I use my nexus one on ATT - in my area, there are two antennas.. ATT's "preferred" antenna which barely gets any signal at all (resulting in dropped calls every couple of minutes), and there's a "roaming" antenna which gives me full signal and works great. The problem is that when I'm on the roaming (good) antenna, the phone gets a tiny bit of signal from the "preferred" (bad) antenna, switches me over then my calls drop.
I had a Palm Treo which had a hack to manually select the antenna I wanted to use, which worked GREAT. Does a similar hack exist for the nexus one/android?
interesting.... didn't know we can select antennas
there should be a way to hack radio module to allow cell tower override, i have exactly same problem. there are three cells around my house, one nearby and two far away. for some stupid reason phone switches to different cell tower and i lose my network.
in battery use, i have cell standby as my biggest battery hog. cell standby over 25%
I'd be willing to pay for this hack.
has anybody ever found a way to do this?? I just moved further out into the country to get away from the city, and i am one tower too far away to be in the local calling area to all my contacts. lol and i know I'm BARELY into the other towers coverage area. So, if i could tell my phone to stay locked on to a particular tower, and actually get a signal (It switches towers when i still have 3 bars of signal, and I live about a mile further down the street from where it switches) I can avoid long distance charges. I haven't been able to find anything anywhere to be able to do it, but I may be using the wrong search terms. I'm not completely up to snuff on most technical terms. Thanks in advance.
I think cell tower hand offs are handled by the networks, not the phone
can anybody confirm this? what antenna on N1???
mrbkkt1 said:
I think cell tower hand offs are handled by the networks, not the phone
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U could very well be correct! Sounds logical. I've been exploring a handful of VoIP options that ya can use from your Android/WM device using your Data connection/WiFi.
I spent a bunch of time reading and researching, and just installed one called Nettalk. No local phone number for incoming calls, but the app is free, and u can make calls to anywhere to/from any Canadian area. The app looks just like the regular dialer, and works pretty decent. So, when somebody calls, I'll just select 'reject call with message' (if calling from a cell) and say I'll call rite back, or if calling from a land line, I'll just send it to voicemail and call back and presto... problem solved. There are a few other options available, where u pay anywhere from $5 a month, to $30 a month and you still using your Data/WiFi connection, but u get a local calling number for contacts to call, and doesn't matter where your phone is, it will receive the call free of long distance charges. Problem is, i haven't found any that have the city I'm from in their numbers database. So for now, I'm going to see how this system works out.
mrbkkt1 said:
I think cell tower hand offs are handled by the networks, not the phone
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Click to collapse
Both the handset and the base station "handle" hand offs. The handset has a programmed minimum signal level, below which it will essentially request a hand off if one is available. The network can switch the handset to another tower for load balancing or other reasons if it determines that the handset (or the carrier's business interests) is better served by another tower. It's a two way system. If the network wants to move you on to another tower, but the phone won't get a lock, you stay on the original tower.
The problem with the OP is that his SIM (which is programmed with carrier preferences) keeps pushing him off roaming and into the actual AT&T network. Basically, AT&T has its network set up so that any level of AT&T signal is preferable to any level of roaming. It does that to save money on roaming costs, since AT&T handles you for free while you're on their system, but has to pay a few cents to have the roaming partner host you.
Maybe
I think Tasks can do that.
samsung has that feature but i have to find for other handsets
Related
grrr
what a **** workaround!
that was their response... a **** workaorund that degrades my service..
anyone else had this or any thoughts on it?
Don't switch to GSM, switch to AT&T!
I am not a fan-boy for any of the carriers, but I must say that over the years I have gotten excellent service from ATT - except for when they changed to Cingular, which was a collection of regional companies with regional problems and inability to service - IMHO - a truly mobile client (like I live on the East Coast, but kept a west coast cell number - Cingular couldn't understand or deal with that one)...and the coverage is now better than Verizon's (not to mention the phones and the fact that you can do high-speed data and a call at the same time).
Did T-Mob start pro-rating their release contracts yet?
Don't know.
Am in the uk so cannot get at and t..
boo!
yep, get the same issues, whereabouts are you? im in rainham, and have to turn off the 3g to get reliable incoming calls and make calls, dont have to go too far and it works ok!
romford / ilford seem to be ok with 3g switched on.
