Why don't I get 4g? - EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

According to the sprint 4g data map I am supposed to have 4g in my area. I type in my address and i'm "supposedly" in a very strong 4g coverage area, yet i have owned the EVO for over a month and have yet to see 4g at my house.
I contacted sprint numerous times about this issue and all they do is claim that I should be getting 4g but they don't know why I'm not, then I get transferred to another tech.... Sprint has by far the worst customer service of any major corporation I have seen in a long time.....
but anyways.... I'd really like to know why i'm not getting 4g when blocks less than a mile away from me are. according to sprint reps and the 4g coverage map I should have very good 4g...
So does anybody know what might be going on?

Well, you're not giving us much information to go on here. But, is the problem simply that you aren't getting a 4G signal inside your house? If so, that's perfectly normal. The 2500Mhz spectrum that Sprint's WiMax uses doesn't penetrate buildings well at all. Do you get any signal if you go outside?

rooted or un rooted? stock rom or custom rom? newest radios?
details please!

nenn said:
rooted or un rooted? stock rom or custom rom? newest radios?
details please!
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This.
And as stated, building penetration can be an issue. Have you floated around the town / neighborhood / city / wtf ever to see if you can get a signal elsewhere?
I can't get a signal at my buddies house, in the backyard (self described "lounging" zone), but on my porch I can get a solid signal. Matter of blocks away which is curious. Small blocks ... I guess as small as blocks go? But I'd check around!

As stated earlier we need more info. Is your phone rooted and running a custom rom or are you unrooted running stock rom? Are you running the updated Wimax Radio? This is the two most significant questions that needs to be address before we can give a pin point solution for your issue...

Sorry for assuming you guys where psychic...lol...
but anyways, i'm fully rooted running the latest evio rom with kings kernel #6. I have had plenty of roms from dc 3.2.3 to fresh to cm. I have always had the most updated radios and wi-max.
I get 4g in many areas around me, just not at my house, which is my dilemma. I think I got it ONCE while standing outside but it was very brief (I have tested numerous times outside and inside my house) I am on my third evo and none of them got 4g in my house rooted or un-rooted. Same with my bro's evo.
My concern is that according to sprint I should be getting EXCELLENT 4g coverage in and outside my house, yet I get none....
I'm assuming this is a network problem, since sprint is so so ****ty and decided to use dumb frequencies, but are their possible any "tweaks" that I can try?

There are no tweaks I know of, but I have found that Clear's WiMax maps are much more accurate (and depressing) than Sprint's. See if they say that you should have 4G.
___
An army of pacifists can be defeated by one man with the will to fight.

FYI,
According to Sprint's coverage maps, I should get great signal everywhere I used my phone.
In reality, I can't even consistantly make a phone call inside my house or office unless the moon and the stars are in perfect alignment...
Verizon and AT&T both work flawlessly in both locations as well.
Something about Sprint's frequencies that just don't penetrate buildings well at all and seem to be more prone to small "dead zones".
Wish I had 4G within 3 hours of here though...

starplaya93 said:
I'm assuming this is a network problem, since sprint is so so ****ty and decided to use dumb frequencies, but are their possible any "tweaks" that I can try?
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they aren't sprint's "dumb frequencies" - they're clearwire's. sprint borrows it.
check coverage at www.clear.com for more up-to-date maps.

