Develop Bugs

(Question) signal strength

I jut wanted to see if anyone could give me advice on having better signal. What exactly effects thesignl strength? I know its the prl and I believe I also read that the modem hassomething to do with it also. I've tried different modems I can probably say the best I've used was ec05 but I'm running eh17 now and I update my prl every couple of days. I be in my basment a lot ad I get a lot of call drops or don't receve calls at all and I get texts late or don't receive them at all either. Ifanyone knows anythin I can try that might fix these problems it would be really appreciated. Thanks.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Try updating your prl manually... there should be a guide in the devolpment section.. and the issue can be your basement.. I get great service in certain areas of my house but the basement usually only gets good service if I leave my phone alone and don't move it.. so it has a steady signal- that could be your issue too. Updating your prl manually isn't easy for beginners so what I would do is read the instructions very carefully
Sent from my old but still kickin Epic 4g

j7jman said:
Try updating your prl manually... there should be a guide in the devolpment section.. and the issue can be your basement.. I get great service in certain areas of my house but the basement usually only gets good service if I leave my phone alone and don't move it.. so it has a steady signal- that could be your issue too. Updating your prl manually isn't easy for beginners so what I would do is read the instructions very carefully
Sent from my old but still kickin Epic 4g
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it may be because of my basement but I used to have 1-2 bars but I switch roms and try new modems and now I usually have 0-1 bar in the basment. And even when I am outside I still sometimes miss txts.
I read that thread once it waspretty confusing.. probably because I wasn't trying it. But the thing thatmade me not try it was the face that I have to choose the prl number that I want so I have no idea how to tell which one is best and even by reading what ppl say tey might be in a different place where their prl is better. So I'm really not sure about what to update the prl too and I honestly don't really know everything about prl. So I won't be messing with it until I really understand it.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

1. Buy Roam control @market
2. Set it to roam only

Well the prl is the Preferred Roaming List so if your issue is when you have no signal, which other providers tower will you roam to, then the PRL matters. If your signal in your house is just terrible then it could be some new construction in the area messing with your signal. You could ask Sprint for an Airave if you complain that you have no service in your house and if you have enough credit for an additional line it will cost you the difference in taxes for another line per month. In Florida that was another $1.72 a month. Or as suggested try Roam Control.

kennyglass123 said:
Well the prl is the Preferred Roaming List so if your issue is when you have no signal, which other providers tower will you roam to, then the PRL matters. If your signal in your house is just terrible then it could be some new construction in the area messing with your signal. You could ask Sprint for an Airave if you complain that you have no service in your house and if you have enough credit for an additional line it will cost you the difference in taxes for another line per month. In Florida that was another $1.72 a month. Or as suggested try Roam Control.
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I did this, and am supposed to get an airave sometime this week. I also use Roam Control in my house where the signal is weak. Hope to be able to just stay on Sprint with the Airave.

dohturdima said:
1. Buy Roam control @market
2. Set it to roam only
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Thanks I will try.

kennyglass123 said:
Well the prl is the Preferred Roaming List so if your issue is when you have no signal, which other providers tower will you roam to, then the PRL matters. If your signal in your house is just terrible then it could be some new construction in the area messing with your signal. You could ask Sprint for an Airave if you complain that you have no service in your house and if you have enough credit for an additional line it will cost you the difference in taxes for another line per month. In Florida that was another $1.72 a month. Or as suggested try Roam Control.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Is that the little modem thing where u jut connect it to your internet and it gives u better service strength?

lilajrestnom said:
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Is that the little modem thing where u jut connect it to your internet and it gives u better service strength?
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Yes. It is called a Femtocell. It is like a mini cell tower in your house that uses the internet to complete calls.

kennyglass123 said:
Yes. It is called a Femtocell. It is like a mini cell tower in your house that uses the internet to complete calls.
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Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Do you think sprint would give this away forfree? If I tell them I have no signal at all in my house andim thinkin about switching carriers maybe lol?

