I have been happily using my UK version of the Galaxy S2 on AT&T for over a month. But I have a weird problem that AT&T claims is because I have a UK phone.
I live in an area with very few cell towers. When something goes wrong with one of those towers and AT&T says it is in degraded status, my phone continues to connect to that tower just because it is the strongest signal. AT&T claims that they send updates to our phones which would prevent connecting to a degraded tower. They also tell m that because I didn't purchase my phone thru AT&T and it is a UK phone, they can't send me those updates and therefore, my problem continues.
Has anyone else seen this issue or have a workaround? Is AT&T full of bs?
i think they are full of bs because an att rep told me that there is no way to get my phone to connect to another tower that the phone will select the strongest signal by default, oh good luck getting att to fix your degraded tower the one by my house has been degraded foor 2 weeks now with no fix in sight or even an attempt to fix it. every time i call in i get the same run around bs gives me about there are alot of degraded towers in pa due to the flood and we are working hard to restore them.
voltmeter101 said:
i think they are full of bs because an att rep told me that there is no way to get my phone to connect to another tower that the phone will select the strongest signal by default, oh good luck getting att to fix your degraded tower the one by my house has been degraded foor 2 weeks now with no fix in sight or even an attempt to fix it. every time i call in i get the same run around bs gives me about there are alot of degraded towers in pa due to the flood and we are working hard to restore them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the feeling. I live in Oregon in a very rural area mostly farmland and forest. Most likely the only people that use the towers I use are people driving thru the area which aren't going to complain, me, and 10-20 houses with people that probably won't bother complaining. Many of them use landlines or are verizon customers. So it is very difficult to get AT&T to care enough to look into it.
I work for an At&t dealer and I would try calling back a couple times and see if you can get a different answer. I would ask them to "Refresh the service to your phone because..." I know they push updates out to the phones but I'm pretty sure all it does is disconnet and reconnect the phone which will then find the tower with the good signal. It sounds partially true what you were told but i can't say 100% cause i'm no cell tower tech.
Related
Anyone have any experience with these ?
Does Tmo normally make you buy them or what ?
I have an issue with signal and data only at work but, after pricing
Sprint, Verizon, and At&t, I would be paying double what I am now each month.
I called them and they said I could only get one for home use because
if a call was made to 911 from another cell phone in the signal booster
radius, 911 would not be able to tell the phones location.
Would they even be able to tell that I was using it at work instead of home ?
I just signed a new contract a week ago and bought the Amaze so I am well within the 30 days I have to reverse the contract.
I cant tether at work, I can barely make a call, and many times I cant even do that.
You could change your billing address to work and then go that route. The 911 part is likely a regulation so I don't think there's anything you can do about that.
id also like to know more about a signal booster? the woman at the store mentioned it but tech support didnt
going_home said:
Anyone have any experience with these ?
Does Tmo normally make you buy them or what ?
I have an issue with signal and data only at work but, after pricing
Sprint, Verizon, and At&t, I would be paying double what I am now each month.
I called them and they said I could only get one for home use because
if a call was made to 911 from another cell phone in the signal booster
radius, 911 would not be able to tell the phones location.
Would they even be able to tell that I was using it at work instead of home ?
I just signed a new contract a week ago and bought the Amaze so I am well within the 30 days I have to reverse the contract.
I cant tether at work, I can barely make a call, and many times I cant even do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you have wifi at work? nov 13th the wifi calling update is going to be released (hopefully)
I'm with TMO and just got their signal booster about a week ago.
The tech support person I talked to wasn't particularly helpful and seemed very concerned about following her script rather than actually helping - that said, to get the free booster, you must meet their criteria precisely, no room for judgement here.
Their requirements are you are not in an apartment complex, you have to have 2 bars of signal, and the person I talked to was extremely concerned with the physical size and floors of my house.
Installing the unit is really simple - there is a receiver and a transmitter. The receiver needs to be in the best place to get a signal in your house and the transmitter basically needs to be in the middle of your house. The two devices need to be a certain distance apart to work. Again this was a source of confusion with tech support. She was convinced the device only works on one floor and there is only one part to it. I mention this in case you have similar issues communicating with TMO.
All in all, it took about 45 minutes on the phone to get the device and once it was here, 10 minutes to get everything in place. Since then I've had a great signal here - 4 or 5 bars. Data has been around 14mbs down.
Anything else?
Thanks. I will have to stay on them about this signal booster. Can't wait to have signal ay home
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda premium
I don't have wifi at work .
I just wonder if they could tell if I used it at work .
