Related
Lets compile a list of areas with poor reception.
Having looked into options to improve reception, If the xda wasnt such a damned good device I'd hate it as a phone as I just cant use it as a mobile when I'm at home reliably, and lets face it networks lie about temporary faults with coverage.
Saying that, my Motorola V60 is also poor in my area - So I thought if we could all post bad areas anyone interested in buying an O2 xda in the same area would certainly think long and hard before committing to a contract for a year.
GSM/GPRS
Next to no coverage in the lower hill areas in Rusthall near Tunbridge Wells for O2
GPRS doesnt connect sometimes
single dot on antenna symbol, one bar next to it very occasionally.
SMS
SMS sending sporadic
VOICECALLS
Voicecalls are distorted
Other Network coverage
T-Mobile - coverage awful.
No service whatsover (cant even send sms)
Orange
We also get a poor reception here using Orange (although miles better than O2)
Anyone live nearby with Vodafone?
I'm hoping to switch networks for my xda after the years contract with o2 is up
http://www.webmap.btcellnet.net
Put in your postcode and it can tell you exactly how many O2 cells you have in your area and how close they are.
How damn useful!!!
Is there a weblink for other service providers that anyone knows about??
Rog
its lying about the lower part of Rusthall!
Anon, I notice you're not man enough to use a real name. And that you have to resort to being abusive.
The whole point of this thread is to make people aware that salesmen who say that coverage is ok in your home area are sometimes unitentionally misleading the public.
If you enjoy misleading people then please leave this forum alone - its for sharing information - please read the posting guidelines.
And as for it being a simulation, dont you think its misleading, and why do you think I started this posting, to get REAL data - so we can compile our own results - and help other people who want to buy an xda. After all if a map showing coverage is false - whats the point of it. Would you sail to america in a yacht with a simulated map?
Moderator, how come people can post replies as guests anyway?
The whole system is set up so that guests can post messages. We've felt that the advantages have outweighed the disadvantages so far.
I've deleted the offending post and contacted the user behind this IP-number to see if we can achieve a change in behaviour.
derekcfoley said:
its lying about the lower part of Rusthall!
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Click to collapse
mmm. The colour coding seems to be misleading but its handy to know how close the cells are. Even if you are very close to the cells I would guess there are things that can block the radio signals (eg. hills, trees, building etc.).
You say T-mobile and Orange are worse than O2, so I would definately try Vodafone.
Also interesting is that O2's cell indicator has a form you can fill in if you have a piece of land they could put a new cell on. Might be an option?
Spent last week in the UK with my Qtek on Vodafone. WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!! You guys have the worst mobile coverage ever! And people seem to think it's ok!
I lost connection all the time while going on major roads between major cities! On the site of the company I visited you had to go outside in certain spots to get any coverage at all, and they used Vodafone as their main supplier. And last but not least, getting a GPRS connection worked like one time out of twenty.
Here in Sweden, I find it irritating that I have bad coverage at my summer house. Which is like 20 minutes drive from the nearest major road or small town. No wonder they use Sweden as a test bench for new mobile services!
Could that also have something to do with the fact that the two largest mobile manufacturers are Scandinavian? You'd sort of expect it to work in your own back yard. When they try and turn up the juice in the UK, everyone complains about their kid's brains getting fried
rgds,
Alex.
well I can safely say that O2 in NW sheffield and south of Leeds is rubbish.
according to the map it should be GOOD
uh uh.
the whole area is a sinkhole for decent reception. about the only phones that give good signal in this place is orange.
Kent seems to work pretty much everywhere for O2. I live in Dartford and work in Bexleyheath and have no troubles.
Rgds,
Rob.
O2 in central Cheltenham is total crap and has been for as long as I can remember and I have used lots of different phones.
Anonymous said:
.
You say T-mobile and Orange are worse than O2, so I would definately try Vodafone.
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Click to collapse
Never had a problem with Vodaphone here............
Works phone is on Vodaphone...............
