Develop Bugs

Inc 2 - poor data speeds?

for the hell of it i just did a speedtest on my Inc2 and these were the results:
Ping - 219ms
Download Speed - 0.29 Mbps
Upload Speed - 0.26 Mbps
my phone is currently showing 3 bars.
when i had the Thunderbolt it was showing like 7 Mbps DL & 2 Mbps UL in this area(without 4G).
does anyone else have crap speeds to?

You are comparing a 3G phone (Inc2) to a 4G phone (Thunderbolt)... Ofcourse its going to be slower...
Sent from my Incredible 2 using Tapatalk

he said without 4G... should be the same.

I find it highly suspect that a 3G connection was generating 7mbit. The maximum burst rate (meaning: not streaming rate) is 3mbit for EVDO Rev.A. Both the Thunderbolt and the Incredible 2 have 3G radios using Rev.A, not Rev.B.
I've noticed sometimes the connectivity indicator has a delayed update and I can be connected to 3G before the icon changes from 1x to 3G coming out of the parking garage at my office (I can tell because streams that don't work on 1x would start up fine).
I've been able to get over 1mbit consistently on my Inc2, and have been able to exceed 2mbit in some areas.

voxigenboy said:
for the hell of it i just did a speedtest on my Inc2 and these were the results:
Ping - 219ms
Download Speed - 0.29 Mbps
Upload Speed - 0.26 Mbps
my phone is currently showing 3 bars.
when i had the Thunderbolt it was showing like 7 Mbps DL & 2 Mbps UL in this area(without 4G).
does anyone else have crap speeds to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea... mine has been annoying me too. I always seem to get a higher upload than I do download speed.
This is after 4 tries back to back, all of them upload speed was higher.
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Houston, Tx by the way
Even though Tmobile sucks when it comes to coverage area, I kind of miss the 3g speeds I had with them. My Vibrant would hit 5 mbps constantly

Just used the same SpeedTest.net app, after three back to back tries:
Down: 1742, 1192, 1894 kbps
Up: 589, 675, 543 kbps
Ping: 185, 140, 220 ms
Full bars in northern NJ

Full bars
signal around -71 dBm
Ping: 211ms
Download: 884kbps
Upload: 699kbps

jrizk07 said:
yea... mine has been annoying me too. I always seem to get a higher upload than I do download speed.
This is after 4 tries back to back, all of them upload speed was higher.
Houston, Tx by the way
Even though Tmobile sucks when it comes to coverage area, I kind of miss the 3g speeds I had with them. My Vibrant would hit 5 mbps constantly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what rom are you on?

andybones said:
what rom are you on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock rooted Gingersense, I took a screenshot back at my desk where I have no bars but was outside when I ran the test.
Had full bars and i'm on the new radio.

You need to turn on Roaming I know it doesn't make any sense
Wireless & Networks - Mobile Networks - Data Roaming Checked & CDMA Options - SYS select automatic. There I bet it's fixed.
I live in Philly across from a major hospital with thousands of people inside.
I have 3 bars at my house usually. When I first got my OG Droid it was faster than my DSL at 2200k. Then after I guess more people got smartphones it got slower and slower.
I was getting max 200k oftentimes 80k at my house since Fall '10. At work it is much better around 1200k stable but at 5pm at work used to kick me off the network. No biggie right I have wifi at home. Well it is a pain if you take a walk outside and there is a dead zone around your house.
So I decided to try a friends Sprint phone. SAME EXACT signal readings same speed. Got an Inc 2 finally I thought my droid was crap. Same thing with new phone.
Then I started trying everything. Turned on Roaming as noted above bingo!
I have a feeling Sprint / Verizon towers are used jointly? Like you need roaming for things to work properly in downtown philly. I don't know but I don't loose connection anymore whenever I have bars showing. Where in areas that there are a large number of people I had problems previously at peak hours. Now everything is stable now.
It doesn't make any sense to me at all. It is turned off by default on all phones?? But the difference is like night and day. I mean I know Verizon/Sprint share networks but that should only be in the boonies? I would love an answer. Just don't go overseas with that enabled.

i am satisfied with my inc2 data speeds. i put my inc2 next to an evo 4g (running in 3g mode because there is no 4g in my area)...and the inc2 loaded all the websites i tested quicker than the evo.
the inc2 was showing 1 to 2 bars, the evo showing full bars... i would click on a link at the same time on both phones and inc2 won everytime.

