I live in an area that has...umm...less than stellar tmobile service. Call/sms is ok most of the time but the data connection here is nonexistant for all intensive purposes. Can't use Pandora, can't really browse the internet, can't do much of anything that involves a data connection.
I was wondering if there was a way to improve this. The AT&T service out here has pretty good signal strength and 3g. I know both are gsm. There isn't a way to use their towers without getting a new number and sim, is there?
Is there anything else I can do to improve data reception? I love my phone and tmobile is pretty good everywhere around me...it's just pretty bad here.
rmp5s said:
I live in an area that has...umm...less than stellar tmobile service. Call/sms is ok most of the time but the data connection here is nonexistant for all intensive purposes. Can't use Pandora, can't really browse the internet, can't do much of anything that involves a data connection.
I was wondering if there was a way to improve this. The AT&T service out here has pretty good signal strength and 3g. I know both are gsm. There isn't a way to use their towers without getting a new number and sim, is there?
Is there anything else I can do to improve data reception? I love my phone and tmobile is pretty good everywhere around me...it's just pretty bad here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you won't be able to ride ATTs network with a tmo SIM. The only thing I can recommend is try flashing different modems and see if any of them help increase your data. The modem bible is somewhere floating in the first couple pages of the dev section. Failing that, wifi when you are at home is gonna be the only fix until tmo gets a stronger tower out where you're at.
Related
All,
I have a battery drain problem that only occurs in locations where I have poor signal, particularly the office building I work in every other week.
I believe my phone is constantly switching from 3G to HSPA+ to 2G and back.
Is there any way to boost the signal so it doesn't need to switch?
Or should I try to find a way to disable 3G/4G when I am at this particular location?
Or maybe there is something I have not thought of...
Suggestions?
The only way to boost the signal is to buy their (AT&T) socall signal booster (mini tower) that cost you $300.00USD.
BeenAndroidized said:
The only way to boost the signal is to buy their (AT&T) socall signal booster (mini tower) that cost you $300.00USD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it was $200. Call them up and complain. I got 2 for free
Yep, my local cor store had a bunch of refurb microcells for 50 bucks. Works great for me.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA App
For now my workaround is a wifi hotspot i am broadcasting from my laptop... but i have to be within 100 feet of my desk.
Warning: Created with Swype
I have only minor issues with my cell tower. Some time mms don't get sent out. Or takes about 5 sec to send out a call sometimes. My internet is a solid 12mb down and a 2mb up. So don't think its my internet.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
3G and HSPA+ don't really change much since HSPA+ is only used with high data transfers that require the multiple 3G connections.
Can you upload a screenshot of your battery graph, stats, and CPUspy?
BeenAndroidized said:
The only way to boost the signal is to buy their (AT&T) socall signal booster (mini tower) that cost you $300.00USD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not the only option - Bidirectional amps don't have the numerous compatibility problems microcells have, however they're more difficult to install. At the workplace, they would have to be installed by facilities management - but corporate firewalls will probably prevent microcells from working anyway.
Also, microcells are notorious for murdering battery.
nh5 said:
I thought it was $200. Call them up and complain. I got 2 for free
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The prices vary, I don't have one and not planning to buy one either..
Entropy512 said:
Not the only option - Bidirectional amps don't have the numerous compatibility problems microcells have, however they're more difficult to install. At the workplace, they would have to be installed by facilities management - but corporate firewalls will probably prevent microcells from working anyway.
Also, microcells are notorious for murdering battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is true, it is not the only option.
Unfortunately for me, I have the worst of both worlds, I live out in the country, so I have terrible internet and crappy cell coverage, so for users like me, its not really much of an option. I do know that I am a minority, but it still is frustrating.
joshh20 said:
Unfortunately for me, I have the worst of both worlds, I live out in the country, so I have terrible internet and crappy cell coverage, so for users like me, its not really much of an option. I do know that I am a minority, but it still is frustrating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A Wilson amp might be your solution then.
If network switching is something you still want to pursue, Try saving the following phone number to your contact list...
*#2263#
When you type it into the dialer, choose: GSM Band/GSM All. Menu/Back/Menu/End. Restarting the phone is not required. You can always switch it back by re-dialing the number and picking Automatic. Menu/End.
Verify the settings held by *#*#info#*#* Phone Information/Network Type. Should say: GPRS.
I live on the rural edge of 3/4G and the network switching was annoying and possibly not helping my battery life. I have 3/4G disabled most of the time because I don't have a data plan anyways (I use wifi for everything). Normal battery life with several hours of calls, wifi, email, browsing, etc. on the stock 2.3.4/HK7 is 2-3 days.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-i777 using XDA Premium
Signal Booster will help
Entropy512 said:
A Wilson amp might be your solution then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
As mentioned by Entropy512, a signal booster may be a good solution for you.
Not only will it provide you with better signal but it will also help your phone save a lot of battery because it will only have to roam as far as the booster to get the signal source, compared to finding the closest cell tower.
For rural areas, if you are far from the cell tower, the installation of such a booster should be accompanied by an outdoors directional antenna pointed towards the cell tower and providing the highest signal gain inside your office.
Wilson boosters are among the most reliable ones, but you can also consider Cellphone-Mate or Wi-Ex, they may be a bit cheaper.
I used to have nasty 3G reception at my house and fixed it by getting a Wi-EX YX545 amp from the quantum-wireless website, they sell a bunch of boosters & antennas.
Hope this helps
If you just want to disable the connections rather than finding a way to boost the signal, try using Tasker. You can set it up so that when you reach your workplace, it will do what you want (disable data, enable airplane mode, etc). You can have the phone check for data periodically. As for voice calls, you can probably even set it to forward calls to your work phone.
As soon as you leave, the app will restore most of your settings (you probably would need to teach it how to stop forwarding calls).
been looking at these lately to boost my signal at home. I'm aware these incorporate data usage on top of mobile data plan such as downloading a 200mb file through 3g or 4g will also add same usage to your monthly with the ISP. luckily I'm just looking for better signal since I'm on wifi at home anyways while 3g or 4g is only on for mms which isn't often.
Do you get a decent signal outside your house? You can go with a booster if you do.
mjones73 said:
Do you get a decent signal outside your house? You can go with a booster if you do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kind of depending which room I'm in. if I'm upstairs and on side towards a tower I get 4-5 bars vs 2-3 everywhere else...sometimes one depending on Verizon's end
dyetheskin said:
kind of depending which room I'm in. if I'm upstairs and on side towards a tower I get 4-5 bars vs 2-3 everywhere else...sometimes one depending on Verizon's end
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant completely outside, they sell cell phone boosters where you mount an antenna outside of your house and feed it down to a booster in the house that repeats the signal inside. That method lets you help kill dead spots in the house and it still uses the towers vs your broadband connection.
As for the Verizon device, can't comment on it personally, I'm sure there are some reviews elsewhere in the forum. I don't think any data pulled over one of these would count against your Verizon data plan since it's coming over your broadband connection though, would be the equivalent of being on wifi.
Are you wanting to improve your voice connection or data connection? At a school I work at the Principal had a AT&T extender installed and it helps a lot with voice, but overall it was better to stay on wifi for the data connection.
Personally if it was me if your voice connection was good, I would just stick on Wifi for data if its not that great for 3G or 4G.
Lots of questions answered in this FAQ:
http://support.verizonwireless.com/faqs/Equipment/network_extender.html
I have one for voice and it works pretty well.
I keep it in my closet and it does the job, however there are some downsides.
It does not "extend" data, so I generally need to use WiFi in my house. I've heard the newer models will handle data as well; not sure if they handle 4G.
It does not hand-off to towers. This means you cannot initiate a call in your house then walk outside of the house; you'll drop the call. This applies for coming into your house as well.
This might be obvious, but it's reliant on how good your internet is. For example, while I was uploading my Google Music collection, I could not make calls using the extender because my connection was essentially tapped. I tried to set up QoS, but setting to low was the only thing that sort of worked.
I have one and Etherboo is correct. I'll add that they do not handle 4g. Doesn't matter because I use wifi at home.
That said, it works very well for voice. For some reason they need a GPS fix. Mine's in my basement office and I have to use the external GPS antenna that's provided.
So I've been reading up on the sprint airave, seems great. But I use my phones internet on my laptop and don't have a dedicated itnernet line....... Therefore using an airave is out of the question. Are there any other similar ways of boosting my signal strength or am I sh*t out of luck
[Edit]
Other than prls and different radios
Sent From My Eco 4g Using Mean 4.2
Phutt89 said:
So I've been reading up on the sprint airave, seems great. But I use my phones internet on my laptop and don't have a dedicated itnernet line....... Therefore using an airave is out of the question. Are there any other similar ways of boosting my signal strength or am I sh*t out of luck
[Edit]
Other than prls and different radios
Sent From My Eco 4g Using Mean 4.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an airave setup at my work & it works great. Have had very little problems with it. My only complaints with the airave is you can restrict which sprint #'s it will work on which is a great feature (can be any sprint # doesn't have to be on same account) however after settings it up over time #'s you put in seem to drop off. If your not authorized for the airave and you come into the office the airave actually makes the signal worse for the person on the phone over the tower. So if your not authorized the phone will see it but won't connect to it so the bars jump up and down making the signals even worse. I ended up shutting that feature off cause I was sick of having to re add numbers to the list. I just have it set to open now works fine. Also when your coming in from outside it won't let you hop on to the airave but if you are leaving it will transfer over to the tower. However I found this feature doesn't work very and a lot of times will drop the call. Sometimes it works but the handoff is not smooth at all and it breaks up. Also there is a very annoying dining sound when you are using the airave when a call first connects or you answer it. I have got use to it but there is no way to shut it off.
