Poor signal switching with newer phones - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
We go on vacation each year to the same place and GSM/2g/3g/lte signal is very poor and varying here. With meter I measure signal strength from -80 to -110 dBm at the same spot. It probably varies due to seaside proximity.
What bothers me is the fact, that when phone looses signal, two weirdos occur:
1.) I need to reboot many times to regain access to my operator...same with other family members, and we use different operators. Why does not phone switch from no signal to my operator by itself always?
2.) Maybe related...cell meter app on my phone show quite strong signal of -80 to -90 dBm all the time when no etwork is found, but network operator name is "none". No calls can be made, even 911 calls end with network error. But signal is strong. What's this? Is this some dormant signal, which I detect practically everywhere, when no network is found?
Above symptoms are present on Samsung s7, s10 and on LG g7, so it's not phone or android version guilty.
Explanations welcome.

Related

Battery life 3G vs 2G

I have a stock Neo and found that battery life is nearly doubled when using 2G as cell standby use drops from 48-50% to 13-15% which I like.
I also have a -89 to -93dBm 10asu signal strength which believe is good.
But when on 2G there is no data connection, so does the Neo not have EDGE also is the phone faulty in respect to 3G data as I can only assume that is the cause of the poor battery.
2G normal uses less power, but if the 3G signal is stronger than the 2G one, I would use 3G as the phone has to use more transmit power to work with a weak signal.
John.
I've got working, but relativly slow 2g GPRS (EDGE?) data transmision. I hate 2g lags (much higher ping) and when it is possible I use 3g or wifi. Maybe your situation is caused by your mobile operator.
I asked the question on sony forum and it appears that all xperia have this problem of no or very poor 2G data connection whereas 3G is there but results in awfully poor battery life.
Just checked about mast location and I'm about approx 700m metres from the the mast.
I have just walked to the mast with the Galaxy W and Neo and both phone signal strength increased the same and at 100m they were -52dBm.
re op your comments still do not explain why the Galaxy W has twice the battery of the Neo when using 3G, my conclusion is that SE are rubbish at 3G.
From my walk I would also say that with a -70dBm that you are 200-300m from a mast, apart from the terraced houses (no high rise/flats ) it is level ground to the mast.
Just to add my phone on GSM only shows gprs not EDGE

Best 4G Signal EVER!

Just realized that that thing I had to climb up to get to my front door is actually a Verizon Cell phone tower!
So, just noticed this condition today and thought I'd share. I have a Smart Action set up to enable my Home Wi-Fi based on location - Trigger is my location; Actions are to turn on Wi-Fi, turn off Data and Max Ringer.
While home this afternoon I just happened to look at my phone and noticed that my battery seemed to be dropping a little quicker than normal and my cell signal strength was max bars which NEVER NEVER happens at home - kind of on the fringe in my house and I'm lucky to get 3 on a good day. I checked network strength and my 4G was 2147483647 db. Gotta be a world record, right? oh wait . . . is more db bad?
Just got me wondering if, while on the fringe, the radio actively looks for a signal (like it does between 1X, 3G and 4G) and maybe gets stuck in some type of high output state. Would explain some of the intermittent hi-temp, unusual battery drain I experience occaisionally/intermittently. Just so we're clear - I'm not complaining at all about my Maxx battery.
Running stock .211 rooted.
jeff_roey said:
Just realized that that thing I had to climb up to get to my front door is actually a Verizon Cell phone tower!
So, just noticed this condition today and thought I'd share. I have a Smart Action set up to enable my Home Wi-Fi based on location - Trigger is my location; Actions are to turn on Wi-Fi, turn off Data and Max Ringer.
While home this afternoon I just happened to look at my phone and noticed that my battery seemed to be dropping a little quicker than normal and my cell signal strength was max bars which NEVER NEVER happens at home - kind of on the fringe in my house and I'm lucky to get 3 on a good day. I checked network strength and my 4G was 2147483647 db. Gotta be a world record, right? oh wait . . . is more db bad?
Just got me wondering if, while on the fringe, the radio actively looks for a signal (like it does between 1X, 3G and 4G) and maybe gets stuck in some type of high output state. Would explain some of the intermittent hi-temp, unusual battery drain I experience occaisionally/intermittently. Just so we're clear - I'm not complaining at all about my Maxx battery.
Running stock .211 rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought after 120 db it actually means you've lost signal.....optimal is between 80 to 120....
I could be wrong
I saw that exact same thing on my Maxx the other day. I also noticed battery declining due to it. Not sure what it means though.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
squiggie said:
I saw that exact same thing on my Maxx the other day. I also noticed battery declining due to it. Not sure what it means though.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It means your have no signal, and your battery is dying from your LTE radio trying to find signal. dbm between -80 and -120 is not optimal, that is the range where verizon techs will tell you that you may experience data connectivity issues. The lower the dbm the better signal you have, however most extended 4g service areas are at this quality. I have seen some locations, closer to the towers, where I have gotten signal around -60dbm, which gave about 38mbps down and around 16mbps up.
I ordered a sleek 4g signal booster from wilson electronics, which will get here tomorrow, and will let you guys know how much improvement I get in areas with different signal strengths.
i've seen it countless times on my razr. I think it's just a bug
No signal but my signal bars show as full? That makes no sense whatsoever. I think I have to agree that it is just a weird bug.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
I'll tell the truth. Wilson electronics sleek 4g-v is not going to improve SINR signal strength (that's what you need for better LTE speed), however it will improve RSSI signal, but this is not going to help for LTE. If you want a good LTE amplifier, you are looking to spend about $500 that includes outdoor, indoor antenna and SINR amplifier. SINR is more important then RSSI or DBM for LTE

