Develop Bugs

Slow Data, Low Signal Strength

I've had this phone for about a year now, but for some reason I just came to these realizations. This was my first smart phone, so I was blinded by all the fancy things that come with a smart phone...
Anyway, I'm currently running CM7 stable, 1.6.37.6 incredikernal, 2.15.00.11.19...
I'm always at 1 bar or less, around -90 dbm, and I just started running speedtests but my highest was 597 kbps down and 460 kbps up. This is complete ****.
Is my device a POS? or is Verizon network a POS?
Keep in mind, although I just started running speed tests, my data has always seemed slow... I just figured that's the way it was suppose to be...
I live 30 minutes from NYC if you are going to factor in location

Its Verizon, lately may be the iPhone effect?
In metro areas I can get downloads that are slower than upload. On the flipside in rural areas that have more cows and goats per capita than humans I can get 2+mbps.

txvstar said:
Its Verizon, lately may be the iPhone effect?
In metro areas I can get downloads that are slower than upload. On the flipside in rural areas that have more cows and goats per capita than humans I can get 2+mbps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought about the whole iphone craze, but I feel like it has been slow all along...

I have wondered about the dInc so I ran side by side test with an OG droid. Same crappy results in some cases. In a few moments of good signal the bone stock OG Droid was at least 200kbps faster.
I have also wondered if I am being throttled due to high data usage.

If you're speeds were throttled you should have an icon in your notification bar, Verizon isn't supposed to throttle without letting you know.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

txvstar said:
I have wondered about the dInc so I ran side by side test with an OG droid. Same crappy results in some cases. In a few moments of good signal the bone stock OG Droid was at least 200kbps faster.
I have also wondered if I am being throttled due to high data usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't use that much data on my phone, so I don't see why I would be throttled...
However, after 2 years of no dl'ing music, I did got on a binge a few weks ago and dl'd about 20 gigs. But I don't think this would affect my wireless account, and I could of sworn Verizon prided themselves on not throttling...

I have seen same results and its not just on the incredibles. I believe its Verizon network. Makes me wonder if its them working on trying to go 4g or what?? I know its not the incredible because I have had same result in certain areas getting 2mbs others i get 200kbs. Its just the network

bjohnson8949 said:
I have seen same results and its not just on the incredibles. I believe its Verizon network. Makes me wonder if its them working on trying to go 4g or what?? I know its not the incredible because I have had same result in certain areas getting 2mbs others i get 200kbs. Its just the network
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to class in the city right now, i'll see what kind of results I get...

You have to factor in alot of things. Your radio version. What tower your on and how many people are using that tower. Location location location. ROM (Although I don't think the problem is related to CM7)
The condition of your phone. Weather. Your PRL, try updating your PRL to make your phone search for a better signal.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Just ran a test in the Bronx, NY. 3 bars, 1020 kbps down, 165 kpbs. What a piece of garbage.
I'm going to unroot and have them give me a new one....

Doubt they'll do anything as that's right in the middle of their advertised 3g speed range.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

[Q] HSPA+ 42 mbps Speeds

I bought my S2 yesterday and so far I love it. I came from an HTC Sensation and what a difference! Nevertheless, I must say I was expecting a little bit more out of the data connection. I'm constantly getting 3 -5 MB/s nothing close to what done reviewers were claiming (9-18+) on speedtest.net. I live in Houston and believe to be inside the 42mbps spectrum. Should I be concerned about this?
What kind of speeds is everyone getting?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App

There are a lot of factors that make up your realized data speeds. Being in a 42mbps coverage area means you have the potential to see the highest data speeds offered by T-Mobile. However the actual performance you experience is based on amount of back haul (fiber optic connectivity) coming into the cell site you are connected to and how much demand is on that tower at any given time. I work in a densely populated 42mbps coverage area in central Maryland where the tower I connect to at work also serves two neighboring Colleges. Ever since school went back in session I have been getting ~3mbps data speeds on average during the day. A week ago T-Mobile saw the spike in data demand on that site and brought more back haul into the cell site. Now I get ~15mbps regularly. Now as more people start to use data on that tower it will start to go down again and at some point in the future if the demand gets high enough and speeds slow down enough T-Mobile will presumably have to bring in more back haul to keep up with the demand.
What you can do is call T-Mobile Customer Care and let them know where you are experiencing the slower speeds and they can forward it over to the engineering team. If there is enough demand on that site they will add it to their list of sites to be back hauled.
Your issue is not your phone and most likely not even your coverage it is probably just a cell site that needs more pipe coming into it to serve the demand in that area.
Hope that helps.