lilajrestnom said:
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Do you think sprint would give this away forfree? If I tell them I have no signal at all in my house andim thinkin about switching carriers maybe lol?
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Yes. Provided you have enough credit for another line. It is usually lent to you with the idea if you no longer need it you will return it. I have seen them try to charge those with not enough credit to qualify for an additional line. I qualified for 8 lines so had no problem getting one. Just have to pay the taxes on an additional line which depends on the state you are in.

kennyglass123 said:
Yes. It is called a Femtocell. It is like a mini cell tower in your house that uses the internet to complete calls.
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Oh, so THAT's an Airave. Thanks. And they are free?

handymanxda said:
Oh, so THAT's an Airave. Thanks. And they are free?
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See the post above yours...lol.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

kennyglass123 said:
See the post above yours...lol.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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LOL....my bad. Still getting the hang of this place.
Edit: tried to thank you for being so nice about it but apparently there is a limit on thanks. Will get ya later.

What prl is everyone using?

I'm on 25005 which I think is stock, but it works great. Anyone else using another that's bringing in reliable data? I tried 00002 but it cuts data on my often.

11115, it allows roaming on verizon 3g.

Mine says 60690.

Ascertion said:
I'm on 25005 which I think is stock, but it works great. Anyone else using another that's bringing in reliable data? I tried 00002 but it cuts data on my often.
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I'm on the same one. I would love to put the VZW business (allow 3G roaming) on here, but I have two issues with that: I'm around Chicago, and Sprint and VZW don't have a roaming agreement here, so I'm out of luck even if I could (second issue) force roaming.
So right now I'm 0/2 :crying:

hayzooos said:
I'm on the same one. I would love to put the VZW business (allow 3G roaming) on here, but I have two issues with that: I'm around Chicago, and Sprint and VZW don't have a roaming agreement here, so I'm out of luck even if I could (second issue) force roaming.
So right now I'm 0/2 :crying:
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Chicago has the largest 4g lte network on sprint right now. You won't need prls being on sprint lte. Lol

Ascertion said:
I'm on 25005 which I think is stock, but it works great. Anyone else using another that's bringing in reliable data? I tried 00002 but it cuts data on my often.
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Click to collapse
im on 11115

25005 here as well, and 3G in my current location sucks a bag of dicks. This, though, may well be Sprint's problem, as I'm on the phone with them.

k0nane said:
25005 here as well, and 3G in my current location sucks a bag of dicks. This, though, may well be Sprint's problem, as I'm on the phone with them.
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25005 as well. The 3G here sucks. I live in Pittsburgh, and I've been searching for a Galaxy S3 prl thread so I can get good service. Any help changing the prl, or a good one for my area would be great.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

xx5352 said:
25005 as well. The 3G here sucks. I live in Pittsburgh, and I've been searching for a Galaxy S3 prl thread so I can get good service. Any help changing the prl, or a good one for my area would be great.
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If it's persistent, it's not PRL. It just sucks there. Wait for Network Vision.

25005 here in LA and yea, my 3G speeds suck. I'm lucky to break 100 kbps unless it's the middle of the night.

Ascertion said:
Chicago has the largest 4g lte network on sprint right now. You won't need prls being on sprint lte. Lol
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where? i work downtown chicago and i havent seen it yet. :-/

11115 here...metro Detroit area. I haven't really noticed a difference with it. I bought roam control, but haven't set it up cause it apparently doesn't work on this phone from what people have been saying. If I'm in the house near my airrave its fine, but I get 0-2 bars if I go out on the porch, so I usually just stay on WiFi while at home. Seems worse than usual over the last month too. Hopefully that means they've started upgrading the towers around here.....yeah right....:what:
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

bisby said:
where? i work downtown chicago and i havent seen it yet. :-/
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On s4gru, it states Chicago has the most completed towers, at 40% total complete. Your Area will hit soon.

