Database Develop

Cannot make calls while on 3g. Tmob advised me to switch to GSM as the solution!!

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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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.

Had enough about the Radio

The radio is so erratic. Sometimes it is great. Othertimes it just can't get a connection. I haven't got my email all morning ... its realy annoying me!
typical issues- radio looses connection overnight - so I need to restart and its restored.
Going through a train tunnel the radio reception goes, but is then not connected the other side. Most of the times it works, but sometimes it just looses it!
I hope HTC get their finger out and release a new radio rom sharpish. Its really stopping me enjoying this otherwise brilliant device!
my radio is 3.43.25.19 and protocal is 61.20t.25.10U

colonel said:
my radio is 3.43.25.19 and protocal is 61.20t.25.10U
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Just saw Asia ROM update for Diamond 2 on Singapore site with Radio version: 3.44.25.27

I find the same. Most of the time the radio will reconnect fine, but just occasionally it'll sit there helplessly for a long time showing no network.
I did find under phone settings to only connect to my network rather than "automatic" speeds up the transition between 3G and GPRS and vice versa - it's now almost instantaneous, before it could take a minute or so. You probably already have it set like that?

Pete_S said:
I find the same. Most of the time the radio will reconnect fine, but just occasionally it'll sit there helplessly for a long time showing no network.
I did find under phone settings to only connect to my network rather than "automatic" speeds up the transition between 3G and GPRS and vice versa - it's now almost instantaneous, before it could take a minute or so. You probably already have it set like that?
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no i don't, but I will try. thanks for the tip
also worth zeroing on the bands in your country. I have set up gsm 900+1800 and umts 900+2100
when we get hacked ROM I will just do gsm 900+1800 and umts 2100 which is correct for the UK
Its probably worth doing the above in any case, as it won't be seeking so much and therefore saving battery

also worth zeroing on the bands in your country. I have set up gsm 900+1800 and umts 900+2100
when we get hacked ROM I will just do gsm 900+1800 and umts 2100 which is correct for the UK
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Thanks, i'll try that too.

I havent' tried it on the train, but I think this really does work. I suddenly have reliable data in my office block

Complain to HTC
I complained to HTC earlier today about the reception. If enough people do it, they'll have to do something!!

This is what I received from HTC about the Radio. - Indifference!!!!!
Thanks for your email. I cannot comment on if we have had any more comtact regarding poor reception, as yours is only the second email i have seen from anyone saying they have a problem with reception. As you can imagine, 2 occurences does not constitue a known issue. However, If you could provide us with the IMEI or Serial number of your device and also the ROM and Radio version from settings> all settings> system> device information, we will be monitoring just in case we receive more emails. In the mean time, i think the best course of action would be to contact the retailer and ask for a replacement for what sounds like a faulty device. best regards, HTC Europe Support

I've put the network selection back on "auto" after a particularly bad case of the phone searching for and not finding my network despite being in a strong signal area with the network selection set to manual. It came up with the "select a network" box and wouldn't seemingly carry on without my intervention. Which is useless if the phone's in your pocket. The moment I changed the setting back to "automatic" it searched for and found my network.
I only had this problem after I forgot and left the data channel connection on. Usually I switch it off after using it. So perhaps this network loss / searching bug is related to leaving the data channel open? No consolation for those who need to do this.
I have now set the phone to use only the UK bands, and will see how this goes.
It really seems we are up against a) a weak radio module b) big bugs in the radio firmware.

no Cell Tower triangulation on 3G

So we just got 3G here this week, but when I am on the 3g network, my cell triangulation doesn't work. can someone with 3G in their city confirm that it is working for them so I can stop worrying about it?
Thx

NC?
How does one know if triangulation is working exactly, ha

SLC utah
make sure your GPS is off then open Google Maps and hit menu - My Location.

I go to lunch in a few and will test. Raleigh NC just turned 3G this week as well.

Confirmed: same issue... can not find my location, where edge can (did not cut off 3g, basing that off of 1 year of using maps up till this week when i got 3g in my city).
Anyone have thoughts on this?
For that matter.... why do i not have 3g in buildings/homes? I only have 3g when outside.

Worked on edge.
In phone status it shows my network as UTMS, not 3G (used to say Edge).
I guess this in normal?