I also have a Wilson 841262 booster on order which doesn't need an internet connection. Although I can't provide a review for you since I haven't set it up yet, it does have great reviews and after much research seems to be the best value repeater. I didn't want a junk one or spend a grand on one so I think this is a good price point. I would stay away from the "desk ones" you want entire house coverage with decent signal output. I can let you know how it works once I get it running but if it works well at $350 while still steep is manageable. My only concern with this unit is how it will handle handoffs although your not really doing a hand off because say you start a call inside your house it's on the repeater then walk outside it should stay on the same tower it's not really handing off to a different tower but the phone still has to transition from the repeater base to the tower itself so I'm curious to see how well that works.
I've somewhat recently obtained the LG G2 Mini (D620R) due to my stupid self bricking my Samsung S3. In every single way it utterly destroys the S3, despite the S3's specs being slightly better. I've recently switched to T-Mobile, since I was under the impression that T-Mobile is a GSM carrier, and my phone is GSM as far as I know and Straighttalk was no longer a viable option.
I was told I would get spotty data coverage where I live, and that is completely understandable and I knew that going in. However, I have been getting little to no voice and text service where I live, and fair service in town. Even a free cell booster did not seem to help despite getting fair signal at the window unit. I did a bit of troubleshooting and for some reason, the phone is connected to T-Mobile (WCDMA). This makes no sense as A)It's a GSM phone (afaik). B) T-Mobile is a GSM carrier. The only other options when scanning the networks in the area are AT&T (WCDMA) and AT&T (GSM). In town, there is a T-Mobile (GSM) network, but selecting it results in EDGE instead of 3G/H. The cell booster did work some at first, but it seems to have stopped helping at all. Since it is not a T-Mobile phone I can't use Wi-Fi calling/texting. Is there something I'm missing? Did I find wrong information/get lied to about T-Mobile? Did I get scammed on the phone? I'm hoping I can get some help or figure this out, I can't really afford another phone and getting a phone through T-Mobile would push my bill up way too high (and honestly, I'm considering dropping to the non-unlimited plan because of how insanely expensive it is).
A less important question, how do I bypass the tethering restrictions? Do I need to root the phone or is there a simpler method? Last time I rooted a phone...it resulted in me having to buy this one in the first place...
Also, is the S3 really that badly crippled by Touchwiz a weaker phone can utterly humiliate it?
Ok, first of all google a bit about mobile network standards, there's everything explained. I'll just introduce you with a few things:
1. WCDMA is not equal to CDMA, it actually represents 3G standard for regular (not CDMA) phones.
2. GSM equals 2G standard, and it gives EDGE data communication, while WCDMA equals 3G/3G+ standard and it gives HSPA/HSPA+ data communication.
As I said just google it, at your location you probably have stronger 2G than 3G signal, and when you go to some bigger town or city you get 3G better.
For start read the information given at this link.
Problem is, I get absolutely no EDGE at all where I live, only 3G/H and I consistently lose all service and cannot make calls. I am well within the coverage area for at least voice. I also have been having more and more troubles with data even in town. It's progressively gotten to the point where I have to constantly toggle data just to get some mobile data for a few minutes or so.
Try to select 2g only network and you should get EDGE.
If I select 2G Only, I get no service at all, it doesn't even attempt to search for a signal where I live (Red 'X' instead of spinny icon). However in town if I do this, I do immediately get switched to EDGE/2G and it's signal is slightly better.
Than it means you don't have network coverage at your place, that's all.
My booster however shows it gets 3 bars, and I was made aware at the time I would get at the very least get voice service. I did some checking and I'm about 5 miles from the nearest cell tower. My only other option at this point is AT&T, but I have a general distaste for them, can't afford a phone if they don't have a BYOP program, and they do shady things to rooted phones from what I've heard.
I do expect poor or no data service where I live, I can make do with that. What I don't expect is no voice service at all, sometimes even to the point of no E911 either.
This weekend I'm going to a location where I get poor reception on my phone with verizon.
I know from past experiences the locals where I'm going have cell phones that seem to work. I'm not sure what provider they all use though. Might be a dumb question, but can I change the Preferred network type to something else to get better reception?
My phone is LG G3 running ResurrectionRemix M 5.7.3
Under the Preferred network type I have lots of different options: see image attachment.
I'm usually on Global. Although I do have to toggle between LTE sometime to get data to work but I think that is more a bug with ROM/phone.
Do phones not work this way?
Thanks in advance.
It's rare that it would make much of a difference, but it doesn't hurt to try. If nothing else, out of curiousity. If it's super terrible and you really need service, your phone is unlocked so you can probably find a prepaid carrier that you can at least get service with while you're there. I know Tmo has Pay as You Go service for $3 a day, but requires a $20 SIM card / service fee.
I really don't know about your location but here switching network does bring better reception. Here we don't have 4G so we are forced to use 3G or 2G. So while using 3G I get -100dB, which is really poor but while switching to 2G I get around -85dB. Again, this is reference to my place. It all depends on the carrier and the nearest cell tower.