I wouldn't leave it on all the time it even leave it there because
risk of loss.
I do only have randomly one or two bars at home though .
Guess I'll try and get one.
I can't see how they could tell where it was being used.
The issue though is capacity.
The way the device works is the receiver is put where you get the best signal. It then re transmits over a different open public frequency (like a cordless phone), to the transmitter. The transmitter then acts like a mini cell tower.
The problem is the transmission between the two units has a limited bandwidth. If more than a few cell phones are talking to the transmitter, the band width will be used up and signal will degrade.
So if you take it to work and no one else winds up connecting to it, you're fine. But if more than a couple of cell phones connect, you will all get crappy service. (this is also why they don't use it in apartment complexes)
buy/own your own signal booster. the same one you can get from T-Mobile:
http://cel-fi.com/overview#get_celfi
use this code to get $100 off:
Code:
5BARS
it's expensive... $525-$100=$425, but you don't have to jump through T-Mobile's hoops to get it and use it
338lm said:
buy/own your own signal booster. the same one you can get from T-Mobile:
http://cel-fi.com/overview#get_celfi
use this code to get $100 off:
Code:
5BARS
it's expensive... $525-$100=$425, but you don't have to jump through T-Mobile's hoops to get it and use it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK I will get one myself as T-Mobile required a two year contract
And I just this month entered one for this phone.
going_home said:
OK I will get one myself as T-Mobile required a two year contract
And I just this month entered one for this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're already in a contract, its not an additional 2 years, its 2 years from the date they send the device.
I got my phone, under contract, a month before I got the cell booster, so in effect it only extends my contract one month.
If you plan on buying a unit, and you're not intimidated by a little wiring, there are better options out there for the same or less money. They just require you to run a cable from the receiver to the transmitter. (search amazon for wilson electronics)
Those options allow you to get customize your antenna to allow for a much better signal.
-Tony
Tony,
Do you have a link to the repeater that T-Mobile sent you? I have very marginal reception in my house, and want to look over what it is they send you. Any other tips (which number did you call? etc.) for getting one of these repeaters? I just got my Amaze a couple days after it was released.
Ryan
Contracts don't add up so you wouldn't have 4 years... You'd just extend 2 years starting at this point.
Cel-fi is the brand.
I just called the regular customer service number and went to technical support. I had to talk three people to get to the right person - they each knew it was possible to get a booster, but weren't empowered to make it happen - and the final person wasn't too up on things either.
Just let them know you have at least two bars in an area of your house near a window (don't know why, but the person I talked to was concerned this was the case) and the rest of your house is worse. If you live in an apartment, that will exclude you. The person I was talking to was also convinced a three story house was out of the question, but its working perfectly for me.
It may not work for you and if it doesn't they do have a 14 day or 30 day (I forget which) period that you can return the device and they roll back any commitments .
If your signal is really bad, you may have to purchase you're own unit with a directional antenna. They're not hard to set up, just way more time consuming to install and cost about $350+/-
oryan_dunn said:
Tony,
Do you have a link to the repeater that T-Mobile sent you? I have very marginal reception in my house, and want to look over what it is they send you. Any other tips (which number did you call? etc.) for getting one of these repeaters? I just got my Amaze a couple days after it was released.
Ryan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, i looked up the Cel-fi, and it won't work for me
http://cel-fi.com/overview#get_celfi
I only have 2G at my house, and this requires at least 1 bar of 3G. I'll just wait for the WiFi calling on the Amaze, then I wouldn't need it anyways.
Photon wont get all my calls and the texts come through in batches.
Store cant replicate the problem. 2 other phones on my account and in the same house work fine. Both are EVO's.
Evo's run CM7.2, Photon is stock.
Tech support says its a network issue. I call BS. Tech support nor the store even wanna troubleshoot the phone. They both wanna blame it on network issues for either the iphone, LTE migration, swamped towers and even the airport i live a stones throw from.
Yes...The airport.
So where should i go from here?
Have you tried to reset all data connections?
##72786# but you must know your msl
To complete that step.
Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2
Ive hard reset the phone twice. one of those was an sbf.
Everytime I've personally ever had it happen to me or heard of this happening(with batch texts like that where theyll come in packs) is when there is just poor reception and it will do that.. Although if you have several other Sprint devices in same building that aren't doing that not sure what to tell you. If it is mainly/only happening at your house I'd call Sprint and have them send you out an Airave. They've been known to do it for free and no monthly fee sometimes. Ive got one in my house and it lights up my entire house and then some with rock solid coverage. Does it only do it around your house? Or everywhere no matter where your at? If it's only when at your house its most likely just a network issue..