Yes it does help, and thanks for clearing this up for me. Undoubtedly, this is the "elephant in the room" spec although the processor isn't bad either. Time to make some phone calls.
Appreciate it mate!
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App

Honestly if you aren't seeing at least 6-8Mbps during peak usage times the cell site you are on does NOT have dual cell HSPA deployed on it.

I'm in SW Houston. Both my ex-Vibrant and my TMO Galaxy Tab 7 had between just sub-par and plain horrible (read: 4.5 Mbps ... 160kbps) performance. Same results both home and work (inner SW and inner NW respectively).
My SGS II gets about twice or three times as fast (8-10 MBPS, peaks at 14Mbps) at work (NW Houston) but still bad on SW.
Now, here is the kicker: Sometime last week when I got the SGSII I confirmed what I had suspected... The speed test servers we have here (comcast, other) either have very low bandwidth or are bogged down.
So, go and pick another server. I have tried a couple in KY, Lawrence KS and my favorite at Cincinnati OH (that one as given me up to 14Mbps at NW Houston), as well as some random others.
Some conclusions I have to come based on my experiences:
SGSII has a better radio than the SGS (the least they could do?)
Using your local/nearest speedtest.net server is not always optimal.
All Galaxyes (y?) I own are super sensitive when running a speed test. Its 3D orientation as well as where your hand* and even yourself are, make major differences. Try and see while running a test to see numbers change and find your perfect "position".
----------------
[*] Brings to memory -respectfully- Mr. Jobs' famous response: "You are holding it wrong."

I have had the T-Mo-SGS2 for a while using just Wi-Fi and VoIP. I just signed up for the 30$ a month plan. Here is what I am seeing @ my desk, indoors near Chicago. I was quite impressed, it was faster than what I was seeing with Verizon 4G on a MiFi I was borrowing in LA. Not sure about the upload, I have seen it as high as 4-5Mbps but it is pretty inconsistent. Down has been consistently 10-12Mbps +. Only had it for a little bit but I guess I am in a sweet spot.
23.23Mbps down & 2Mbps up was the fastest down speed after <10 speed tests
(was going to post a screenshot but I only have 6 posts after 8 years)

how is it possible that 2 phones, running same network, different speeds

so i tested two galaxy nexus phones right next to each other running same network using speedtest.net and got much different speeds. one was averaging around 7 mbs, the other was 10 mbs. That's a big difference. how could this be? i switched the sim cards and one was still faster.

wasya152 said:
so i tested two galaxy nexus phones right next to each other running same network using speedtest.net and got much different speeds. one was averaging around 7 mbs, the other was 10 mbs. That's a big difference. how could this be? i switched the sim cards and one was still faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never EVER run two same network phones speed tests at the same time. You are effectively splitting the carriers bandwidth coming from the tower you're connected to. It's common sense.
Do yourself a favor and run one test at a time connected to the exact same server and then compare.

This is far from scientific lol. You need to do several tests with one then the other and average all the results to get a decent comparison. Even then you could have problems. There could be hundreds of other people accessing things on the network/tower site which leaves you with less than accurate results.

milan03 said:
Never EVER run two same network phones speed tests at the same time. You are effectively splitting the carriers bandwidth coming from the tower you're connected to. It's common sense.
Do yourself a favor and run one test at a time connected to the exact same server and then compare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did not run at same time. i ran one and then the other. i noticed that when i ran together, it got messed up. so i ran the test in sequence.

martonikaj said:
This is far from scientific lol. You need to do several tests with one then the other and average all the results to get a decent comparison.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i ran maybe like 12 tests. each time one phone was getting higher speeds consistently than other. it wasn't like it was less than 1 mbps apart. it was like 3 mbps apart. i'm kinda upset because the display on mine is much better. the other one seems to have a yellow tint to it, but it's twice as fast as mine most cases.

