Can't find an answer to this, hope someone knows. Short version is while there are many applications to monitor and track which cell tower you're on, I've not found a way to latch onto one manually.
You can on some phones (blackberry), it's quite handy if you know you're in an area where either handoffs are hard drops or you end up needlessly pingponging off the same towers. Think of being in a park for example.
Any ideas? To be clear I'm not referring to locking onto a particular provider or technology which most phones can do, rather the tower itself.
Related
Hello XDA,
I've searched but am coming up empty.
What I'm looking for may be two apps, but ideally it would be one. First, the Direction from my location of the tower my phone is connecting to. In LA, sometimes there can be 4 or 5 towers around and I'm always curious which one I'm connected to and is giving me the best 3G speed.
Second, Is there an app that will give me the signal strength to that tower in db or at least some more accurate reading than 0-4 bars? Ideally, this would be able to read directly from the radio because whatever windows mobile is using natively seems to like to jump between 0 and 4 bars at random.
By default, is there any maps or anything for AT&T that might tell me where the towers are so I can do my own deciphering? In SW Los Angeles, theres towers all over the place so I never really know which ones are AT&T.
Have been having a ton of issues with my tethering speed recently and want more info on my connection which is bringing this to a head.
Thank you for any advice.
HTC Tilt 2
Running Jacko's slimmest theme
AT&T
91 radio
Hi.
I may possibly be moving about 30 mins away and the location has inconsistent signal...I get 4 bars of LTE in one spot, move literally 2 feet away and I am down to 1 bar of 3G signal. I need to have a very solid 4G-LTE signal as I use my phone for tethering as my main internet to my desktop and I also work a bit from home so this is important.
I am wondering if there is any product out there that can enhance my 4G-LTE signal on my phone that you can get and does not require a separate internet connection to work?
To my knowledge, the current Verizon network extender requires an internet connection and can only distribute/extend 3G speeds....this won't do.
flooritnfly said:
Hi.
I may possibly be moving about 30 mins away and the location has inconsistent signal...I get 4 bars of LTE in one spot, move literally 2 feet away and I am down to 1 bar of 3G signal. I need to have a very solid 4G-LTE signal as I use my phone for tethering as my main internet to my desktop and I also work a bit from home so this is important.
I am wondering if there is any product out there that can enhance my 4G-LTE signal on my phone that you can get and does not require a separate internet connection to work?
To my knowledge, the current Verizon network extender requires an internet connection and can only distribute/extend 3G speeds....this won't do.
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Some may claim to extend LTE passively, but if you look at the specification, it's pretty much impossible to do passively. About the closest you can get is to build a picocell; a cell that covers a small home or office area. The reason they don't work is because LTE, like GSM, uses time division duplexing. This requires an advance in signal broadcast to compensate for the speed of light so that the handset's signal always reaches the tower inside it's assigned time window. The delay is a function of distance. Once your distance is greater than the allowable advance of the specification, the tower will drop your signal regardless of how strong it might be.
loonatik78 said:
Some may claim to extend LTE passively, but if you look at the specification, it's pretty much impossible to do passively. About the closest you can get is to build a picocell; a cell that covers a small home or office area. The reason they don't work is because LTE, like GSM, uses time division duplexing. This requires an advance in signal broadcast to compensate for the speed of light so that the handset's signal always reaches the tower inside it's assigned time window. The delay is a function of distance. Once your distance is greater than the allowable advance of the specification, the tower will drop your signal regardless of how strong it might be.
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Sooo.....anything on here won't help me out?
flooritnfly said:
Sooo.....anything on here won't help me out?
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Nope. None of that will help at all unless you're planning on making your own cell.
What's the point in them selling them then?
And how do I solve my problem aside from moving somewhere closer to a tower?
flooritnfly said:
What's the point in them selling them then?
And how do I solve my problem aside from moving somewhere closer to a tower?
