Strange LTE / 4G issues HTC One T-Mobile - One (M7) Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

My T-Mobile speeds are pretty good. According to speed test pointing to the same server my speeds for the last few months were
4g (non-lte) up to 15 down, up to 5 up
LTE 35-50 down, 20-25 up
Yesterday I had issues with LTE, it was around 5 down. I thought too many people must have gotten T-Mobile in my area
Then I tested it again at night, same deal. I switched to 4g hspa (GSM\WCDMA Auto) and my download was crazy fast, up to 25mbps, while up was still under 5. Then I tried switching back to LTE (GSM\WCDMA\LTE Auto), but the icon wouldn't change to LTE. My samsung sitting a few inches away was showing LTE, but I didn't test samsung because it has used all high speed data. I rebooted the phone, still showed 4G, not LTE. Then I pulled the sim out of HTC One and put it in Nexus 5 - Nexus showed LTE right away and tested at over 35mbps. Put back into HTC One - this time LTE showed up, but speeds were still less than 5. (I did all tests at exact same place, with the phones laying in the same spot on the desk). I called T-Mobile tech support - no help
Then I took HTC One closer to the window, and speed went up to 30. Put it back on the same spot on the desk and speeds are fine, over 30. Tested 4g hspa - under 15. Today, speeds are up to 50, while 4g hspa again under 15.
What's the deal? Did T-Mobile guy do something? Hardware issue with my HTC One?
To summarize:
1. When LTE on HTC One was very slow, HSPA was very fast and Nexus 5 LTE was very fast (I didn't not test Nexus hspa unfortunately)
2, When switching from LTE to 4g hspa, switching back didn't work. Rebooting didn't help either. Trying the same thing today - it works but takes a while. I noticed if I switch from 4g hspa to LTE and then switch wifi ON and then OFF, LTE comes back right away. But without toggling WIFI it takes over a minute.
3. One other interesting thing - when I place a call LTE switches to 4g. After you hang up it switches to LTE, BUT -
On HTC One - it switches right away!!
On Samsung - always takes a little time. maybe even over a minute
On Nexus 5 - sometimes a few seconds, other times up 5 minutes!!!!
Why HTC One is able to switch to LTE right away, while Nexus 5 may take up to 5 minutes? is there an easy way (via some program) to force Nexus and Samsung to switch right away?
Thanks.
P.S. Another issue with HTC One - wifi is much weaker when further away from the router. I'd get 5mbps where Nexus 5 and Samsung would get 15-20. I had same issue with my previous nexus 5 but my new nexus 5 seems to be much better on wifi now. I know it has a lot to do with the router and replacing the router may fix the issue, BUT from my experience phones that aren't ok with home router may not be OK with public wifi either. I tested the public wifi with my old nexus 5, it was 30-50% slower than samsung.

Related

[Q] How to lock network mode to HSPA+ insdead of 3G?

As title, how do i do it in galaxy note?
hspa+ is 3G
HSPA bearers are assigned on demand. WHEN your data connection is idle it will show 3G, if in 3G service area. This is normal
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Maybe the icon is misleading.
Because when the connection is idel, the icon shows 3G. When is busy, H+.
I just want my phone to stay on H+, because it takes 3-5 seconds to connect.
HTC phones have this stay alive option as i know.
I have this issue. The data on all my modern devices always worked MUCH better when it showed H as opposed to 3G. Why is this?
I can do this on my wife's Android phone, so I know it is an option. Hopefully the feature hasn't been removed on the Note - I will soon be moving from my trusty HTC Advantage (the first phone with a 5 inch screen) and always lock my phones to H+.
As far as I'm aware, H is faster than 3g. So that's why your internet will work faster when H is shown. Also the H signal is not available in all areas....at least it's not in the UK. If H is not available the 3g symbol will show. If 3g isn't available then G will show up, which is even slower. I've noticed H is only fully available in Towns or cities or surrounding nearby country side.
So you can't set it to always connect to H because it's not always available.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App
New York City has pretty good coverage if you're on AT&T and you haven't been flagged in some way by them. According to their coverage map on their website it's solid "faux" G all around my home.
According to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1380284 there is a menu which is accessed by entering in *#9900# on the keypads. This menu gives you the option to disable fast dormancy, which according to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1111581 will change the timeout from H+ to 3G from 7 seconds to 30 seconds. Admittedly it's not the permanent lock to H+ that was originally requested, but from what I read it sounds like it is done as a battery saving preventative measure.