Related

New Evo in Baltimore & a question

Got my Evo today - what fun! Its my very first smartphone and so far I think its great. With 4 bars on 3G I get 2.0-2.4 mbps down. With 1 bar on 4G I get about the same speed. I'll need to hunt around and see how 4G signal strength varies with position. My neighbor 1 block away gets at least 4 mbps. I guess this variability is the nature of Sprint's WiMax network?
I've seen lots of posts with people reporting statistics on time spent on/off, awake/asleep, amount of data downloaded, what apps are using what resources, etc. What tool does one use to collect this information?
You can get some information through the about phone; up time, awake time, battery use etc etc.
As far as the 4G, I think it's more of it being such a new network. Was just out back taking a breather and I can get 1 bar of 4G. 2-4 Mb pretty consistently ... sometimes it drops, pulled in 5 on a couple speedtests. The 3G though, it's weird because I'm lucky if I can even get 2 Mb. Dunno though, gotta assume the stability of the 4G will only get better. Figure I'm right on the brink even though the coverage map appears to have it bleeding out past me. In time I suppose.
Baltimore is the oldest (and I assume most built-out) 4G market area that Sprint has in the US. I was able to connect to 4G on the first day I had the Evo. Then did the OTA update. I've been unable to connect to 4G ever since. I switch the 4G radio on and wait, the icon at the top of the screen always says 3G. Am I doing something wrong? Is there somewhere else where I need to enable 4G? Anyone else having trouble accessing 4G since the OTA update?
I have also been having some problems with my 4g. I had no problems with 4g until the update.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Curious, 4G still works with my phone after the OTA.
I see B-More has been up since 2008 or something? First city! Whoa. But strange none the less. Your buddy, whom you referenced in the original post, still able to connect?
I've had my EVO in Baltimore since Launch Day - have not done the OTA yet (rooted) and my 4G was working fine until this morning. Wonder if there is some sort of outage today.
All I get is Scanning -> Connecting to Sprint -> Obtaining IP -> Scanning.
This has happened in Baltimore and Annapolis.
Also, I have hit 5mbps download near the Beltway and I-95.
Dude!? Where in Bmore? I'm over in Ellicott City and I get maybe 600kbps on 3g or 1200 in Samsclub Catonsville and at BWI...
4000-5000 on 4g
Oddly though I've been getting "network connection lost" and google maps just stops and refuses to download any tiles. Pandora freezes too...
You started having these problems today?
I've searched the web and this seems to be the only place that 4G problems have been reported in Baltimore.
Also, are you pre or post OTA?
willfck4beer said:
Dude!? Where in Bmore? I'm over in Ellicott City and I get maybe 600kbps on 3g or 1200 in Samsclub Catonsville and at BWI...
4000-5000 on 4g
Oddly though I've been getting "network connection lost" and google maps just stops and refuses to download any tiles. Pandora freezes too...
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I'm downtown. This morning (7/2) I checked (outdoors) near Camden Yards and at the Inner Harbor. No 4G. Maybe its just coincidence that there's a network problem just after the OTA? I'll keep checking....
So, I called Sprint. As expected, they claimed maintenance in my "neighborhood". As I mentioned above, I've been in Baltimore and Annapolis today with no 4g. I have a hard time believing that they took out the whole area for maintenance. However, he did claim that it should be back up by 7pm.
I'm in Ellicott City and get about 4.5 on 4G and 600-1.0 on 3G.
I work right on the edge of the 4G coverage (Clarks Ace Hardware) so I'm usually at 1-2 bars. If I go 1 block east I get full reception, but if I go 100ft. west it completely drops 4G (route 144 & 40).
Checked for 4G connectivity this morning (inside my brick rowhouse, near the baseball stadium in Baltimore). I've got a weak 4G signal again - and measured 4 mbps bandwidth down. Good enough for me. I'll take some more measurements around town and see if there's any place with a stronger signal.
I spent the whole day yesterday at the harbor, 4G never connected once. Fail :/
Went to Sprint at Inner Harbor. They were getting 2 bars of 4G in the store, and I was getting none. The tech there noticed that I had turned off the "Location" switch (which allows GPS to update applications of phone's location). I did that because I didn't want GPS radio on all the time (save battery), and because I thought it would give me a bit more privacy. Tech said for 4G to work at its best - need to turn Location -ON. Reluctantly I turned it on, and now I'm consistently getting 1 or 2 bars of 4G around the Baltimore downtown area, with 3.8 - 4.5 mbps bandwidth down.
SO - in order to use that battery hogging 4G radio, one needs to turn on yet another battery sucking radio? Wow - are others in 4G markets finding that 4G works better with GPS on and Location on? Or was that tech just grasping for straws...?
i've always had the gps on. no luck
interesting! Don't know if any of you have tried sensorly map... kinda sweet... it signal strength maps 4G and 3g and 1xrtt via crowdsourcing... and lets you compare coverage btw sprint/att/vzw/tmob...
But I'm worried how accurate it is due to several issues:
...
1) I contributed data and never saw the map update
2) data will be skewed as GPS needs to be ON for map to work - so it should report better 4g coverage than actually exists AND
3) Most people who contributed seemed to be wardriving (or just leaving it on while driving)... and from what I've read wimax isn't that good at mobile or handoffs...
If it is accurate... this is not going to be a fun 2 years... SPRINT coverage looks like ****! even compared to tmob...
Any input from anyone smarter?
btw - I'm moving to a boat down in inner harbor... anyone have any results from the water?
I'm wondering how accurate it is too. Wasn't there some kind of radio problem with 4g not connecting? Wouldn't that skew the results?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
so im in downtown baltimore (otterbein area, right off the inner harbor), and both my wife and i just got evo's on friday. neither of us can get a 4g signal anywhere, unless we're standing literally across the street from the sprint store in the inner harbor. is this usual? is there some kind of outage right now? sprint was entirely useless when i called tech support, and i got transferred around about 11 times before being told they'll look into it and call me back tomorrow.
pjh410 said:
so im in downtown baltimore (otterbein area, right off the inner harbor), and both my wife and i just got evo's on friday. neither of us can get a 4g signal anywhere, unless we're standing literally across the street from the sprint store in the inner harbor. is this usual? is there some kind of outage right now? sprint was entirely useless when i called tech support, and i got transferred around about 11 times before being told they'll look into it and call me back tomorrow.
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Make an appointment to speak with a tech at the Inner Harbor store - sounds like there's something wrong with your phone or settings. Coverage in downtown Baltimore can vary a lot with location. I'm in Ridgely's Delight (less than a mile from you) - and I've been getting between 3.5 and 5.0 mbps down.

