I live in a weak signal area, my power meter (found at: setting,wireless, mobile network settings, networks type and strength) rarely if ever goes below -90 dbm. I often monitor the VZ network by using it. I use my phone for Internet (even with a weak signal my phone has provided me better service than my other options).
I have often observed an odd behavior reported by the power meter, the meter will jump from its current reading to -1 dbm. This occurs only on the 3G network tower. There is also a 1X tower at 4 miles away that I have not observed this very unlikely power reading.
Anybody else have this experience?
Could there be a front end amplifier/attenuator on the radio? If so I would think my phone has a defect.
Thanks
Steve
Update: I took the lack of folks having the same problem and another issue this phone's hotspot/tether process to mean this phone had a defect. I was able to replaced it today with a new phone.
I observed that the new phone has the same issue.
Does anyone have schematic for the front end of these radios?
(I wouldn't think this to be possible that LG would give out this information, but I thought I would as)
My understanding is that the radios have not been released, giving us so much trouble getting ICS and other things to work. as far as signal issues... i think it's the phone it self. not yours, but all of ours. I know in a small town out where i live, i have to use a different carriers tower, Verizon doesn't reach well... and my friend still has 4G. he's using thunderbolt, other friend has 3g through at&t... so i think our radios may be underpowered.
Related
Greets,
I have an AT&T Tilt and 1-1/3 years left on my AT&T contract. Unfortunately, my Tilt is not getting a very good signal (and most of the time, any signal) in my home area. The AT&T signal map shows the coverage as 'moderate' despite having a huge AT&T building 2 blocks away and an AT&T store which, I guess, was positioned just outside the bad signal area.
Someone was recently over with AT&T and a regular phone and he seemed to have a good signal. A friend a few blocks away with a HTC 8925 is in the same boat I am, so it may very well be (i) HTC phones or (ii) PPC's.
If anyone has any idea how I might be able to go about modifying the Tilt to possibly get a better signal, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks!
try a different radio and see if that improves reception.
Radio Fixes That?
I was under the impression that the radio effected the camera, screen, and sound; not reception signal strength.
Is this incorrect?
jdmba said:
I was under the impression that the radio effected the camera, screen, and sound; not reception signal strength.
Is this incorrect?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The radio is what controls the phone aspect, much like a Nextel two way setup is better than a dime store walkie talkie setup. Read this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=393182
I also found that limiting the connection to non-3G signals (under settings -> phone) helped as the 3G signal in my home town is a little dodgy and the handset will try to use a crappy 3G signal (and drop calls every minute or two) rather than a half decent 2G signal.
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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).
Click to expand...
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.
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Hi guys, I just got my Incredible S yesterday, and I absolutely love this phone!! The only problem so far is the fluctuating signal bars. I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here, but it seems to me that when I hold the phone...my signal gets weaker. When I put the phone on down..the signal gets stronger. Does a rubber or silicone case help as far as limiting signal interference?
Are you talking wifi signal or 3g signal?
mrHD2 said:
Are you talking wifi signal or 3g signal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm talking about 3G/H. It's such a shame. I really liked this phone, but designing the antenna on the battery cover is a huge flaw. What were they thinking?!!??
I also have the signal strength fluctuations. I have tried everything: changing the SIM card, changing operators (Swisscom and Sunrise), changing settings GSM alone, WCDMA alone, and GSM/WCDMA auto, and soft reset. The only thing I have not yet tried is a hard reset.
I wonder if somebody else has the same problem? The consequence of this problem is that often times the quality of the calls is lousy and/or the calls are dropped.
Please help me..
Have to say, my signal level is dreadful compared to my bog standard Nokia mobile phone in low signal areas, I get no signal on my Inc S while 2 or sometimes 3 bars on my Nokia. It's really spoiling an otherwise brilliant device. One thing I was wondering is if changing radio from the 22_M to the 27_M might help, anybody know what the difference between them is ?
and, data does not work over 50% of the time on gprs, but fine on hsdpa/3g/edge, don't know if that's also down to poor signal reception ?
I had the same problem with my IS. when the internet connaction GSM/WCDMA auto i had many unexeptable call ends. I put the internet connection to GSM only and every thing is ok. Acording to info i have the problem is in some operaters new software when the network type changes the telefone cannot change it normaly.
After visiting other fora, I have a crucial question to ask: is the reception problem (fluctuating bars, dropped calls, WiFi disconnecting) a generalised problem, or, rather, is my phone faulty, and therefore should I have it repaired?
HTC update the radio module immediately....
atn_chargers said:
Hi guys, I just got my Incredible S yesterday, and I absolutely love this phone!! The only problem so far is the fluctuating signal bars. I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here, but it seems to me that when I hold the phone...my signal gets weaker. When I put the phone on down..the signal gets stronger. Does a rubber or silicone case help as far as limiting signal interference?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also believe that the desire s has this same problem they are similarly designed devices now running with very similar software.
even though at times signal can be great without moving it can drop to nothing and I'll lose all signal, which I believe has caused me miss several calls as they've gone to voicemail rather than ring on the phone.
I'm hoping that an upgrade to the phones radio will fix/improve this over time (the optimistic outlook)
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA Premium App
signal
its the antenna design =Fail , put it flat on a desk and dont hold it and watch your signal go up pick it up and its like an hour glass going down
I am now arriving at the conclusion that sound quality and dropped calls (and bars fluctuating) can be explained by a connection problem when using GSM/WCDMA Auto. The problem disappears when using GSM Auto. Any views?
Same here, but it is better on "wcdma only" either. I'm suspectinig it has issues only when switching between wcdma and gsm
Hi,
I have my O4X since Feb in India. My room is in corner of my house so reception is generally on weaker side. But I have noticed that my O4X has weaker reception as compared to other phones, even cheaper Chinese android phones get better reception than this.
Coming back to problem, using same network sim in both my O4X and my Xolo (cheap android phone), at same place at same time I get 3 out of 4 bar of reception in Xolo, whereas my O4X shows either no bar or just a single bar out of 5 bars. I tried different operators, different sims but this reception scenario remained same, all are 3G network sims. While on 2G network I don't really see any issue with reception. I am getting insane as to what is causing this issue, I have noticed this thing since day one, with ICS, JB, now I am at CM 10.1.
Is this a common issue with this phone? Does it have weaker radio/reception? Or is it with my handset only? Shall I give it in for repairs? What you guys suggest?
Thanks in advance for all the suggestions that will come my way..
I am from India too. I think you are using any phone cover, maybe. It makes problems. For me it happens. I always remove my phone's cover when using net. Also, there are some network frequency that receives low signal. I am using Reliance 3G. I am in west bengal state. In my house west bengal network works well. In my friend's house kolkata specific signal receiveing is well. Also, in his L5 kolkata network's frequency works out well and in my 4X wb is better. When he came to my house he has no signal reception in wb network but I was using it well and I got to his house I had no signal or bad signal reception in Kolkata network.
In short everything is device specific but our device has better network reception. You can try to set network manually.
Subhajitdas298 said:
I am from India too. I think you are using any phone cover, maybe. It makes problems. For me it happens. I always remove my phone's cover when using net. Also, there are some network frequency that receives low signal. I am using Reliance 3G. I am in west bengal state. In my house west bengal network works well. In my friend's house kolkata specific signal receiveing is well. Also, in his L5 kolkata network's frequency works out well and in my 4X wb is better. When he came to my house he has no signal reception in wb network but I was using it well and I got to his house I had no signal or bad signal reception in Kolkata network.
In short everything is device specific but our device has better network reception. You can try to set network manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do use a mobile cover, will try it without that. I have used Reliance 3G, Airtel 3G and MTNL 3G all in this phone and generally notice a weaker network as compared to other phones at the same place using same network. I have also noticed lately that generally it gets a normal signal when its kept on bed but as soon as I touch my phone signal drops significantly, sometimes from 3-4 bars to 1 bar immediately. And as soon as I take my hand off of it signal improves.
Well, I am not sure what to do now, will try to use without cover and see. Else it will go for repairs. Only reason I havent sent it for repairs yet is because of unlocked bootloader, will have to relock it and flash to stock before I do. Thanks for the suggestion though.