[Q] LTE Issues or not? What do you guys think?

So to start out, this is my 3rd HTC ONE. First one had a bad camera. The next one was a refurb with a screen burn-in problem.
I'm now on my 2nd refurb, everything looks good and checks out, but I'm noticing that I'm not connecting to 4G. Like, ever. I've called Sprint and their reply is that I'm on in a fully launched LTE market, which is true. But on my commute to and from work every day I connect to a minimum of 2 towers with LTE, using both my old GS3 and the first 2 HTC ONES that I had.
Also in settings -> about -> network it's showing CDMA rev A instead of the usual eHRPD that has shown there for months, even before LTE towers started coming up.
So I'm 99% convinced something is wrong with the radio on this phone.
Do you guys think the same? All the settings are in place for LTE to connect. My SIM (UICC) number is in Sprints system, my network mode is LTE/CDMA, I've updated PRL and Profile about 10 times each. I've toggled airplane mode numerous times near the towers I know have LTE. I'm just at a loss here, and I'm sick of these crappy refurbished phones!
Thanks guys.
It must be the phone my phone has a similar problem by not connecting 3G only 1x and LTE. Take it to a sprint store and see what they say about it.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda premium

How is LTE signal strength?

Just curious, coming from EVO 4g LTE I am really hoping for an improvement in LTE antenna with the m8.
The antenna is better - but not quite as Strong as the G2, N5, or S4. It's about on avg 2-3dBm weaker than the G2, depending on location...on Band 25 LTE. It is however about 8-10dBm better than the M7, according to numerous reports.
The Nexus 5 has by far the best radio on Band 25.
bad signal strength
I don't have numbers to back it up, but what I can tell you is that I have worse signal strength when compared to the M7. I used to toggle back and forth at work between 3g and LTE on the M7, but I never even see an LTE connection at work on the M8. I would also play poker on my break and never have any disconnects on 3g with the M7, but the M8 can't seem to say connected long enough to play 3 hands in a row! I also noticed when I put the M7 and M8 side by side (M7 is connected to another line on my plan now) that I show 5 bars on the M7 and 0-1 bars on the M8! Did I just get a bad phone???
integra3g said:
I don't have numbers to back it up, but what I can tell you is that I have worse signal strength when compared to the M7. I used to toggle back and forth at work between 3g and LTE on the M7, but I never even see an LTE connection at work on the M8. I would also play poker on my break and never have any disconnects on 3g with the M7, but the M8 can't seem to say connected long enough to play 3 hands in a row! I also noticed when I put the M7 and M8 side by side (M7 is connected to another line on my plan now) that I show 5 bars on the M7 and 0-1 bars on the M8! Did I just get a bad phone???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like your a circuit switch fallback victim
Sent from my 831C using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
integra3g said:
I don't have numbers to back it up, but what I can tell you is that I have worse signal strength when compared to the M7. I used to toggle back and forth at work between 3g and LTE on the M7, but I never even see an LTE connection at work on the M8. I would also play poker on my break and never have any disconnects on 3g with the M7, but the M8 can't seem to say connected long enough to play 3 hands in a row! I also noticed when I put the M7 and M8 side by side (M7 is connected to another line on my plan now) that I show 5 bars on the M7 and 0-1 bars on the M8! Did I just get a bad phone???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have an M7 and an M8. The M8 has a 2-3 dB better signal, but on LTE the number of bars displayed is not accurate. The M7 was like that for a while too until Sprint fixed it with an update. Even with a very strong LTE signal the M8 will show 1-2 bars. That is nothing to worry about.
As for the eCSFB, allegedly only like < 1% of sprint towers still have this problem. Basically if there is a tower with LTE but does not have eCSFB, the phone will deliberately NOT connect to the LTE because doing so would mean that it would not receive incoming phone calls (due to lack of eCSFB).
