with their Vibrant versus their old phone?
Does anyone have any experience with any of Samsung's other phone offerings? Do you think Samsung will post a radio update for this phone or possibly release one along with the GPS Fix/Froyo update in September?
I work in a position which requires me to be on-call a certain times during the year, and I can't really afford to have a phone that camps out at 60% no signal. I am really looking for reasons to keep this phone, as I like it otherwise, but practically, I need a phone that is going to receive phone calls. Any objective indications anyone can give that Samsung will continue to support this device may help sway my decision to keep it. My 14 days will be up on Thursday, so I need to make a final decision about keeping this phone before then.
Also, do any developers think that modifying the handling of the signal display in Android will cause a change in the amount of time the phone spends acquiring signal between 3G and 2G, or is this something that is purely handled within the radio firmware? If this is changeable, is this something that can be included in a future custom rom?
No coverage issues with mine.matches my mt3g in pretty much every location.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I made a call in the BOONDOCKS of NC, in an old river mill with 22 inch brick walls... NOBODY else was able to place a call other than me (all the big networks and nice phones).
I have pretty crappy 3g service here in new rochelle when at home the phone keeps fluctuating between 0-4 bars for 3G and the data speeds very inconsistent. Sometimes it even falls back to EDGE! This is pretty lame, i called t-mobile about it and they said there nothing they can do! If i am unhappy i should return the phone.
I live in NYC...
That is really all I have to say.
3-5 up speeds
constant 3g connection
The bars on the phone are funky though they look like there are none but you can still make calls. Its just the software is off just like the battery percentage.
Rishikesh said:
I have pretty crappy 3g service here in new rochelle when at home the phone keeps fluctuating between 0-4 bars for 3G and the data speeds very inconsistent. Sometimes it even falls back to EDGE! This is pretty lame, i called t-mobile about it and they said there nothing they can do! If i am unhappy i should return the phone.
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Click to collapse
If you're at home why aren't you on WiFi?
Seriously it's the most puzzling thing ever. 3G or not, I wouldn't be using it at home. Are you trying to replace your ISP with your phone or something?
You should do a search. Are you aware of the fact that -0dBm is impossible? The bars are off on this phone and the G1 is mediocre overall. It can hold on to a 3G signal for longer because your hand isn't blocking the antenna but the antenna itself is truly mediocre in fringe areas. Move your hand away from the bottom hump on the Vibrant. A lot of questions you're asking.. you're answering yourself.
I am not all too impressed with 3G coverage here at my home, but I mostly blame the network at my location and not necessarily the phone. TMO has spotty coverage near my house....period, and I live less than a mile from the tower. I have a Blackberry 9700 and it has similar issues with 3G. I've called and complained and they give me the usual "you're green on the map...return the phone....blah blah". I was closer to downtown Dallas yesterday and the phone had full bars and never got higher than -80dbm. Speedtest app showed about 3mbps downloads on average. I wouldn't say it was stellar but it's nothing like at home either. Only thing is my phone never automatically drops from 3G to E unless I am making calls. Once again the Blackberry 9700 does the same thing.
However, I am not completely convinced the phone isn't to blame either. I had a week with the new Motorola XT720, aka AWS Motoroi/Milestone that Magenta is/was rumored (who knows?) to get, and if Moto hadn't skimped on the CPU/RAM/screen/app memory of that phone I would have kept it instead of this Vibrant. That phone seemed to get much better 3G signal and HSPA was excellent compared to the Vibrant. I'm lucky if the Vibrant gets HSPA here at all. Overall network performance just seemed faster. It was quite obvious when I powered up the Vibrant the first time that 3G coverage is going to be an issue at my home with this phone.
FWIW my wife has an iPhone 3G which gets great 3G coverage here at the house on ATT. So I borrowed her SIM to test after I unlocked the Vibrant and it didn't make much difference. It did get 3G which I didn't think was technically possible until I saw that this phone has 1900 3G support as well as AWS. I do think the bars and definitely the battery indicators are not accurate whatsoever. I use Battery Indicator Pro and it's definitely obvious Samsung needs a software re-work.
Just because you live within 1 mile of a tower doesn't mean it's 3G or that there isn't something in the way of it's signal and your house.. I live within 1 mile of a tower and it's not 3G. It's supposed to get 3G soon.
heygrl said:
If you're at home why aren't you on WiFi?
Seriously it's the most puzzling thing ever. 3G or not, I wouldn't be using it at home. Are you trying to replace your ISP with your phone or something?
You should do a search. Are you aware of the fact that -0dBm is impossible? The bars are off on this phone and the G1 is mediocre overall. It can hold on to a 3G signal for longer because your hand isn't blocking the antenna but the antenna itself is truly mediocre in fringe areas. Move your hand away from the bottom hump on the Vibrant. A lot of questions you're asking.. you're answering yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I don't have WiFi in my house?
Maybe I would love to reduce my monthly expenditures by the $60 I throw away to Comcast?
I am well aware of the fact that -0dbm is impossible. This is simply what the phone is displaying. I also agree that the G1's reception is mediocre, but this phone seems worse than the G1. Blocking the antenna with my hand doesn't seem to make much difference on either the Vibrant or the G1.
I asked for objective answers to my questions which basically boil down to the following:
1. Do you think Samsung will provide support for the software on this phone (including the radio) over the long term ie. do you think there will be upgrades in this department?
2. Do you think this is something custom rom developers can address purely via modifying the OS?
Thanks for your snarky comments, but if you haven't got any objective input into the situation maybe this thread is not for you.
equid0x said:
Maybe I don't have WiFi in my house?
Maybe I would love to reduce my monthly expenditures by the $60 I throw away to Comcast?