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Judging by the fact they all have coax leads on them, they're specifically designed for permanent client installations such as home broadband or to build a small cell within or very near a home or building. Doing what you're wanting to do, as in creating a local cell that extends to where you're at and uplinking via LTE, is possible, but you'd have to clone a device that would authenticate on Verizon's network and I'm pretty sure that would be pretty illegal on a couple fronts.
Not sure where you live, but around where I'm at in the rural areas WiMax is a common broadband solution that provides pretty good data rates.
loonatik78 said:
Judging by the fact they all have coax leads on them, they're specifically designed for permanent client installations such as home broadband or to build a small cell within or very near a home or building. Doing what you're wanting to do, as in creating a local cell that extends to where you're at and uplinking via LTE, is possible, but you'd have to clone a device that would authenticate on Verizon's network and I'm pretty sure that would be pretty illegal on a couple fronts.
Not sure where you live, but around where I'm at in the rural areas WiMax is a common broadband solution that provides pretty good data rates.
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Are you suggesting I dump VZW?
omg people are you serious
loonatik78 said:
Some may claim to extend LTE passively, but if you look at the specification, it's pretty much impossible to do passively. About the closest you can get is to build a picocell; a cell that covers a small home or office area. The reason they don't work is because LTE, like GSM, uses time division duplexing. This requires an advance in signal broadcast to compensate for the speed of light so that the handset's signal always reaches the tower inside it's assigned time window. The delay is a function of distance. Once your distance is greater than the allowable advance of the specification, the tower will drop your signal regardless of how strong it might be.
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Are you for real LTE is nothing like gsm and tdma is completly different than gsm as well which stands for time division multiple access LTE is an IP. Based technology. With that said im waisting no more text on this fool.
Passive LTE Boost
flooritnfly said:
Are you suggesting I dump VZW?
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I know this is an old thread but just in case your still interested.
I have the Wilson Sleek LTE Booster. It took my Thunderbolt from Zero 3G to full 4G at my home. It was designed for mobile use but it works great. I know use it with an iPhone 5 with which it is even better. Wilson has a full home system that uses a directional outdoor antenna, and an indoor antenna that will connect an unlimited number of LT E devices all at once. I am getting this device soon.
Can any of you suggest the best app for locating cell towers? I'm tried a few and several of them aren't able to pick up locations accurately, even going as far as to say that only devices with a GSM signal can locate towers. There's got to be a good app floating around out there for CDMA users a la Verizon to be able to locate nearby cell towers.
In case you're wondering why I'm asking - I live out in the boonies and with the 4G service rolling out I'm trying to keep tabs on where my signal's coming from at home & during my daily commute would be very useful.
Thank you. Any sharing of wisdom/expertise would be greatly appreciated.
I know tasker can do this. I use the feature to determine when I'm near home.
I have found Open Signal Maps works pretty well. It definitely works better on a GSM device but it will atleast show you the tower your connected to and where it is located. Its worth a shot.
I'm sure that this problem is not unique to me. I live in a small community with poor cell service. I have a vzw booster, it's placed in my living room. That way I get good service in my yard. The problem is that most people in my town have become aware of it. We have some really questionable people that have become quite a nuisance, the type of people who you don't want to know when you are home or not. It's really starting to bother my wife. We can't even sit in our living room anymore with the windows shades open. I know that this probably the best place to post this. Can anyone help me out with blocking numbers or something. I'd hate to have to unplug it, I've searched for the answer. But have officially given up. :'(
I mean really? I paid for it, shouldn't I be able to control access just like a router?
Unfortunately it is just extending the cell service frequencies. All the same rules apply that apply to a cell tower. I'm sure Verizon could control roaming of phones on the device, but any low level tech would probably deny the possibility. They probably just don't have a easy one click solution. But i would call them and complain. Tell them you have limited data on your home internet and you don't want the whole neighborhood using your service.
There is also the possibility that your extender could be a repeater of the closest tower to you, in which case you could never deny any phone service because it would also cut that phones service from the tower.
