Modem? - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989

Just wondering, what's the best modem for the SGS2? Right now I'm using the modem from the Blaze but don't really get good speeds and sometimes loses signal all together. Is there a better one?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

Different modems work differently for each person depending on their location, kernel, and ROM. Just gotta try em and see what works best for you.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

You really aren't giving us a lot to go by. Here is my experience, if you are interested:
I use Samsung Galaxy SGH-T989D flashed with BestMod 5.0 Gingerbread with the TELUS modem (KJ3), then the T-Mobile one (UVKL1), and finally the Blaze one (UVLB7). I tried all 3 and all 3 worked, but not quite the same. I am on a local carrier in Canada called Mobilicity, a startup running on a single band (AWS 1700Mhz) with barely enough towers to cover the area it claims to serve, which is parts of the GTA (Toronto) + parts of a few other major cities. Signal isn't exactly stellar, and there are dead spots, especially downtown. This is normal, this carrier is barely 2 years old. What I was looking for is reliable data: I don't care for speed too much, honestly there isn't much speed to be had with any modem.
Enter the TELUS modem:
This one worked well overall, I used it for 4 months as it shipped with my handset (T989D is the TELUS version of the handset), and noticed that it behaves quite well. Speeds are okay, I guess, but nowhere near what people claim they are getting on more established carriers here like TELUS, Rogers and Bell. If I get 1Mbps download, I feel happy. Signal strength hovers around the 50% mark here at home, which translates to about 500kbps download and 100kbps upload during peak hour, but is okay at work: I see 3 towers from there versus only 1 from home. I haven't had complaints about indoor coverage (except for the subway and the elevators for obvious reasons). I haven't had too many dropped calls, but data is shaky when I venture a few streets away from major intersections. I was questioning if I can do better.
Enter the BLAZE modem:
I ran it for a grand total of 5-10 minutes. In these 5-10 minutes it didn't perform in any way better than the TELUS one, and it gave me no indication that it would beat any aspect of its performance. It gave me the overall impression of being a bit shaky, which is to be expected given that it is meant for a different model handset. Other users in this form reported similar experiences, and they ran it for a lot longer than mere minutes, so I didn't try very hard to get this one to work. Data was fluctuating too wildly for my taste, but when it performed well, it performed as good as the TELUS modem.
Enter the T-Mobile modem:
Now this was the modem that interested me. I've been running it for about 2 hours now, and I am about to leave it on for a little while. Overall impression is that it gives me better signal strength, which hopefully would translate into more reliable performance. Data wasn't any faster than with the TELUS modem. No speed increase, but at home I get around the 60% mark for signal strength. I am cautiously optimistic that I might finally see the coveted 4G icon in the office (quite unlikely, but I am a dreamer. Ask me on Monday.)
So there you have it: all 3 modems perform, the first and the last perform well. The middle one is shaky. Data isn't getting any faster no matter what I do, but I appear to be getting slightly improved reception with the T-Mobile modem. Something about this modem is optimized for the AWS band.
Hope this helps.