As said, you need to run several tests over several hours and several days. Then take an average.
Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk

wasya152 said:
i ran maybe like 12 tests. each time one phone was getting higher speeds consistently than other. it wasn't like it was less than 1 mbps apart. it was like 3 mbps apart. i'm kinda upset because the display on mine is much better. the other one seems to have a yellow tint to it, but it's twice as fast as mine most cases.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
12 tests is nothing. Look at my signature and 199 tests i've done just during the first week Rezound was released. Don't be so quick to judge the phone's RF performance.
Also make sure the APNs are exactly the same on both phones, put them both in airplane mode for a few minutes then back online so they hopefully connect to the same carrier/sector. Then try again.

but the phones are in the same location at the same time. shouldn't they get same speed

wasya152 said:
but the phones are in the same location at the same time. shouldn't they get same speed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.
Read the third post in this thread..
Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk

milan03 said:
Never EVER run two same network phones speed tests at the same time. You are effectively splitting the carriers bandwidth coming from the tower you're connected to. It's common sense.
Do yourself a favor and run one test at a time connected to the exact same server and then compare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you talking about? lol
The carrier should have more than enough bandwidth to let 20 phones right next to each other get around the same speed (many more than 20, but just an example). It's ridiculous to think that the carrier isn't set up in a way that would allow that.
Using 2 phones directly next to each other will *not* negatively impact their speeds. That's completely ridiculous.

While I agree it shouldn't matter, but perhaps the tower is maxed out and only has 17mbps to give out...
Perhaps they are on two different towers. 2 different Sims.
Do the airplane mode trick and try swapping SIMs. Try doing 1 then the other repeatedly, of the course of several minutes and average.
The current test is too bland to find the culprit.
LG G2x - 2.3.7 CM7
Asus Transformer - 3.7 Revolver OC/UV

hotleadsingerguy said:
What are you talking about? lol
The carrier should have more than enough bandwidth to let 20 phones right next to each other get around the same speed (many more than 20, but just an example). It's ridiculous to think that the carrier isn't set up in a way that would allow that.
Using 2 phones directly next to each other will *not* negatively impact their speeds. That's completely ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I have no idea where are you from, but here in The USofA and especially in NYC if you try speedtesting two devices in front of the same tower you'll be seeing just about half the throughput you would normally see if one device was tested alone. In NYC for instance we have 4 carriers per AT&T tower and since AT&T is still using 16QAM you'll be maxing out at 14.4mbps. If you're connected on the same carrier/band, same tower and running two hspa+ devices at the same time you're seeing 7-8mbps max. And I'm talking it's you alone, 4AM, no one else on the carrier.
No need to get all emotional over this, it's a fact.

It could honestly be something as simple as when you ran the second test (or whichever was slower) the network was under a bit more stress. It can change every second, so a difference 20 seconds later could definitely be possible. I could run 5 tests in a row here on the same device and get a difference of around 20% between them.

What player911 said. Swap the SIMs, see if it actually is a phone issue. Could be one of your SIMs is just older and doesn't have the newer/faster APN info.
Actually, before swapping SIMs, check the APN info, see if you're using the same HSPA+ servers. I know some people were complaining about slow speeds and went to the AT&T store and asked for an Atrix (or 4G) SIM card and they got their speeds up. The older SIM had the older APN data (manually changing the APN info in the phone works too).

milan03 said:
Ok, I have no idea where are you from, but here in The USofA and especially in NYC if you try speedtesting two devices in front of the same tower you'll be seeing just about half the throughput you would normally see if one device was tested alone. In NYC for instance we have 4 carriers per AT&T tower and since AT&T is still using 16QAM you'll be maxing out at 14.4mbps. If you're connected on the same carrier/band, same tower and running two hspa+ devices at the same time you're seeing 7-8mbps max. And I'm talking it's you alone, 4AM, no one else on the carrier.
No need to get all emotional over this, it's a fact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's weird because I used to live in Manhattan and used AT&T. My ex was on the family plan with me and we both had identical devices (iPhone 3GS, at the time). I'd run at least one or 2 sets per week at the same time and get around the same results in the apartment. Running them at the same time or running them consecutively had absolutely no effect.
Now I'm back in Cleveland and the same is true.
So *maybe* you're experiencing a random slowdown and you're attributing it to the hypothesis you've created. I'm not the one getting emotional (or defensive). It's ridiculous to think that the tower would only have 14.4Mbps to distribute across *ALL* of the customers using that connection. If you think that's true you should probably do a bit more homework into cellular network technology.
For reference, I just asked my father about this (I've been on the phone with him while writing this). He's worked at AT&T for 42 years (through its various iterations) and is currently one of the heads of the cellular upgrade division (mostly installing LTE hardware and such). He suggested you get a better understanding of how symptoms link to maladies before creating hypotheses.