I am well aware of the fact that -0dbm is impossible. This is simply what the phone is displaying. I also agree that the G1's reception is mediocre, but this phone seems worse than the G1. Blocking the antenna with my hand doesn't seem to make much difference on either the Vibrant or the G1.
I asked for objective answers to my questions which basically boil down to the following:
1. Do you think Samsung will provide support for the software on this phone (including the radio) over the long term ie. do you think there will be upgrades in this department?
2. Do you think this is something custom rom developers can address purely via modifying the OS?
Thanks for your snarky comments, but if you haven't got any objective input into the situation maybe this thread is not for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're asking questions that we can't answer. Do we work at Samsung? No. Would stock Android fix this? Maybe.
It seems worse than the G1 because based on your comments the bars are having an affect on what you deem to be "worse". I've had tons of T-Mobile phones including the G1 and the Vibrant is not considerably worse than any. INFACT it will hold on to a 3G signal for longer than most. My CLIQ displayed 3 bars as -105dBm. Accurate? NO.
has been able to hold on to a 3G signal in most locations. Typically, at home the G1 will hold on to 2-3 bars of 3G, and at work I am lucky to get 1 -- usually camps out on 2G with 4 or 5 bars.
The Vibrant pretty much always shows 0 bars of 3G while indoors,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is the antenna on the G1? If you're telling me you're putting your hand over it and not having any disconcernable change you're not doing it right
If you don't have WiFi at your house you need to get some.
heygrl said:
You're asking questions that we can't answer. Do we work at Samsung? No.
It seems worse than the G1 because based on your comments the bars are having an affect on what you deem to be "worse". I've had tons of T-Mobile phones including the G1 and the Vibrant is not considerably worse than any. INFACT it will hold on to a 3G signal for longer than most. My CLIQ displayed 3 bars as -105dBm. Accurate? NO.
Where is the antenna on the G1? If you're telling me you're putting your hand over it and not having much of a change at all you're lying or not doing it right.
If you don't have WiFi at your house you need to get some.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that nobody here is working for Samsung but there are plenty of people here who have developed for Android, and the question I am posing is if this is something that can be addressed in a custom rom.
I think my original post makes it clear that there is obviously a software issue with bar display, but I am wondering if this software issue is also causing the Android OS to force a switch to 2G in an instance where the G1 with a properly functioning display would keep 3G. ie, the phone is switching to 2G early because it thinks it only has -111dbm when it in fact still has -103dbm. I am not clear on whether this functionality is performed within the OS itself or purely within the radio firmware.
My hands are rather large, so holding the G1 basically covers the entire rear of the phone. The antenna is near the top of the phone whereas the antenna on the Vibrant seems to be on the bottom. Though holding both phones in various positions seems to have little effect on the received signal strength so far as I can tell.
The time spent without signal in cell standby I believe to be erroneous. I think it is tallying up that time any time there are zero bars, even if the phone still has a signal. This makes it very difficult to objectively compare the 2 phones. If the OS is in fact driving the switch from 3G to 2G this may explain my poor access in fringe areas as the phone will be constantly flapping between the two. If the functions that drive this behavior are within the AOSP source this could easily be something we can fix in a custom rom even without Samsung's help, even if a radio update would be ideal.
heygrl said:
Where is the antenna on the G1? If you're telling me you're putting your hand over it and not having any disconcernable change you're not doing it right
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can wrap my hand around the phone (Vibrant), either top, center or bottom and I do not see any change in either reception, call quality, network throughput or number of bars.
heygrl said:
If you don't have WiFi at your house you need to get some.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is perfectly understandable that if he has good reception with a G1, an older phone, he expects at least a similar level or reception with a newer, higher end phone. WiFi would be considered a workaround.
I just received my Vibrant on Monday and it's sadly replacing my amazing Nexus One. I've noticed that the Vibrant antenna is AWFUL. Where I received 4-5 bars on the N1, I'm getting 1-3 bars now and it even goes down to Edge once every few hours.
Like the OP, I've been monitoring the db levels and they're frequently around -95 through -107. While my calls don't actually drop, the quality does get worse. I'm also getting many 3G connection errors when trying to browser or download apps from the Market. It's quite disappointing. The phone is made of plastic as well, so I'd imagine that the antenna reception should be better.
Being that there are only 2 pages on this particular thread, does this mean it's a fluke and others' phones are ok?
allen099 said:
I just received my Vibrant on Monday and it's sadly replacing my amazing Nexus One. I've noticed that the Vibrant antenna is AWFUL. Where I received 4-5 bars on the N1, I'm getting 1-3 bars now and it even goes down to Edge once every few hours.
Like the OP, I've been monitoring the db levels and they're frequently around -95 through -107. While my calls don't actually drop, the quality does get worse. I'm also getting many 3G connection errors when trying to browser or download apps from the Market. It's quite disappointing. The phone is made of plastic as well, so I'd imagine that the antenna reception should be better.
Being that there are only 2 pages on this particular thread, does this mean it's a fluke and others' phones are ok?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4-5 bars on a phone with a 4 bar scale?
Stop looking at -dBm on the Vibrant, it's not accurate.
If you don't want the phone to switch to EDGE lock it on 3G.
heygrl said:
4-5 bars on a phone with a 4 bar scale?
Stop looking at -dBm on the Vibrant, it's not accurate.
If you don't want the phone to switch to EDGE lock it on 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you lock it on 3G?
javacody said:
How do you lock it on 3G?
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Click to collapse
This worked for me (copy/paste and remove spaces in http):
h t t p://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7438987&postcount=7
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7438987&postcount=7
Thanks. 3G is spotty at best in the Des Moines Area, so I'll leave well enough alone.