Good luck, please post any info you gather.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
XxStechxX said:
I'm sure that this problem is not unique to me. I live in a small community with poor cell service. I have a vzw booster, it's placed in my living room. That way I get good service in my yard. The problem is that most people in my town have become aware of it. We have some really questionable people that have become quite a nuisance, the type of people who you don't want to know when you are home or not. It's really starting to bother my wife. We can't even sit in our living room anymore with the windows shades open. I know that this probably the best place to post this. Can anyone help me out with blocking numbers or something. I'd hate to have to unplug it, I've searched for the answer. But have officially given up. :'(
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I found this in the FAQ, it may pertain to you.
Can I manage and secure access to my Network Extender?
Yes. Only the Network Extender account owner can sign in to My Verizon to manage device settings. You can set your Network Extender for Open Access or Managed Access.
Open Access allows any Verizon Wireless phone within range to use your Network Extender.
With Managed Access, you can prioritize access to your Network Extender to up to 50 Verizon Wireless callers you select. Where a compatible tower is unavailable, callers that do not appear on your Managed Access list may access the Network Extender when not in use by priority callers. All callers may access the Network Extender for emergency (E911) calls.
Also Section 2 in the manual it also mentions this.
http://support.verizonwireless.com/pdf/network_extender_user_manual.pdf
Everything I find says I can set a priority list for 50 phones, but not block. Idk
THE TL;DR
Verizon data in a specific area used to be solid, but now is practically nonexistent. I know it’s not gone entirely though, because I can maintain an LTE signal lock and use it if I exit the affected area, get an LTE signal lock, start the utorrent and begin downloading a [legal] torrent, and then re-enter the affected area. I’ve tested with friends, family and strangers over a series of devices - it’s not just me. Verizon says it’s heavy network usage which seems like BS. Please help.
THE FULL VERSION
THE PROBLEM
About a month ago the Verizon data service in the area that I live/work went from solid to almost nonexistent. The affected area is maybe a 2 to 3 mile circle it seems. I’ve had friends, family, and even strangers verify that it isn’t just me - they’re experiencing the same thing (wide range of devices.) Essentially, I can no longer get LTE in this area, and the 3G and 1x are even spotty (and horribly slow.) Veeery occasionally I will be able to get LTE to lock, but it drops almost immediately. Calling and SMS do not seem to be affected. Outside of this affected area, LTE service in the area seems to be unchanged. I’ve opened multiple tickets with Verizon -- they essentially told me that the network in my particular area is overloaded and this can’t be resolved until they build a new tower that covers the area (obviously that’s not going to happen anytime soon.) Although this might seem plausible, I’ve lived and worked in this exact location for the past 3 years, and only once has something similar happened previously (and I’d know because I’m a power user who doesn’t use a computer, and who uses LTE for internet exclusively.) The previous occurrence was in February this year, and the issue disappeared after about a week.
I do happen to live in a college town, so the network could be under some additional strain with the kids coming back, but I don’t believe admission is up appreciably from previous years, and I don’t know of any new living spaces that were built in the area that’s affected, so it seems that the network shouldn’t any more strained than it has been in previous years.
THE UTORRENT TRICK
If I move outside of the affected area and get an LTE signal lock, open utorrent, start downloading a torrent [legal only,] and then re-enter the affected area, the LTE lock will hold an I’ll be able to get the full LTE speeds almost as if the problem has been resolved. However, if I shut off utorrent, or if I toggle airplane mode while I’m in the affected area, the LTE signal lock is lost, and issue will persist (ie. I’ll only get 3G, 1x, or nothing at all.)
QUESTIONS
Can anyone explain what might be happening and why? Is it really that the network is under heavy load?
Why won’t my phone even find LTE while I’m in the affected area? It’s clearly still available if I can keep an LTE lock using the utorrent trick.
What causes the utorrent trick to work? It almost seems like the trick bypasses the network’s attempts to hide LTE from me in this particular area.
I’m rooted. Is there any way that I can force my phone to find and lock the LTE in the affected area? The 3G and 1x are essential unusable.
If I can’t force my phone to lock the LTE and stay on it, is there some other way to make my phone hold the signal once it has it *besides* using the utorrent trick?
Any insight would be much appreciated.