Ever considered the hundreds of others in the tower area who are torrenting, downloading, streaming, etc, on an off many times in seconds of time?
7-10 mbps for each GSM handset is pretty darn impressive under any conditions...
The tower you are using isn't your own personal tower, you know...

hotleadsingerguy said:
That's weird because I used to live in Manhattan and used AT&T. My ex was on the family plan with me and we both had identical devices (iPhone 3GS, at the time). I'd run at least one or 2 sets per week at the same time and get around the same results in the apartment. Running them at the same time or running them consecutively had absolutely no effect.
Now I'm back in Cleveland and the same is true.
So *maybe* you're experiencing a random slowdown and you're attributing it to the hypothesis you've created. I'm not the one getting emotional (or defensive). It's ridiculous to think that the tower would only have 14.4Mbps to distribute across *ALL* of the customers using that connection. If you think that's true you should probably do a bit more homework into cellular network technology.
For reference, I just asked my father about this (I've been on the phone with him while writing this). He's worked at AT&T for 42 years (through its various iterations) and is currently one of the heads of the cellular upgrade division (mostly installing LTE hardware and such). He suggested you get a better understanding of how symptoms link to maladies before creating hypotheses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok here we go again...
First of all iPhone 3GS was 7.2mbps device but it only had 384kbps upload speed which was so disproportionate and was effectively throttling the user experience and anything over 4.5mbps under the real world conditions was equivalent to miracle. So you shouldn't have any problems running multiple 3GSs on the same carrier.
Secondly, NYC is not an LTE market, they still run 16QAM network, as someone said earlier (17mbps per sector video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73zZtMF95SU) their backhaul is not necessarily as hot as let's say Dallas or Houston. Why? Only AT&T knows that but NYC is probably one of their worst markets in the entire nation. So we have 4 carriers per tower, each one of them is 16QAM, which effectively caps you to 14.4mbps even on a 21mbps category 14 smartphone (video2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYkeSJH5uSM) . During the business hours when millions of users get on those 4 carriers, speeds are slower than EDGE. AT&T is lacking cell density, they need to refarm more unused spectrum, or simply deploy LTE to NYC right away before San Juan or Oklahoma City for instance.
You understood me wrong, I didn't say that a tower has 14.4mbps (21mbps) to distribute to everyone, I said one carrier/band is, and in most market you have more than one carrier. We have two 850Mhz and two 1900Mhz PCS carriers in NYC.
And while you're on the phone with your dad, mind asking him why there isn't LTE already deployed in NYC, SF, or LA before other non saturated markets like Oklahoma City, Athens, etc..
Thanks.

I tried swapping the sims. the speeds improved, but the other phone was still getting higher speeds. my phone was getting around 7 while the other one was 10. also, on that phone I've seen the speeds at 10 multiple times, but not once on mine.

I also went to tmobile and got a new sim card today. at same location, I have yet to see anything over 7 still. I'm pretty sure at this point its three phone.

here are the screen shots of the tests from my phone

[Q]Data Speed Woes.

Just got mine on today from the retail store the guy activated a new Sim card for me and my data speed is terribly slow it doesn't even seem like it's 3g . Any ideas why its so slow?
Sent from my SGH-T989

what phone did you have before and how much did you use your data....could be tmobile throtteling

I'm only getting about 5-6Mbps which I would get on my MT4G... but it's the service in this area, not the phone's fault
HOWEVER
I am getting such bad upload speeds it's puzzling.. giving the phone time to adjust, I'll test again tomorrow because for some reason anytime I change phones the data connection seems to act weird the first day..

The phone in my store which is in a 42mbps area gets 15mbps with every test I did.

I'm getting 8 - 12 Mbps avg.

Just did a test right now and got 10,390 kbps using a 1MB file.
Seems pretty much the same as my HD2.
Remember that HSPA+ speeds are theoretical, the chances of you reaching those speeds are slim.

ok so after two t mobile calls and numerous network resets im getting absolutely ****ty speed test results. the browsing is ok but seems to be really laggy. hmm..
also noticed under settings/aboutphone/signal/MobileNetworkType i get UMTS and it will switch to HSPA randomly. could this be the reason? or should it say HSPA+? can someone verify this?

You won't get 4G speeds everywhere.

im aware of this..
i had a sgs4g which i lost 2 weeks ago and it was nothing like this.
it feels like my connection is capped at 56k

It could be the network, there could just be a lot of congestion. It happens to me sometimes too, one day I'll get 12mbps & the next I won't be able to get over 5. Try your sim in another phone if you can & see if you get the same results.

i used to get anywhere from 5mbps to 15mbps with the sgs4g.
im ashamed to say that i am getting half a mbps. lol

Speeds suck near Phoenix 2.4mbps

i talked to t mobile couple days ago, the technical support had to issue a ticket in order for it to get resolved. the lady said that my Internet should be back to speed in 3 days! Its not phone related its definitely a network glitch of some sort because i am getting 60 kbits. My very first bill cycle is days shy from being over and yet i have not been able to use 4g speeds.. even edge speeds is faster than what i am getting. I believe i shouldn't be held responsible to pay the web data portion of my bill for this month. its only fair.