Related

[Q] AT&T and Radios on CM 7

First off, a real big thanks/"you the man!" etc. to Cyanogen for CM 7. Finally took the plunge and rooted my phone, warranty be damned. Let's just say I had an older Aria (which had already been rooted) as my training wheels, and it certainly was nice, but nowhere near as nice as the DZ/Vision.
So let me get my specs out of the way:
Baseband Version: 12.28e.60.140fU_26.04.02.17_M2 (I gather the bold part is what we refer to as the radio version).
Kernel Version: 2.6.32.28-cyanogenmod-g4free2e [email protected] #1
Using CM 7.0.3
Now in running Speed Test, I'm getting about, ranging from .45 Mbps, going as high as 1.60 Mbps in terms of download with upload being only slightly behind, sometimes being even. Now the results don't make sense, and I know I've gotten significantly higher in my area, and browsing does seem slower many times latesly.
So should I change my radio (again)? I had changed it (probably shouldn't have) thinking I could get more consistent mobile Internet connections, but I guess I've kind of screwed up. Any suggestions from fellow AT&T users?
I'm in the same boat, about to get my Desire Z. Not a ton of AT&T users for the Vision so I wasn't sure whether a different radio would benefit or not...
I've gotten up to 5 Mbps down on the stock radio. But obviously, this is going to be dependent on your local network (whether or not the HSPA+ backhaul has been performed, and network congestion). It would be ideal if you could compare data transfer rates with another AT&T customer in your immediate area, preferably on an Android device.
Only time I've switched radios, was when I tried Virtuous, and used the radio that is recommended for that ROM. Did not notice any change in data speed.
I assume you have the Canada Bell version of the Vision. In that case, you never had a warranty. HTC states in their terms that any phone purchased outside of the country it is intended to be sold in, is not warrantied.
I am on 12.28b.60.140eU_26.03.02.18_M3 CM7
I get 1~1.5 MB/s Down and <1 MB/s during peak hours. At 3am in the morning i get 3-4mb/s Down and 1.35 mb/s up. This is from an Suburban area too...
Once I get into the SF City CBD area during 8am hours i get 300kb down lol. And all my data no longer work.
Also I have an iphone 4. It makes no difference when i switch the sims. Same data speed.
I used to use RUU_Vision_Hutch_AUS_1.85.861.3 when i had issues with 3g dropping to edge all the time.
redpoint73 said:
I've gotten up to 5 Mbps down on the stock radio. But obviously, this is going to be dependent on your local network (whether or not the HSPA+ backhaul has been performed, and network congestion). It would be ideal if you could compare data transfer rates with another AT&T customer in your immediate area, preferably on an Android device.
Only time I've switched radios, was when I tried Virtuous, and used the radio that is recommended for that ROM. Did not notice any change in data speed.
I assume you have the Canada Bell version of the Vision. In that case, you never had a warranty. HTC states in their terms that any phone purchased outside of the country it is intended to be sold in, is not warrantied.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? No warranty, eh? Well I'm going to have to look at those terms again. Not like it matters now anyhow.
Sadly, most of the AT&T users I know are iPhone users; however, there are a few I know I could ask.
Yes I have the Canada Bell version of the Vision; however, I don't remember the stock version of the radio, so I'll have to do some digging unless the stock radio is what's in your sig. If that's not the stock radio, well, I can always try it.
Anybody else (particularly in New England/Northeast USA)?
Thanks again!
I should have an unlocked Bell Desire Z in my hands in the next few days. I'll do some testing and see what results I get.
banq81991 said:
I should have an unlocked Bell Desire Z in my hands in the next few days. I'll do some testing and see what results I get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Keep us posted, cause I'm sure there are several of us here on AT&T. I plan on testing next week.
Kk, so finally got the phone unlocked/working. I ran a few tests from a few different places and got the best result to be 2.4Mbps down and 1.1Mbps up. I'm not really sure if those are hspa+ speeds or not and don't have my friend's atrix here to compare at the moment. I'm also no sure but he was telling me that if I want hspa+ speeds at&t needs to activate something for me. Can anyone confirm? Or at least tell me a way to be sure of what I'm currently on?
PacoL250 said:
Yes I have the Canada Bell version of the Vision; however, I don't remember the stock version of the radio, so I'll have to do some digging unless the stock radio is what's in your sig. If that's not the stock radio, well, I can always try it.
Anybody else (particularly in New England/Northeast USA)?
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock radio is: 12.28b.60.140eU_26.03.02.18_M3
Where in New England? I'm in the Boston area. Data speeds vary greatly depending on exact location. I get good speeds at work (Burlington, MA), often 3-5 Mbps down (but sometimes dipping to 1-2 Mbps). While at my house in Waltham, its abyssmal, with speeds often around 0.5 Mbps down, or even less. Luckily, I'm always on WiFi at home.
Does your phone say H+ or just H?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
banq81991 said:
Does your phone say H+ or just H?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it always says 'H'. Just tested at 4.11 Mbps down, and it says 'H'.
I'm in California, in the greater Sacramento area. I have a Desire Z NAM that I've been using on ATT since about last November.
I don't believe the backhaul overhauls have been done in our area yet as I haven't seen an increase in data speeds lately.
During the day, I average downloads of 1.5-2.5mbps and uploads of 1-1.5mbps. Of course during off peak hours, those numbers go up a little bit but not drastic. When heading into the bay area, specifically into San Francisco they tank hard, to the point where I'm better off switching to EDGE...
I am still running CM 6.1 with radio 12.28b.60.140eU_26.03.02.26_M
My GF has a Dell Streak on ATT and she gets comparable speeds to my DZ. Haven't tested it for exact numbers but I don't feel a significant difference when using her browser against mine.
Haven't done any tinkering with Radios either, perhaps a project for summer when I get some vacation time...
redpoint73 said:
Stock radio is: 12.28b.60.140eU_26.03.02.18_M3
Where in New England? I'm in the Boston area. Data speeds vary greatly depending on exact location. I get good speeds at work (Burlington, MA), often 3-5 Mbps down (but sometimes dipping to 1-2 Mbps). While at my house in Waltham, its abyssmal, with speeds often around 0.5 Mbps down, or even less. Luckily, I'm always on WiFi at home.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't had much time to test as the company move has me working massive amounts of overtime (hey, at least the paycheck is huge).
I live in Connecticut; right outside the Greater Hartford area. I plan on moving back to the stock radio to see if anything gets better, so we'll see.
Granted I plan on being in NYC this weekend, so testing may not happen seeing as how AT&T's service is like rhino poop in the area.
(Yes, rhino poop).
I'm on stock radio and I have zero service in my basement. Service was never that great down here, but I always got one to two bars. Can anyone point me to radios to work specifically for AT&T Desire Z users or does it make a difference if we use those other ones (like T-mobile)? I've seen the thread with all the radios, but I am clueless as to which ones I should try.