[Q] Clear's 4g coverage map vs Sprint's

Hey guys,
I noticed that my address is covered in Clearwire's 4g coverage map--strong coverage too--but it's not covered in Sprint's. Does anyone know how long it will take Sprint to actually extend 4g to my location?
mylasthope said:
Hey guys,
I noticed that my address is covered in Clearwire's 4g coverage map--strong coverage too--but it's not covered in Sprint's. Does anyone know how long it will take Sprint to actually extend 4g to my location?
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Clearwire just came out with a new router that pumps 4g into your house like a mini-tower. It also does wifi. If you have wifi I dont know what you would want 4g, but there it is.
mitchellvii said:
Clearwire just came out with a new router that pumps 4g into your house like a mini-tower. It also does wifi. If you have wifi I dont know what you would want 4g, but there it is.
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Problem with that is you have to pay an extra $35/month, plus the $120 for the new router (or $7/month to rent it).
Here's the truth: Sprint's maps are slower to update, whereas Clear updates theirs almost every day. Also, while Clear might have service in your area now, Sprint won't let you sign on to it until they make the "official" announcement that they're rolling out to your area. Same thing happened here in Sacramento, and right now in my neighborhood.
I wonder if there is a way to hack our phones to be able to use Clears WiMax signal on the Evo........Hmmmmm.......(Im in a 4G area already so its pretty redundant.....but still, this could be useful to somebody.)
drmacinyasha said:
Problem with that is you have to pay an extra $35/month, plus the $120 for the new router (or $7/month to rent it).
Here's the truth: Sprint's maps are slower to update, whereas Clear updates theirs almost every day. Also, while Clear might have service in your area now, Sprint won't let you sign on to it until they make the "official" announcement that they're rolling out to your area. Same thing happened here in Sacramento, and right now in my neighborhood.
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Yeah, I figured. I get good 4g coverage about a block away from my house--I live in LA county and LA's 4g coverage was recently made official. When I look at Sprint's coverage map, my address is almost covered, but I'm still a little away from that sweet, sweet blue. Any idea how long it will take Sprint to make my address "official," seeing as how Clear has already extended its coverage to my house?

Sprint working on spreading 4G network?

