[Q] Mobile Coverage App - Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm after an android app that is a bit like My Tracks by Google but logs mobile signal and whether the data connection is GPRS, EDGE, 3G or HSDPA against your location.
Has anyone come across such an app?
thanks in advance for your help

yes i tested two apps that do near exactly what you ask. they show coverage, 3g, gsm and cdma, near your location, but for the life of me i cant remember the names of the apps. this was a year ago that i tried both these apps out, so my memory is bad.
but they do exist.

Related

Kaiser keeps switching from 3G to Edge

A friend of mine just purchased the Kaiser to be used on the at&t network. He lives in a 3G area in the USA and for some reason, his phone will not hold the 3G connection. It wants to switch to Edge. Is there a manual setting to stop this from happening or a new utility to enable/disable certain connection. Is this normal for 3G to do this. Any information I can pass on would be greatful.
Thanks
I think it's an indication that 2G is stronger than 3G in your area. My Kaiser always hold 3G connection all the time where I live. You can "manually" force 3G. Here is one the many ways to do it: on Windows Start menu, go to "Setting" then "Phone" (on the "Personal" tab), click "Band" tab, then use "WCDMA" for network type selection (default is "Auto")
Thanks for the help. I'll pass it on.
While the Kaiser is my first ppc type phone and I cannot claim to be expert I do think that this is a normal reaction of the phone to what networks are available.
I live in San Jose Ca. and must, perchance, move up and down the peninsula in the normal course of work and life.
I see my Kaiser switching from Edge to 3G to unnamed all up and down the peninsula. It is best for 3G in the cities and worse up in the hills -as one might expect. I also get the best 3G connections in the evenings and night vs. the daytime when, I assume, more 3G users are taking up bandwidth.
It is unfortunate that where I live is an Edge (during the daytime) area though I am paying for the 3G data plan.
3G issues with the TyTnII
Hello all:
I post on the AT&T HTC forumn and had this thread sent to me by another poster there.
I also have a TyTnII newly aquired from MobilePlanet on Weds. I am having the same issues with 3G. It briefly flashed the G icon on boot up then switches to Edge with all 5 bars. I've tried the manual mode fix, no luck. The wcdma gets no signal and the gsm goes back up to 5 bars same as auto.
Then theres the inability to register my serial # on HTC's EU site. Says SN is invalid... MP has had several reports of EU devices doing this.
I'm in the US, NorthEast NJ area. And in the middle of a known 3G area.
Bill
Can anyone help Bill out? How many of you CAN use 3G on the USA at&t network without a problem? He's trying to see if it's a setting issue or a phone issue. I'm not in a 3G area so I can't help him here.
Thanks
wise87 said:
Can anyone help Bill out? How many of you CAN use 3G on the USA at&t network without a problem? He's trying to see if it's a setting issue or a phone issue. I'm not in a 3G area so I can't help him here.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get a 3g signal when I go into Philly (I live about 45 minutes outside the city) It holds it just fine as well. Is it possible you just have weak 3g coverage where you are? I actually shut off the 3g on my phone as I have no 3g coverage at work or at home and the 3g connection discharges the battery in a hury.
I'm on AT&T as well.
Oh - BTW - I also can't register my phone with the eClub either. I sent an Email to the HTC Webmaster but have not had any reply in 3 days. I'm not too confident in HTC's support.

No data while using phone???

dumb question.... but i was under the impression you could make a phone call and access the internet at the same time. Is this not true?
I was on the phone and tried to access the internet and was told NO. i am on a 3G connection.
Well ofcourse I do not know exactly what happened with you, but some providers have 'buggy' setups that can cause this. Most of those providers are working hard fixing that problem right now.
You can turn 3G off somewhere, I know I've seen it, but now I can't find it. Change the type of connection from UMTS to GPRS/GSM, there's a setting _somewhere_. If you do that, you will only get GPRS connectivity. Try calling and getting data at the same time then, if it works, your provider is not really ready for 3G yet.
Interesting. I am with ATT and 3G seems to be full power in all locations I am using it in.
I cant find where / how to turn 3G off and only use GPRS.
I can tell you that I have tested 3G with internet sharing to my notebook over bluetooth. I was able to talk with a BT headset, and access the internet with the laptop thru the phone, all at the same time. When connected the phone shows "H" or "3G". This is with a Kaiser but I would expect the same from a Tilt. AT&T in Southern Calif. I installed "Schen's 10 button comm manager" and with it's 3G button I can hold off 3G, then the display shows "E" and no simul connections are possible.
You can only use voice and data with HSDPA. GPRS/Edge does not allow this, they use the same band for data as the voice band. If you see the "H" icon they you are picking up the extra data bands needed for this to work. I have tested this will streaming live tv to my phone from my media center via webguide. Even with the "3G" icon i was not able to stream video and talk at the same time, the video would pause while i was on the phone then resume connection when i hung up or the "H" icon appeared.
I can confirm that I'm seeing this bug. There is no 3g towers in my area. I'll be showing the edge icon and be talking and when i try to load a web page, Opera will complain that a data connection does not exist.
mswanson said:
I can confirm that I'm seeing this bug. There is no 3g towers in my area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a bug... GPRS/Edge is not capable of simultaneous voice/data. You will not be able to do both until 3G is available in your area (though this doesn't explain the OP's issue).

