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I've had the E4GT for less than 24hrs, and biggest issue is the less than splendid cell reception. Sitting in my living room i used to get 2-3 bars- this thing constantly throws into roaming. I updated my PRL, Profile, and Firmware. Didn't know what the latest PRL was that was out.
I know this thing has only been out a few days, so i understand some bugs. Is anyone else having signal issues where they didn't before?
I'm really trying rock this for a couple days stock before i root the hell out of it, lol.
Thanks for any input. Link me to resources if you like, i have no issues reading up on my own if this is a common issue.
fattmann said:
I've had the E4GT for less than 24hrs, and biggest issue is the less than splendid cell reception. Sitting in my living room i used to get 2-3 bars- this thing constantly throws into roaming. I updated my PRL, Profile, and Firmware. .
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Click to collapse
Ditto! I even have an Air Rave and reception is poor.
I am running into the same situation. It keeps on switching between roaming and normal for no reason. I usually get pretty good reception in my room. It will sit there at about 2-3 bars reception, few minutes later its roaming. The phone hasn't been moved at all.
This happened to me 20 minutes after I got it on Friday but after a reboot it was fine. No problem since then. I assumed it was a network issue.
Same issue here, even with Airave (evo next to SG2 has better signal)
Huh, I'm getting better reception than my Evo 4G. The Epic Touch now works in my condo elevator at basement garage level where the Evo would consistently drop a call.
has anyone did a signal strength comparison instead of bars. they may have different values per bar on different phones.
Returns are warranted?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
I wonder if there is a difference in radios or something. My experience tells me that this radio is finicky as heck, and I don't know why.
Is there a way to find out if Samsung used different parts or suppliers to make the Epic Touch?
I remember HTC doing this with their phones, and some would be fine, and some would not (different issue each phone, lol)
Mine was doing the same i switched the phone to only go on sprints network and has been fine. I rarely need true roaming but it would go into roaming even when sprint service was available.
I think Sprint may be doing network upgrades/maintenance. The same phenomenon occurs on my Epic 4G Touch and multiple Nexus S 4G's. I'll see signal jump from -106 dBm to -76 dBm and in some places go into roaming. Nothing to worry about as long as it works. They may be upgrading equipment to support EVDO rev B hopefully.
I get much better 4G reception on the E4GT than the NS4G, FWIW.
My signal isn't as good as my photon was better then my evo 3d. I usually don't roam much. Trust me when I say this, reception could be worse lol ill deal with it!!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
I hope the poor signal has to do with upgrading to EvDo RevB on Oct7
Thank God I am not alone. My cell reception too is finicky. In places my old evo (which my girl use now)have weak signal my epic touch would roam in and out. Sometimes it won't leave roaming even after I get to a known good reception area. Only a reboot would kick it back to sprint network. I read somewhere that calling sprint and having them reset my phone on their end might help. I am going to try this out as soon as I get home.
Has anyone read this article? Very informative.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5254/investigating-the-galaxy-nexus-lte-signal-issue
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
interesting read.
For a long time people have blamed their handsets for problems when the truth is there are always a lot of network issues out there at any given time.
Simply blaming your handset and assuming the network is 'great' because it has full bars or a good db is not the way to go.
Bars or db ultimately mean nothing, they do not mean you will get good speeds or in some cases to be able to make a call, in my experience its rare that the handset is to blame
True.
I had the RAZR before my phone. I would bet that the RAZR wasn't showing the correct signal strength and this is what a lot of people are comparing.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
aye it would be interesting if someone ran some speed tests on the two devices side by side to what what the speeds v coverage were like
edit
jimdurt said:
They still have some issues to work on. My OG Droid gave me a better signal at my house on 3g. At least measuring the db strength. I dont have 4g here so the measurement in db strength should be sufficient to accurately see which phone has better reception.
Give Google time. They have the right hardware. Just need to get the software tweaked a bit more.
My wifes DroidX consistantly shows -93dBm with 3 bars of 3g service, while my GNex bounces a little more between -120dBm(most of the time) to -93dBm(rarely)
Even with no bars and @-120dBm, i get 600kbps download. Thankfully i have 18mbps download service through ATT Uverse wifi.
I do have to mention, my service improved ALOT from 4.0.1 to 4.0.2 update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At -120 on 3g your lucky to anysort of dl
My 3g/4g signal has never been better. This phone is twice as good as my incredible.
WiFi signal strength does seem to be a little less strong but nothing horrible. Now I wish they would figure out why the OS won't go to sleep.