Do you happen to have Google Voice installed? I had that problem when it was installed.
Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2
After about 2 hours and 7 people they finally decided to troubleshoot the phone. Turns out it's no longer talking to towers correctly. New phone on the way.
Signal in my house is amazing. I can see the tower I connect to. Never less than 4 bars.
I also have an airave box free from sprint in case signal ever goes down for any reason but it's not plugged in unless I need it.
No I do not.
i want to say about 6 months ago some guy comes knocking on my door asking to get in my back yard me wondering why asked he told me sprint was updating there towers(they say its a sprint tower) which is basically in my back yard. yet to this day i get 2 out of three bars in my house (im on cm10) i just dont understand how being less than 1000ft away from the tower dont get full service. to this day with having only get 4g one time while having the original evo. it just blows my mind how i dont have full service and while every single carrier around me has 4g sprint refuses to acknowledge the metro detroit area.
Get too close and you might not get very good service, too far same thing. I've never understood that. Tower down the street with WiMAX, just past the gate WiMAX would start dropping out, down the street it was fine.
ya i hear bluetooth and others wireless signals can work the same. im not saying i get terrible reception by any means it does what it needs, its more by the time (i assume if what they said is true the WiMaxx is there) by the time it was turned on WiMaxx was dead and i had already got my lte so i feel like i shot myself in the foot for trying to upgrade.
Thinking about switching to T-mobile in the SW Suburbs of Chicago; I'm on wifi most of the time, so data speed isnt important to me, but, we MUST have good phone call quality in our house.
Is this an issue for anyone in chicago land, or, if we get a phone that is "wifi capable", and we have a fast,strong, wifi network in our house, does this become a non issue?
We had ATT, which was no problem in the house, and recently switched to Sprint, with the hopes of a stong "Spark Network" here; well, one of our phones in Spark compatible, and works fine, but the other 2 phones are HTC One's, not spark "compatible", and have poor phone call quality and reception in the house. We are waiting on an AirRave front Sprint, but, if that doesnt work, we're ready to go to T-Mobile..
Sorry for this weird question here, but, I trust my buds on XDA to give a real report on stuff like this, NOT the people from T-Mobile
Thanks! :good:
wase4711 said:
Thinking about switching to T-mobile in the SW Suburbs of Chicago; I'm on wifi most of the time, so data speed isnt important to me, but, we MUST have good phone call quality in our house.
Is this an issue for anyone in chicago land, or, if we get a phone that is "wifi capable", and we have a fast,strong, wifi network in our house, does this become a non issue?
We had ATT, which was no problem in the house, and recently switched to Sprint, with the hopes of a stong "Spark Network" here; well, one of our phones in Spark compatible, and works fine, but the other 2 phones are HTC One's, not spark "compatible", and have poor phone call quality and reception in the house. We are waiting on an AirRave front Sprint, but, if that doesnt work, we're ready to go to T-Mobile..
Sorry for this weird question here, but, I trust my buds on XDA to give a real report on stuff like this, NOT the people from T-Mobile
Thanks! :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you will get the both of both worlds, i work for tmobile and also a tmobile customer. now I had sprint for7 years and switched to tmobile afterwards. it depends on which area your interested in. If you want me to give you the full details pm me a message and ill explain everything. where do you live by?
I received my new XA Ultra from Amazon yesterday. Popped in my SIM and started setting it up. It had two software updates out of the box, so I applied them, then started installing apps. I noticed that my cell connectivity would completely drop (no bars), then come back. When I checked in the Access Point settings, the option to discover carriers would appear, then disappear.
I assumed it was some kind of software corruption, so I factory reset, but it continued doing it. I also tried pulling the sim out and putting it back in several times. I can only assume that I somehow got a defective unit or that one of the software updates applied the radio incorrectly. I processed a return with Amazon and have a replacement coming later this week.
I hope Amazon doesn't turn around and resell it through warehouse deals. I have received a few devices from them that they clearly didn't test and I was very explicit in my comments for the return. I'm just hoping that my replacement doesn't exhibit the same issues because I'm not sure what else it could be. It's not my SIM. All of my other phones stay connected to AT&T just fine in the same spot.
greyhulk said:
I received my new XA Ultra from Amazon yesterday. Popped in my SIM and started setting it up. It had two software updates out of the box, so I applied them, then started installing apps. I noticed that my cell connectivity would completely drop (no bars), then come back. When I checked in the Access Point settings, the option to discover carriers would appear, then disappear.