So, in follow up to this, I had downloaded and installed RF signal tracker from the market and went driving around until I found a tower. It seems that via Android OS the best signal strength received was -81dbm and that was sitting right next to the tower. The phone stayed locked at -81dbm for a few miles down the road so I suspect this is peak signal on this phone which should really be something like -65dbm. I think this pretty much confirms that there is indeed a software issue with the signal display.
I also took some time looking at Android code and found that the bars are driven on GSM/UMTS by asu as follows:
if (asu <= 2 || asu == 99) iconLevel = 0;
else if (asu >= 12) iconLevel = 4;
else if (asu >= 8) iconLevel = 3;
else if (asu >= 5) iconLevel = 2;
else iconLevel = 1;
So figuring up the dbm values from these, I went ahead and created a new asu scale which is adjusted -8dbm from "normal" since this seems to be the worst case of the mismatch between the phone firmware and what Android is reporting and applied that within the market app Real Signal to try and get an apples to apples comparison of signal bars between this phone and the old G1. Unfortunately, the degree if miscalibration means we can't set a negative ASU so we don't get any meaningful display on Real Signal until we hit the 3rd bar. In doing this if I go to a moderate overage area I am seeing the bars I would expect.
After my little drive with RF Signal Tracker its actually pretty clear that discrepancy is really more like -15dbm, which adjusting the figures should mean that this phone in reality gets slightly better reception than the old G1.
It seems we should be able to workaround this in a custom ROM by doing one of the following:
1. Modify getGsmSignalStrength() to add the -15dbm to the returned signal strength value(hackish).
2. Modify the vendor RIL to compensate for the -15dbm offset when on UMTS. (Probably the proper solution).
I'm not clear on whether the vendor RIL code gets posted to AOSP...
equid0x said:
How is your 3G reception on the Vibrant? I just purchased a Vibrant as a replacement for my aging and bluetooth handicapped G1 and I am disappointed with the 3G reception.
T-Mobile's coverage in my area is moderate, and the G1 has been able to hold on to a 3G signal in most locations. Typically, at home the G1 will hold on to 2-3 bars of 3G, and at work I am lucky to get 1 -- usually camps out on 2G with 4 or 5 bars.
The Vibrant pretty much always shows 0 bars of 3G while indoors, and may even flop back to 2G. It is fairly consistently on 2G in my home at 2 bars and at work I can only get 1 bar of 2G with this phone and spend the majority of the time with no signal at all.
I sat down and did some comparison between the Vibrant and the G1 and have found the following:
1. *#*#4636#*#* menu shows significantly worse signal levels on the Vibrant than on the G1, often times showing 0db and 0asu in the same location I am seeing -89db to -101db 3G on the G1.
2. The service menu on the Vibrant indicates a signal level which on 3G is fairly consistently 8db better than the one shown on the info menu. Interestingly, 2G signal levels as shown on the service menu seem fairly spot on with those shown from the info menu in Android.
3. The service menu 3G signal levels on the Vibrant seem consistent with those that I see on the G1 with a variation of perhaps only a couple of decibels.
That said, it seems interesting that battery usage on the Vibrant seems to indicate nearly 60% of its time with no service under cell standby when I get 0% in the same location with the G1. I am wondering if the time being recorded here is in fact the time spent with 0 bars being displayed even if the phone does, in fact, have a signal.
It is apparent that there is at least a software issue with the display here, as has been concluded in prior threads. However, ignoring the bar display I am wondering what others feel of the signal coverage with their Vibrant versus their old phone?
Does anyone have any experience with any of Samsung's other phone offerings? Do you think Samsung will post a radio update for this phone or possibly release one along with the GPS Fix/Froyo update in September?
I work in a position which requires me to be on-call a certain times during the year, and I can't really afford to have a phone that camps out at 60% no signal. I am really looking for reasons to keep this phone, as I like it otherwise, but practically, I need a phone that is going to receive phone calls. Any objective indications anyone can give that Samsung will continue to support this device may help sway my decision to keep it. My 14 days will be up on Thursday, so I need to make a final decision about keeping this phone before then.
Also, do any developers think that modifying the handling of the signal display in Android will cause a change in the amount of time the phone spends acquiring signal between 3G and 2G, or is this something that is purely handled within the radio firmware? If this is changeable, is this something that can be included in a future custom rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't done any detailed tests but I can state that in real world use, I am not happy with my Vibrant's reception. My G1 was very noticeably better at getting and holding 3G and Edge connections in the same locations where my new Vibrant won't.
Next to a tower on GSM(GSM/GPRS/EDGE) you should see -51dBm at the most with Android. W-CDMA is different because they really don't use -dBm to determine signal quality. They use power/noise.
Using a Verizon / HTC Thunderbolt, final retail model.
Not even tethering, just holding the phone in my hand, I'm getting 4 bars of signal and a signal strength of -77 dBm.
Seems to work fine most of the time, with good downstream, well within acceptable limits of the "5 to 12 Mbps" advertised, though it's extremely variable (it tends to regularly oscillate between these speeds, occasionally dropping down to EvDO speeds).
But the speeds aren't important, just an indication of the good signal strength.
Maybe it's just my cell tower, but I am very frequently seeing no network activity at all; can't even get to google or check for software updates. It's about as unreliable as Verizon's crap DSL. This is the polar opposite of the rock-solid stability I used to get with EvDO in the exact same place (in my house). Is it the 4G network being unreliable, or the Thunderbolt? Anyone else have this problem?
Edit: In terms of the patterns of the total downtime, it seems to go down for periods of 5 to 10 minutes per hour. Sometimes the downtime only lasts 15 or 30 seconds, other times I am completely out for 10 minutes, even though it says "4G LTE" in the dock and I am still getting good signal strength. My data usage for the month is under 5GB but above 2GB. I tend not to make very bursty traffic; except for app downloads, most of my traffic is of the low throughput, consistent variety (loading webpages, listening to MP3 streams at 128Kbps, etc). I use it very often but the bandwidth usage at any given time is probably lower than the speed of an EvDO connection (unless you count webpages that are downloaded at faster-than-EvDO speeds for a split-second to load them). I'll be using it and then it's just *down*. I can still make phone calls during the outage.