I average a MB up and down, zero complains. Running 2.3.3 (recent upgrade).
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App

I used to get atleast 1MB with 3+ bars on stock froyo before S-OFF, but after I installed CM7 Beta 1 I'm getting lower bars than I did before, is that happening with anyone else, or is it one of those things you just randomly notice?

pinakaeus said:
I used to get atleast 1MB with 3+ bars on stock froyo before S-OFF, but after I installed CM7 Beta 1 I'm getting lower bars than I did before, is that happening with anyone else, or is it one of those things you just randomly notice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't look st the bars. They are set to show so many based on signal and that changes from Rom to Rom (why a dx can show 4 bars but I have 2) go to settings about phone and look at your signal strength.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA Premium App

Yianaki said:
Wireless & Networks - Mobile Networks - Data Roaming Checked & CDMA Options - SYS select automatic. There I bet it's fixed.
I live in Philly across from a major hospital with thousands of people inside.
I have 3 bars at my house usually. When I first got my OG Droid it was faster than my DSL at 2200k. Then after I guess more people got smartphones it got slower and slower.
I was getting max 200k oftentimes 80k at my house since Fall '10. At work it is much better around 1200k stable but at 5pm at work used to kick me off the network. No biggie right I have wifi at home. Well it is a pain if you take a walk outside and there is a dead zone around your house.
So I decided to try a friends Sprint phone. SAME EXACT signal readings same speed. Got an Inc 2 finally I thought my droid was crap. Same thing with new phone.
Then I started trying everything. Turned on Roaming as noted above bingo!
I have a feeling Sprint / Verizon towers are used jointly? Like you need roaming for things to work properly in downtown philly. I don't know but I don't loose connection anymore whenever I have bars showing. Where in areas that there are a large number of people I had problems previously at peak hours. Now everything is stable now.
It doesn't make any sense to me at all. It is turned off by default on all phones?? But the difference is like night and day. I mean I know Verizon/Sprint share networks but that should only be in the boonies? I would love an answer. Just don't go overseas with that enabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if I enable roaming though it gives me a warning about extra charges. is that true?

voxigenboy said:
if I enable roaming though it gives me a warning about extra charges. is that true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well yes, if you're roaming.

voxigenboy said:
if I enable roaming though it gives me a warning about extra charges. is that true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Verizon has a roaming agreement with sprint. I think it would only come into play overseas. In Europe that setting could get you in to trouble.
Had Roaming on from NY to SC not a peep from Verizon billing.
It's much faster right less data drops too.

Yianaki said:
Verizon has a roaming agreement with sprint. I think it would only come into play overseas. In Europe that setting could get you in to trouble.
Had Roaming on from NY to SC not a peep from Verizon billing.
It's much faster right less data drops too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's true
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA Premium App

Yianaki said:
Wireless & Networks - Mobile Networks - Data Roaming Checked & CDMA Options - SYS select automatic. There I bet it's fixed.
I live in Philly across from a major hospital with thousands of people inside.
I have 3 bars at my house usually. When I first got my OG Droid it was faster than my DSL at 2200k. Then after I guess more people got smartphones it got slower and slower.
I was getting max 200k oftentimes 80k at my house since Fall '10. At work it is much better around 1200k stable but at 5pm at work used to kick me off the network. No biggie right I have wifi at home. Well it is a pain if you take a walk outside and there is a dead zone around your house.
So I decided to try a friends Sprint phone. SAME EXACT signal readings same speed. Got an Inc 2 finally I thought my droid was crap. Same thing with new phone.
Then I started trying everything. Turned on Roaming as noted above bingo!
I have a feeling Sprint / Verizon towers are used jointly? Like you need roaming for things to work properly in downtown philly. I don't know but I don't loose connection anymore whenever I have bars showing. Where in areas that there are a large number of people I had problems previously at peak hours. Now everything is stable now.
It doesn't make any sense to me at all. It is turned off by default on all phones?? But the difference is like night and day. I mean I know Verizon/Sprint share networks but that should only be in the boonies? I would love an answer. Just don't go overseas with that enabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is often the case that providers will share towers. Many communities hate the sight of towers in their area (they're ugly...yes, this really does happen) so they are forced to keep them to a minimum. They share towers but not necessarily radio equipment, so you may not be necessarily be running through Sprint on a Sprint tower.