I know that when I purchased the Evo I was kind of upset that I didn't have 4G because of my area. Now i'm onto the ET4G and still no 4g =/. What's my solution? Move to the city to get 4G? Curious I suppose and its a shame to have a 4g capable phone and not get 4g network.
Trust me I was with ATT and didn't get 4g either and not even 3G because a lot of there network isn't even 3G build yet. And they are way more expensive. Though now I at least have 3g with Sprint.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
i hate to be the one to break the news to you bro. all the WiMax 4g towers that are currently installed and operational right now are all the 4g WiMax towers there ever will be. Sprint canned it since it was on a not power/non building penetrating frequency of like 2.6 ghz or something. verizon i beleive uses like 700mhz or something close to that which allows the single to penetrate buildings deeper and travel farther. Sprint just anounced its "Sprint Visions" plan i beleive its called. What it entails apon aproval from the FCC i beleive since its 20 or 40 mhz away from the GPS frequency. they are moving to LTE towers like Verizon. what does this mean for your WiMax handset? it will never see the light of day with 4g. it will not work on LTE as the 4g chip does not work on those frequncys. in early 2012 sprint will start to release new handsets with the new radio chip in them. i beleive they said it should all be deployed within 3 years? also that are moving to Rev B 3g so its faster. also will be able to use the internet and phone voice calls at the same time. they use all the push to talk nextel for the new 3g or something like that. idk, people if you know whats the plan better than i please feel free to correct me. but thats just the general idea of whats happening
You summed it up pretty well. WiMax won't be expanded, but it will continue to be supported for a few years. Sprint actually basically has 3 types of connections. EVDO, Nextel's PTT, and WiMax. They'll be able to put a multi-band antenna up at all the disparate sites, providing some awesome coverage! Of course this is still a ways away.
4g
Sprint hasn't canned 4g in my state they just put up two more towers one in my town and one about 6 miles outside the north side indy which will make a total of 4 towers in indy and that doesn't include the iu and iupui campuses. And they are putting up more so i don't know where you got your info that sprint canned 4g but they aren't now we are hosting the super bowl and that could be why They are putting up towers left and right in my city.
Sprint hasn't canned 4g, but is changing over to lte next year. All of this information came from the investment talk they gave I believe at the start of October. Sprint covered how this would work and that work on the towers was starting in order to move to the new 4g. Wimax will still run side by side with lte for a few years.

Sprint LTE connection issues...article...