Well, Verizon resolved all my Nexus, CDMA, and LTE issues for me in one fell swoop. They called me yesterday and told me that they couldn't provide me service at my house and recommended I switch to a different carrier.
I was with them for less than three days. Brought my Galaxy Nexus and wife's temp phone back to the store, then went to the Apple Store to get my wife an iPhone 4S on AT&T with the plan to stop at an AT&T store to get myself a Skyrocket. While standing there playing with the 4S waiting for a sales associate, I got the warm fuzzies from back when I used the iPhone and decided to get one for myself as well.
It was a fun year with Android, but looking back at how I spent yesterday debating if I was going to keep the GN with all its issues, I think I made the right call for me.
I also forgot how much better GSM is than CDMA. I have full bars in my office, whereas on Sprint and Verizon the phones were struggling to hold onto a 3G connection. Amazing difference.
Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread for a moment. I truly hope that this is an issue that can be fixed with software; it seems like poor reception has become a hallmark of Samsung phones and I haven't seen a software update yet that makes a notable difference. We'll see what Sammy and Verizon come up with.
i can understand the signal strength display not being accurate but explain this...
for one, the signal strength on this Nexus is always 1/2(or more) then what i had on my Thunderbolt or Rezound at any given time/place.... which apparently is explained above.
what isntvexplained is this... my Thunderbolt was able to download fast, but not nearly as fast as my Rezound. on the R, i was able to download 1GB in roughly 5 minutes. ive tried downloading the same file(s) from same location various times(test) on this Nexus and it always takes 30 - 40 minutes.
so if the signal strength isnt being reported accurately i can accept that.... but what about the significant difference in data speed?
i also want to note that on my Reound, whenever i played a track in Google Music it started up right away and could jump/skip forward in a track without delay...
now on this Nexus, theres always a delay before the track starts & when you jump/skip to. buffering b.s.
Your Rezound probably already had the music cached.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
You guys also have to keep in mind that the LTE network slows down the more people that use it. When it was first intro a year ago, it was STUPID fast. Like 50mb DOWN. I remember my Droid Charge hitting low 40's in May. Now that there is a plethora of phones that have LTE and a lot of people using it, the network will be slowed. It still beats the hell out of any other network.
I’m glad somebody posted this.
I did a little experiment in my office this morning with three Verizon LTE phones:
1) Samsung Charge
2) HTC T-Bolt
3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
With all three phones laying side by side, I opened up the same “Network Signal” app. All three phones we ranging in the -85 to -100 dB strength. There was no phone that clearly had a better or worse signal.
However, the Samsung Charge was showing 4 out of 5 “bars”, the T-bolt had 3 of 5 while the Nexus has a whopping 1 out of 5 bars. Amusing since they we all reading between -95 and -90 dB at that moment.
One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA. I can’t speak for the T-bolt, but I could have sworn I saw the Charge at -95 / -100 dB and still reporting LTE Net. Type.
So, food for thought. Hopefully this “update” that Verizon is working on isn’t anything more than a recalibration of the “bars” indicator.
-Gp
Grannypotts said:
I’m glad somebody posted this.
I did a little experiment in my office this morning with three Verizon LTE phones:
1) Samsung Charge
2) HTC T-Bolt
3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
With all three phones laying side by side, I opened up the same “Network Signal” app. All three phones we ranging in the -85 to -100 dB strength. There was no phone that clearly had a better or worse signal.
However, the Samsung Charge was showing 4 out of 5 “bars”, the T-bolt had 3 of 5 while the Nexus has a whopping 1 out of 5 bars. Amusing since they we all reading between -95 and -90 dB at that moment.
One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA. I can’t speak for the T-bolt, but I could have sworn I saw the Charge at -95 / -100 dB and still reporting LTE Net. Type.
So, food for thought. Hopefully this “update” that Verizon is working on isn’t anything more than a recalibration of the “bars” indicator.
-Gp
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Click to collapse
There needs to be some kind of way to trick the OS into thinking it actually has the real signal so it will stop switching between 3G and 4G.
One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA.
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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.
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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:
30.6M down
15.7 up
I don't know whether this is in my mind but since I have upgraded to JB, I seem to be getting weaker signal reception.
I live in a major LTE market and signal is usually pretty good outside on the street. Once I am a few feet from the street, say in a restaurant--even with big plate glass windows--or a house or a backyard, the signal drops to unusable.