I'm in Ilford and when set to Auto band miss calls intermittently so can't use that setting reliably. I wondered if there was a way to set the phone to use only 3G so it doesn't keep trying to switch between 3G and GPRS?
I'm from Indonesia and discovered that sometimes when my network switches me to 3G automatically, I can't receive or make voice calls.
So, I went to phone -> menu -> options -> band -> select network type to GSM istead of AUTO or WCDMA
Unfortunately, I left the 3G coverage area before I had a chance to see if it made any difference
fil said:
yep, get the same issues, whereabouts are you? im in rainham, and have to turn off the 3g to get reliable incoming calls and make calls, dont have to go too far and it works ok!
romford / ilford seem to be ok with 3g switched on.
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Click to collapse
Same here, in central London - have been ranting about this for some time over at Modaco eg here. Not a clear answer apart from perhaps swapping the handset but its hit and miss
Its a really severe problem and I'm losing the plot a little with it. Gutted.
BTW, if you need a way to quickly switch between the two modes, read http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=345524
There are about fifteen threads about this on here and on Modaco. Its a fact of life with 3g and HTC devices.
It is primarily down to relationship between the network cells and the device.
3G cells are notoriously unreliable and need a lot of maintenance - if you report a problem cell to your network, they may check it out - although they use their own testing to determine which cells need fixing.
Some devices do have weaker transceivers and hence the odd occasion where a device swap helps - but 99 times out of 100 its the network cell. And thus the reason that users find their device works fine on 3g in another location.
As far as making and receiving phone calls, do you use 3g? Any phone I've ever seen that uses 3g absolutely sucks. My dad's phone, my mom's phone, my girlfriend's phone, my phone. What happens is the call either doesn't go through. If you listen to the dial tone it has a small click right before each tone, if I hear that, it mean's the call isn't going through.
My mom and girlfriend have gone through replacements on their phone, but the 3g still sucks. I've even noticed they don't get that great of reception.
Even on my Tilt, if I switch to 3G i only have 2 bars and apparently people have complained of calling me but I never received the call. Now with Edge, I have full bars, and no one ever complains about the call not going through.
So what's your guy's take on 3g?
Similar to what you've experienced. I generally leave mine turned off the majority of the time, since I have the WiFi running when I'm at home anyway. I turn it on only when I need to browse the web or something when I'm out and about.
Not to mention the immense battery drain that 3G demands. My battery life is dramatically better on Edge as opposed to 3G.
Your provider needs to update/fix their network. This is not a device issue, it's a network issue. Proper 3G (well, 3.5G / HSPA, not just UMTS per se) should also use less power than GSM / EDGE for transfers... (in watt/kbps, though)
I know for a fact that all devices in my signature (that support 3G) can work perfectly with 3G on a proper network.
Chainfire said:
Your provider needs to update/fix their network. This is not a device issue, it's a network issue. Proper 3G (well, 3.5G / HSPA, not just UMTS per se) should also use less power than GSM / EDGE for transfers... (in watt/kbps, though)
I know for a fact that all devices in my signature (that support 3G), plus the Touch HD, Omnia and i780 can work perfectly with 3G on a proper network.
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I don't experience network issues as bad as the OP seems to have, but I've always had terrible battery life on my Tilt and my iPhone, my two most recent 3G devices. My 8525 was actually very good on the battery with 3G running all day long, never had a problem getting through the day.
Maybe the intermittent GPS usage on the latter two? I don't know.
Chainfire said:
Your provider needs to update/fix their network. This is not a device issue, it's a network issue. Proper 3G (well, 3.5G / HSPA, not just UMTS per se) should also use less power than GSM / EDGE for transfers... (in watt/kbps, though)
I know for a fact that all devices in my signature (that support 3G) can work perfectly with 3G on a proper network.
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I should go in and ask them about it, just to see what they say. Ask them why the new and greatest 3g is worse than edge. I have AT&T, I live in Washington, and I live right by a Cell tower too (only a 2 or 3 blocks away from it).
I woudln't mind using it for data but the fees here are prohibitive for private use. We use it on our work phones for data and it works well on Telstra.
mikeeey said:
I should go in and ask them about it, just to see what they say. Ask them why the new and greatest 3g is worse than edge. I have AT&T, I live in Washington, and I live right by a Cell tower too (only a 2 or 3 blocks away from it).