I am going to put this here. Any comments from developers that can help us?
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-312-sprint-lte-launch-market-connection-issues/
This has been confirmed by myself and others on that site. My nick is troyd96 on there.
Can a developer figure out how to manually adjust the signal thresholds so that the phone knows weak LTE signals are preferable to stronger 3G signals. An OTA might fix this, but I am not holding my breath of it coming.
There is no hidden menus where you can adjust this threshold.
I've been looking for setting to change threshold like I did for Wi-Max
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Just trying to read the LTE signal strength can be challenging because the Android standard doesn't cover it yet. So even discovering what OEM voodoo is being done to read that on this phone would be interesting. See my post at S4GRU here.
boomerbubba said:
Just trying to read the LTE signal strength can be challenging because the Android standard doesn't cover it yet. So even discovering what OEM voodoo is being done to read that on this phone would be interesting. See my post at S4GRU here.
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It may be voodoo, but it is obvious that places that should be getting LTE with live towers, on their weakest coverage area the phone does not like it and rejects it. Regardless of what the true signal levels are. There are enough people that have tested this, for me to believe. So regardless there is an issue here. It would be nice to try to play around with the threshold to see if it helps. IMHO it would.
slickdaddy96 said:
It may be voodoo, but it is obvious that places that should be getting LTE with live towers, on their weakest coverage area the phone does not like it and rejects it. Regardless of what the true signal levels are. There are enough people that have tested this, for me to believe. So regardless there is an issue here. It would be nice to try to play around with the threshold to see if it helps. IMHO it would.
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I am not arguing with you or with the content of the S4GRU article. I just thought I might bootstrap the conversation with a little additional research on what to look for in the code. However this fallback threshold is being handled under the hood, it must include reading some metric for LTE signal strength.
I do not think this is a hardware issue.. I think it is more of a Sprint is lying about how many towers are actually live..
case in point.. I can go to the woodlands or to Copperfield and my phone locks into LGE4G and switches seamlessly as needed..
however.
anywhere else that Sprint is showing as active is pretty much dead with no 4G and patehtic 3G even though if you go to the LGE coverage map as of Sunday it is showing as covered..
I think a large portion of what they think is covered now.. really isn't.
CVSiN said:
I do not think this is a hardware issue.. I think it is more of a Sprint is lying about how many towers are actually live..
case in point.. I can go to the woodlands or to Copperfield and my phone locks into LGE4G and switches seamlessly as needed..
however.
anywhere else that Sprint is showing as active is pretty much dead with no 4G and patehtic 3G even though if you go to the LGE coverage map as of Sunday it is showing as covered..
I think a large portion of what they think is covered now.. really isn't.
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I don't believe you are correct here. The creator of that site gets official info from Sprint about what towers are live, and he also has official info on Towers that will be upgraded and not live yet. People can force their phone to use LTE in those weak areas where it wants to go 3G by ##data## HDR/1X settings checking LTE only. The only issue with that is that you lose voice/text. So it is indeed something software wise on the hardware telling the phone to accept the 3G signal and reject the weak LTE signal.
The amount of towers live is accurate on that site. I am unsure of what maps you can see on the site if you are not a sponsor, but I have seen the maps they are accurate, but it does take sometimes up to two weeks for the info the be released to where he can update the "live" maps.
The LTE in the Atlanta area where I am is probably 20-30% complete, but the problem I am talking about is people on the edge of what should be coverage on a known active site (meaning it has been verified by users and by the site as a live tower) are getting switched to 3G.
There is known range of what LTE towers can do at certain frequency when it comes to coverage. People are within these ranges and on the weaker ranges of the LTE signal area they are being forced to 3G, when they can force their phone to LTE and it works fine.
So it is definitely software/firmware/modem based.
CVSiN said:
I do not think this is a hardware issue.. I think it is more of a Sprint is lying about how many towers are actually live.
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Nobody said it was a "hardware issue." The hypothesis in the article, proved in disabling the fallback, is that a firmware issue is a factor. There is a programmed threshold level of signal strength that forces the phone to fall back. The hypothesis is that this threshold would work better if it were set lower, because even a weak LTE connection can be better than a stronger EVDO signal.
And this is not mutually exclusive vis a vis your complaint about thin tower coverage. It is well known, at least to those who follow this closely at S4GRU, that these markets were launched with thinner coverage than originally planned but are continuing to be built out.
In fact, the fallback-threshold problem and the thin-coverage problem just magnify each other, because only those devices with very strong LTE signal will avoid falling back to 3G.