The only time I loose the signal is when I am hiding down in the Subway at work....!!! (Birmingham New Street Station!)
addendum to my post about Sheffield and Wakefield.
reception is crap if you are running windows 2003 PPC 4.00.05 and 4.00.11
I put 3.17.03 on my XDA yesterday and I am stunned at the difference.
In my works building on 4.0.05 and 11 I never got a signal. now I thought fair enough because I am in the basement below ground level with iron bars on the window. not even one bar
since I've put my XDA back to 3.17.03 I've never had less than 3 bars, even in places where I've never got a signal.
I think I'll wait until an official O2 ROM release for 2003.
Here are my list of bad spots....
Almost any part of the top of the mendip hills apart from near to major towns. One notable exception being orange, who seem to have much more coverage there.
Crediton in devon, and the road from tiverton to crediton. Reception is patchy at best. This is true for all neworks.
Parts of avonmouth are bad for O2 coverage, with orange being the best in that area.
Parts of the A38 from Churchill to cross, patchy reception for all networks.
Winscombe to Banwell, O2 is ok, but other networks patchy.
Flixton in norfolk, very patchy (stand outside and point the phone in the right direction).
Wooky Hole (village not the cave!) almost no signal on any network, unless you walk to the top of the nearest hill.
Frome a bit patchy for O2, not sure about other networks.
cells said:
http://www.webmap.btcellnet.net
Put in your postcode and it can tell you exactly how many O2 cells you have in your area and how close they are.
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Click to collapse
http://www.webmap.o2.co.uk/
This is the current URL for this site, which according to my Post Code says i'm 0.3km from my nearest Cell. I'm also 0.35km (as the crow flies) from my O2 shop - in my O2 shop my XDAII gets 5 bars reception, from my living room, 0 bars!!!
What can I do to get a better reception?
PS my area is Worthing (town centre), West Sussex.
Does anyone else experience a decrease in signal reception in their DUAL? I have a Nokia N95 8gb and I get a strong signal (5 bars) compared to 2 bars on the DUAL.
KS
As long as you can speak clear, I dont think there would be a problem. Probably the N95 shows full signal in areas where HTC can show 2bars but still take the full signal
The best way to test is by making a call in poor reception areas on both the devices and see which one works better or the same.
Regards,
Carty..
signal
i had that alot and i bought a signal booster from ebay which has made a diffrence it gives me two strong bars where befour i had one which came and went. they are only 2.00 and stick under the battery hope this may help.i am with orange and also have an n95 which has a good strong signal at home.
Goto>Settings>phone>band> then change from Auto to GSM in network type. It might help. soft reset.
naser404 said:
Goto>Settings>phone>band> then change from Auto to GSM in network type. It might help. soft reset.
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yup, that helped me when i saw that on another thread. if you're not using the higher speed internet, it's a good tip
shame the "auto" is biased to faster data networks - i'd like to have it search for a more applicable signal only when you need a data connection
Hi, I was wondering if there were any decent signal boosters for this phone(htc tilt 2)?
I've saw some that are 300-400 dollars and I'm really not looking to spend that much.
I get one bar inside my house and 3 if I put it in my window... but yeah any advice would be appreciated
plz help
have u put a custom rom and radio on ur fone? there are several radios for different areas and companys.... but also as an addition to that sum buildings just have poor reception.... i have FULL HSPA reception nearly everywhere but on my college campus or at my friends house i drop to 1 or 3 bars in EDGE
I have researched this extensively for the past month and I can tell you what I have come up with. You are going to get what you pay for first and foremost. I am building a house in an area that has little to no reception depending on where you are standing. My neighbor bought a $300 repeater and did a halfa$$ attempt at getting the external antenna directed at the tower thus he did not have a good results. If you understand the concept then you can understand the cost of good results. I bought a $1000 setup that once installed I am sure it will perform. I cannot say it does as I have not used it yet but if you go through he steps required to see if you are going to benefit from a repeater then you will understand what I mean. You are going to need an external directional antenna running to an amplifier then an internal antenna to broadcast that signal. It all boils down to if you have good reception where the external antenna will be then it is going to reproduce that signal at the end point. I can get on top of my house and get a high RSSI #. So this will be pulled though my antennas and broadcasted to the phones in the house.
You can go a cheaper route and it may work but you are looking at trial and error on any setup you get unless you can get a person to help you figure out what setup and if any setup will help you. Most will just try and sell you something promising you full bars.
Cazey.... when making a request it's always best to post what you have.... ie if you are using a custom rom, radio your carrier etc..
That said... If you have ATT you might want to give this a check... If not I'm sure other carriers offer something similar.
AT&T 3G MicroCell now available in all markets
I am losing a signal half way through a conversation and i get cut off ,i have checked it a few times today by calling mates when the phone strength is 2-3 bars ,after a few minutes i get cut off and the phone has lost signal .
Any help with this please ?
I have looked at radio codes and flashing roms but unsure as to what they mean or do ,i am on O2 and the signal is ok where i live and worked ok on my last phone SE k800i ,just seems as though the hd2 is constantly losing the signal and trying to find it but them comes up with 2-3 bars
I am new to all this stuff so please explain it to an idiot in simple terms
If you are having signal issues, flashing a new radio could do a lot of good. The radio ROM is the software that controls how your phone connects to the various network signals. You may have to experiment with several different radios before you find one that works well in your area. Read THIS thread for more information on it.
Another possibility is if you are only experiencing signal problems during calls, it may be that you are holding the phone in a way which degrades the reception of your antenna. Some users have reported that holding the phone tightly at the bottom (where the antenna is located) causes a slow loss of signal. If this is the case, try gripping your phone nearer to the camera at the top.
Cheers for the link ,will have a read through
+1 faelock. if you hold the phone with the bottom pressed flat into your palm it can make a difference of as much as 2-3 bars.
Does anyone know if these make a difference ,as i have trouble with signal around the house but full signal while outside
http://www.chargerstore.co.uk/Froogle/samsung-dvf-mobile-sig.html
jasext said:
Does anyone know if these make a difference ,as i have trouble with signal around the house but full signal while outside
http://www.chargerstore.co.uk/Froogle/samsung-dvf-mobile-sig.html
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Click to collapse
I've seen those sold for years, but I really don't know if the boost signal. I used 1 once that came with a combo thing I bought on ebay, but didn't have signal problems to begin with.
You could look for signal repeaters that can be purchased that boost signal in the house. Over here in the usa, I know that sprint and at&t have them and you can get them free if you complain about signal strength in your house.
Those "signal boosters" are about as effective as kinoki foot pads and ionic bracelets. I had the same problem when I frist bought my phone. No signal or 1 bar in my bedroom but walk outside the door and I got 2-3 bars. After flashing a new radio I now have full bars everywhere in my house; so that would be my suggestion. If you're nervous about flashing and would rather go with a signal booster than check out THESE ones that apparently work.
Thanks for the reply guys
Faelok said:
Those "signal boosters" are about as effective as kinoki foot pads and ionic bracelets. I had the same problem when I frist bought my phone. No signal or 1 bar in my bedroom but walk outside the door and I got 2-3 bars. After flashing a new radio I now have full bars everywhere in my house; so that would be my suggestion. If you're nervous about flashing and would rather go with a signal booster than check out THESE ones that apparently work.
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Click to collapse
Not nervous about flashing a radio just a bit unsure as there seem to be so many to chose from ,are there any specific ones i should be looking at ?
Checked the prices on the signal boosters you mentioned and over here in the uk they are a lot more expensive than in the usa
jasext said:
Thanks for the reply guys
Not nervous about flashing a radio just a bit unsure as there seem to be so many to chose from ,are there any specific ones i should be looking at ?
Checked the prices on the signal boosters you mentioned and over here in the uk they are a lot more expensive than in the usa
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Click to collapse
the best way is to just test them out. What works for me, might not work for you. Since you have the Euro HD2, I'm pretty sure you can use any of the radios out, .50 and .51 radios.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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.