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Click to collapse
They'll probably say it ain't so Thing is, when 3G first got rolled out here, we had much the same issues. The big providers here spent some $$$ to replace "faulty" hardware at the towers, and voila, the problem disappeared (2 years ago?). Seems many 3G networks around the world have similar issues to the ones you described in the opening post. I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the 3G cell-tower hardware manufacturers - probably the cheapest and hence most used - makes some really crappy equipment. I could almost imagine that manufacturer is Qualcomm
In all seriousness though, all I know for sure is we had these issues here too, and they fixed them by fixing the towers. (Though of course there is some difference between different devices and how well they do 3G)
From talking to some guys at work Telstra's 3G network has been pretty much flawless for them asides from cost issues associated with Telstra.
I live in indonesia and never have any problem with 3G,. , the only problem is, its expensive,. lol,.
I am in NZ
No problems with 3G whatsoever. Have Imate JasJar - loving every second of it.
New Jersey, USA
3G has always seem pretty good around here in New Jersey with AT&T, but I'm 25 minutes from New York, so imagine how many towers they have on the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut). Very rare to lose 3G reception (exept on the iPhone 3G that everybody complains about losing it often). But important to mention also is that Kearny, town where my sister lives, I lose reception a 100%, my phone's reception just dies, and when I switch it to GSM instead of 3G...voila. Full signal strenght.
wow.. the results turned out quite different than I imagined.
Obviously it's just in my area that 3G sucks. I really wish they would fix this, considering that every phone released now is 3G...and you think someone would notice... well, I'm sure if I wait long enough people will start to notice, but who knows,
I can't remember the last time I had problems with 3G. though I remember before Cingular got bought by AT&T and they were just rolling out there 3G, I used to have problems then, I guess it was due to them configuring/re-configuring the towers. I think the engineers were just going by what the manual said, which weren't the best settings for each area.
I'm on 3G all day everyday on the hour and it's good. even when I'm in the basement and have 1 bar I still receive all my calls and I can make calls. though on this 1 bar I sometimes have to repeat myself every 1.5 minute, but I don't complain about that because it's 1 bar and I'm in the basement. at my friend's apartment I'm the only one that get signal, nothing else work there, not T-Mobile, not sprint, not verizon, not alltel, not vergin nothing else only AT&T works and I get 3 bars of 3G there. I always laugh because he has to leave his phone by the window and use his blue tooth.
I honestly don't think you're by a 3G tower because you should be getting way more than 3 bars. also ask them about the issue you're having AT&T is a good company they will listen to you. call them and open a ticket (before this they will have you go through the basic steps, restarting by removing the battery, etc) tell them you've done that multiple times and yet you have the same issue so it must be a network issue. have them escalate the ticket (they will send an engineer out and he/she will call you, they will work on the towers around your area). don't forget to be polite, no one likes a hot head.
in roughly mid year last year I was only getting edge at my job even though it is a 3G area. at home inside my house had full bars, so I called them up and they worked with me. the engineer stayed in my area roughly 2 weeks to deal with the issue. after that I've had 2 bars of 3G in doors at my job.
Hi all, I'm wanting to know if anyone else seems to be experiencing an issue where during a call the signal icon will change from H to G and the quality of reception / voice also drops to what resembles a non-3G phone.
This seems to happen quite often regardless if the call is inbound or outbound. I can be sitting at my desk and have what appears to be full reception with the H icon, then 2-3 minutes into a call (still sitting at my desk) the icon will change to G and from the quality degradation it must be reducing to 2G... why is this? I could understand if I was walking around but it happens regardless and will never go back up to H during a call only once the call has ended... is this a limitation of the cell network/carrier?
I'm using Dutty's v4, radio 1.09.25.23, Olinex 1.93 hardspl. Network carrier is Optus and I'm located right in the middle of the city - Melbourne, Australia.
I'm wanting to try some of the newer Raphel radios but need to get Security Unlocked first - already PM'd Olipro... just waitin
Any comments ?
Hi,
Same problem to me... downtown of the fifth biggest city in France...
Don't worry if I may say so: the phone is the problem. it has crappy reception, probably the crappiest of all time... I have tried any possible Radio ROM available, none of them changed a signle thing...