[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

GN Speeds ಠ_ಠ

Identical Galaxy Nexus devices in every way; different speeds. Wtf?
While other people are reporting getting 8-14mbps, I'm lucky if my speeds hit 4mbps. Sometimes it hits 6 and once, out of the 70 tests I ran, it hit 9mbps.
Just swapped out my "old" T-mo sim card for a new one, checked my apn settings to make sure everything is correct, and my rom/kernel have not affected my speeds.
..So how is it other people in a seriously close proximity to my area, with the exact same phone, and the exact same service, get different speeds. Can someone explain how this whole HSPA+ [email protected] works plz ಠ_ಠ
I'm going borderline insane, running stupid speed tests every 5 minutes and burning through my 5GB data plan like a monster. I think I've thought of every plausible explanation as to why my speeds are so low but what it's come down to is that maybe my hardware is faulty in some way.
Different towers have different speeds. At work I get ~8 down and 3 up and at home which is 1.4 miles away according to my google maps app I get ~2 down and .8 up.
Out of my 70 tests, I've constantly switched between three different servers, all of which are located right in NYC. I've been running my tests all over the city too, in three different boroughs. 4Mbps is a speed I'm lucky to hit... 5 if it's past midnight during the weekday. Always have full bars signal, connected to HSPA:11, apn = epc.tmobile.com .
I don't see what the problem is; driving me crazy
Does it make a huge difference? 4 is plenty fast. Use that data to the cap and see how low they get
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Your neighbor must be downloading pr0n!
If you were standing next to another person with a GN and identical account, APN settings, etc. and he got way more than you and you were able to repeat the results across a number of different towers, THEN you might be on to something.
ianwood said:
Your neighbor must be downloading pr0n!
If you were standing next to another person with a GN and identical account, APN settings, etc. and he got way more than you and you were able to repeat the results across a number of different towers, THEN you might be on to something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's basically what the situation is...
Man I gave you the exact location of the panel where I'm getting 14mbps. Go there and test it late nights... If you're still seeing poor speeds then you have a problem.
Each and every tower has different backhaul, amount of users connected, etc... It's not a fixed connection, it's shared in every possible way.
There could be many different reasons why your speeds aren't as high as what you seen others getting. Time of day, signal strength, network saturation are just some of the things that can impact your speeds. From looking at your speed test results, most of your results look pretty normal to me. I don't think there's anything for you to worry about judging from your results.

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.
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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
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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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Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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:
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