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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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Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
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

Possible spotty 3g fix?

Was just messing around with my Nexus One, I have used the *#*#4636#*#* trick to turn on GSM Auto (PRL) Which greatly improved battery life but didn't do much for signal so just now I was messing around went back into the phone info section turned on GSM Auto (PRL) then went down to OEM-Specific Info/Settings and turned off ciphering and wow my dbm went from -101 down to -87 and I seem to be able to hold a 3g signal reliably. If I grasp the phone tightly and intentionaly try to make it lose 3g I still can but holding the phone normally it seems to stay on 3g and doesn't fluctuate nearly as much as before.
Can anyone else give this a try and let me know if it's just a fluke? Never seen my DBM's so low before in front of my computer so seems like something is up here.

I don't see any difference, but I am on 2G right now.

Meh, don't read it if you don't like. It is the first ever thing i've tried that actually noticeably improved my 3g reception so thought i'd share it. If enough people notice simliar increases in 3g reception perhaps it will lead to an official fix from Google. If everyone remains quiet on the subject we will never get anywhere.
Cheers

What's the difference between gsm (prl ) and wcdma that it was naturally set to?
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Jrbourque said:
What's the difference between gsm (prl ) and wcdma that it was naturally set to?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=682662

Jrbourque said:
What's the difference between gsm (prl ) and wcdma that it was naturally set to?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't search as much when on wcdma. GSM auto(prl) is basically a file that contains a lists of towers in your area that you have access to. So your phone uses that instead of searching all the time.
Here is some more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_Roaming_List
and I'm sure there is others.

thanks for the tip. I tired it and my dbm went from -102 to -87 to -93 range.
does having a lower dbm means better signal? I have a place where my 3gs gets 2-3 bars, and my nexus has 0 bars. Kind of disappointing, the the cell radio in the nexus 1 is not as strrong as the iphone 3gs. I'll test the phone later there, and let you know.

Yea, lower the dbm the better the signal, it definitely helps but doesn't alleviate the problem with holding the phone from the bottom. I have since switched to WCDMA Only to help combat that problem. It seems I am able to stay on 3g pretty reliably this way even though I sometimes lose all bars when holding the phone from the bottom it still stays connected to 3g and I am able to surf the web and make calls with no bars showing, it's rather peculiar but it's working for now so I won't complain. If this doesn't work out I think I will end up switching to Sprint and going with the EVO on June 4.

Definitely that's one thing I noticed is with zero bars my phone still makes clear calls and fast data, so I just figure the signal meter is just more conservative than other phones.
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So what exactly does turning off ciphering do? Is it worth it for the signal boost?

Ciphering is to keep other people from hearing your conversations, it's like encryption...not a big deal for me as I've nothing to hide and never give out credit card numbers over the phone or anything like that but it might be an issue for some.

ssj4vegita2002 said:
So what exactly does turning off ciphering do? Is it worth it for the signal boost?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.hackcanada.com/blackcrawl/cell/gsm/gsm-secur/gsm-secur.html
I am assuming that Ciphering is purely the encryption aspect ...

[Q] Very slow 3G data speed

I have problem with my captivate such that 3G data speed(according to Speedtest.net app) does not go over 300-400 kbps. Also app chooses closest server as Wichita Kansas and I am in in Portland Oregon.
Besides the speedtest app Internet browsing is slow in general even though signal is good ,3-4 bars constantly.
About 1/2 mile away from my work place ATT has put new 7.2Mbps tower but even in close proximity of the tower my download speed does not go over .5 Mbps.
I got new SIM card at ATT store but that did not help either.
BTW phone is rooted
Any suggestion would be appreciated

The tower is 7.2 megabits. Your theoritical speed limit is about 1000 kbps so...did you try intalling the hsupa modem? Be warned that it will screw up bt and headset controls
Using the power of the force close

Have you tried the speed test multiple times? I verified my tethering with really high speeds which were cut dramatically the next morning. It could be time of day or just lousy network congestion. Try again over wifi and compare to your computer for a benchmark.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

On wifi there's no problems at all. But seriously regardless of the time of the day or location I do not get anything better than average EDGE speed even the phone shows 3g icon constantly. Is there some APN setting that I need to check.
I compared the download speed to iphone4 , 3gs, HTC ARIA and motorola q9h on the same time of the day and on same location and captivate gets at most 1/3 of download speed of the other 4 phones. (Other 4 phones get in average 1.2 Mbps download)
Not to mention that even that speed is actually low for HSDPA. I did not flash HSUPA since I'm not so concerned with upload speeds
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

Suddenly no 3g, always H?!

My carrier had some little problems during the past weeks, aparently they were working on something. I sometimes, for short periods, did not have data connection or no servic at all. Now the problems are gone and a speedtest today showed that at my home, the download speed went from an average 1 Mbit to over 5 Mbit!
However, the H symbol won't go away anymore! It used to switch to 3g when not data was transferred. I assume that this will influence battery life.
Is there anything I should be worried?

From what I recall, H is faster than 3g, as long as your in a good signal area, the H will always be visable, it will only drop down to 3g if the area your in has no H signal... and if there is no 3g it will drop to a 2g signal... simples, having the H does not meen that data is being transfered!

I am aware of the different speed levels, what I experience now is that the H symbol stays all the time, whereas it used to change to 3g when idling even in areas with very good reception...

GMH24 said:
I am aware of the different speed levels, what I experience now is that the H symbol stays all the time, whereas it used to change to 3g when idling even in areas with very good reception...
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Click to collapse
Wait, I don't get what you're saying. Let me clear it up:
Very good reception = H
Not so good reception = 3G
You want to see H (means HSDPA which is a a type of 3G data, but it's faster).

MrSimtang said:
Let me clear it up
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Click to collapse
Okay, I'll try that too!
I live in an area with very good reception and therefore the phone used to switch from 3g to H whenever data was transfered and back . Now, however, it stays on H all the time and does not switch back to 3g when no traffic occurs.
It is just a change in the pattern my phone behaves so I wanted to get some info on that...

Hi, it's your phone doing what it should by seeking the best signal.

H refers to HSDPA which is based on UMTS (3G). Consider it a 'turbo' version of 3G. It's sometimes also referred to as 3G+ because it's faster then 3G but not really 4G technology. The tower in your area most likely got upgraded to HSDPA that's why you don't see the 3G icon anymore.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App

Not correct, he mentioned that his phone was using H on demand before, so the capability was there already.
The problem is that H mode uses more battery than 3G, which is why it normally only switches to H during data transfers instead of continously being on.
Possibly your provider made a change which forces your phone to stay in H mode. On hardcores homepage (see speedmod kernel thread) he describes a method to manually deactivate H mode if you want to play with it.
Hope that helps.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

seems to be the explanation... Suddenly I have ~6 Mbit, so almost unsurprisingly there had to be a catch
as for disabling H, it would be permanently so not quite an option. I guess, I'll have to live with it but nevertheless I'll call customer support..

Hspa and 3g are actually different technologies, but can be used on the same site and freq. If you have noticed that your phone is nowdays all the time showing H ( hspa ) and not in 3g like before it means that your carrier has expanded their hspa features and capacity of the network on that area. Main difference between these two tech is of course the speed and how network resources are shared between the users. In 3g you have dedicated ones, but speed limited and in hspa you are sharing the resources between other ones under that cell area. hspa is good if you are near by the cell and there is not too many users from battery consumption point of aswell from througput point of view, 3g is better if you are on the cell edge due to dedicated resources reserved only for you. Main point is, battery consumption of your phone depends mainly how you use your phone ,what kind of applications you have and how often those are connecting/contacted by the network.
Browsing in 3g sucks!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

4G Data issues

Hello guys,
So I just bought my HTC one about a week ago. I'm.. pretty much in love with it. I haven't had time to sit down and room and customize it and such, but plan to soon.
However, i'm having an issue with it. The phone shows that it is connected to 4G and has full signal. However, it will not load anything whatsoever. Sometimes it works... but most of the time it does not, and I cannot figure out why. I also really hate that I can't manually toggle JUST the 4G on/off without diving into the settings. Waiting for the phone to decide to search for a 4G signal is frustrating. I'm somewhere I know has 4G signal, but the phone takes a long time before it realizes.
Is there anyone else who has these issues or someone who knows what I can do about them?
Thanks

Kleinersaphire said:
Hello guys,
So I just bought my HTC one about a week ago. I'm.. pretty much in love with it. I haven't had time to sit down and room and customize it and such, but plan to soon.
However, i'm having an issue with it. The phone shows that it is connected to 4G and has full signal. However, it will not load anything whatsoever. Sometimes it works... but most of the time it does not, and I cannot figure out why. I also really hate that I can't manually toggle JUST the 4G on/off without diving into the settings. Waiting for the phone to decide to search for a 4G signal is frustrating. I'm somewhere I know has 4G signal, but the phone takes a long time before it realizes.
Is there anyone else who has these issues or someone who knows what I can do about them?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've actually been having that issue for a week or so. No matter what ROM I'm running. Very strange. Maybe Sprint is "upgrading" their towers....lol. I'm in VA, are you in VA by chance?
D

Maybe someone can answer this better but 4G doesn't have "bars" the bars are for your 3G do you may show full bars but still have a weak 4G signal.
The best way I have found to address this is if your connected to 4G and you aren't able to connect to anything go into your mobile data settings and temporarily switch to CDMA only, or toggle CDMA then switch back to CDMA/LTE this will cause your signal to cycle and you may be able to browse using the 4G.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app

Konfuzion said:
Maybe someone can answer this better but 4G doesn't have "bars" the bars are for your 3G do you may show full bars but still have a weak 4G signal.
The best way I have found to address this is if your connected to 4G and you aren't able to connect to anything go into your mobile data settings and temporarily switch to CDMA only, or toggle CDMA then switch back to CDMA/LTE this will cause your signal to cycle and you may be able to browse using the 4G.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Datdude, no i am in Texas.
Konfuzion, thats disappointing. Toggling the signals through the settings is really clunky and always ends up with my phone having no signal at all for a couple minutes while it cycles everything. Is there an easier way? Maybe a widget I can get somewhere to do it more quickly?
Also, I dislike that I have no representation of how strong a 4g signal I have. I don't want the phone to tell me I have signal where there is none. Is there a ROM that will show this, maybe?
All in all, while I love the phone, I'm beginning to regret the upgrade. 4g data is very important to me as I use my phone as a mobile modem for work. In places (the exact same chairs) where I had strong enough WiMax 4g signal to do what I wanted, even to play latency restricted games like a MOBA, I can't get the LTE to do anything. I really don't want to have to downgrade, just to keep access to an inferior 4g signal, even if it's more reliable.

Bump for help?

Check out SignalCheck Pro, it will show you your true 1x, 3g and LTE signal strength. I just got my One on Monday and haven't had any 4g issues here in NC.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4

You can also check your LTE reception by going to Settings->About->Network. Anything above -120dBm RSRP is useable, though if it gets much lower than that, the signal becomes tenuous. I think the lowest I've held onto was -124dBm.
Also, I run into this problem every few days around Chicago. The data connection just seems to stall. The fastest way I found to fix it is to toggle Airplane mode with the widget that I keep on my home screen.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

subhumanderelict said:
You can also check your LTE reception by going to Settings->About->Network. Anything above -120dBm RSRP is useable, though if it gets much lower than that, the signal becomes tenuous. I think the lowest I've held onto was -124dBm.
Also, I run into this problem every few days around Chicago. The data connection just seems to stall. The fastest way I found to fix it is to toggle Airplane mode with the widget that I keep on my home screen.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks guys for your responses! I went ahead and bout Signal Check Pro and although I don't understand all the numbers, my RSRP is around -105 to -110 at the moment, so it looks like i'm on the lower end of the connectively spectrum. Hopefully this app will help me better understand when my 4G is and isn't going to work.