Worst HTC phone ever made for reception... All my friends with way cheaper phones have at least four to five bars when they are at my place, I don't get that... but all my other phones do.
Eve worse: the phone totally disconnects from network when I have one or two bars of H or 3G... I receive NO phone call, no SMS and I am notified two days later (30 voice msgs, fifty SMS... all sent two days ago). I even had issues at work becaus eof all this, people complained they couldn't reach me for hours and days...
I now have to set it back to G alone (switch off H or 3G that I want to use all the time...), which is a shame for such an advanced device...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're not supposed to get a H during calls, maybe for video calls, I'm not sure. But for regular 3G calls, you shouldn't get a H, H should only appear when there is data transfer, like when using Internet for example.
vale|46 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're not supposed to get a H during calls, maybe for video calls, I'm not sure. But for regular 3G calls, you shouldn't get a H, H should only appear when there is data transfer, like when using Internet for example.
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Click to collapse
I'm not really qualified to comment except from my own experience... My phone always has the H symbol, when there is no data activity then the H symble is faded/semi transparent and becomes solid as soon as I make a call or transfer data (eg. updating weather) and I never have the 3G icon - always H or G. I belive this may be related to the operator and the frequencies they use for both HSDxA and 2G modes.
Probably for about 80% of my calls I'll keep the H symbol, but when it drops to G it's really annoying as the quality turns to sh*t
My phone never seems to be able to hold a signal.
I'm on the 3 network in Australia & my phone doesn't stick to the network. If I choose options under the phone and press 'find network' a couple of times it will lock on, but then minutes later I get the 'searching for network'. Over & over again.
My phone is unlocked using the Olinex method, my radio is current & I can't even recieve incoming calls or texts...outgoing is fine (when I've got network0 & I can use browse the internet & use GPS etc...just nothing incoming...
i have a theory on this its called " crap design"! i thinks its because the internal antenna is towards the bottom of the device so when you hold it you are covering the antenna.
try holding the phone with just two fingers trying not to cover the back (below the battery ) this works for me! i only say this out of observation
Could just be the way the network is configured for HSDPA. Voice traffic can be pushed on to 3G (or release 99 as it is sometimes called) to reduce the loading on the HSPDA carrier / layer.
See it as a good thing
Most handsets I have owned usually drop from HSDPA or 3G or GPRS during a voice call, probably just a design feature to save battery life. Should latch back on after call though. I have to say though, I had the MDA compact IV and the reception is positively shocking! dropping signal is soon as I picked it up and i'm in a good signal area! On its way back to T-MO as I speak as this wasn't the only issue. Shame, great form factor as well.
Symbols on your phone are just that symbolic, they don't always mean what you think they mean.
If a UE is on your desk in idle mode and it looks like you have a great signal and a H displayed, great. It means that it is measuring the quality of the network and you have the ABILITY to hold a HS data session should you want. The reception barrs on most 3g UE's aren't a measure of the radio reception but of the amount of noise. More bars less noise, less bars noisey environment.
If you make a voice call, there is no way any decent network would use HS to carry your call as it is wasting resource somebody else could use and of course pay for. Once in a call the UE has to monitor many things and also maintain that call or data session. In simplistic terms if the conditions do not allow the call to be carried over 3G it will step down to 2G. If it was a data session it could go from HSDPA to 3G, then 3G to GPRS.
Also a network could easily by the swap of a 1 or a 0 carry your voice call over 2G without you knowing at all, freeing up that 3G network that cost billions to roll out and pay licence fees for, for data which they can charge more for.
idrisito said:
i have a theory on this its called " crap design"! i thinks its because the internal antenna is towards the bottom of the device so when you hold it you are covering the antenna.
try holding the phone with just two fingers trying not to cover the back (below the battery ) this works for me! i only say this out of observation
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Click to collapse
I think they made a mistake in the International English manual where it says the antenna is located at the bottom. Either that or it's different for different regional phones. If you download the HTC Touch Diamond_Asia_English_Manual_Manual_080521.pdf or HTC_Diamond_User_Manual_Asia_WWE.pdf from HTC's site, it shows the antenna being at the top next to the camera.
simpsoa said:
Hi all, I'm wanting to know if anyone else seems to be experiencing an issue where during a call the signal icon will change from H to G and the quality of reception / voice also drops to what resembles a non-3G phone.