Not terrible. Houston

[Q] how is Signal strength on the VZ version ?

For those of you with the verizon version of the nexus how is signal strength (4g, 3g and call) compared to otther phones (such as razr and rezound). Over at phandroid folks seem to be saying that 4g is a real issue (very weak signal) and perhaps a few dropped calls.

The Razr definitely had better signals overall. I always had full 3G bars and strong 4G at work. Now I have 2 bars of 3G.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

really bad compared to my droid charge. Almost -20dBm less wherever I go

Any other happy owners of the verizion version care to chime in ?

Its definitely worse then the Droid X, but it looks much worse if you just compare bars. I compared them side by side:
Droid X - full bars, 90dBm
Galaxy Nexus - 2 bars, 93dBm

I have a Charge and will be getting the Nexus tomorrow. I will do some side by side comparisons. It would be nice to hear more comments from others...

Looks like a bar less but so far reception hasn't suffered.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Coming from the Rezound, the signal is terrible on the Nexus.
At my house I used to get full bars and 4G on the Rezound, I now get 2 bars max and 3G only.
I can get a 4G signal for a couple minutes after rebooting but it never stays.
-100 to -120 dBm ans 2 to 23 asu.
Everything else is great about this phone.

I've only had Verizon for a week, but I have a different experience than most here.
I got the Rezound last Friday and got the Nexus early this morning. With the Rezound I couldn't maintain 4G at my desk at work beyond 1 bar (it could hold 1 bar, but moving from my desk would drop me to 3G)...but I dropped in on work today (even though I'm on vacation) and at my desk I was blasting 3 bars of 4G.
At home it's about the same. Either way, it's better than AT&T =P

i dont know about DB (which is really the only thing that matters) but in a low signal area of my office building i show less signal than my droid incredible did.. again this is only bars NOT db... not sure the difference there.

Ive only had the Nexus today but so far signal has been great 3/4 bars all day and lightning speeds. I get the speed in my sig (+/- 5/10Mb/s) at my house.

The difference between db and bars is that db has meaning and bars do not. So any comparisons of I had x bars on this and x bars on this have no real meaning as they are not a set measurement.
In myexperience, I'm seeming to hold a solid 4g signal slightly better than my thunderbolt did. Never had real trouble with signal in general with either here to judge performance in low signal areas. However, I would have issues getting 4g at all at home with the thunderbolt while I haven't had any yet on this tiny sample size of one evening...

Razr had excellent signal and call quality in my house (friends phone) not quite as good compared to my wifes Htc Evo on sprint.
I had just got done playing with the Rezound for 4 weeks until i switched to the Sgn today, Rezound and Sgn are about even in this area of Wi... Signal is basically zero in my house, matches the Rezound dead even.
I have faster 3g internet (Sgn) than my wifes Evo on 4g with Sprint. But i dropped calls with the Rezound where the Evo and Razr held strong...
Dont quite understand the towers up here, I have faster internet than sprints 4g service, But signal and call quality are better on my wifes Evo on sprint
Razr has better signal and call quality compared to the Rezound and Sgn...
Sorry if this is confusing, Im sleep typing.

I'm actually a bit confused as to whether the signal is awful or just not super duper. From the mobiletech review it sounds passable but some folks seem to be having a miserable experience.

Radio comparison - Verizon GN vs Thunderbolt

Both phones set to CDMA EVDO only, no LTE radios active. Location is 3G EHRPD enabled, but does not have any 4G towers for miles. I held both phones the exact same way in the exact same location within 30 seconds of each other to record my results.
Signal Test:
Galaxy Nexus 3G Signal Strength: 0-1 bars, -120dbm 99 asu - -100dbm 1 asu
Thunderbolt 3G Signal Strength: 1-3 bars, -94dbm 2 asu - -85dbm 2 asu
Bandwidth Test:
Galaxy Nexus 3G Bandwidth: 0.86mbps down, 0.54mbps up
Thunderbolt 3G Bandwidth: 2.94mbps down, 0.56mbps up
Bandwidth test was the best of 3 runs using www.speakeasy.net/speedtest connecting to New York, NY. Current location is central NJ.
My Galaxy Nexus is running stock 4.0.4 with the newest radios and bootloader, along with Imo's kernel 2.4.1 exp2.
Honestly, after having my Thunderbolt for 8 months, coming to this supposed better phone and having these kind of radio problems is just appalling. The Thunderbolt was always railed for being the pioneer of LTE radios, and for getting weak signal. Well after these tests I am not sure what to believe besides the truth that is sitting in front of me. My brand spanking new Google phone has by far the worst radio I've ever seen in a Verizon smartphone.
I'm going to be hopeful in getting an update that may resolve these radio issues, but the realist in me tells me this is 100% hardware.
I'd like to get some results from other Verizon Galaxy Nexus users running 3G to see what kind of dbm and bar signal, as well as what kind of bandwidth you guys are getting. I am very disappointed and want to know if it's a hardware defect or if this phones radios' really are this bad

Meh. The Qualcomm radios in both of these phones are in fact ****. I think the build of the Galaxy Nexus (whether it be physical or software) has something to do with it. Maybe Samsung herp derped the position of the radios or Google took a **** on the blobs.
Regardless, its a great phone and still gets better data speeds than every other carrier and phone. -coughs- iPhone users -coughs-
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

Except it doesn't get the best data speeds of any other phones, as my test results conclude.
Even on 4G I've nabbed 40mbps down 15mbps up bandwidth tests on that same exact Thunderbolt when I was in a good signal 4G area. How much have most GN users hit on 4G? 30mbps down?
This phone is a great micro-tablet, but as a phone it is heavily lacking.

DaRkL3AD3R said:
Except it doesn't get the best data speeds of any other phones, as my test results conclude.
Even on 4G I've nabbed 40mbps down 15mbps up bandwidth tests on that same exact Thunderbolt when I was in a good signal 4G area. How much have most GN users hit on 4G? 30mbps down?
This phone is a great micro-tablet, but as a phone it is heavily lacking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really, cause I have seen people getting upwards of 50mb/s on the Nexus (seems like most of them live in NYC).
Not to mention I was talking about people on other carriers.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

Other carriers is a given, but that really isn't what the point of this comparison is. The point is I'm holding two phones on the same carrier, at the same time, the same way, and one performs multitudes greater performance than the other. Has nothing to do with other carriers.
Fact is this phones radio is junk. You can have a quad core 1080p Super AMOLED Plus screen and 2GB of RAM, the best GPU on the market and 128GB of space, but if it can't hold a signal to save YOUR life, then what good is it at as a phone?
Samsung/Google needs to get on this right now and fix this phones radio. I'm just worried that it can't be fixed through a software OTA...
And I'd also like some speed comparisons, namely 3G, from other Verizon GN users if possible please.

On 3g i used to get about -75 at worst with thunderbolt at my house. Currently getting -93 at best with two different galaxy nexus. Usually worse. Used to have a stable 4g signal too. Now it drops after a few seconds

johnprevite said:
On 3g i used to get about -75 at worst with thunderbolt at my house. Currently getting -93 at best with two different galaxy nexus. Usually
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds about right... very disappointed in these radios.

I get the same -120dbm, 99asu with my Nexus at home, where I would get around 95dbm on my old Tbolt. I think the antenna/radio gives up signal quicker at the fringe distances faster on the Nexus - if I go into a city I get the signal strength I am supposed to get. I have a theory that part of the problem may lie with Verizon's use of old Alltel towers (I'm on the VA/NC border) - The signal in my area is consistently weak, but I've gone to other rural areas & gotten good strength. Perhaps Samsung/VZW will give us a software update on the phones...and perhaps when they upgrade our towers around here for LTE it might straighten up the tower's overall firmware...But we probably wont get LTE here until 2020.

strongergravity said:
I get the same -120dbm, 99asu with my Nexus at home, where I would get around 95dbm on my old Tbolt. I think the antenna/radio gives up signal quicker at the fringe distances faster on the Nexus - if I go into a city I get the signal strength I am supposed to get. I have a theory that part of the problem may lie with Verizon's use of old Alltel towers (I'm on the VA/NC border) - The signal in my area is consistently weak, but I've gone to other rural areas & gotten good strength. Perhaps Samsung/VZW will give us a software update on the phones...and perhaps when they upgrade our towers around here for LTE it might straighten up the tower's overall firmware...But we probably wont get LTE here until 2020.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LTE will cover Verizon's current 3G footprint by the end of 2013, FYI.

Here's hoping!
Sent from my A500 using xda premium

Google Play US GSM Model - Low Signal?

Received my GSM Nexus from the Google Play store last week and have noticed thus far that it seems I am receiving fairly low signal at home and at work. I compared the signal to my wife's iPhone 3GS and it was around 5 to 6 dBm less on my Nexus. My signal at home has never been that great and I just started a new job in a different part of town so I can't really compare definitively but it just strikes me as odd. I haven't taken the phone out much because I'm waiting for my case.

Try flashing a new radio.

only 5 or 6 dBm lower? I would write home about it. The Galaxy Nexus has never had the strongest radios, but as long as your speeds are fine and you're not dropping calls I wouldn't worry about it.

5-6dBm isn't a large difference. But play around with keeping your hand away from the bottom left corner of the phone, that's the antenna. Its pretty sensitive to the hand.

Similar problem for me.
I was constantly going out of service every 3 or so minutes and one morning it just wouldn't work at all. Google support had me reset to factory, sent me down to T-Mobile to get a replacement SIM and then transferred me to Samsung Support. Sammy Scriptreader wanted me to buy a new one and I would be credited back when they looked at my returned one which is really unreasonable. However, they did ask me if I had done a factory reset after I got the new SIM and what do you know but it started behaving.
Now I'm not sure what the problem was but it seems to have been resolved. Here's the list of things I did along the way. The selection of network operator came from me remembering the reset network option on my iPhone (see, it is good for something).
Factory Reset
Got a new SIM
Factory Reset
Manually selected T-Mobile as Network Operator
Factory Reset
The new SIM is one of the new 4G MicroSIMs TMO is now using.

Well as soon as I stepped outside of the building at work and all the way home I had a consistent three to four bar signal indicator. I reckon that this is an issue with the European radio not preferring the 850MHz carrier and therefore selecting a higher frequency that attenuates more easily indoors. I actually fired my Microcell back up at home to deal with the coverage issue at home for the time being. Will have to get around to messing with flashing other radios one of these days.

Just to follow up I brought my Atrix 4G with me to work today to compare signal reception with my Galaxy Nexus. In using the same AT&T SIM and taking a measurement every minute I found the following:
Over a five minute period the Galaxy Nexus averaged -102.6 dBm and 50% (2 of 4) bars.
Over a five minute period the Atrix 4G averaged -98.4 dBm and 60% (3 of 5) bars.
So the Galaxy Nexus, using the stock baseband, definitely receives a lower signal. From my years working at a cable company I know that a 3 dB drop in signal is a 50% reduction in power, though I don't know what the ideal signal range is for GSM so I don't know how big of a deal it is at this point.

Same experience on AT&T in south FL. I also have an unlocked Note and the signal is much better, although I'm sure the antenna is much larger too.

I am getting -95dbm, Google Play Nexus on Att between Western and Upstate NY. The tower is right down the street from me though. Samsung isn't know for their "excellent" radios, but this device has been great for me so far. No dropped or missed calls, great reception, fast data speeds and gps lock.

dru858 said:
Just to follow up I brought my Atrix 4G with me to work today to compare signal reception with my Galaxy Nexus. In using the same AT&T SIM and taking a measurement every minute I found the following:
Over a five minute period the Galaxy Nexus averaged -102.6 dBm and 50% (2 of 4) bars.
Over a five minute period the Atrix 4G averaged -98.4 dBm and 60% (3 of 5) bars.
So the Galaxy Nexus, using the stock baseband, definitely receives a lower signal. From my years working at a cable company I know that a 3 dB drop in signal is a 50% reduction in power, though I don't know what the ideal signal range is for GSM so I don't know how big of a deal it is at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could be that the carrier controlled Atrix signal is a little inflated. I'd say if you're getting good speeds it's probably nothing to worry about.
My Gnex has been an absolute dream on T-Mo.

mrsbelpit said:
It could be that the carrier controlled Atrix signal is a little inflated. I'd say if you're getting good speeds it's probably nothing to worry about.
My Gnex has been an absolute dream on T-Mo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was already assuming that the bars could easily be inflated but I doubt the actual signal level could be. Obviously the Atrix's radio is tailored around AT&T's bands so it came as no surprise that it fared better.

I'm getting -75dbm in downtown Minneapolis, phone has been awesome
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Right, look, I'm not trying to compare random signal strengths across the nation. I'm just saying that it seems that compared to another device the Galaxy Nexus receives a signal that is 3 dB to 6 dB lower at times. That's a 50% to 75% decrease in power, which, in fringe areas like my home and new workplace, causes issues. My Galaxy Nexus gets decent signal elsewhere; -70s while stopped in traffic on the freeway, -80s while shopping at Target, -60s at home with the MicroCell cranking.

RogerPodacter said:
5-6dBm isn't a large difference. But play around with keeping your hand away from the bottom left corner of the phone, that's the antenna. Its pretty sensitive to the hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I need to hold the phone the way L does?
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dru858 said:
Just to follow up I brought my Atrix 4G with me to work today to compare signal reception with my Galaxy Nexus. In using the same AT&T SIM and taking a measurement every minute I found the following:
Over a five minute period the Galaxy Nexus averaged -102.6 dBm and 50% (2 of 4) bars.
Over a five minute period the Atrix 4G averaged -98.4 dBm and 60% (3 of 5) bars.
So the Galaxy Nexus, using the stock baseband, definitely receives a lower signal. From my years working at a cable company I know that a 3 dB drop in signal is a 50% reduction in power, though I don't know what the ideal signal range is for GSM so I don't know how big of a deal it is at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One thing that I will add to here is Motorola has been known for very strong radios (however they do it). You are comparing top notch radios to middle of the road.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

dru858 said:
Received my GSM Nexus from the Google Play store last week and have noticed thus far that it seems I am receiving fairly low signal at home and at work. I compared the signal to my wife's iPhone 3GS and it was around 5 to 6 dBm less on my Nexus. My signal at home has never been that great and I just started a new job in a different part of town so I can't really compare definitively but it just strikes me as odd. I haven't taken the phone out much because I'm waiting for my case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What baseband is currently on your phone?

dru858 said:
Right, look, I'm not trying to compare random signal strengths across the nation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^This, although you kind of did set yourself up for a bunch of stupid responses ... we need to compare signal from the same carrier in the same location - looking at info from two different carriers in different locations is pointless.
Generally speaking, compared to previous generations, the Galaxy Nexus is improved. For example, my GN always keeps 3G signal in areas where my Nexus One regularly drops to EDGE. Seems like others have reported the same for the Nexus S: http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...n-the-Nexus-Galaxy-is-better-than-the-Nexus-S
However, I would not be surprised if the GN has worse reception than the 3GS. Reports I've read seem to indicate that the 3GS is very good. Compare it with the iPhone 4 (also very good... until you touch it ): http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2
I would really like to see comparisons between the GN and other phones of the same generation (GS2, Sensation, for example)

reuthermonkey said:
what baseband is currently on your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i9250xxla2

I know we are dealing with DBM here, but on a side note AOSP roms display data signal on the bars.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Hey Wilsonium what adapter are you using for micro sim. I have been thinking of upgrading to one S but want to be able to go back to my GNex on the fly.

Radio Signal Issues That I don't Understand

Hello,
Recently bought S3 and am in the process of switching to Sprint from Vzw. Currently both phones are active (although my Rezound still has Gingerbread as the ICS upgrade still hasn't dropped and I don't yet want to register my phone as rooted through HTC). I've been comparing the radio signals via settings (ie NOT using bars as the measure) in different location and I'm completely confused at some of the results.
At home, I have good reception on both. The Rezound is pulling around -56 and the S3 -65. Not bad from all that I heard about potentially bad radio. But yesterday, I was in my drs office, and the Rez was pulling -65 and the S3 -104 and was freakin' roaming on data when I'm in a full, strongest area Sprint cell area. I also checked them at the hospital when I was there and had similar results although the S3 wasn't roaming at that point but the radio was still at -104...I had one bar and made a trial call to my DH and it was crystal clear...better than Vzw has ever been.
So what the heck is going on? I understand that GB and ICS have some difference in measuring the radio strength but for the radio to nearly match at home, and drop by half only 1 mile from where I live and be roaming at 2 miles from where I live is craziness. What do you think is going on? Is this an S3 problem and Sprint problem or what? My DH's S3 is acting the same way so I'm confused and at a loss.
Problem is, after only having it two days, we're both so in love with it that we can't imagine not having the S3!
Any info, guidance, etc would be uber helpful. I have to decide in the next week whether to go with Sprint or stay with Vzw which I DON'T want to do and also do an AOL on my Vzw account.

I also checked the area where it started roaming on data and there was FULL service for data in the area and no roaming area for miles around.

Personally for me. Sprint. Hated every second of that carrier.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

But this isn't about Sprint as much as it is about the S3 radio. Why the variance? is that normal? Should the radio numbers be dropping by half? Is it one of the problems that I've heard some of the S3's have with weak radios?

I have the vzw s3 and never had any such things happen to me. When I was with t-mobile on my s2 it would do tg is sort of thing all the time. Just randomly go from 4 bars to AT&T service then back to t-mobile at 1 bar.
Dunno what ur problem is though.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

I have had the same issue since I got my first, so Sprint exchanged it. The new phone is the same.
Stock I was showing a steady signal at about -103 a lot of the time, holding the phone at lower left made it worse.
With CM10 and AOKP (JB):
It's not just that the signal shows week but it jumps around too. At home I range from -90 to -220, yet I can always make a call.
Data often shows x1 then roaming then 3g (no LTE here). And as soon as it roams I show 4 bars, but it never stays long enough to measure DB.
I tried most of the other modems and didn't see any great improvement in signal.
With Team Sonic V0.0.7 and LG8 modem (ICS):
Signal is steady holding at -97 at work, which is about 2 miles from tower.
In any configuration if I get close to the tower I can see -75 but it falls of very rapidly.
No lower left effect using the LG8 modem
I looked at my old EVO 4G, it's off Sprint but still reads signal strength at -97 on CM7.2 GB).

It is possible that these anomalies involve Sprint's network, which is under total reconstruction, not just the phones. It would be useful to test both devices with an app such as CDMA Field Test, to determine if they are connecting to the same tower transmitters.

I notice odd things about the signal also. Sometimes it seems like the signal reporting gets "stuck" and the signal level doesn't change again for a while (both dbm reading and signal bars). When it's working normal, I can see the signal go up and down a little in real-time, but when it's "stuck" i can walk all around my house and it never changes. Going into the debug menu and the signal is stuck there too, both 1x and EVDO. Sometimes toggling airplane mode gets it "unstuck". Hopefully i'm not the only one seeing this. I'm updated to LG8.

I have messed with field testers, still learning what all this stuff means. It's always been good for me to have issues with computers, then I get to learn how to fix them, or at least report the errors to the right people.
I will look at towers to see how to identify them. Then compare the phones connections.
I need to learn more about asu; I think higher is better. Many times I have 1asu but now 8asu -97db.
I guess HwID is the tower name.
I show Cdma RSSI -96dBm and -15 Evdo Eclo 15 dB*10
I will play with other phones when I get home.
I don't think we are likely to be getting LTE now, we are more likely to get what ever comes next like we did with 4G. But that would be great so let's hope it clears up one day and I have LTE to boot!
Thanks!
No your not alone, I have been seeing the same strange stuff, I guess there aren't many of us though or it would be on the news. Still there have been very few times I have not been able to use the phone. But it acts like I am in the mountains when I am only miles from the tower, I don't expect it to work well then there really is low signal. But I am half convinced that it's a reporting problem.

Sprint is currently using the 1900 mHz band, Verizon uses 700 and 800 mHz I think. In general, the higher the frequency the worse the building penetration. So, if you get deep into a building with lots of metal and concrete Sprint will definitely fade first. Over the long term their Network upgrades will use the re-purposed Nextel 800 mHz freqs to improve building penetration but for now things kind of suck in big office buildings.
Of course, they may be doing maintenance on the tower near your drs office.
Also, many large buildings will actually add cell phone repeaters but they don't always cover the Sprint 1900 band.

lost+found said:
I guess HwID is the tower name.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I don't know what that is, but there actually not a "tower name" in CDMA. Rather there is a set of IDs mapped to each sector radio on a tower covering part of the angular pie around it.
Typically there are three sectors per tower, each with its own Base Station. There is a System ID (SID), a Network ID (NID), and a Base Station ID.
Under the Debug menu of the GS3, these IDs are listed on the 1X Engineering Protocol screen. EDIT: Or you can just install the third-party app CDMA Field Test to harvest that data. It also will produce a log of the BSIDs with signal strength, etc.

Sweet, I will play with this all later!
Thanks!