Using 12124

PRL 24005 (business account)

Thanks to ducehlmg. He posted this zip with every sprint prl.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=29841567
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

Just manually switched to PRL 24005... and either Sprint fixed the data issues on the towers around me, or there's magic awesome sauce for corporate users.
EDIT: As I have no chance of LTE for a while, I'm switching to 12124.

k0nane said:
Just manually switched to PRL 24005... and either Sprint fixed the data issues on the towers around me, or there's magic awesome sauce for corporate users.
EDIT: As I have no chance of LTE for a while, I'm switching to 12124.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How are your speeds on 24005 and 12124?

clankfu said:
How are your speeds on 24005 and 12124?
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Click to collapse
There have been problems in my area, so these aren't necessarily indicative... but I got 500-800 on 24005, and 1150+/500+ on 12124.

I think it's time for me to flash a new PRL.

[Q] Limited to no 4G connection

I searched but on the whole it seems that the people experiencing the same issues don't have custom roms on their phones.
I essentially have no data connection whatsoever and like many others I went from having ~90 ping, 9-10Mbps down, and 1-3Mpbs up to having 1000+ ping and .05Mbps up/down.
I'm currently on the CM10 - 9/20 nightly (and I was on the 9/05 nightly) with lean kernel .15 and I've tried UVDLI8, UVDLI7, UVDLI6 and UVALEM basebands and nothing seems to help. As far as I can tell my IMEI is intact and I can make calls out, receive texts, etc... except anything relating to data is ridiculously slow. My brother seems to get fairly decent speeds and he is rooted and has a custom rom on his G2x. Is it possible that they're throttling only my line?
I've tried talking with T-Mobile and their customer service reps tell me things like "hold down the power button until your phone shuts off" so... not very helpful. Any suggestions or recommendations would be very much appreciated.

So I worked with the T-mobile CSR rep and they told me to change some of the settings in the APN, and now I don't get any signal, do any of you guys have what the APN settings were for CM10?

CM10 doesn't have specific APN settings. You can Google T-Mobile APN settings and use those.
Where are you located?
Sent from my SGH-T999

joshnichols189 said:
CM10 doesn't have specific APN settings. You can Google T-Mobile APN settings and use those.
Where are you located?
Sent from my SGH-T999
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Located in Houston. I'm really hoping its not a CM10 issue because I really don't want to go back to TouchWiz.

silhouette004 said:
Located in Houston. I'm really hoping its not a CM10 issue because I really don't want to go back to TouchWiz.
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It shouldn't be, works just fine for me in Chicago
Sent from my SGH-T999

Tmobile has been having spotty signal throughout the nation lately.
Sent from my SGH-T999

chrisram88 said:
Tmobile has been having spotty signal throughout the nation lately.
Sent from my SGH-T999
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Yeah definitely spotty. So I was driving around Houston yesterday and was doing speedtests as I was going, turns out I have absolutely fantastic data speeds until I take the exit off the highway and head towards my house (signal gets progressively worse the closer I get to my house). It's literally like a dead spot sitting right around my house which is only 5 min from the highway and 15+ Mbps download speeds. I called T-Mobile and they claim that there aren't any towers down and that I'm not being throttled but I used to be able to get fairly decent speeds at my house. At least now I know it's not my phone and it's not the rom/kernel/modem.

Are there hills?? Signal will always be stronger near highways because that's where the towers are.

Download the app Phone Info and try to force 4G?

I'm less than 5 minutes from the highway and no, there aren't any hills. I did hear back from T-mobile and now they're finally admitting there might be an issue with one of the towers in my area.

I had the same exact issue. It was a tower problem and it took about 3 weeks to resolve. I was compensated by having my data credited for a month. $30 total. It's really frustrating I know but it should pass in time.

