Database Develop

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...

Incorrect/stale cell tower ID in UMTS mode

I think I have figured out part of a mystery here...
It is well known that there are some GPS problems with the Telus Milestone when unlocked for other networks. I've already rooted my device to replace the Telus SUPL server in the location.conf files with the Google SUPL server. I use my Milestone on Fido.
But this week I have noticed something quite peculiar. I have 2 apps that allow me to view a cell tower ID: one is Tricorder, and the other is Google Maps (under About, myl).
The usual cell tower when I'm in 3G/UMTS mode at home in East Vancouver reads as follows in Maps: 302:720:65500:1957869 (in Tricorder, appears as just 1957869)
In 2G/EDGE mode: 302:720:16000:57322
Here is the strange thing. I leave for school, take the bus to UBC, 45 minutes away. I open up Tricorder. My cell tower still appears as 1957869. I am way too far from home to possibly be on the same tower. And, not surprisingly, when I open Maps it first pinpoints my location in the vicinity of my home in East Van.
If I activate 2G only mode, wait about 10 seconds, and then deactivate it, Tricorder and Maps will now show a completely different cell tower ID - at which point Maps starts behaving properly again.
Why is my phone passing stale tower IDs to apps? This would go a long way to explain the GPS problems I still have.

That's a known bug of 2.1 rom for milestone. There's a minor updated rom (hk .34) that solves the problem, which is an agps bug.
That's pretty annoyng... you should turn gps on, that's it...
Im waiting for froyo...
Ciao,
G.
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Sent from my Milestone

giugiu said:
That's a known bug of 2.1 rom for milestone. There's a minor updated rom (hk .34) that solves the problem, which is an agps bug.
That's pretty annoyng... you should turn gps on, that's it...
Im waiting for froyo...
Ciao,
G.
-------------------------------------
Sent from my Milestone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, GPS is on, but the problem is that Android seems to default to taking the cell tower ID first (stale), then GPS. It's perfectly capable of using wifi geolocation but it seems to place greater faith in the stale cell tower ID. So when I open Maps or another location aware app, it will believe for anywhere from 5-60 seconds that I'm still in the old location.
Interesting to hear the HK version has it fixed. Of course I can't use an HK ROM on a Telus Milestone without losing 3G.
*But*... is it possible the module containing the fix (kernel?) could be packed up alone into an SBF file for flashing, without overwriting the rest of the firmeware?

I should add: In EDGE mode, Tricorder detects the cell ID of 2 other nearby networks. In UMTS mode, Tricorder only seems to see one cell ID, and the other two slots are filled with "-1". So not only does it report the wrong cell ID to software, but it also provides no context for self-correction...

Hy,
You do not loose the ability of being on a 3g network. I use a hk nandroid backup w/ some tweaks and works fine on my 3g carrier (not .36 tho).
Ciao,
G.
Exit: read about the frequencies issues in the other thread. So, yeah, hk will not work in canada! ;(
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Sent from my Milestone

I just installed the new Thai version released by GOT. Other bugs appear to be fixed. According to Tricorder I'm still only seeing one UMTS cell ID... and unfortunately that ID is -1 right now. Airplane mode, then off again, now I see 1951258.
I won't be able to tell if goes stale until I actually leave the house today though So let's get on that...

I tentatively report that this issue is *fixed* in the new releases from Group of Ten. On the new Thai firmware I am able to see changes in the UMTS cell ID. The Maps app seems to provide a better approximate "first guess" than it used to, even without a GPS lock.

how exactly does the tricorder work cmstlist? I dont understand what the -1 means and the larger number ontop of the -1.

sharky2010 said:
how exactly does the tricorder work cmstlist? I dont understand what the -1 means and the larger number ontop of the -1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Tricorder, press "EMS" to get cellular and wifi data.
On my phone, the first line under cellular says:
1962*** Fido 16
(Cell tower ID, provider, signal strength)
There are 2-3 tower IDs that show up for my particular location consistently. If I see those IDs when I'm way across town then I know it's incorrect.
The second and third lines both say -1. I think it's just that the OS isn't providing the app any additional tower info. In 2G mode I see three different tower IDs sometimes.

Mines only seeing one tower but its signal strength is 21... good or bad?

Normal. I think for some reason the Milestone just doesn't pass on more than one tower ID at a time to the software in UMTS mode.

I think mines defective anyways... gonna return it for a different one on tuesday.

Emergency Calls Only?

Running CM6-RC1, and in areas with weak signal, my phone will say "emergency calls only" and have full bar strength and no data connection. Does this mean its connecting to a different provider's cell tower for purely emergency call purposes and showing that signal strength?

I would actually like to know this as well. I noticed this earlier today hadn't happened before. That is what I think it is because Telus does have better reception in this area.

That's exactly it. When you lose signal with your regular network the phone will find the next best, but unless you have a roaming agreement all you can make are Emergency Calls.
Slightly annoying when you don't have the network name visable for most of the time. Would rather have an alt icon.