Two cool apps to figure out what tower and SID you are on are Antennas and OpenSignal, both in the Play store for free. Just don't leave them running or they will kill your battery.

poit said:
Two cool apps to figure out what tower and SID you are on are Antennas and OpenSignal, both in the Play store for free. Just don't leave them running or they will kill your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never tried Antennas, but I know that Open Signal Maps methodology for plotting tower locations is very flaky. It is based on triangulating very rough crowdsourced data harvested by users with rough estimates of signal strength. Even the developer's website warns about inaccuracy. From the Google Play Store description of Antennas, it is trying something similar. So beware of this imputed mapping voodoo.
Trying to map tower sites from the coordinates that the tower transmitters broadcast is a whole different story, and has its own complexity. It is very accurate for some tower sites, but for some others the squawked coordinates are offset a large distance away per sector. I have always been able to discern my real tower sites precisley from this data, with some analysis and surveying, but only because I have a Rosetta Stone: A map of the actual Sprint towers available at S4GRU.com.
Note that none of these methods will map an LTE tower directly. These are CDMA tools.
Also, I wouldn't install Antennas myself (or some other apps such as Netmonitor) because I don't trust their intrusive permissions, but some folks don't care as much about protecting their privacy as I do.
Open Signal's on-screen reporting of the Base Station IDs themselves, which just come from the Android telephony API, is probably okay. But I can get that from CDMA Field Test, which also has better logging functionality and a safer permissions profile.

ydoucare said:
I notice odd things about the signal also. Sometimes it seems like the signal reporting gets "stuck" and the signal level doesn't change again for a while (both dbm reading and signal bars). When it's working normal, I can see the signal go up and down a little in real-time, but when it's "stuck" i can walk all around my house and it never changes. Going into the debug menu and the signal is stuck there too, both 1x and EVDO. Sometimes toggling airplane mode gets it "unstuck". Hopefully i'm not the only one seeing this. I'm updated to LG8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After playing around some, I can definitely confirm there is some sort of bug that's causing the signal reading to get "stuck" and stop updating. Just sat here with a -84 dbm signal for a couple hours, never budged. As soon as i toggled airplane mode, the signal dropped down and now I see it fluctuating a little as I move the phone around in my house. Prior to toggling airplane mode, the signal level didn't budge no matter what I did. Can anyone else confirm this exact behavior? I'm running stock LG8 rooted.

I looked at the signal on my old EVO using CDMA Field Test and can confirm that both phones are using the same cell and reporting the same signal strength. If I am reading the EvDo signal data correctly the S3 is pulling a much stronger data signal.
Then I tried to setup my wife's old stock EVO to bring to work and it would FC when you tried to bring up the dialog on CDMA Field test, but the notification part was showing the same signal. Then I checked for updates and low and behold there was one. After the update that phone dropped to -102.
I hope I will still be able to root that EVO after the update, I have plans for it that don't include the stock ROM.
I also looked at information in the debug menu; I could see the same basic signal strength there but I could also observe the effect of holding the phone by it's lower left, a drop of of about 5 db, hold from the top and back up, very repeatable. I have to try one of those foolish stick on antenna boosters to see if it would help carry signal around my hand. In addition to building penetration I wonder is the switch to 800mhz might improve this.

Not to change subjects but so far I'm seeing a huge reduction in coverage from my old Evo 4G to my new SG3. I'm now testing a replacement SG3 and I'm done with Sprint if this reduction holds true.
I was with the Evo and I live in a fringe coverage area I guess and the loss of coverage with the SG3 puts me out of usable phone coverage at work or even on the road. Technical support offered a femtocell (free?) to resolve issues which I declined for now.
Many others finding a reduced coverage?

trehouse said:
Not to change subjects but so far I'm seeing a huge reduction in coverage from my old Evo 4G to my new SG3. I'm now testing a replacement SG3 and I'm done with Sprint if this reduction holds true.
I was with the Evo and I live in a fringe coverage area I guess and the loss of coverage with the SG3 puts me out of usable phone coverage at work or even on the road. Technical support offered a femtocell (free?) to resolve issues which I declined for now.
Many others finding a reduced coverage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same problems on femto, seems to have hold solid 3g connection all day today though. Sprint doing massive network overhaul, prolly causing alot of connectivity issues. I have posted numerous threads thinking it was s3 radio, when in reality I believe it to be Sprint. Not 1 loss of connection to Airvana today. The problem for me has only plagued the data connection and not voice.
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feel sorry for you guys who suffer from bad speeds
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