Yeah so it was a tower issue for sure. I'm back to getting ~10-15 down at home. Glad that was finally resolved.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

Speedtest

How are my results? My 3g here in Boston flat out sucks, so I know these results aren't going to be great
Sent from my SPH-L710

?
Sent from my SPH-L710

Sorry to see those numbers. I Get OK number sitting in my house.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

Those speeds are definitely slow. They're sufficient for browsing forums, but loading pictures and music will be a hassle. Completely forget about video.
Luckily, Boston LTE is being deployed now so it'll hit your neighborhood hopefully sooner than later.

My speeds
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

It's not sufficient to do anything. All I get are "cannot load, tap to retry". I can not even text that's, how bad it is. When do you think lte will be here in Boston? A Sprint rep told me it was being turned on the day before hurricane Sandy, we had an outrage then... I think she was full of it but hey maybe?!
If I'm not on wifi, I can't use my phone... I'd this normal in such a main, big city?
Sent from my SPH-L710

Dea30 said:
It's not sufficient to do anything. All I get are "cannot load, tap to retry". I can not even text that's, how bad it is. When do you think lte will be here in Boston? A Sprint rep told me it was being turned on the day before hurricane Sandy, we had an outrage then... I think she was full of it but hey maybe?!
If I'm not on wifi, I can't use my phone... I'd this normal in such a main, big city?
Sent from my SPH-L710
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Click to collapse
3G and the 2G (1X network) are completely different. 2G is responsible for texting and talk. If you're having trouble making calls and texting then it is likely due to either;
An outage in your area.
Or,
Tower upgrades in your area.
My only guess is that since Boston is a live market, they're working on your towers and you'll probably experience much better 3g speeds aswel as 4g speeds when the upgrades are complete. I'd hold out and see how well Sprint does with the upgrades. Nearly 100% of people that had similar speeds to yours are now perfectly satisfied with Sprint's Network Vision platform.
~OS

I get LTE in Wellesley and Worcester now. I've been getting it most everywhere I go. I haven't been to downtown Boston, but pretty much everywhere else has it for me. I even get it indoors in most places.
I actually leave my phone on LTE/ CDMA and get similar battery life as on CDMA only.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Anyone notice their service getting worse?

At first I thought it might have been my rom, but it seems it's happening with my GF's note 2 also.
Coverage we used to receive in some areas is almost completely gone. It will show signal and the 4g symbol but basically have NO internet service whatsoever.
On a better note, we've been receiving coverage in some areas we don't usually have it.
I'm hoping this is just a temporary thing due to the attempts to upgrade towers for LTE.
I don't know if it's because of the UVBMB4 update, but t-mobile service has been pretty crappy lately. Period.
We're in the San Gabriel Valley area.
Link for older UVALL4 modem below, people seem to experience better service
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...php?p=36786363

I believe my service has suffered as well. Before the last update that enabled our Lte radios, I had great speeds, now it's slowed Way down. I'm in San Diego CA. Hope that it's just as the Op said, LTE towers being updated and what not.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium

Definitely have noticed a deterioration of service over the past month here in NYC.

Its because for some reason that new LTE APN is slow on HSPA+.. unless you have LTE in your area switch to the EPC APN. You can find the settings online. Its litter ally consistently a difference of 6+ mbps I have extensively speed tested lol..... click thanks if this helped
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium

I also had problems even with old apn.
Flashed previous radio and service is top notch again.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium

Same here, I thought it was rom related.

YES! My service has sucked royally for the past month or so. Data latency/hangups/slowness, and the signal will just completely go away sometimes. I noticed that it started as soon as I flashed the most recent radio too, I'm about to go back to the old one.

Count me in, even my regular phone reception went from 4 bars no 1 or 0!

Can anyone point to towards old radio to flash? I go from no signal downstairs to full bars upstairs...theres an obv issue with new radio.