This weakness was most graphic this past weekend when I found myself at a backyard BBQ. I couldn't get enough 3G signal to use the internet. Friends (running GB) with the Bionic or Thunderbolt, also on Verizon, standing right next to me were able to get a bar or two and reach the internet.
I'm not holding out hope that a radio release will miraculously fix our signal reception problems.
Wow! same problem here. When I flashed JB 4.1.1 I noticed a big difference in my reception. In rural areas The Galaxy Nexus has horrible reception anyways and We, I say we don't need to be getting weaker signals after flashing this really fast Jelly Bean rom...lol
dynamicpda said:
I don't know whether this is in my mind but since I have upgraded to JB, I seem to be getting weaker signal reception.
I live in a major LTE market and signal is usually pretty good outside on the street. Once I am a few feet from the street, say in a restaurant--even with big plate glass windows--or a house or a backyard, the signal drops to unusable.
This weakness was most graphic this past weekend when I found myself at a backyard BBQ. I couldn't get enough 3G signal to use the internet. Friends (running GB) with the Bionic or Thunderbolt, also on Verizon, standing right next to me were able to get a bar or two and reach the internet.
I'm not holding out hope that a radio release will miraculously fix our signal reception problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Verizon JB roms do not have any new radio's in them so I am not sure why you would be getting a worse signal then before. You should still get the same crappy signal you were getting on ICS.
dynamicpda said:
I don't know whether this is in my mind but since I have upgraded to JB, I seem to be getting weaker signal reception.
I live in a major LTE market and signal is usually pretty good outside on the street. Once I am a few feet from the street, say in a restaurant--even with big plate glass windows--or a house or a backyard, the signal drops to unusable.
This weakness was most graphic this past weekend when I found myself at a backyard BBQ. I couldn't get enough 3G signal to use the internet. Friends (running GB) with the Bionic or Thunderbolt, also on Verizon, standing right next to me were able to get a bar or two and reach the internet.
I'm not holding out hope that a radio release will miraculously fix our signal reception problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue with my nexus. What I did to correct it was flash other radios that seem to help a lot more.
Here just search for vzw galaxy nexus radio and you should get a search with androidcentral. You will have all ur radios there.
ilpleasu said:
Wow! same problem here. When I flashed JB 4.1.1 I noticed a big difference in my reception. In rural areas The Galaxy Nexus has horrible reception anyways and We, I say we don't need to be getting weaker signals after flashing this really fast Jelly Bean rom...lol
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Click to collapse
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
TheGman125 said:
I had the same issue with my nexus. What I did to correct it was flash other radios that seem to help a lot more.
Here just search for vzw galaxy nexus radio and you should get a search with androidcentral. You will have all ur radios there.
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Click to collapse
Which radios are you running? FA02?
There's a thread on rootzwiki that has all of the historic radios for Verizon. Reading through it, some people have run a hybrid FA02/FC05 radio setup and say that's pretty good for them.
All I know is that I've got to figure something out. I went to a movie over the weekend and had my GNex in my pocket. I went through 50% battery during the movie because it couldn't find signal... and I wasn't really in a rural area.
I had generally bad service across the board 2G,3G,4G since getting the phone from Verizon. After flashing jellybean and keeping the stock FC04/FC05 radios cell service is pretty similar as expected. I cant really compalin given the area I live in but my old LG Env touch had stronger cell service. The most frustrating part was last week when I was with my friend in the hills of New Jersey where I could not get a single bar of service to even make a phone call and he was getting enough 3G on his iPhone to get on the internet. Rage.
Complete repository of all the radios:
http://goo.im/stock/toro/radios
I flashed FA02 from the command line and everything seemed to go okay but I still see FC04.
Hmmm...
Edit:
I redownloaded FA02 from the link I provided and the flash worked fine. (I had FA02 sitting on my drive from a previous download.)
I'll report back my experiences with the hybrid.
Are you trying an FA02/FC05 hybrid? I was tempted to do a flash-a-thon tomorrow night (busy tonight) and try each radio back to EK01/EK02 to see which seems best.
[email protected] said:
The Verizon JB roms do not have any new radio's in them so I am not sure why you would be getting a worse signal then before. You should still get the same crappy signal you were getting on ICS.
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Click to collapse
Nope its worse. I went froma -61dbm signal at home to -75. To make things worse, I lose data in rural areas now and my wifi sucks.
Hi everyone,
My S4 drops a lot of calls and also if i walk in buildings like schools I lose service. It is not a hardware problem with my S4 because I have three S4s in the family and they all do this. It is not a problem with the place I live because I live in Chicago and almost anywhere I go I have these problems. Is there a kernel or something that I can do to fix or improve these problems?