I noticed the same thing. I was all over the place cycling through no data, 1x, 3G, and 4G in like a minute in the same spot. I rebooted and got a much more stable 4G connection.
I'm thinking your expectations are a little too much. There are many areas I don't get a good 3g, let alone a 4g signal. I live in a suburb of Chicago and am in 4g 95% of the time, I don't always pay attention, because, after all, it's a phone first, but 4g seems to be there whenever I need it.
Also, in regards to unacceptable, what are you comparing it to? Is there more acceptable 4g signals in your area?
fillyo said:
I'm thinking your expectations are a little too much. There are many areas I don't get a good 3g, let alone a 4g signal. I live in a suburb of Chicago and am in 4g 95% of the time, I don't always pay attention, because, after all, it's a phone first, but 4g seems to be there whenever I need it.
Also, in regards to unacceptable, what are you comparing it to? Is there more acceptable 4g signals in your area?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm comparing it to Verizon EvDO / 3G. While speeds on EvDO were only about 20-25% of the max speed of LTE / 4G, it was completely reliable -- at least in my area.
Keeping the phone almost completely stationary sitting at my desk, connected to the same cell tower, and with my roaming data programmed to the latest version, my EvDO phone (a Droid 2) would have the connection available whenever I asked for it.
With the same exact usage pattern but with LTE, my Thunderbolt often has no connection, and it spontaneously comes back by simply waiting around for it to become available.
I expect the 4G channel to be "open" 24/7/365, not ever completely down -- especially while stationary in a standard building with a very high signal strength (always 4 bars). I have no unusual EMF like microwaves or bluetooth going on, just a laptop and a desktop and 2 LCDs. Wooden house, and I'm on the top floor.
If they can make EvDO stable 24/7, and EvDO is based on the same CDMA technology as LTE, why can't they make LTE stable 24/7 also? And I also don't understand why my phone does not fall back to EvDO if and when the LTE drops out. I recall a few times over the years of using it that my EvDO would fall back to 1x/RTT in the event of an EvDO downtime. But the MTBF of EvDO downtimes in my area was around 1 year. Now, the MTBF of LTE is about 50 to 120 minutes.
brandnewsimmy said:
I noticed the same thing. I was all over the place cycling through no data, 1x, 3G, and 4G in like a minute in the same spot. I rebooted and got a much more stable 4G connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I rebooted my phone and am getting a more stable 4G connection now, too I wonder if the phone itself has a stability problem with its 4G transceiver after a certain period of uptime? I will test this theory over the next couple days by rebooting my phone whenever I have a problem, and see if it helps.
Edit: I usually keep my phone "up" 24/7, and just leave it on the charger when I'm not on the go. I power it off only rarely, because I want to receive phone calls and text messages. When I just rebooted it, it had 2.5 days of uptime (hard to have too much uptime considering launch day was just a few days ago!)
fillyo said:
I live in a suburb of Chicago and am in 4g 95% of the time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity, what suburb are you in that you're getting 4G 95% of the time? I live in Highland Park (about 20 miles up the north shore) and I don't have nearly as good of coverage (still decent though and I'm not complaining).
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
I'm guessing it has to be your area. I am getting amazing 4G coverage in LA. I going to assume its going to take VZW some time before their 4G coverage truly blankets areas. I remember when 3G came out.. it was totally spotty for a long time until they had enough towers.
Kind of like what I recorded on my phone this afternoon....?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRTOCFoGFmU
5 min clip showing me cycling through web and map but getting no data, despite cycling airplane mode on and off. This has happened almost daily since getting the phone last Thursday, in multiple locations that are supposedly full 4G areas. Pretty annoying.
Double annoying since I got the Verizon phone because they're network's so much better (allegedly)...and yet my Nexus S on T-Mobile had full bars and fast "4G" data in the same location. I'd also had a reboot, and the 1tx symbols flashing but wasn't recording at the time. I'd been screwing around with this for at least 10 minutes before activating ShootMe to record it.
Thrillhouse847 said:
Out of curiosity, what suburb are you in that you're getting 4G 95% of the time? I live in Highland Park (about 20 miles up the north shore) and I don't have nearly as good of coverage (still decent though and I'm not complaining).
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well im in Gurnee area with 4g 99% of the time. Only time without is in my GF's brothers house. no 3g there either though lol. otherwise i never loose 4g. Even driving to vernon hills and around i always have 4g. not sure y in HP u dont always have it.
i am complete opposite i have 2-1 bars inside a building getting 12mbps
I notice it has an issue where it just randomly drops all my signals to search for 4g even though its not in my area... I think the only way to get reliable signal would be to set the radio to whatever you are using mostly... *#*#4636#*#* will get you into diagnostics and select phone infotmation and then choose CDMA auto for 3g or lte mode..... I'm thinking in the near future there will be a update that allows for easier lte turn off like 4g on the evo... the automatic thing is nice but it wastes battery and seems to cause some problem
RafficaX said:
Well im in Gurnee area with 4g 99% of the time. Only time without is in my GF's brothers house. no 3g there either though lol. otherwise i never loose 4g. Even driving to vernon hills and around i always have 4g. not sure y in HP u dont always have it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm. Not sure either, Gurnee/Vernon Hills is pretty close, maybe I just need more testing time (I'm also indoors most of the time).
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Thrillhouse847 said:
Hm. Not sure either, Gurnee/Vernon Hills is pretty close, maybe I just need more testing time (I'm also indoors most of the time).