evo lte & wifi/bluetooth

newbie owner of an Evo LTE, and i'm wondering if the phone has signal issues. my wifi signal strength seems to vary from 0 bars to 4 bars (typically staying around 1 bar). I remember reading a while back ago that these bars mean nothing for data speed. anyways, I've ran some tests on speedtest app, and my wifi speed has fluctuated from as low as 100kbps to over 10mbps at different times at roughly the same location.
The time when i have the most issues is during skype, dropped calls, etc. I sometimes use a bluetooth adapter and sometimes don't and have had issues regardless. so my question is does the phone have a weak wifi antenna or something?
No. Change your wifi settings to
"Always on" and set the frequency to 2.5ghz if you haven't already.
#Root-Hack_Mod*Always=LTE

No data with poor reception

I noticed on my G3 that if I have only a bar or two of 1X or 3G, everything will stop loading. For example, earlier today I was loading up a large image using 3G, and it would stop loading whenever there was one bar of signal and would resume loading with two bars. I also noticed that websites would time out when I had one bar but with two they would load. It doesn't happen on LTE and seeing this on 1X could simply be because 1X is too slow to load anything, really. Anyone else experience this?
I haven't found myself in this situation yet with my g3, but my galaxy s3 displayed the same behavior. This isn't too surprising for a fringe connection, a classic trick to boost signal is to reduce bandwidth (everytime bandwidth is halved, signal increases by 3dB). If your connection is poor enough it stands to reason your bandwidth would drop to useless range.
Mine does the exact same thing. You may be in a poor coverage area.
I have to use an att mifi hotspot device to use data in certain locations , in Rolling Meadows illinois

Poor LTE reception and Wi-Fi reception

Most of the time Wi-Fi is at 1-2 bars along with LTE.
Noticed this problem in Hong Kong,China and Taiwan. Various dim cards and various Wi-Fi routers.
poor LTE speed
desiregeek said:
Most of the time Wi-Fi is at 1-2 bars along with LTE.
Noticed this problem in Hong Kong,China and Taiwan. Various dim cards and various Wi-Fi routers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i m facing the same problem i have note 4 that is quite well than s6 edge in 3g and 4g
This could be the cause of some people's battery drain as their phones keep switching from LTE down to 3g. If this phone was better tuned for LTE it would be more battery efficient.
Not sure a software fix can do much about this. Its probably the antenna design, but we can live in hope!
My Wifi is fine.
However, I've been having poor 4G since day 1. I keep having 1-2 bars of 4G consistently at my workplace where my G3 did 3 or more bars.
The thing is, it does stick to 4G pretty well and not loose that 1-2 bars easily to downshift to 3G, so I am not too concerned. Voice calls and data speeds are also not affected. It's just that vidual indicator...
my wifi and data signals are excellent. haven't been to a spot where there's good lte signal
Always use device status to read signal in dBm.
Many phones' "signal strength meters" are far from accurate often showing much higher perceived signal than reality.
My S5 was like that.
This may just be corrected now in as much one bar for -112dBm (instead of three) is more accurate, relatively speaking.
A device should only show five bars if the signal level is very strong, say -65dBm.
Problem is most of the time people would never see five bars. Carriers don't like that.
Perhaps we need to change to an advanced "tech" mode where the signal strength readout is in "S" units with 9 being the reference and stronger signals show in "dB over nine". Like HF transceivers and CB radios (anyone remember those? )
I would be happy with -dBm on the status bar instead of a series of bars. iOS allows for it and it's accurate. Can't believe it's not baked into Android being it's the choice OS for techies.
Compared my Wifi download speeds to my iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 was faster. These 2 pictures are wifi download screenshots from iPhone 6
Here is the same location using my Galaxy S6 Edge
Hello, compared to Note 4 S6 really hurt my Edge captures the mobile network.

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