Thank You
There's nothing you can do to fix it unless you want to modify T-Mobile's towers, it is a problem with where you live I've noticed poor signal strength and extreme signal attenuation (signal drops from -50 dbm when I'm right in front of a femto cell to -100 when I'm about a half mile away from it and inside my house) when switching to T-Mobile from VZW. I asked on here and apparently it's due to GSM requiring twice as many cells per area compared to CDMA, and also T-Mobile using higher frequencies which don't travel as far. Think of the difference between FM radio waves in the kHZ range (which can reach 50 miles) compared to WiFi radio waves in the gHZ range which only reach about a hundred feet or so. I'm regularly in -100 dbm service areas and I can make calls perfectly, signal drops occasionally but I can deal with it since I don't make calls that often.
This problem only really plagues areas which are still on EDGE/HSPA(+), once you get upgraded to LTE you won't have this problem anymore VoLTE will truly fix this problem though, but that's probably a year or two from now though.
brando56894 said:
There's nothing you can do to fix it unless you want to modify T-Mobile's towers I've noticed poor signal strength and extreme signal attenuation (signal drops from -50 dbm when I'm right in front of a femto cell to -100 when I'm about a half mile away from it and inside my house) when switching to T-Mobile from VZW. I asked on here and apparently it's due to GSM requiring twice as many cells per area compared to CDMA, and also T-Mobile using higher frequencies which don't travel as far. Think of the difference between FM radio waves in the kHZ range (which can reach 50 miles) compared to WiFi radio waves in the gHZ range which only reach about a hundred feet or so.
This problem only really plagues areas which are still on EDGE/HSPA(+), once you get upgraded to LTE you won't have this problem anymore
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Click to collapse
Thanks of the great info!
When do you think we will be upgraded to LTE?
You're welcome, I have no idea. I don't work for T-Mobile lol I know they're on a roll with it and they wanted to have a bunch done by the end of the summer, I don't have LTE in my home (South-Central Jersey) but at work (50 miles away, right outside of Philadelphia but still in NJ) I have LTE. I'm going to take a guess that you may have it by the end of the year.
brando56894 said:
You're welcome, I have no idea. I don't work for T-Mobile lol I know they're on a roll with it and they wanted to have a bunch done by the end of the summer, I don't have LTE in my home (South-Central Jersey) but at work (50 miles away, right outside of Philadelphia but still in NJ) I have LTE. I'm going to take a guess that you may have it by the end of the year.
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Click to collapse
I was editing it while you replied. I had an S2 and a HTC Sensation and I did not have calls dropped and I had service almost everywhere and they were on GSM, too. So I think it is a software problem.
Has anyone had luck getting signal issues addressed with Verizon?
My signal has gone to crap - I thought it was my new One M7, but my wife's S4 is exhibiting the same behavior...can't help but think something is wrong, as I used to get a solid 4G signal at home a few months ago on my ReZound.
I live just off a major state highway, I am in town, and right in the middle of the 4G coverage for Verizon (there's 6 towers within 4 miles of my house, and 17 antennas - according to antennasearch.com). The local Verizon tech pulled their map and said I should be getting full signal at my house.
Despite all this, when I get within a mile from my house coming in fr the East on the state hwy, I drop to 1 bar of 3G and lose all data. At home, I switch between these signals:
(rare) 4G RSRP -120 to -123 dBm
3G (eHRPD) -110 to -118 dBm
1 1xRTT -97 dBm
If I go another half mile west in town (which is flat land), I am back to sub -100 signal on 4G. Any way to get someone to actually investigate and do something about it?
Thanks...
Call tech support and demand that they send a tech to investigate. I have to do it constantly. They tell me every time I call everything is fine on their end and a few days later it gets better all of a sudden. It's like they don't want you to know they have an issue.
You on the latest radios? I noticed when I updated to the latest radios my signal improved. Still would call tech support and have them check what's going on. Don't take we have no issues as you live in the area and they don't. So they should take your word for it. If you know others in your area have them call to so they have to take it seriously.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Man, I have tried newest radios, older radios, combinations of different setups with different ROMs (Sense and AOSP based), flashed RUU and did factory resets, back to stock rooted with new and old radios, and even a new SIM card...now back to 100% stock and fully updated - getting ready to see if they will trade out my hardware in case mine is bad.