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i mean i never saw 4 bars on 4g but 2-3 always and hit 30 on the down and 50 on the up while in the antioch walmart lol but never with out 4g expect in that one house lol.
I just set mine to LTE only let's see if its more stable than the auto mode
itzjonjon69 said:
I just set mine to LTE only let's see if its more stable than the auto mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
let me know, i should try that too. never thought of that when looking at it. wonder if ill save a bit of battery not trying to also find 3g, im sure i lose very lil hunting for 3g but still. saving some battery may give me another in on 4g lol
RafficaX said:
i mean i never saw 4 bars on 4g but 2-3 always and hit 30 on the down and 50 on the up while in the antioch walmart lol but never with out 4g expect in that one house lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You realize that the phone is incapable of 50 up, don't you? Those kinds of speeds are a known bug in the Speedtest.net and other similar speed tests that don't deal with the Thunderbolt's large transmit buffer properly.
Anyone else seeing any errors in the logcat that look similar to this?
D/DATA ( 1779):[QCTMM] DataNetStatistics sent == 0 && received == 0 newActivity=NONE
D/DATA ( 1779): sentSinceLastRecv=0,watchdogTrigger=10,maxindex=0
E/TrafficStats( 1555): [QCTMM]tryAll index =1
E/TrafficStats( 1555): [QCTMM]tryAll index =2
There is an entry like this every few seconds when I'm on mobile data.
RafficaX said:
Well im in Gurnee area with 4g 99% of the time. Only time without is in my GF's brothers house. no 3g there either though lol. otherwise i never loose 4g. Even driving to vernon hills and around i always have 4g. not sure y in HP u dont always have it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
verizon towers fallowing u now? from 95% now 99% lol ...that 1% its your gfs house damn it.... probably a bridge on the way and tower to tall to go under ...****...otherwise u would it have 100% wooohoooo
I'm at my desk at work in times square, nyc. Yesterday I had 1-2 bars of 4g at my desk. Today, my phone has yet to switch out of 1x mode my entire 2 hour commute here and so far today. I tried rebooting and can't get 3g or 4g to come on. I'm pretty annoyed
yeah, me too. In SLC, we've always had really good GSM and HSPA service from at&t, never matching the horror stories from the likes of chicago, sanfran, and NYC. However, they decided to pull a market-driven cluster-**** and only delivery a bare-minimum of market penetration so instead of a regular 4-5bars, I see usuall just 2. But that's not all. My phone has a supreme hard-on for the LTE and will choose the LTE tower 5 miles away over the one right next to me which results in some hysterisis and rapid HSPA/LTE changes. This may or may not be responsible for periodic loss of my data connection which I don't find about until hours after i missed that important email or text (google voice). awesome.
I put up with this for a couple weeks 'cause i'm used to the S&M relationship US mobile customers have with their wireless providers (post-paid, anyway) and finally called to ***** a little. turns out that while at&t would rather we all suffer at the hands of their inept decision making by removing any kind of switch from our devices, they will make manual adjustment for those who cry loud enough. If you really want LTE gone, you can ask for an 'inset lock to 2g/3g' which will prevent your device from seeking out LTE towers to connect to. I made mention of APN's and at least one rep indicated that this made that change, but I couldn't be sure this is an actual edit to the APN on your device.
LTE is nice for the 2% of the time I can actually use it, but the other 98% it sucks donkey ballz... at least the way at&t has done it in SLC.
hope this helps someone.
The roll out in Arkansas of all places has been awesome. I get 4 bars like, sometimes 5 everywhere within 15 miles of my house. I average - 85 dbm 52 asu signal. It's awesome. I'm sorry your lte in Utah blows.
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda premium
I love ATT in CT. LTE just became official in my city but its been working great for almost a year before it launched officially.
DeathmonkeyGTX said:
The roll out in Arkansas of all places has been awesome. I get 4 bars like, sometimes 5 everywhere within 15 miles of my house. I average - 85 dbm 52 asu signal. It's awesome. I'm sorry your lte in Utah blows.
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
undoubtedly there are some people close enough to LTE towers that they aren't having quite the abysmal experience I am, and other people's positive experiences in other cities could indicate that at&t will eventually get it right here. I can only hope.
LTE here in Hawaii is awesome. Then again Hawaii is so small that a few towers can probably cover most parts of the island. Hopefully att can cover your area better.
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda app-developers app
i've been very impressed with AT&T's LTE network. it's a lot better than sprint's 4G/WiMAX network.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=33826576
LTE is working fine here in Central NJ. The issue with your battery isn't AT&T's rollout of LTE, it's LTE itself. The simple fact is, it's not as power efficient as HSPA (yet) and phone manufacturers haven't upped the battery specs to compensate.
Now, what AT&T IS at fault for is not giving their LTE customers an LTE/HSPA toggle.
DeathmonkeyGTX said:
The roll out in Arkansas of all places has been awesome. I get 4 bars like, sometimes 5 everywhere within 15 miles of my house. I average - 85 dbm 52 asu signal. It's awesome. I'm sorry your lte in Utah blows.
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. I was quite surprised with LTE coverage. It's virtually everywhere in central Arkansas, even between cities in areas that you wouldn't expect LTE.
Sent from my HTC One X
entropism said:
LTE is working fine here in Central NJ. The issue with your battery isn't AT&T's rollout of LTE, it's LTE itself. The simple fact is, it's not as power efficient as HSPA (yet) and phone manufacturers haven't upped the battery specs to compensate.