Try this (if you haven't already).
Pull up your dialer, then dial
*#*#4636#*#*
Select "phone information"
Scroll to the bottom and select
Either "WCDMA Preferred" or "WCDMA Only".
This can be changed from the network settings also. However, I had ****ty data speeds at first too and, for some strange reason, the two menus did not match up... Using the dialer method it was on GSM and inexplicably went back to GSM on its own a couple times.
Hate to say... But if tmo says they are filing a ticket, most of the time the rep just exhausted what their knowledge or troubleshooting is telling them to do and a ticket doesn't change anything.
The GS2 should unquestionably whip the MT4G, HD2, SENSATION as well as most other phones in data speeds, consistently. I can say this from personal experience.
Interested to know how it turns out for you.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk

data speeds are eye popping!
This phone is great! I'm getting a whopping 60kbps/30kbps. We really standing still now! Tmo tech say everything is fine on there end so back to the store I go.

Sounds like your throttled, or your stuck in gsm/edge mode. Check to see also if your on gsm/wcdma, thts what it should be on. You could be on 2g/gsm setting. I put mines on tht setting from time to time.
Sent from planet neblon in the 2nd region of the samsung989 galaxy

i feel your pain, t-mobile can be very spotty in some places. I dont think its my phone!!
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA Premium App

LpSk8r said:
Sounds like your throttled, or your stuck in gsm/edge mode. Check to see also if your on gsm/wcdma, thts what it should be on. You could be on 2g/gsm setting. I put mines on tht setting from time to time.
Sent from planet neblon in the 2nd region of the samsung989 galaxy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the same thing but tmo said I'm not throttled. gsm/wcdma(auto) is checked.
Thank for the advice though.
Edit: I put the Sim back in my vibrant and the speeds are the same. So I'm going with bad Sim or they are throttling me and don't know it. To be continued.

So they put in a work order and said they will get back to me within 72hrs. If it's not fixed I'm going to sprint. Tried the Sim in the amaze and sgs2 in store same speeds. Funny thing one of the questions asked while filling out the work order "do you tether?" Lol. Of course not.

I'm getting as high as 13mbps and almpst 2 upload speed. My g2x got half of that at best most of the time...
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App

True cause of "signal" issues

Has anyone read this article? Very informative.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5254/investigating-the-galaxy-nexus-lte-signal-issue
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

interesting read.
For a long time people have blamed their handsets for problems when the truth is there are always a lot of network issues out there at any given time.
Simply blaming your handset and assuming the network is 'great' because it has full bars or a good db is not the way to go.
Bars or db ultimately mean nothing, they do not mean you will get good speeds or in some cases to be able to make a call, in my experience its rare that the handset is to blame

True.
I had the RAZR before my phone. I would bet that the RAZR wasn't showing the correct signal strength and this is what a lot of people are comparing.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

aye it would be interesting if someone ran some speed tests on the two devices side by side to what what the speeds v coverage were like

edit

jimdurt said:
They still have some issues to work on. My OG Droid gave me a better signal at my house on 3g. At least measuring the db strength. I dont have 4g here so the measurement in db strength should be sufficient to accurately see which phone has better reception.
Give Google time. They have the right hardware. Just need to get the software tweaked a bit more.
My wifes DroidX consistantly shows -93dBm with 3 bars of 3g service, while my GNex bounces a little more between -120dBm(most of the time) to -93dBm(rarely)
Even with no bars and @-120dBm, i get 600kbps download. Thankfully i have 18mbps download service through ATT Uverse wifi.
I do have to mention, my service improved ALOT from 4.0.1 to 4.0.2 update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At -120 on 3g your lucky to anysort of dl

My 3g/4g signal has never been better. This phone is twice as good as my incredible.
WiFi signal strength does seem to be a little less strong but nothing horrible. Now I wish they would figure out why the OS won't go to sleep.

Well, Verizon resolved all my Nexus, CDMA, and LTE issues for me in one fell swoop. They called me yesterday and told me that they couldn't provide me service at my house and recommended I switch to a different carrier.
I was with them for less than three days. Brought my Galaxy Nexus and wife's temp phone back to the store, then went to the Apple Store to get my wife an iPhone 4S on AT&T with the plan to stop at an AT&T store to get myself a Skyrocket. While standing there playing with the 4S waiting for a sales associate, I got the warm fuzzies from back when I used the iPhone and decided to get one for myself as well.
It was a fun year with Android, but looking back at how I spent yesterday debating if I was going to keep the GN with all its issues, I think I made the right call for me.
I also forgot how much better GSM is than CDMA. I have full bars in my office, whereas on Sprint and Verizon the phones were struggling to hold onto a 3G connection. Amazing difference.
Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread for a moment. I truly hope that this is an issue that can be fixed with software; it seems like poor reception has become a hallmark of Samsung phones and I haven't seen a software update yet that makes a notable difference. We'll see what Sammy and Verizon come up with.

i can understand the signal strength display not being accurate but explain this...
for one, the signal strength on this Nexus is always 1/2(or more) then what i had on my Thunderbolt or Rezound at any given time/place.... which apparently is explained above.
what isntvexplained is this... my Thunderbolt was able to download fast, but not nearly as fast as my Rezound. on the R, i was able to download 1GB in roughly 5 minutes. ive tried downloading the same file(s) from same location various times(test) on this Nexus and it always takes 30 - 40 minutes.
so if the signal strength isnt being reported accurately i can accept that.... but what about the significant difference in data speed?
i also want to note that on my Reound, whenever i played a track in Google Music it started up right away and could jump/skip forward in a track without delay...
now on this Nexus, theres always a delay before the track starts & when you jump/skip to. buffering b.s.

Your Rezound probably already had the music cached.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

You guys also have to keep in mind that the LTE network slows down the more people that use it. When it was first intro a year ago, it was STUPID fast. Like 50mb DOWN. I remember my Droid Charge hitting low 40's in May. Now that there is a plethora of phones that have LTE and a lot of people using it, the network will be slowed. It still beats the hell out of any other network.

I’m glad somebody posted this.
I did a little experiment in my office this morning with three Verizon LTE phones:
1) Samsung Charge
2) HTC T-Bolt
3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
With all three phones laying side by side, I opened up the same “Network Signal” app. All three phones we ranging in the -85 to -100 dB strength. There was no phone that clearly had a better or worse signal.
However, the Samsung Charge was showing 4 out of 5 “bars”, the T-bolt had 3 of 5 while the Nexus has a whopping 1 out of 5 bars. Amusing since they we all reading between -95 and -90 dB at that moment.
One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA. I can’t speak for the T-bolt, but I could have sworn I saw the Charge at -95 / -100 dB and still reporting LTE Net. Type.
So, food for thought. Hopefully this “update” that Verizon is working on isn’t anything more than a recalibration of the “bars” indicator.
-Gp

Grannypotts said:
I’m glad somebody posted this.
I did a little experiment in my office this morning with three Verizon LTE phones:
1) Samsung Charge
2) HTC T-Bolt
3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
With all three phones laying side by side, I opened up the same “Network Signal” app. All three phones we ranging in the -85 to -100 dB strength. There was no phone that clearly had a better or worse signal.
However, the Samsung Charge was showing 4 out of 5 “bars”, the T-bolt had 3 of 5 while the Nexus has a whopping 1 out of 5 bars. Amusing since they we all reading between -95 and -90 dB at that moment.
One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA. I can’t speak for the T-bolt, but I could have sworn I saw the Charge at -95 / -100 dB and still reporting LTE Net. Type.
So, food for thought. Hopefully this “update” that Verizon is working on isn’t anything more than a recalibration of the “bars” indicator.
-Gp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There needs to be some kind of way to trick the OS into thinking it actually has the real signal so it will stop switching between 3G and 4G.

One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA.
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I have -86dB with 3 4G bars as I write this. I know that's not much of a difference from the -85dB, but I thought I would just mention it. Also, I've had -93dB with 4 4G bars (no picture of that though).

Syn Ack said:
There needs to be some kind of way to trick the OS into thinking it actually has the real signal so it will stop switching between 3G and 4G.
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My 30,000 foot uneducated view is simply that the calibrations for the Nexus require a stronger signal to both acquire and then maintain an LTE data connection. These calibrations probably could be tweaked, but at what cost? I suppose (assuming my theory is correct) the decision came down to a flaky 4G or a solid 3G... and Verizon chose the stronger connection over the faster one. Do you blame them?
However, when I do get a solid 4G connection... the speeds are stupid fast.
On my lunch break today:
30.6M down
15.7 up