This seems to happen quite often regardless if the call is inbound or outbound. I can be sitting at my desk and have what appears to be full reception with the H icon, then 2-3 minutes into a call (still sitting at my desk) the icon will change to G and from the quality degradation it must be reducing to 2G... why is this? I could understand if I was walking around but it happens regardless and will never go back up to H during a call only once the call has ended... is this a limitation of the cell network/carrier?
I'm using Dutty's v4, radio 1.09.25.23, Olinex 1.93 hardspl. Network carrier is Optus and I'm located right in the middle of the city - Melbourne, Australia.
I'm wanting to try some of the newer Raphel radios but need to get Security Unlocked first - already PM'd Olipro... just waitin
Any comments ?
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Click to collapse
it's not the phone its the operator fault i have the same prob even with nokia's...if the person on the other part of the line is on gsm the operator will switch u on gsm network...they do this because they don't wont to use often the 3g network
DeadGuy said:
it's not the phone its the operator fault i have the same prob even with nokia's...if the person on the other part of the line is on gsm the operator will switch u on gsm network...they do this because they don't wont to use often the 3g network
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The operators do not do this. Do they switch you to a land line when you call a land line, no. It is all down to radio quality where you are making the call and not what number or type of line you are calling. The phone networks are not that intelligent
beaker656 said:
The operators do not do this. Do they switch you to a land line when you call a land line, no. It is all down to radio quality where you are making the call and not what number or type of line you are calling. The phone networks are not that intelligent
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Actually, they are, they know what types of numbers you're calling. This is why even for long distance prices, there is a different between calling a land line and a cellphone number. Either way, the system can tell what type of line you're connected to.
can give me the bearing, relative strength, and ID for any cell towers in range?
I've been with AT&T for 12 years in the same location, with few complaints. However, in the last 30 days my reception (and everyone in my house) has been crap. I always used to get 3-4 bars on the E network. Now I waver back and forth between one very weak G bar and 2-3 E bars. I get lots of dropped calls, failed dialing, missed messages, etc.
Since I live in a quite rural area, I'd like to have some leverage when I talk to AT&T about this problem. I'd like to be able to track what signals I'm getting from which towers. Have they added towers? Did I wind up i n a dead zone? Am I in an area where different towers are competing for my signal? Etc.
Mind you, I'm not trying to triangulate *MY* position. I want to find the bearing, relative strength, and any available ID information for nearby cell towers.
Why not open the topic at Raphael software
Look for Fieldtest.exe in your windows folder. This a nifty little program by HTC ( I think). This program will give you the signal strength, etc...
ronald-is said:
Why not open the topic at Raphael software
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Because these guys in the ROM forum are the smartest people I know about this phone. Maybe I bent the rules a little...
Since you've been using Edge network usually, just turn the 3G off on your raphael... This may help lock on to the older tower that you're used to. Perhaps they built a new tower a little farther off that is giving you a weak 3G signal.
i don't know how you would do that for your other phones since I don't know what they are.
i love my diamond and most places the signal is good, but in my house my signal is crap, if i get a call i have to go outside, i have tried a few differant radios but not much change, ive also brought one of those signal booster stickers of ebay but not sure where antenna is on diamond, my wife is on orange and her samsung gives good reception in our house. just wondering if anybody can help
well in the states verizon wireless has released network extendors that can connect to your broadband internet connection and broadcast cell signal, thou looks like your overseas so i'm not sure if any the gsm carriers have anythign like that, thou they do make cell phone boosters or amplifiers that would increase your signal
you said the other phone has good signal in same location, here you could grab that tower id and edit the prl with it or change home sid so that phone talks to it but at the risk of possible roaming charges depending on your carrier,
i'm guessing you have a gsm diamond? if so i think your version of PRL is called internernational roaming database or IRDB, not sure if it can be modified on the gsm side but might be worth looking in to unless you want buy cell booster ( good ones are usually $200us or more i've seen some over 1k but should get decent one for 200
you mentioned sticker antenna most the cheap ones i've seen are groundplanes that hide between the batter and phone, thou not sure that would be good spot, thou if your refuring to an actual antenna that use proimty to transfer signal instead of connection, the internal antenna on most phones is on the back at the top
thanks for your reply runkittyrun, ill look into your thoughts