Now, what AT&T IS at fault for is not giving their LTE customers an LTE/HSPA toggle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish that were the case in SLC. the problem is that LTE is not available everywhere in the coverage area, and when it is, it is frequently at much lower signal strength so it's quite apparent that at&t did not roll out LTE to all of their HSPA towers in the area. With phones preferring LTE, they are connecting to towers that are frequently farther away than the closest HSPA tower and thus requiring more power. For example, both my home and work give me 4-5bars of HSPA, but only 2bars of LTE. Some parts of the city give no LTE at all. Its currently an incomplete roll out.
razholio said:
yeah, me too. In SLC, we've always had really good GSM and HSPA service from at&t, never matching the horror stories from the likes of chicago, sanfran, and NYC. However, they decided to pull a market-driven cluster-**** and only delivery a bare-minimum of market penetration so instead of a regular 4-5bars, I see usuall just 2. But that's not all. My phone has a supreme hard-on for the LTE and will choose the LTE tower 5 miles away over the one right next to me which results in some hysterisis and rapid HSPA/LTE changes. This may or may not be responsible for periodic loss of my data connection which I don't find about until hours after i missed that important email or text (google voice). awesome.
I put up with this for a couple weeks 'cause i'm used to the S&M relationship US mobile customers have with their wireless providers (post-paid, anyway) and finally called to ***** a little. turns out that while at&t would rather we all suffer at the hands of their inept decision making by removing any kind of switch from our devices, they will make manual adjustment for those who cry loud enough. If you really want LTE gone, you can ask for an 'inset lock to 2g/3g' which will prevent your device from seeking out LTE towers to connect to. I made mention of APN's and at least one rep indicated that this made that change, but I couldn't be sure this is an actual edit to the APN on your device.
LTE is nice for the 2% of the time I can actually use it, but the other 98% it sucks donkey ballz... at least the way at&t has done it in SLC.
hope this helps someone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you could move closer to the cell tower
would you like some cheese with your wine,lol
I apologize if this is a duplicate...only did a cursory seacrh, not a deep one. It wasn't there yesterday (or at least, I didn't notice because I was stuck in meetings all day), but today I noticed the "4G LTE" icon on my One. Am very excited! Only getting 2 bars now, so I'll hold off on a speed test. Still...I'm happy to see this.
Anyone else in the Boston area just notice this?
I'm getting 2G / Nothing in my house in Waltham.. which is why I rely on wifi calling.. which is why i'm not using 4.2.2
good to know we're getting close though.
4g LTE Boston
I am currently at work in Boston near copley and I am picking up 4g LTE. Used the opensignal app to verify and it confirmed it. Speeds arent great yet but it says LTE
I got it in Everett, MA
ThrillHill1 said:
I apologize if this is a duplicate...only did a cursory seacrh, not a deep one. It wasn't there yesterday (or at least, I didn't notice because I was stuck in meetings all day), but today I noticed the "4G LTE" icon on my One. Am very excited! Only getting 2 bars now, so I'll hold off on a speed test. Still...I'm happy to see this.
Anyone else in the Boston area just notice this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An hour ago just noticed the LTE sign by T-mobile carrier in My iphone 5 IOS 7 and I got it in Everett, MA but not in Medford, MA.
carpenter108 said:
An hour ago just noticed the LTE sign by T-mobile carrier in My iphone 5 IOS 7 and I got it in Everett, MA but not in Medford, MA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's interesting. I take a train from the northshore into Boston so I can see some areas have it and some don't. Where I live in Beverly does not. Salem, no, parts of Lynn, yes, part of Chelsea, yes. North Station: didn't notice as I was getting on a shuttle to work. Close to my work near south station, yes.
ThrillHill1 said:
It's interesting. I take a train from the northshore into Boston so I can see some areas have it and some don't. Where I live in Beverly does not. Salem, no, parts of Lynn, yes, part of Chelsea, yes. North Station: didn't notice as I was getting on a shuttle to work. Close to my work near south station, yes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I work in downtown (in City Hall Plaza) however I keep my phone on WCDMA to lock into HSPA. However, after reading this I decided to switch back to Auto mode to see what kind of signal I would pick up. I live in Hyde Park. I just ran out to my local Shaws and picked up LTE! I did 3 speedtest and was able to pull down 10 megs and up 9 megs per sec. Very exciting. I'm simply looking forward to a more stable network with robust speeds. Locked in to WCDMA and I can down between 5-9 megs and up 3 megs in Quincy, Brockton. I'll be keeping my phone on Auto more often now. Personally, I find the network as a whole to be a mixed back. On average when my phone is locked to WCDMA, I'm averaging 2-3 megs down and 1 meg up. HD videos load just fine on YouTube...
Glad I checked out your post!
atvxda said:
I work in downtown (in City Hall Plaza) however I keep my phone on WCDMA to lock into HSPA. However, after reading this I decided to switch back to Auto mode to see what kind of signal I would pick up. I live in Hyde Park. I just ran out to my local Shaws and picked up LTE! I did 3 speedtest and was able to pull down 10 megs and up 9 megs per sec. Very exciting. I'm simply looking forward to a more stable network with robust speeds. Locked in to WCDMA and I can down between 5-9 megs and up 3 megs in Quincy, Brockton. I'll be keeping my phone on Auto more often now. Personally, I find the network as a whole to be a mixed back. On average when my phone is locked to WCDMA, I'm averaging 2-3 megs down and 1 meg up. HD videos load just fine on YouTube...
Glad I checked out your post!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I stand corrected: I get about 2 bars of 4G LTE here at home. Now, I only had two bars (didn't do a more exact, rigorous check. Hey, it's Saturday morning) of LTE, at most, during the speedtest, and it dropped down to one for have of the duration. Still, the results were promising even with the diminished throughput: about 10 down and 6.5 up. Not bad for a couple of bars! The trick is what's going to happen when everyone else figures it out.