slickdaddy96 said:
I don't believe you are correct here. The creator of that site gets official info from Sprint about what towers are live, and he also has official info on Towers that will be upgraded and not live yet. People can force their phone to use LTE in those weak areas where it wants to go 3G by ##data## HDR/1X settings checking LTE only. The only issue with that is that you lose voice/text. So it is indeed something software wise on the hardware telling the phone to accept the 3G signal and reject the weak LTE signal.
The amount of towers live is accurate on that site. I am unsure of what maps you can see on the site if you are not a sponsor, but I have seen the maps they are accurate, but it does take sometimes up to two weeks for the info the be released to where he can update the "live" maps.
The LTE in the Atlanta area where I am is probably 20-30% complete, but the problem I am talking about is people on the edge of what should be coverage on a known active site (meaning it has been verified by users and by the site as a live tower) are getting switched to 3G.
There is known range of what LTE towers can do at certain frequency when it comes to coverage. People are within these ranges and on the weaker ranges of the LTE signal area they are being forced to 3G, when they can force their phone to LTE and it works fine.
So it is definitely software/firmware/modem based.
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I don't care where he is getting his info from.. do you honestly think Sprint would come out and say they lied about coverage?
They are flat lying and covering their asses.
There is no 4G coverage in 2/3s of the areas down to street view where they say there is supposed to be live towers at least here in Houston.
and the fact that in the 2 places that have been confirmed in the other thread by other users just solidify my theory.
The hardware is working fine at least on the GS3.. it swiches in and out of 4G perfectly when it senses it..
you can sit in these 2 areas and it will pick it uip every time no reboot needed..
yet go to most of the other so called covered areas.. and reboot till your phone blows up or force to LTE and still not get crap..
they are lying..
I will post flat GPS pics of my exact location and then post the Sprint service map right over my coords.. and prove it to you.
I am right smack dab in the middle of a heavy LTE covered area on the sprint map..
but no matter what you do on the device there is no signal.
In the woodlands just as in Conroe, I have areas where no 4g, mid range, or full strength. I even went to Houston the other day. No 4g in sight around 1960 area or greater. I can say that it's not a 4g blanket as the coverage map wants you to believe. Seems that's actually a when completed map.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
hayabusa1300cc said:
In the woodlands just as in Conroe, I have areas where no 4g, mid range, or full strength. I even went to Houston the other day. No 4g in sight around 1960 area or greater. I can say that it's not a 4g blanket as the coverage map wants you to believe. Seems that's actually a when completed map.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
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Exactly my same experience.
hayabusa1300cc said:
In the woodlands just as in Conroe, I have areas where no 4g, mid range, or full strength. I even went to Houston the other day. No 4g in sight around 1960 area or greater. I can say that it's not a 4g blanket as the coverage map wants you to believe. Seems that's actually a when completed map.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
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I agree. Dallas is same way. SHows a large portion of Dallas as covered and everywhere I have been I have connected in only 2 places.
The coverage map is very deceiving as this is clearly not all the covered areas. Now, maybe in future build out it will be, but certainly not right now.
I was in San Antonio over the weekend and for the most part I was unable to connect to LTE. That is until I was on the runway of San Antonio International Airport. Then afte I landed in Dallas I didnt recieve LTE at all. I walked all over the airport since I had a long as hell layover. Still no LTE. However the DFW airport seems to be sponsored by Samsung. They have a Samsung lounge as well as NFC chips everywhere to download stuff for free.
Uh, this thread is not about how overly optimistic Sprint's published coverage maps are. (I actually agree that they are way overstated, on the basis of credible reports on forums.)
That does not mean that the fallback-threshold setting does not also contribute to the problem! And that is what this thread is about -- actually seeking technical solutions. If people just want to rant about Sprint, there are lots of other threads for that.
CVSiN said:
I don't care where he is getting his info from.. do you honestly think Sprint would come out and say they lied about coverage?
They are flat lying and covering their asses.
There is no 4G coverage in 2/3s of the areas down to street view where they say there is supposed to be live towers at least here in Houston.
and the fact that in the 2 places that have been confirmed in the other thread by other users just solidify my theory.
The hardware is working fine at least on the GS3.. it swiches in and out of 4G perfectly when it senses it..
you can sit in these 2 areas and it will pick it uip every time no reboot needed..
yet go to most of the other so called covered areas.. and reboot till your phone blows up or force to LTE and still not get crap..
they are lying..
I will post flat GPS pics of my exact location and then post the Sprint service map right over my coords.. and prove it to you.
I am right smack dab in the middle of a heavy LTE covered area on the sprint map..
but no matter what you do on the device there is no signal.