Yup I've noticed this beginning this week I've made zero changes to the phone. I used to get full bars at work and this week it bounces between full and 1 bar regularly. Theure messing with towers for sure
North Carolina by the way. Charlotte. Big City of 1 million people.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

nxneko said:
Can anyone point to towards old radio to flash? I go from no signal downstairs to full bars upstairs...theres an obv issue with new radio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=36786363

nxneko said:
Can anyone point to towards old radio to flash? I go from no signal downstairs to full bars upstairs...theres an obv issue with new radio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also experiencing significant decrease on data speed. Has your data speed improve after flashing with older radio and APN setting?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

zen0s said:
I'm also experiencing significant decrease on data speed. Has your data speed improve after flashing with older radio and APN setting?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
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I was getting about 9/0.6 and with flashing back Im getting... 14/2 Though Ive been on HSDPA 15 & 21. Though Im not getting 4G as much, but it was sporadic anyways and I lost signal...and now I am not. So, Im happy now even though I am on 3G. However... in my corner big red has same problems as they wanted to not have tons of towers in this corner and theres only a ATT Tower....for a decent distance. basically reception fringe. though I am a new subscriber so i haven't experienced normal TMO, I literally got my device yesterday around 6pmish but it def wasn't normal and flashing previous radio did fix it like it solved everyone elses issue

janjannsen99 said:
Yup I've noticed this beginning this week I've made zero changes to the phone. I used to get full bars at work and this week it bounces between full and 1 bar regularly. Theure messing with towers for sure
North Carolina by the way. Charlotte. Big City of 1 million people.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
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my problems started last friday. i have limited to no service at all; no data, no voice, even no signal at times (circle with line through it, not just no bars). when i do get a signal, the phone refuses to register on the network. when im at home, i have intermittent service. i miss calls, texts wont send, if i do get a working call, it drops after a bit. there are times when it works fine, even on LTE but it never last long. went to the tmo store last night and they gave me a new sim which didnt do squat. already done the factory reset option (twice). phone has never been rooted, all stock. im in the KC metro so not like in the middle of nowhere. they said my next step is a warranty replacement phone if the sim didnt help. not sure if my problem is at all related to everyone elses in this thread, but yeah, service has sucked.

One of the issues, especially if you switch from 4g to edge to gprs a lot, is a setting in the new modem.
It's something called acquisition order. It has 3 settings:automatic, gsm_umts, umts_gsm. In short it tells the phone what kind of network to prefer. It will search for and use that type of network first.
Prior to the latest update it was set to auto. Now it is set to prefer umts. For some reason this has caused an issue I've come to call phantom 4g. Where it'll say 4g with no bars and no data service.
That is my guess. I'll look into it further.
Sent from my SGH-T889

Thanks guys for the heads up on switching to an older radio, I dont have LTE in Miami yet and was having slow internet for the last 3 weeks, I just switched and wow! What a difference. I'm also using the Epic APN.

I also noticed that speeds were degraded after the update. However, there is a simply fix to make your web a tad bit faster....
Go into your network settings, and switch your mobile network from LTE/4g/3g/2g to just 4G/3g/2g
your device will stop looking for an LTE connection and will just utilize HSPA+
Made a world of a difference on my own device. Connecting to the play store, opening web pages, everything was right back to where it was before the update.
Obviously if you live in an LTE area, there is no need to do this...

newageoutlaw said:
I believe my service has suffered as well. Before the last update that enabled our Lte radios, I had great speeds, now it's slowed Way down. I'm in San Diego CA. Hope that it's just as the Op said, LTE towers being updated and what not.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
I dont know about you but I live in san diego too my data speed stay above 10meg and max is 15meg.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

So I'm gonna be a noob here for a sec. When people say they are flashing the previous radio (I'm referencing the link that was posted) are people just flashing the modem from the section under the most recent? (the one with the January date on it). Just thought I would ask. Better safe than sorry. Thanks!
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

superkamiguru31 said:
So I'm gonna be a noob here for a sec. When people say they are flashing the previous radio (I'm referencing the link that was posted) are people just flashing the modem from the section under the most recent? (the one with the January date on it). Just thought I would ask. Better safe than sorry. Thanks!
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, radio is synonymous with modem in this case. UVALL4 is the previous version.
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement