I travel a lot and the voice and data coverage on my new Atrix is terrible. I was in Ga and just recently at the airport in Charlotte, NC. I am coming from a Razr which had excellent coverage, so I don't know if this is my Atrix, the network with smartphones, or the network in general.
I'm thinking of replacing the phone and trying another one, but I just don't know. Seems like not many on this list have had a problem with this.
Sig Girl
Recent smartphones use 3G, which can be spotty compared to what your Razr uses, EDGE I think. And unfortunately your phone will most likely stick with the spotty 3G instead of a stronger EDGE signal. The only time it switches down to EDGE is if there's no 3G signal. Unfortunately there is no "disable 3G' option in the Atrix. My wife's blackberry 9000 Bold does have this option and it came in handy when the 3G signal in our home was there but flooded/unusable. A custom Atrix ROM here on xda might have this feature, I'm not sure.
Actually, can't you go to settings - wireless & networks - mobile network - select network - and choose 2g only? Wouldn't that get you edge?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
maledyris said:
Actually, can't you go to settings - wireless & networks - mobile network - select network - and choose 2g only? Wouldn't that get you edge?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
not on AT&T, the select network is greyed out (set to Automatic). It seems there is method to do this on the Atrix, but it seems to be a bit buggy/not work all the time for at least one person.
Related
On the vibrant theres an option to run on I think what is called edge network, I could be wrong, does verizon have such a network to run off of my buddies vibrant's batteries life is unreal...well aolt better than mine.???
Thx
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Edge is the 2g network, when you drop a 3g signal your phone gets stuck on Verizon's version of it... I guess it would improve battery life but don't try to any browsing on it...
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Edge is a type of GSM network, Verizon uses CDMA, so no, you can't use EDGE.
The equivalent to EDGE in Verizon would be the 1X data connection, as opposed to the 3G (EVDO) connection. I know we can disable mobile data with Froyo, but I don't think there's any way (without some kind of hack) to force the phone to always use a 1X data connection.
Sent from XDA Premium on my Super Clean Fascinate
It's somewhere in the hidden menus.
GSM phones, in general, get much better battery life. It has to do with the network. Coverage vs Battery life it's a toss up
on my captivate i used to be able to set the network selection to use auto, 3G only and Edge. i dont see these options in wireless settings, i jsut see an option to select network. is there a way to set it to only use 3G?
No because the phone only shows either E for edge or H+ for 3G or HSDPA.
More than likely you could get an application from the market that lets you switch and see if that works, but.... what's wrong with the way it manages data now?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
Well lately ive noticed my H symbol flashing too 3g for a few seconds then back. Im on gingerblur and not sure if its the Rom or what, but its wierd. Has anyone with gingerblur seen the 3g symbol.
neotekz said:
on my captivate i used to be able to set the network selection to use auto, 3G only and Edge. i dont see these options in wireless settings, i jsut see an option to select network. is there a way to set it to only use 3G?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Newer phones are using "smart" radio management chips (or something like that). The newly released Thunderbolt is the same way. Which sucks because it was a good tool for battery management
it sometimes switches to edge and i wanted to force it to stay on 3G. my captivate would do the same thing and keeping it on 3G worked fine.
is there any hacks to add this setting?
JayRolla said:
Well lately ive noticed my H symbol flashing too 3g for a few seconds then back. Im on gingerblur and not sure if its the Rom or what, but its wierd. Has anyone with gingerblur seen the 3g symbol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have, I even did a sbf and installed just the theme, adeo and rooted and am getting this issue. Not sure what the deal is.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
neotekz said:
it sometimes switches to edge and i wanted to force it to stay on 3G. my captivate would do the same thing and keeping it on 3G worked fine.
is there any hacks to add this setting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol it switches to edge because you don't have a 3G ssignal; what else is it supposed to do if you don't have it?
You can choose (for throat part) to go down but you can't just magically get a better/faster signal.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
FLAC Vest said:
Lol it switches to edge because you don't have a 3G ssignal; what else is it supposed to do if you don't have it?
You can choose (for throat part) to go down but you can't just magically get a better/faster signal.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my captivate used to switch to edge too but when i locked it to 3G it never lost signal just gets weaker. seems like it switch prematurely when 3G is weak NOT totally gone.
*#*#4636#*#*
Phone options
Click the drop down menu and select network mode you want
thanks! what setting should i choose for 3G, gsm only or wcdma only?
neotekz said:
my captivate used to switch to edge too but when i locked it to 3G it never lost signal just gets weaker. seems like it switch prematurely when 3G is weak NOT totally gone.
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Click to collapse
That's all well and good, however if you completely lost 3G then it wouldn't be there, even if you have the setting locked.
Setting =\= Result
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FLAC Vest said:
That's all well and good, however if you completely lost 3G then it wouldn't be there, even if you have the setting locked.
Setting =\= Result
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
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Click to collapse
i understand that it wont give me a better signal. but i use my cell in low reception area and dont want it to constantly switching to edge and back and kill my battery. like i said i've used the captivate with 3g only and never completely lost 3G even with the captivate's crappy radio.
Wcdma only
neotekz said:
i understand that it wont give me a better signal. but i use my cell in low reception area and dont want it to constantly switching to edge and back and kill my battery. like i said i've used the captivate with 3g only and never completely lost 3G even with the captivate's crappy radio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol I think I should state this.
I understand what you're saying and I am not saying I think you're wring; on the contrary, I actually do that as well, however I move mine down to edge when I'm not going to be doing anything data intensive.
I was just stating what I said to inform people, just in case someone thought you could force 3G at ALL times, which isn't possible if you aren't getting 3G in your area.
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hondaguy said:
*#*#4636#*#*
Phone options
Click the drop down menu and select network mode you want
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you make the selection stick? I tried a reboot and everything
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
i think you have to redo the setting when you reboot.
Edit: i just notice that it also changes back when i plugged it in overnight. is there a way to keep this setting permanently?
I too am needing to set my phone to connect to Edge only. I have 1 bar at the house when my network type is HSDPA. When connected to HSDPA at the house, with one bar, I constantly get dropped calls or my phone may not ring at all. If the phone decides to connect to Edge, which has a full signal, then everything seems to be a-ok. Most of the time the phone completely disconnects from all networks when it switches from HSDPA to Edge... not cool.
I can not get this sucker to connect to Edge only via setting the preferred network type to WCDMA. The phone will automatically set itself to GSM/CDMA auto (PRL) if I manually try to set WCDMA as the preferred network.
Rather annoying to say the least. ATT is the only carrier that has a full signal at the house. That's the only reason I that I signed up with them.
yokozuna82 said:
How do you make the selection stick? I tried a reboot and everything
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i just select the band i want and press the back key. usually the signal strength indicator will show no signal for a couple of seconds, then it will change to what i had selected. thats it
yokozuna82 said:
How do you make the selection stick? I tried a reboot and everything
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xenorabbit said:
I too am needing to set my phone to connect to Edge only. I have 1 bar at the house when my network type is HSDPA. When connected to HSDPA at the house, with one bar, I constantly get dropped calls or my phone may not ring at all. If the phone decides to connect to Edge, which has a full signal, then everything seems to be a-ok. Most of the time the phone completely disconnects from all networks when it switches from HSDPA to Edge... not cool.
I can not get this sucker to connect to Edge only via setting the preferred network type to WCDMA. The phone will automatically set itself to GSM/CDMA auto (PRL) if I manually try to set WCDMA as the preferred network.
Rather annoying to say the least. ATT is the only carrier that has a full signal at the house. That's the only reason I that I signed up with them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats because wcdma is 3g only. you need to the GSM option, thats edge.
GSM=edge only
wcdma=3g only
GSM auto=3g or edge, phone decides depending on signal strength
I am wondering if there is way for me to shut down the 4G service on my amaze and have 3G instead. I know on some android phones it is possible. signal drops on 4G is really pissing me off
vikramdhani said:
I am wondering if there is way for me to shut down the 4G service on my amaze and have 3G instead. I know on some android phones it is possible. signal drops on 4G is really pissing me off
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Click to collapse
if it drops 4g it should automatically switch to 3g, if its not, its either cause you have no data reception at all at the time, or you have a screwed up phone, probably not the latter. There are some toggle apps you can look into on the market though, elixir is really good, and beautiful widgets has a 4g toggle i believe as well... hope this helps ya...
I'm using LTE switch. cuts it down too 4G
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.geoffreybuttercrumbs.lteswitch&feature=search_result
GSM Only (2g)
GSM Auto (4g)
elixir looks nice, I'm going to play around with it.
TheHeffNerr said:
I'm using LTE switch. cuts it down too 4G
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.geoffreybuttercrumbs.lteswitch&feature=search_result
GSM Only (2g)
GSM Auto (4g)
elixir looks nice, I'm going to play around with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the LTE switch works for HSPA+?
It's kicking my phone down too and showing 2G and after running a speed test it's like 200kbps. I haven't really tried to kick it over to 3G.
vikramdhani said:
I am wondering if there is way for me to shut down the 4G service on my amaze and have 3G instead. I know on some android phones it is possible. signal drops on 4G is really pissing me off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your choices are 2G or 3G/4G. The 3G and 4G signals are essentially the same, both WCDMA. This is why you don't see a 3G icon, it is all wrapped into the 4G icon.
If you want to stop 4G data, you can download the widget from the market or go to Settings > Wireless & Networks >Mobile Networks > and change Network Mode to GSM only.
thephunk said:
Your choices are 2G or 3G/4G. The 3G and 4G signals are essentially the same, both WCDMA. This is why you don't see a 3G icon, it is all wrapped into the 4G icon.
If you want to stop 4G data, you can download the widget from the market or go to Settings > Wireless & Networks >Mobile Networks > and change Network Mode to GSM only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This.
4G and 3G use the same "part" of the network.
T-Mobile's network is not like Verizon or Sprint, where a completely different communication channel is being used.
The functionality is quite similar to WiFi...With 802.11 B and G, they use they same frequencies and talk on the same channels. However, 802.11 B tops out at 10Mbps, while G is capable of hitting (theoretically) 54mbps. The only caveat being that both the access point and the client, must support the updated protocol.
So yes, although it's doesn't seem logical, your choice is either 4G (HSDPA and HSDPA+) or 2G (EDGE).
If 3 and 4g are the same on Tmobile's network, then when you're on 4G, does it use any more battery than it does on 3G?
My user experience says yes. The battery hogging is on par with the EVO and Sprint's wimax. There was a switch to revert to 3G, and all sprint users that I knew never used 4G because it drained the battery in a matter of a few hours.
On an AT&T iPhone 3G, the battery never drained this quickly.
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vikramdhani said:
I am wondering if there is way for me to shut down the 4G service on my amaze and have 3G instead. I know on some android phones it is possible. signal drops on 4G is really pissing me off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as i am not leaving the 3G or 4G area, i set mine on wcdma only. Problem solved. When i travel into 2g areas, i put it back on auto.
lamenramen said:
If 3 and 4g are the same on Tmobile's network, then when you're on 4G, does it use any more battery than it does on 3G?
My user experience says yes. The battery hogging is on par with the EVO and Sprint's wimax. There was a switch to revert to 3G, and all sprint users that I knew never used 4G because it drained the battery in a matter of a few hours.
On an AT&T iPhone 3G, the battery never drained this quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.. But our 3g and 4g has no dependence on our radio. It's dependent on the signal we receive. So to answer your question, no power is saved because 3g and 4g use the same part of the phone. Only on 2g because a lower power radio is receiving the data signal
Over 10000!!! You bet I am.
Hello,
I am coming from an Inspire 4g phone have been using the Not since its release date. I am having a similar issue with my Note that the Inspire had, but I am unable to work-around the issue the way the Inspire did.
My issue is that while my phone has great cell tower signal, my phone drops into Edge connectivity constantly. Prior to my Note upgrade, my Inspire would do the same thing, but I had a couple of work arounds I could do to lock back into 4G (HSPA+).