I have this same issue too. However, I need to reboot my device in order for it to work normally again, it does not appear to automatically re-connect to my network, even though it has signal, unless i restart the device.

Missed Calls going straight to voice mail. No Voicemail notification.

There are 2 existing threads from last year for a different device about calls going directly to voicemail without the phone ringing even when the phone has good signal indicator and has not been moved. They seem to have gone cold but the issue persists or has returned for some of us. I've gotten in deep with AT&T and Motorola chasing a solution to recent occurrences of this on my AT&T Atrix HD. The next post here is a consolidation of my posts from those defunct threads and a whole lot of information resulting from contact with AT&T and Motorola, who may be viewing this thread.
I suspect that there are many possible causes for these symptoms and that my circumstance is quite localized however, if anyone else is experiencing this, particularly on the Atrix HD and AT&T please do post some details of the problem, as well the provider, model of phone and OS version.Thanks. ITM

On a new Motorola Atrix HD, in a well serviced area, with a full signal strength indicator and the phone having not been moved:
After a period of time (could be 30 minutes to several hours) although the phone shows full bars and a 4G connection, when a call is dialed from the phone it behaves as if it is not on any network and it re-initializes its phone network connection, going through the various icons and network types (no service, emergency calls, 4G ) until it gets to 4G and then the call goes out. While the phone is in that limbo state with full bars and 4G LTE icon it is receiving wireless waves (this is proven) but is not being given the proper command to switch to phone answering mode when a call comes in so the calls go straight to voice-mail and no alerts for missed calls or voice mails are sent to the phone... until the process of making an outgoing call from the phone forces it to re-find the network. Toggling data plan or airplane mode on/off also resets the phone network connection. Then incoming calls and voice mail alerts come through until the next instance. It is also possible that the phone is indeed on the network when the problem is in evidence and that some failure in the network signal or OS on the phone prevents it from changing state to answer the call. This has been happening several times a day for 3 weeks.
ATTEMPTED REMEDIES
- Data refresh (short of factory reset)
- Factory reset
- New sim
IN PROGRESS REMEDIES
- AT&T has forwarded this to engineers who will supposedly look deeper into the relationship between my phone and their service, and I hope, at particular slices in time where the incidents have occurred (I'm keeping a log of the incidents).
PLANNED REMEDIES
- Replacement phone. I will test the new phone before applying any available OS updates or installing apps.
ELIMINATED POTENTIAL SOLE CAUSES
- Disabling of certain native apps. Problem occurs regardless of which apps I have disabled and occurs with all native apps enabled.
- Phone being moved in and out of range. Problem has occurred and testing has been done at one location.
- Service outage at all towers within range. No significant degradation of service during problem incidents.
- Deep sleep mode. Phone goes into deep sleep mode properly and receives calls while in deep sleep mode when the problem is not in evidence.
- A particular app that can force phone to use 4G without LTE has been eliminated as potential cause, as the problem started before that app was ever put on phone and persisted for a week after factory reset and rebuild that did not include that app.
- Duration of idle time. The problem has been detected anywhere from 25 minutes to many hours after the phone was last used.
- Developer Mode USB Debugging. Problem occurs regardless of this setting.
Getting more granular:
For those having this issue on an AT&T 4G LTE phone this may be significant in determining the exact moment that the phone is failing to do something it should, which in turn may help get to the root cause of the problem.
- With data plan off and background data disabled the phone shows a greyed-out 4G LTE data network indicator without radio wave graphic elements. With data plan on it shows the same indicator not greyed-out and with radio wave elements.
- Under normal operation; When a call is placed to the phone (in this case from a land line), well before the ring is heard on the mobile phone and sometimes even before the ring is heard on the calling land line, the LTE part of the indicator turns off and then the call comes through. (The LTE indicator is also turned off when an outgoing a call placed from the mobile phone)
- Some moments after the call is ended the signal bars drop to zero very briefly then the LTE indicator reappears and the bars go back up.
- When the problem of missed calls/vms is in evidence the LTE part of indicator never goes off when a call is incoming and nothing short of manually toggling the network state of the phone seems to set it right
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ADDITION 3/12/13 relating to “Modem Fastdormancy Monitor Service”
- Under normal operation, when a call is placed to or from the mobile phone a process named “Modem Fastdormancy Monitor Service” is invoked. This process seems responsible for toggling the LTE component off during the call and back on when the call is complete, after which the “Modem Fastdormancy Monitor Service” closes its self.
- When the problem is in evidence the “Modem Fastdormancy Monitor Service” is never invoked, the LTE indicator never disappears and phone calls go straight to voice mail even though the phone is, in a technical sense, receiving wireless waves.
- When the phone is forced to use only 4G (instead of 4G LTE) the “Modem Fastdormancy Monitor Service” runs continuously and the problem does not occur. The app that allows this test to be performed has been eliminated as a possible cause.
So... it is at the point during an incoming call when the “Modem Fastdormancy Monitor Service” is supposed to be invoked but is not being invoked that the phone or network is failing to do something. Determining exactly what event invokes the “Modem Fastdormancy Monitor Service” may isolate the failure point and get to a solution.
Here is some hard tech detail about the “Modem Fastdormancy Monitor Service” found by a helpful Motorola tech.
http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20120124196
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I’m curious to know if others are experiencing this.
Stock ROM, No Root, some reasonable apps installed
Model: Motorola Atrix HD MB886
System Version: 98.4.20.MB886.ATT.en.US
Baseband Version: MB886_BP_100740.071.65.04P
Kernel Version: [email protected] #1
Android Version: 4.1.1
State: NY