I assumed it was some kind of software corruption, so I factory reset, but it continued doing it. I also tried pulling the sim out and putting it back in several times. I can only assume that I somehow got a defective unit or that one of the software updates applied the radio incorrectly. I processed a return with Amazon and have a replacement coming later this week.
I hope Amazon doesn't turn around and resell it through warehouse deals. I have received a few devices from them that they clearly didn't test and I was very explicit in my comments for the return. I'm just hoping that my replacement doesn't exhibit the same issues because I'm not sure what else it could be. It's not my SIM. All of my other phones stay connected to AT&T just fine in the same spot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you check before purchasing that it would connect to I'm guessing by AT&T US network's I know yours are different to ours in the UK. I've not had any problems with my normal xa but I'm in the UK
Sent from my Xperia XA using XDA Labs
aidy.lucas said:
Did you check before purchasing that it would connect to I'm guessing by AT&T US network's I know yours are different to ours in the UK. I've not had any problems with my normal xa but I'm in the UK
Sent from my Xperia XA using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's definitely fully compatible. It even downloads the correct APNs, but then they just disappear and the signal drops completely. I get full LTE speeds when it's working and nothing when it's not. I also tested a T-Mobile SIM and, while it holds onto the signal longer, it does the same thing (drops completely).
I plugged the phone into a computer and did a complete software restore, which didn't fix the issue. At this point, I'm sure it's either hardware or a really bad ROM update. I'm hoping it's hardware, because if not, that means that the replacement will have the same issue after applying the software updates to it.
This is my second Sony xa ultra with the same issue here's what happened
Purchases from best buy didn't setup until I got home had 2 update applied them signal drop and reset constantly I figured it was because I have bad reception in my area but the more I looked at the phone I noticed the build quality on the metal bumper wasn't sealed in some areas so I grabbed the packaging and headed back to Best Buy keeping note of the signal issues as I drove there (disconnected from WiFi of course) I noticed the signal did not drop connection at all on the way to Best Buy return the phone and explain to him the issues that I had at home with the signal and also wasn't happy with the build quality defect so I returned it and exchange for another one immediately popped the Sim in it downloaded my APN and I had LTE drove home no drop issues connected to wifi installed the two updates then I drop issue return
630travon said:
This is my second Sony xa ultra with the same issue here's what happened
Purchases from best buy didn't setup until I got home had 2 update applied them signal drop and reset constantly I figured it was because I have bad reception in my area but the more I looked at the phone I noticed the build quality on the metal bumper wasn't sealed in some areas so I grabbed the packaging and headed back to Best Buy keeping note of the signal issues as I drove there (disconnected from WiFi of course) I noticed the signal did not drop connection at all on the way to Best Buy return the phone and explain to him the issues that I had at home with the signal and also wasn't happy with the build quality defect so I returned it and exchange for another one immediately popped the Sim in it downloaded my APN and I had LTE drove home no drop issues connected to wifi installed the two updates then I drop issue return
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The replacement model I received from Amazon did it as well. Right out of the box, before updates, it was dropping the signal. Are you on AT&T?
I watched it really closely. I think I know what's happening. It's not falling back to HSPA. When the LTE is too weak, it simply drops completely until it can reconnect to LTE. If you set it to HSPA only in the mobile networks menu, you will never lose your signal. I tested it with both T-Mobile and AT&T with the same results.
This is a pretty major defect.
You might be on to something, yes I'm also on AT&T.. but I can't find HSPA in mobile network should it be GSM only or LTE (preferred)
630travon said:
You might be on to something, yes I'm also on AT&T.. but I can't find HSPA in mobile network should it be GSM only or LTE (preferred)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be something like "GSM/WCDMA Auto" or "WCDMA only". Basically anything without LTE (except CDMA).
I'm honestly just glad to finally have someone else confirm. The chances of having two defective units in a row are extremely slim. Really liked the device otherwise, too, especially for the price.
I tested it for hours. I never got a disconnect on HSPA when I had that set. I just wasn't willing to live with that restriction.
Me as well!! phone is perfect for the price I paid out of pocket I had a BB gift card. I've been shopping for the right phone for a month now I've had about 5 phone from 700 to 200 bucks the expensive ones we're worth the price and the cheaper ones didn't feed my power craving I'm pretty happy with this one for the moment, thanks for the tip
This may be an AT&T SIM related issue.
I have T-Mobile and with my T-Mobile SIM I have no problems. I tried my friend's AT&T SIM, downloaded the APN, rebooted, and sure enough signal drops just like you're experiencing.