One odd thing - when I first got the phone, the Best Buy tech couldn't get the SIM to activate, and had to call Verizon. When I swapped my SIM out two weeks ago at the local Verizon corporate store, they couldn't get the new SIM to activate and had to go to the back and do it from the computer...which is what makes me wonder if my hardware is bad.
Have had Verizon here (same house) for 8 years...very rarely had a dropped call in that time up until about 2 months ago (when I got my One M7). I drop about 1 out of every 3 calls now, and the other two get garbled sometime during the call - I hear "you're breaking up" at least once per call.
Your wife has a totally different phone and she is having issues as well so she has hardware issues too?
Her Samsungs always had worse reception than my ReZound (why she likes them, I have no idea) - but I chalked it up to bad reception on the device line.
I never looked into her signal strength until I was comparing my One to hers, which is when I noticed her signal is also bad (mine is worse at times). That's what made me wonder if it was something Verizon should look into in the area.
The hardware thought on my end is due to the fact that I can't find a combination of radio/ROM/RUU that will improve my signal at home and the fact that both SIMs had an issue activating in the phone. Grasping at straws on the hardware thing really.
May reactivate my ReZound tomorrow to see if the signal has just gone to crap here or if it's my phone.
I had signal issues at one point and the problem was because the SIM couldn't seat all the way because of a tiny piece of plastic still attached to the back side of the SIM. It made just a tiny little bump that made it so the tray wouldn't slide all the way in. Since then though the problem in my area has been Verizon. Every time I've called to tell them the coverage here has been crap they tell me the same old it isn't their fault junk. Keep hounding them and they will send a tech even if they tell you otherwise. Like I mentioned before. They almost never admit to an issue with a tower. The only time I have heard of them admitting it was when it was bad enough that they received several reports.
Update:
I reactivated my ReZound yesterday morning to see if my recollection of signal was off or if things are worse on the network near my house.
I monitored it heavily yesterday, last night, and again this morning, and at home the ReZound keeps a 4G signal ranging from -110 to -120.
I did a side-by-side comparison with the wife's Samsung, and while the One mirrors the Samsung (when one drops to 3G or 1X, the other is doing the same), the ReZound held the 4G signal. I watched the Samsung go from poor 3G to 1X - ReZound held 4G.
Also, the dreaded 1 mile dead zone around my house - on my One, Slacker quits playing about a mile from home, says it has lost connection to the server, even though I am on a decent 3G signal. Twice yesterday (coming and going), the ReZound held 4G through the zone and Slacker never skipped a beat.
Conclusion - either something is wrong with the One (and possibly the Samsung?), or the One simply can't contend with a weak signal as well as the ReZound.
If a rep said you should have full bars they might not have the antenna aligned right. I remember years ago someone on one of the sites talked about the same problem he was suppose to have full signal but want and Verizon sent someone out to check alignment and found the person who installed it didn't have it aligned right. After he rest the antenna the guy had full bars. I'd bet this happens quite often and maybe have the two that told you to have someone sent out to see if the antennas are setup right
the_Damaged_one said:
Update:
I reactivated my ReZound yesterday morning to see if my recollection of signal was off or if things are worse on the network near my house.
I monitored it heavily yesterday, last night, and again this morning, and at home the ReZound keeps a 4G signal ranging from -110 to -120.
I did a side-by-side comparison with the wife's Samsung, and while the One mirrors the Samsung (when one drops to 3G or 1X, the other is doing the same), the ReZound held the 4G signal. I watched the Samsung go from poor 3G to 1X - ReZound held 4G.
Also, the dreaded 1 mile dead zone around my house - on my One, Slacker quits playing about a mile from home, says it has lost connection to the server, even though I am on a decent 3G signal. Twice yesterday (coming and going), the ReZound held 4G through the zone and Slacker never skipped a beat.
Conclusion - either something is wrong with the One (and possibly the Samsung?), or the One simply can't contend with a weak signal as well as the ReZound.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With newer phones, they may be dropping the 4G and 3G signal because it is below the preset threshold in the firmware. -110 to -120 is horrible. You should be getting higher than that, like -90 and up.
Edit: if Verizon is saying you should be getting full bars, your signal should be above -78dBm. (Signal is measured in negatives, so "above" -78 is 77, 76, etc). If you read any documentation on signal strengths, you will see anything below -105 is so horrible of a signal, most data, sms, and calls are frequently dropped. With you claiming with the Rezound having not experiencing this, it is highly likely what the above poster is saying is true: antenna alignment is messed up. Even a fraction of a degree will mess with signal quality.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using XDA Free mobile app