The snake eats its own tail
So...... the underlying issue is a problem with software in the Lucent switches that are part of the toggle mechanism that allows 4G LTE phones to use 4G LTE for data and 3G (although the phone indicator says 4G) for phone calls. This issue goes under-reported because it is less likely to occur when data is on all the time or the phone is traveling. As mentioned earlier in the thread it does not occur when the phone is forced to use 4G for data instead of 4G LTE.
Even though I am somewhat of an AT&T loyalist I was shocked at how poorly they handled this and at the amount of money they must be spending on chasing it while at another part of the company they knew exactly what the problem was.
At their supposedly highest level of escalation an AT&T representative could say was that another tower would be installed in my area within a few weeks. This was a preposterous non-starter of a notion precluded by weeks of troubleshooting by both me and AT&T, and even the AT&T representative who uttered it admitted as much before trying to blame the problem on the phone and trying to convince me to use a microcell. In that same phone call I was forwarded to a supervisor who described the issue with the Lucent switches and said an impending software update should fix it.
Good golly!
I can understand why providers make the mistake of over-committing to the new technology (as was done in the early 3G days) but this has been an unnecessarily grueling odyssey. Anyhooo, If anyone else is having this problem I recommend trying to force your phone to use 4G (without LTE) WCDMA, HSDPA.

Solution: Get out of AT&T contract and unlock phone to T-Mobile. Ironically, the WCDMA setting I used to work around this turned out to be a great battery saver and I still use it.

When I had an atrixhd I used to have this fail and never could do nothing because never found any type of solution or information , the only "solution" was set to 3G , because in 2G almost all calls to my phone were denied whithout advice, I ended up receiving a message for a miss call and it was with movistar México.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using XDA Free mobile app

[Q] Phone does not automatically switch mobile network mode

Hello,
My I9000 has a peculiar problem: While both mobile internet and Wi-Fi work fine, switching to 2G when 3G/UMTS/HSDPA coverage is bad does not. It ends up losing network connectivity completely in areas where other phones have no problem staying connected by switching to GPRS/EDGE. (3G coverage is spotty here at times, so this matters quite a lot.)
This problem has first appeared rather spontaneously when it was running its stock 2.1 firmware and has persisted through upgrades to stock 2.3 and CyanogenMod 10 through 11. I've attempted to switch modem firmware to mitigate it to no avail. (Modems XXJVT and ZFJPG/BVJJPG were tried, no difference was noticed - I am rather wary of messing with modems further, as this is my only phone and I'd rather it still could call at the end of the day.)
Moreover, if network mode is switched to GPRS/EDGE manually, it can't be switched back to 3G (either manually or automatically) without a reboot. (The 'set preferred network type' field in *#*#4636#*#* starts resetting itself to 'Unknown' spontaneously at this point.)
Unfortunately, I don't know many details of the incident that caused the appearance of the problem, as I was not the owner of the phone at the time - I only know that it was roaming nationally (within the same country) at the time. (The network type should have been the same, and it's not like it's stuck in roaming in any way.)
Has anybody encountered such a problem before? Is this likely to be a hardware problem, or could there be a software fix?
Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

[Zaba] said:
: While both mobile internet and Wi-Fi work fine, switching to 2G when 3G/UMTS/HSDPA coverage is bad does not. It ends up losing network connectivity completely in areas where other phones have no problem staying connected by switching to GPRS/EDGE. (3G coverage is spotty here at times, so this matters quite a lot.) .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you need to try fiddling with its network settings (read this for info only) you can use service codes on i9000 to set your network settings . Sometimes it may be due to network settings not set to Auto and set to preferred and at other times it could be antenna connection inside the phone having poor contacts.
Check this out! Links to useful Guides and " Banned " Documentaries ​

Thank you for the hint. I have tried setting the "Select radio band" setting in *#*#4636#*#* > Phone information to European bands manually, and this appears to have mitigated the problem at least partly (phone has switched to 2G and back a few times during the day). I've noticed that it would sometimes just turn mobile data off despite having a good signal, not sure if this is related. It also sometimes seems to prefer another operator's 3G network to its own 2G ("emergency calls only", network mode is UMTS/HSDPA), but this is only guesswork since I have no way to actually confirm that the areas where this occurs have 2G coverage (it just seems really unlikely that they wouldn't). Maybe the fact preferred network type is "WCDMA preferred" factors into this.
TL;DR: Forcing radio bands seems to have helped, other radio weirdnesses remain but aren't nearly as bad.