A) I could reboot the phone and the overwhelming majority of times it would go back to H+.
B) I could turn the mobile data radio off and then back on and again, the majority of the times, it would go back to H+.
C) The fix I used most often was to go into the phone dialer and dial *#*#4636#*#*. This brings up a back door to the testing screens and I could access the phone information section. In phone information, I could change the preferred network type and I would change from the default WCDMA preferred to either GSM ONLY or WCDMA ONLY depending on the area I was in. This not only work with near 100% success, it also locked the signal into H+ for longer periods of time.
Now that I have my Note, I have the same issue with the phone dropping to Edge service. However, when I try each of the 3 methods above, including *#*#4636#*#*, my phone stays locked into Edge. I can not get it to change.
I called AT&T about the issue and they explained to me that the phone will lock into the stronger signal, so if Edge is stronger, that is what I will get. I told them about my workaround with my Inspire and they could not give an explanation why it worked with that phone. I did talk them into re-sending the network information to my phone while on the call. They sent the information and while I was sitting still with full bars of signal strength, the phone miraculously popped into 4G service. I asked why it would change from Edge to H+ when they sent the network information since I didn't move to affect the signal and they could give me no explanation.
Does anyone have an idea how to make the Note ignore Edge service if H+ is available? If I can't figure this out, the Note is going back and I will stay with my Inspire 4G for now.
Thanks,
Roger
Flash the Rogers modem(I think)..its got RAT access or whatever its called.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
(I don't have a Note yet but...) Settings- Wireless and Network- Mobile Network- Network Preferences. Maybe you can force it there. Keep in mind this is an LTE phone, and SIM, so a little different than our Inspires.
kimtyson said:
Settings- Wireless and Network- Mobile Network- Network Preferences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unavailable on the stock rom.
kimtyson said:
(I don't have a Note yet but...) Settings- Wireless and Network- Mobile Network- Network Preferences. Maybe you can force it there. Keep in mind this is an LTE phone, and SIM, so a little different than our Inspires.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As stated, this is not available in stock rom nor TPC Note 2, which I am currently running. However, based on what I remember seeing on other Samsung phones, the *#*#4636#*#* feature I reference is supposed to do the same thing.
Thanks for the replies. Looks like the RAT feature is locked. Using the Rogers Radio seems to fix the problem, but breaks video playback at this time.
I found it an other thread, so I don't take any credit for it as someone else posted it, but I have confirmed it works on my Galaxy Note
*#*#197328640#*#* > debug screen > phone control > network control > band selection
You need to do this after each reboot though as it does not stick.
To work around this I have made a contact and only left out the last * in it, so all you do is use that as a speed dial and you are good to go
My town just got 4g and I've noticed that my phone will choose more bars of 3g over less bars of 4g. But id rather have 2 bars of 4g than 4 bars of 3g if you know what I mean. Is there any way to help this? Any apps I can download?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app
It doesn't really work that way. 3g and 4g are independent connections that are maintained simultaneously. You're still connected to 3g even when 4g is connected. If you aren't getting 4g, then it simply isn't connecting to it and there really isn't much you can do about it.
gabezermeno said:
My town just got 4g and I've noticed that my phone will choose more bars of 3g over less bars of 4g. But id rather have 2 bars of 4g than 4 bars of 3g if you know what I mean. Is there any way to help this? Any apps I can download?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Since I am on the latest ICS global firmware and a custom ROM, I not sure if if this location is still accurate, but go to settings-call-preferred network. When you get to this you should see a number of options. One is LTE only (4G setting) if that is what you want to do. However, if you do this, then you may not get a data connection if 4G is not available. Also, if you have a weak 4G signal, if will eat up your battery time.
You might try downloading a 4G Toggle program from Play Store. It will take you directly to phone settings. Even though I live in a 4G area, I actually leave my phone in 3G CDMA only mode unless I really need the 4G speed to download something. I get much better battery life.
You could try getting into the hidden phone settings and changing your prefered connection to CDMA, LTE which should disable 3g if i understand it right. That option should also save you a bit of battery life as well if it works.
You should be able to choose lte only from the hidden menu
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