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You are not getting my point. We are not talking about the official sprint.com coverage maps. We all know those are inaccurate to what really is going on. He has specific placemarked towers on Google maps, he has several actually (known live maps which only sponsors can see, and planned towers which lump the live and not-live together on a non-interactive map). The completed ones (which have been verified by him and this is through internal sprint info) They have also been proven by people with phones going right where the known "live" sites are on his map and getting full bar 4G service. You obviously have not looked at his maps at all and are just assuming things, and you are assuming wrong. I have a tower that is "live" about 0.5 miles from my house I get almost full bars in my house. I go to other places pull up his maps and where he says they are live they are indeed live.
So now that we have gotten that out of the way. It is widely known how far LTE coverage will go per tower based on frequency and power broadcast. There is no disputing that. The problem lies within places that are in the outer range of that specific (or any specific tower) they are connected to. Forcing the phone to LTE only does make the phone connect to the LTE tower with verified speed and data flowing, so no the users aren't lying either. Once they turn their phone back to LTE/CDMA/EVDO, the phone again sees the stronger 3G signal and refuses to connect to LTE in the EXACT SAME LOCATION THEY WERE WHEN THEY TOGGLED LTE ONLY.
Stick your head in the sand and be negative about Sprint all you want, meanwhile the rest of us will continue to try to find a way to fix the threshold problem that indeed exists.
boomerbubba said:
Uh, this thread is not about how overly optimistic Sprint's published coverage maps are. (I actually agree that they are way overstated, on the basis of credible reports on forums.)
That does not mean that the fallback-threshold setting does not also contribute to the problem! And that is what this thread is about -- actually seeking technical solutions. If people just want to rant about Sprint, there are lots of other threads for that.
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But that is the issue.. if there was coverage where they say it is.. your phone would not need tweaked..
They are one and the same issue.
CVSiN said:
But that is the issue.. if there was coverage where they say it is.. your phone would not need tweaked..
They are one and the same issue.
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It can be both causes. They are complementary, not mutually exclusive. (Sorry to interrupt your emoting with logic.)
slickdaddy96 said:
You are not getting my point. We are not talking about the official sprint.com coverage maps. We all know those are inaccurate to what really is going on. He has specific placemarked towers on Google maps, he has several actually (known live maps which only sponsors can see, and planned towers which lump the live and not-live together on a non-interactive map). The completed ones (which have been verified by him and this is through internal sprint info) They have also been proven by people with phones going right where the known "live" sites are on his map and getting full bar 4G service. You obviously have not looked at his maps at all and are just assuming things, and you are assuming wrong. I have a tower that is "live" about 0.5 miles from my house I get almost full bars in my house. I go to other places pull up his maps and where he says they are live they are indeed live.
So now that we have gotten that out of the way. It is widely known how far LTE coverage will go per tower based on frequency and power broadcast. There is no disputing that. The problem lies within places that are in the outer range of that specific (or any specific tower) they are connected to. Forcing the phone to LTE only does make the phone connect to the LTE tower with verified speed and data flowing, so no the users aren't lying either. Once they turn their phone back to LTE/CDMA/EVDO, the phone again sees the stronger 3G signal and refuses to connect to LTE in the EXACT SAME LOCATION THEY WERE WHEN THEY TOGGLED LTE ONLY.
Stick your head in the sand and be negative about Sprint all you want, meanwhile the rest of us will continue to try to find a way to fix the threshold problem that indeed exists.
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I have that map as well.. they are flat wrong.. at least for Houston and other members that have the same maps are reporting the exact same thing. So whose head is in the sand?
I literally work 5 blocks from 1 on his list and live right next to another.. and no 4G on those towers at all in LTE forced mode or not.
Ive been with Sprint for 8 years.. so I have earned the right to be a little angry over this broken promise and lied about coverage maps.
I would never have bought the phone this early had it not been for his maps which show coverage in my area. but in reality there is none.
CVSiN said:
I have that map as well.. they are flat wrong.. at least for Houston and other members that have the same maps are reporting the exact same thing. So whose head is in the sand?
I literally work 5 blocks from 1 on his list and live right next to another.. and no 4G on those towers at all in LTE forced mode or not.
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Are you looking at a sites complete map, or a map of the whole NV project for the area? Since only 14 percent of the total sites in the Houston market are reported complete, most of them have no LTE yet.
There's an LTE test app (maybe 2) in /system/app that may hold the answers. Just go ahead and create a shortcut to its activity with your launcher and see what's there. I've frozen it so I can't really comment on if it works for changing thresholds or not