I'm having the same exact issue as previous posts with my Ultra. I purchased the unit from best buy the day it came out and using it on AT&T. I love the phone but the issue with completely losing connectivity is a bit annoying. Called customer service and they gave me the same website to fix software issues. Just curious as to why I'll be in same location without movement and then all of a sudden lose my signal.
I have the same problem using cricket wireless which is using att's network, lte signal comes and goes, this is becoming really annoying, is there a fix for this already, or should i return the phone
So I just got off the phone with Sony and they said I would have to send in the phone for repair leaving me with no phone. I've had issues before with phones and the companies just send you a new unit with a box and return label to send back defective unit. The rep said maybe my provider would give me a loaner phone.... Smh Looks like it might be time to leave Sony. Maybe I'll have better luck with the Lenovo Phab Pro 2 coming out next month.
Same issue here, right out of the box today.... Using AT&T reseller and I would have to agree that it is an issue as was mentioned earlier where the phone is somehow not able to fall back on to HSPA on a weak LTE connection so it just completely disconnects. Strange thing is where I am using it (at my desk in my office) I never had an issue of LTE dropping off with other brands of phones. As soon as I left the cell area and started using it at home or at another location further away I had no dropped LTE signals. I think Sony support will be useless unless we can somehow get past the standard support desk. They told me they have no higher support I can be directed to, that I would either just do a software repair (which I assumed correctly would not work) or send it in to service. Not sure what I am going to do at this point, cannot have my phone jumping out of service every 2 minutes during the work day. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
EDIT: upon further review (using LTE discovery App) it appears that "some" At&t sites are having issues staying connected with LTE band 17 on this phone. I drove up to one of the sites the phone has issues with. It had a solid,strong signal within 1 block of the tower and band 17 still disconnected the radio completely. As soon as it reset and moved to band 4 it stayed on without disconnecting until I moved away from the site far enough for band 17 to kick back in. At that point it continued to disconnect every 1 -2 minutes until I moved the phone mode into HSPA preferred. I don't know what to say about this, band 17 works great on 2 towers within 10 miles of here, but some others and this tower causes the phone to go into a fit. Clearly the phone has LTE issues as any other ATT LTE phone on band 17 I have used in this area has always worked just fine. Anybody have an opinion on this???
I have what I think is the issue, now if we have any way to get this information to anyone who can actually do something about it. I have 2 sites by my home that the phone works flawlessly on LTE... no dropped LTE signal whatsoever. Here is the difference... they are band 17 ONLY sites where the sites my phone is unable to hold a LTE signal when the At&T site is broadcasting both band 4 and 17. That would explain why the rest of the sites around where I work do not maintain a signal either. We need to all contact Sony support and somehow get this information thru to them. The issue is the phone clearly being unable to handle a site broadcasting 4 and 17 which I think is a majority of them.
napali said:
I have what I think is the issue, now if we have any way to get this information to anyone who can actually do something about it. I have 2 sites by my home that the phone works flawlessly on LTE... no dropped LTE signal whatsoever. Here is the difference... they are band 17 ONLY sites where the sites my phone is unable to hold a LTE signal on are both band 4 and 17. That would explain why the rest of the sites around where I work do not maintain a signal either. We need to all contact Sony support and somehow get this information thru to them. The issue is the phone clearly being unable to handle a site broadcasting 4 and 17 which I think is a majority of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's still not falling back in HSPA like it should. If it has difficulty with an LTE connection, it should not drop connectivity completely.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N930A using Tapatalk
greyhulk said:
It's still not falling back in HSPA like it should. If it has difficulty with an LTE connection, it should not drop connectivity completely.
Agreed, but keep in mind that my XE ultra was 1 block from the tower with incredible LTE signal strength and it still completely shut the radio down and restarted. This is not for lack of signal but a complete inability for it to handle a band 17,4 tower. Although it would be great if it just moved into HSPA, that would mean your phone would be in HSPA 80% of the time, even when the LTE signal was completely adequate for the area. This clearly is a defect that makes the phone basically unusable (as it continually shuts the radio on and off) until Sony can figure this out. My concern... there is no way to talk to anyone at Sony that can do anything about this until they get enough support complaints directly related to this issue, this could take months not including the time they need to program an update and fix. Very frustrating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Frustrated with this as well, hopefully sony fixes this problem more sooner than later
Received an update yesterday and I can't confirm 100% but it appears I haven't had as bad connection (popping in and out). I'm in Houston btw.
I got the update and so far phone has been working fine
The latest updates from sony fixed this issue.. so happy and enjoying it now