ThrillHill1 said:
I stand corrected: I get about 2 bars of 4G LTE here at home. Now, I only had two bars (didn't do a more exact, rigorous check. Hey, it's Saturday morning) of LTE, at most, during the speedtest, and it dropped down to one for have of the duration. Still, the results were promising even with the diminished throughput: about 10 down and 6.5 up. Not bad for a couple of bars! The trick is what's going to happen when everyone else figures it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I share the same concern, however I really just want a solid network with great coverage and solid speeds. I haven't had any real issues with T Mobile's network and since my HD2 days my experience has been good. I find their HSPA and plus network to be pretty good, I just wish I had better coverage throughout Mass. Every now and then a YouTube video (always in HD) will take around 10 seconds to load but for the majority of my experience, hiccups and stutters are far in between.
So, looking forward to this LTE network. Although it may not be the fastest, if I can have speeds consistently in the 5 meg range, I would be very happy. I am so sick and tired of my phone and my wife's GS4 on 2g from time to time which is why I keep mine locked in WCDMA mode.
jizz617 said:
I am currently at work in Boston near copley and I am picking up 4g LTE. Used the opensignal app to verify and it confirmed it. Speeds arent great yet but it says LTE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That speed test app Sucks so much. The numbers are never true
Sent from my X909 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Traveling through Boston to get to downtown... My route included parts of Hyde Park and Dorchester. I'm currently in my office which is on the 16th floor inside of City Hall Plaza and I'm picking up between 1 and 2 bars of LTE. A quick Speed Test (3 total) and my results are sporadic. My best score was 13/down and 11/up.
Excited to see a real effort on behalf of T Mobile.
I'm in downtown Boston at 60 State Street, and in my office on the 4th floor I'm getting an occasional 1 bar of 4G LTE but then it goes back to just 4G before I can test it out. That's unfortunate because their 4G in my office is painfully slow. (Unlike at home in Waltham where it's very, very fast.)
I'll see if I get a more reliable LTE signal when I head out to lunch later. Here's hoping they beef it up soon so I can start using it at work regularly!
Holy crapnuts! Speed!
karmamule said:
I'm in downtown Boston at 60 State Street, and in my office on the 4th floor I'm getting an occasional 1 bar of 4G LTE but then it goes back to just 4G before I can test it out. That's unfortunate because their 4G in my office is painfully slow. (Unlike at home in Waltham where it's very, very fast.)
I'll see if I get a more reliable LTE signal when I head out to lunch later. Here's hoping they beef it up soon so I can start using it at work regularly!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. NOW we're playing with some power. Stayed at home today and attended a meeting remotely. Grabbed lunch in downtown Beverly and grabbed these results. Very pleased. 27.7 down and 9.9 up...not too shabby!
Latest lte speed test from the greater boston area
Boom goes the dynamite.
i am in Everett, MA and get LTE according to my Galaxy S4 at least. According to the Tmobile data coverage map i am right on the border between excellent(best possible) and very strong(2nd best). Have tested my speeds quite a few times over the last 3 weeks and consistently my down is slower than my up, just tested again and get 10 down and 12 up according to ookla speedtest and about half of that (but still up being faster than down) with opensignal app(although i wouldn't trust tests with opensignal app since it reports my home wifi being 11/8 while ookla correctly shows 85/24) . My friend with Galaxy S3 swears he got almost 50 down while walking in downtown Boston once on LTE about a week ago, hope those speeds come to my neck of the woods @ some point. Any phone optimisation tricks to make LTE/4G bit faster? Would like to justify paying extra $20 for unlimited 4G/LTE data(and if i got over 25/x on average on it i would def. add unlimited option)
pesok said:
i am in Everett, MA and get LTE according to my Galaxy S4 at least. According to the Tmobile data coverage map i am right on the border between excellent(best possible) and very strong(2nd best). Have tested my speeds quite a few times over the last 3 weeks and consistently my down is slower than my up, just tested again and get 10 down and 12 up according to ookla speedtest and about half of that (but still up being faster than down) with opensignal app(although i wouldn't trust tests with opensignal app since it reports my home wifi being 11/8 while ookla correctly shows 85/24) . My friend with Galaxy S3 swears he got almost 50 down while walking in downtown Boston once on LTE about a week ago, hope those speeds come to my neck of the woods @ some point. Any phone optimisation tricks to make LTE/4G bit faster? Would like to justify paying extra $20 for unlimited 4G/LTE data(and if i got over 25/x on average on it i would def. add unlimited option)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know how much this will help you but there is a thread (can't find it right now, on my phone) that shows how to change your APN from the default settings to creating a new one that has less traffic epc.tmobile.com
Since I've changed this setting I've experienced greater LTE AND HSPA+, consistently. I too live in Boston and was actually in the Everett area yesterday and had excellent service down there.
If you need extra help, let me know
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
megabiteg said:
I don't know how much this will help you but there is a thread (can't find it right now, on my phone) that shows how to change your APN from the default settings to creating a new one that has less traffic epc.tmobile.com
Since I've changed this setting I've experienced greater LTE AND HSPA+, consistently. I too live in Boston and was actually in the Everett area yesterday and had excellent service down there.
If you need extra help, let me know
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for this info. My default APN is indeed fast.x. I changed to epc.x according to these instructions by creating new APN set so can always switch between fast.x and epc.x and here are the preliminary results:
Tested with ookla app right before change and average out of 3 was 10/11 (Down/Up)
Right after the change(no reboot) and switch to epc.x APN set average 10/11 (exactly the same)
After restart and verifying thats still on new epc APN set - ookla has reported 17/10 (on the right track?? highest down before i ever got was 12)
Switched to back fast.x APN set and ookla reported 18/10 (WTF???)