[Q] Is there an NK2 radio in a .zip flashable format?

Has anyone made a zip for the new radio?
If I have time I will do it tonight. I'll post in in my rom thread. Just curious, why do you need the modem unless you haven't upgraded to NK2 via OTA or Odin tar?
tx_dbs_tx said:
If I have time I will do it tonight. I'll post in in my rom thread. Just curious, why do you need the modem unless you haven't upgraded to NK2 via OTA or Odin tar?
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No, i have not taken the update. Doea the update wipe everything out? Im looking to kee0 things as they are but get the newer radio files due to spotty lte in a sprk covered area.
hammerchucker said:
Has anyone made a zip for the new radio?
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I have NK2 on my phone and it did nothing to improve my .5 to 1Mbs LTE in a SPARK area. So not real sure this is even worth your effort.
Solarenemy68 said:
I have NK2 on my phone and it did nothing to improve my .5 to 1Mbs LTE in a SPARK area. So not real sure this is even worth your effort.
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Having issues at work. I get the 40+ Mbit B41, its just that for some reason it wants to kick over to 3G fairly often. I have to do a few PRL updates to get back on it. I understand the B41 tower is a little ways away but i know from owning the note 2 that they have the slower B25 in the area too as i used to get it all the time with out issue and my note 4 never seems to connect to it, only B41.
Sprint said they are going to monitor me and my area and send me an update in a few days. They also suggested i take the new update but i dont really dont want start over right now so trying just the radio.
hammerchucker said:
Having issues at work. I get the 40+ Mbit B41, its just that for some reason it wants to kick over to 3G fairly often. I have to do a few PRL updates to get back on it. I understand the B41 tower is a little ways away but i know from owning the note 2 that they have the slower B25 in the area too as i used to get it all the time with out issue and my note 4 never seems to connect to it, only B41.
Sprint said they are going to monitor me and my area and send me an update in a few days. They also suggested i take the new update but i dont really dont want start over right now so trying just the radio.
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Many including myself are having low LTE speeds. I have been going back and fourth with Sprint for three weeks now and am on my second Note 4 with the same issue.
I got elevated to a Senior Tech and he said that Samsung has said there is an issue with some N4's and Sprints LTE according to a log only he and those at his level has access to. He advised having Samsung reflash it. So I took it to a lcal repair facility after getting a service ticket from Samsung which also took a week of phone calls back and fourth. They reflashed it today and it still has the same problem. Near their facility I got 25Mbs.
At home however I only get .5 to 1Mbs and according to their coverage map aI am in SPARK heaven.
It's not your phone, it's Sprint. I've been dealing with the exact same thing for years. They keep sauing they're working on the network but I've seen faster data speeds on disposable prepaid flip phones. Your data speeds will depend on the tower you're connected to. I don't know what's taking so long for Sprint to get their network coverage and dats speeds consistent throughout a region but it hasn't happened yet from my experience. I get around 1mb download and anywhere from 250kbps to 500is on uploads. The speeds on LTE at my house aren't great but in other parts of town it works a lot better. I assume Sprint doesn't consider certain areas a "priority" on their upgrade list. So you can stop thinking it's your phone because I doubt very seriously that's the problem, I used to think the exact same thing and went through several device swaps with the same results. Sprint will give you the runaround and point the finger at anything and everything as well as claim they are working on the towers/network. Well they've been working on the towers around here since they introduced WiMax and the HTC EVO. Yes I've seen big improvements with data speeds and coverage but after this much time I expected a lot better data speeds. Like I said, Sprint doesn't consider some areas a priority and they don't do much to improve or upgrade in those places because it's not lucritive or cost effective due to the customer base in that given area. Now other places where you would expect very good service but only see 3G speeds on LTE, there's just no excuse for that because Sprint has had a LOT of time to get the network up to par with the likes of T-Mobile etc. It is what it is.
tx_dbs_tx said:
It's not your phone, it's Sprint. I've been dealing with the exact same thing for years. They keep sauing they're working on the network but I've seen faster data speeds on disposable prepaid flip phones. Your data speeds will depend on the tower you're connected to. I don't know what's taking so long for Sprint to get their network coverage and dats speeds consistent throughout a region but it hasn't happened yet from my experience. I get around 1mb download and anywhere from 250kbps to 500is on uploads. The speeds on LTE at my house aren't great but in other parts of town it works a lot better. I assume Sprint doesn't consider certain areas a "priority" on their upgrade list. So you can stop thinking it's your phone because I doubt very seriously that's the problem, I used to think the exact same thing and went through several device swaps with the same results. Sprint will give you the runaround and point the finger at anything and everything as well as claim they are working on the towers/network. Well they've been working on the towers around here since they introduced WiMax and the HTC EVO. Yes I've seen big improvements with data speeds and coverage but after this much time I expected a lot better data speeds. Like I said, Sprint doesn't consider some areas a priority and they don't do much to improve or upgrade in those places because it's not lucritive or cost effective due to the customer base in that given area. Now other places where you would expect very good service but only see 3G speeds on LTE, there's just no excuse for that because Sprint has had a LOT of time to get the network up to par with the likes of T-Mobile etc. It is what it is.
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I follow S4GRU and they also indicate it is the towers that choose, which is frustrating esp. when it seemingly kicks to 3g as soon as i start streaming a video.
My issue is not data speeds (even B25 gives me upwards of 8Mbit which is pleanty for video streaming), its staying connected to LTE.
I at least want to have the new radios installed so i can tell them i have NK2. I want to follow their procees through and if i still have the problem staying connected to LTE then i want a monthly discount untill its fixed (which theyve given before when i was getting no 4G at all in my area.
I went to Sprint in 2010 for the EVO and the WiMax that was up in my area, but its been a long painful rollout of the LTE. The reasin I stay is the old unlimited everything plan i still have.
hammerchucker said:
I follow S4GRU and they also indicate it is the towers that choose, which is frustrating esp. when it seemingly kicks to 3g as soon as i start streaming a video.
My issue is not data speeds (even B25 gives me upwards of 8Mbit which is pleanty for video streaming), its staying connected to LTE.
I at least want to have the new radios installed so i can tell them i have NK2. I want to follow their procees through and if i still have the problem staying connected to LTE then i want a monthly discount untill its fixed (which theyve given before when i was getting no 4G at all in my area.
I went to Sprint in 2010 for the EVO and the WiMax that was up in my area, but its been a long painful rollout of the LTE. The reasin I stay is the old unlimited everything plan i still have.
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I get the same damn thing, start streaming video on lte and then the note 4 drops to 3g, streaming is unusable at that speed. My s4 streamed perfectly fine and locked lte in the exact same areas. All the excellent real estate and I can't use it except on the wifi I pay for. I have old plan that has unlimited data and I'm not using it, note 4... Out

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