Think about how "triangulation" works (improper name, really):
Along one of the low-bandwidth data channels (along with network time, network name, etc.) are a few small numbers: your MCC and MNC (describe which network: 310/410 for att usa, 310/260 for tmo usa. Those are compared against the return from AT+COPS (or actually a little database if you see "T-Mobile" or "AT&T", compared with "Voicestream Wire", "Cingular", "ATT0", or often just "") to get your network.
Those are then combined with two more numbers, the LAC and CID. The Location Area Code is unique to a region on a network (pretty wide range), and the CID is unique per tower. There is no lookup (similar to COPS) that provides a location from a given cid. This means that you have to look up the LAC/CID against a database (MCC/MNC sometimes speed up searching/possibly sort out duplicates - idk). There are a few of these databases available - there's one free one which I'm thinking about, google probably keeps one (they keep a wifi database too), microsoft probably keeps one, etc. AFAIK, there's no unified database... please correct me if I'm wrong. However, the networks do provide their tower lists to big-name lists.
One last thing to think about - the companies will always try to sell you on the idea that they use multiple towers and find the area their coverage overlaps, or that they use "the unique footprint of a tower"... basically, they put your rough location as the complete coverage area of the tower to which you are currently registered. Actually, they don't really calculate it well - it's just a circle around the tower. What google means by this second claim (the footprints one) is that some of the circles are different sizes, depending on whether the cell is full power, low power, etc. This is especially provable in my bedroom - I have access at full signal to two 3g towers (I love this area ), that seem to overlap right here. This means that, when I use google maps, or another similar program, the circles constantly move between the two. It also means that I get spammed with unsolicited +CREG's on my modem line, as it moves around .
Combining all this knowledge, I know exactly what's wrong. #1: the lac/cid on the EDGE tower elements is different than the 3g towers (makes sense, for signal range calculations), #2: google knows about the LAC/CID on the EDGE towers, and #3: google doesn't yet have the new 3g towers' LAC/CID information in their database. Therefore, the program is passed information it doesn't know about, so it simply returns an error.
Proposed solution: wait a week or two
ADDITION: You don't have 3g in houses because the 3g signal does not penetrate as well (It's on a higher frequency, and the signal drops after less interference than edge). Since these are new towers, they may also be running at reduced power.

I'm in SLC as well, and can also confirm wierdness with the non-GPS location over the first couple of weeks... including one day where my phone absolutely insisted that I was just outside of San Diego. Quite mean of my phone to tease me like that considering that I was in West Valley City at the time. It seems to be getting better as time goes on.

^^ wow, I can feel the authority. Thanks for a great post. I think you are correct, the 3G seems to be getting better coverage (sometimes getting it in my house now). I trust t-mo and google, thank you man.

I don't know EDGE technology (never delved into it), but I seriously doubt poly's claim that it uses a different frequency than 3G. If you're using a USA spec G1, then your tphone has a single radio for t-mobile's 1900 MHz band.
The issues you are noticing with 3G coverage are more likely due to SIR parameter set by the deployment engineers (i.e. they are telling the 3G cell to only 'talk' to your phone if the signal is strong).
This is just a guess, though. There could be any number of issues going on, like some misconfigured settings on the RNC's for your sector (which makes sense if the coverage is new).
UMTS is the 3G technology that T-mobile (and AT&T) use, so that is normal.

Tarzanman said:
I don't know EDGE technology (never delved into it), but I seriously doubt poly's claim that it uses a different frequency than 3G. If you're using a USA spec G1, then your tphone has a single radio for t-mobile's 1900 MHz band.
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yeah, it's generally not too much of an issue - all the frequncies are pretty close (I think the 850mhz stuff from att might go a bit better than the old 1900, but it is pretty close). And, as I just discovered, tmo is entirely 1900mhz, so that part was mistaken. The rest should be accurate to the best of my knowledge (eg. EDGE can take more interference before it drops, etc.)
EDIT: Nope, their entire EDGE network is 1900mhz, but their 3g is only 1700/2100. So, it's a tossup, and that close makes not much of a difference.

Manual network/antenna selection possible?

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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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

Cell tower information sometimes "Unknown" - Issues with Cell Near automation

Cell tower information sometimes "Unknown" - Issues with Cell Near automation
Hi,
I have both tasker and automagic app profiles which are triggered based on cell tower informations. I discovered that altough my phone shows clear full reception signal and i can make calls, have data connection etc when i look via tasker or any other app that collects cell tower id's it gives a result of unknown. After a while this changes and the phone can again pick up actuall cell tower id's but it often switches back to unknown.
My issue with this is that this basically kills most of my location based automations on the phone and is driving me nuts.
Anyone else have similar issues with their HTC One and if yes know maybe a way to fix it?
Thanks

I may have found the problem (and the workaround). Since the HTC One is an LTE phone and my previous one (HTC One S where everything worked fine) wasen't i tried to change the Network mode from GSM / WCDMA / LTE auto to GSM / WCDMA auto only. Once i have done that the phone immediately was able to identify the cell tower network id. Of course this could be purely coincidental so only time will tell if this actually permanently fixes my issue but so far it seems to work.