Advatages of talking via 3G Connection?

I was wondering why someone would want to be connected to 3G all the time for talking. I could only guess that it is somewhat better quality. In my case I don't see it that much. I do however know that it waistes about double the battery using 3G all the time. If I am not using data is there any real advantages of it? and what if I am talking to someone who does not have a 3G phone.
Thank you,
Hmm, of course I could be wrong (but I doubt it), Data and voice are 2 different things. 3G is data, voice is voice.
Thats what I was thinking, but I dont understand why it would be connected via 3G all the time if im not even using the data. and 3G and EDGE connections seems to have different signal strengths. If it's only for data I guess I will leave 3G off all the time.
3G signal is emitted on a different frequency than GSM/Edge signal - it does drain the battery faster and is pretty useless if you are in a well covered GSM area and only using voice (phone) function. The quality gain isn't significant enough overall to make it worth battery drainage on a device like the Kaiser/Tilt.
The advantage of 3G is its data stream but it's also good with voice for hard to reach areas only reached by 3G signals - those are rare nowadays, especially in the US, but in some cities with landscape blocked coverage (like in some skyscrapers in Manhattan for example) you might not pick any GSM network at your work desk but might pick up 3G - in such places, using "bandswitch" regularly makes sense.
Lastly, 3G signal is slowly replacing GSM/CDMA (2G) as the broadcasting standard so I wouldn't be surprised that in the next 5 years, more and more GSM phone operators will stop mantaining there GSM frequency towers in favor of 3G.
Thanks jonas that's the answer I was looking for. I will use edge untill my signal gets low.
Jonasteddybear said:
Lastly, 3G signal is slowly replacing GSM/CDMA (2G) as the broadcasting standard so I wouldn't be surprised that in the next 5 years, more and more GSM phone operators will stop mantaining there GSM frequency towers in favor of 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, since that means AT&T has a lot of work ahead of them and better get their butts in gear rolling out 3G. I live in the whatever-it-is, 90%, of the network area that does NOT have 3G.
Or I suppose I could be an optimist about what you say, and think that maybe it means AT&T really will be accelerating the rollout of 3G. That would be nice given the snail's pace of 3G expansion in the past couple of years.
Over in the UK 3G is the standard 2G is still available but the telecommunications offcom have required all UK operators to offer a minimum of 90% 3G coverage by 2010
I've always heard that Voice on 3G uses less power on standby and when talking, but I might be remembering it wrong.
Data on 3G uses significantly more juice than EDGE does (over double in my experience!) but I don't think you'll see a significant difference without data usage on 3G vs GSM but I could certainly be wrong.
I always have FlexMail and IM+ running, I haven't compared battery usage without them yet.
One big advantage that 3G has over EDGE is you can do voice and data at the same time. I've heard varying stories about some phones can do it on EDGE and some can't, but I know on my Tilt my connections die when I'm on a voice call and reconnect after but does not on 3G.
The biggest advantage of 3g besides the penetration is that you can talk and maintain a data connection. Edge gives you one or the other at a time--data or talk.

switching from 2g/3g based on locale?

is there an app that can automatically switch you from 2g to 3g and vice versa based on your locale? i know there is an app called "locale" that does location based stuff but it doesnt have any settings for 2g-3g, onyl for bluetooth and wifi.
at home, i would rather just use 2g for voice and wifi for data, dont need 3g at home. but when i leave the house i dont get wifi for data so it would be better to switch to 3g when out.
thanks if there's an app or setting to do this!
Just a +1 to kick this thread and demonstrate some interest in the subject!
My network (Orange / T-Mobile in the UK) has a serious problem with some of its 3G cells —*three of the ones nearest my home have frequent data drop-outs and wildly varying signal strength to the point that calls often drop. The network have been telling me for a year that they know about it.
So, I'd like to be able to switch to 2G either at a known location, or when connected to certain known cells — or even, with a clever app, to be able to force 2G whenever 3G signal quality is varying beyond a certain threshold...

No network

I having a problem with my network connection, I can make calls and received them. My phone says I have 3g with 4 bars
But, anything that uses data I can't connect to, web, widgets, maps, market.
Has anyone had this problem or may know a work around?
Tmo US
MIUI 9.20

Categories

Resources