Restart again and on both epc and fast ookla reported 6/8(even worse than before)
everything was done within 10 min window. Could i be too far from nearest LTE tower? Network Signal app shows the signal as LTE(on both fast.x and epc.x) and dBm of -93(although also shows 3/4 signal bars). Open Signal app shows LTE and dBm -75 and while better than NS app still quite bad. According to Open Signal cell tower map i am less than 1 block away from a nearest cell tower though and about 1.5 blocks away from another tower exactly on the other side.
4G LTE - Saint Louis, Mo
FINALLY!!!! As we were traveling from St. Charles County to Shilo, Il ... Noticed my HTC One finally showed 4G LTE.... I noticed the 4G LTE symbol after we passed the Lambert. Then got really geeked-up and did a speed-test...
"2013-08-30 06:13","Lte","38.63080","-90.18349",1255,364,68,"Tempe, AZ","21.85.222.202","208.54.40.215"
"2013-08-30 06:11","Lte","38.63080","-90.18349",3772,342,37,"Tempe, AZ","21.85.222.202","208.54.40.215"
"2013-08-30 06:10","Lte","38.63397","-90.18629",8182,5811,41,"Tempe, AZ","21.85.222.202","208.54.40.215"
"2013-08-30 06:10","Lte","38.64276","-90.18902",12377,5397,40,"Tempe, AZ","21.85.222.202","208.54.40.215"
"2013-08-30 06:09","Lte","38.65115","-90.19327",5209,4254,38,"Tempe, AZ","21.85.222.202","208.54.40.215"
"2013-08-30 06:08","Lte","38.65999","-90.19670",9385,5469,37,"Tempe, AZ","21.85.222.202","208.54.40.215"
The improvement seem to have spanned out to "push-out" the 2G speeds I was getting in Fairview heights, IL... Really Excited about this.... Now All's t-mob needs to do is build a dedicated connection alone major highway networks.
4G LTE... YEAH! Next test is Wentzville and Lake Saint Louis area
I work in Lynn, and I've been getting 11-12mb down on average for the last few days. Today I felt like my connection was a little slow, do I ran speed test and get this- 4.2 down/9.6 up! Wut?
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
zerolgk5 said:
I work in Lynn, and I've been getting 11-12mb down on average for the last few days. Today I felt like my connection was a little slow, do I ran speed test and get this- 4.2 down/9.6 up! Wut?
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, let us not forget that T-Mobile is still in "Roll out" phase when it comes to LTE. During this phase, we can't expect that the overall experience will always be the best. There will be time where depending on the towers upgrade status, network congestion, utilization and more you will experience slower speeds.
I say, don't judge the network because of one day of sub-par performance, give it some time, and you will notice the improvements.
megabiteg said:
Well, let us not forget that T-Mobile is still in "Roll out" phase when it comes to LTE. During this phase, we can't expect that the overall experience will always be the best. There will be time where depending on the towers upgrade status, network congestion, utilization and more you will experience slower speeds.
I say, don't judge the network because of one day of sub-par performance, give it some time, and you will notice the improvements.
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Spoken like a true T-Mobile employee, lol... No, I just thought it was weird. I'd never seen higher upload speeds than download before.
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So, I live in a rural area, and this isn't likely to change for the next year or two. We have a marginal DSL connection, which has problems that ATT is extremely apathetic about solving. So I've come to rely on my DNA on an unlimited plan to tether. We actually have an LTE tower here, which is great! However, as 4g phones have become more prevalent, naturally the quality of my service began to suffer. I believe I'm roughly 2 miles from the nearest tower.
In the beginning, I would get 20 down, 5 up. Way more than I was used to and plenty for streaming Twitch/Netflix and surfing the web. The connection was rock solid and of course great for gaming. Lately, I'm lucky to get 5 down, 2 up. From 8pm to midnight, There are periods that I'll get .5 down. Point 5. One half. 500kbps. 2 bars of 4g. 500kbps. Even right now, at 5pm, I'm buffering frequently on a 2Mbps twitch stream, doing nothing else with the connection.
So I guess I need to end with a question. Is this a tower issue, can it possibly be that congested? Is it the radio on my DNA somehow? I'm running the stock ROM (rooted, s-off, unlocked stock ROM from the forums here.) and latest radio. Is there a radio version that's reputed to perform better? I'm not much of a phone guy when I'm at home, so if there's some way I can arrange it to be more reliable, putting it on a high shelf or something weird or crazy, I'm open-minded. Is there a ROM that'll make it easier? I used to run Viper, but I didn't use all the features so felt like stock was reasonable.
Basically, any suggestions for improving my LTE performance are welcome.
It could be the tower is congested. I know if I go downtown Phoenix area during the day, I cannot get above 250kbps, but uptown areas like Glendale and Peoria, I never go below 10mbps. It is because downtown towers are congested.
If it is the tower like my experience above, no radio flash will help you.
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Thanks for the input. That's pretty much what I'd concluded about my location as well, even though we aren't a high population area. It's a one-intersection town in the midwest. I suppose the tower could be located differently from where I believe it is, but that one would be even less populated.
What is your 4G coverage like in an urban area as opposed to at home? I'm also s-off, rooted and on stock ROM and live in the country. I'm almost smack in the middle of two towers, one two miles to the east and one a mile and a half to the west. When I'm at home my speeds are 15 down and 2-3 up with one to two bars. When I'm in the city area my speeds are almost 35 down and 15-20 up with full bars. In populated areas Verizon lines to have many towers covering an area so the phone can triangulate between the towers to get the best speed and coverage. Those of us in the country usually have only one tower in town and towns are sitar apart so the phone can't triangulate a signal. Once the line tower becomes congested we have no other towers to fall back on and speeds are effected. Which sounds like the problem you describe.
that makes a lot of sense sabres. I don't get out much so I can't really gauge how things work out of a home situation, unfortunately.