However, what I've noticed with my M8, is that often, after I drive for a while, the phone will just NOT connect to LTE no matter what. Even in an area with a STRING LTE signal, and working eCSFB, the thing will just not connect to LTE. When it happens it will stay that way forever, until I either reboot it, or toggle airplane mode on and off.
Very annoying. I miss the 2nd radio and SVLTE.
m03sizlak said:
I also have an M7 and an M8. The M8 has a 2-3 dB better signal, but on LTE the number of bars displayed is not accurate. The M7 was like that for a while too until Sprint fixed it with an update. Even with a very strong LTE signal the M8 will show 1-2 bars. That is nothing to worry about.
As for the eCSFB, allegedly only like < 1% of sprint towers still have this problem. Basically if there is a tower with LTE but does not have eCSFB, the phone will deliberately NOT connect to the LTE because doing so would mean that it would not receive incoming phone calls (due to lack of eCSFB).
However, what I've noticed with my M8, is that often, after I drive for a while, the phone will just NOT connect to LTE no matter what. Even in an area with a STRING LTE signal, and working eCSFB, the thing will just not connect to LTE. When it happens it will stay that way forever, until I either reboot it, or toggle airplane mode on and off.
Very annoying. I miss the 2nd radio and SVLTE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't mention this because it did it on both the M7 and M7, but I constantly miss calls (phone never even rings) when I am at work. I hate that my 3g is so bad that I can't even use my phone at work anymore!
i should edit my post to ask users in spark areas if they have been able to connect to spark? on other forums i found some complaining sprint spark was not working well
m03sizlak said:
However, what I've noticed with my M8, is that often, after I drive for a while, the phone will just NOT connect to LTE no matter what. Even in an area with a STRING LTE signal, and working eCSFB, the thing will just not connect to LTE. When it happens it will stay that way forever, until I either reboot it, or toggle airplane mode on and off.
Very annoying. I miss the 2nd radio and SVLTE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it scans for LTE if 3G is active. So if you're streaming something or an app is syncing it will never pick it up. The default scan rate is set at 300 seconds, not sure if 3G needs to be dormant that long or not though.
Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk
m03sizlak said:
I also have an M7 and an M8. The M8 has a 2-3 dB better signal, but on LTE the number of bars displayed is not accurate. The M7 was like that for a while too until Sprint fixed it with an update. Even with a very strong LTE signal the M8 will show 1-2 bars. That is nothing to worry about.
As for the eCSFB, allegedly only like < 1% of sprint towers still have this problem. Basically if there is a tower with LTE but does not have eCSFB, the phone will deliberately NOT connect to the LTE because doing so would mean that it would not receive incoming phone calls (due to lack of eCSFB).
However, what I've noticed with my M8, is that often, after I drive for a while, the phone will just NOT connect to LTE no matter what. Even in an area with a STRING LTE signal, and working eCSFB, the thing will just not connect to LTE. When it happens it will stay that way forever, until I either reboot it, or toggle airplane mode on and off.
Very annoying. I miss the 2nd radio and SVLTE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Living in Denver where they are FINALLY deploying LTE but in my area it's strong. Also notice the same that it's taking my phone forever to switch to LTE. Compared to my M7, the M8 stays with LTE longer and the speeds are faster.
Opman711 said:
Living in Denver where they are FINALLY deploying LTE but in my area it's strong. Also notice the same that it's taking my phone forever to switch to LTE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was fixed in the 1.54 update that rolled out yesterday.

Force HSPA+ instead of 4G?

Does anyone know how to force the note 4 to use HSPA+ instead of 4G?
The reason why i ask is because in areas where i cannot get 4GLTE the note 4 goes into 4G and its basically unusable (~1mbps maybe, most of the time i cannot even perform a speed test) eventhough the 4G is with 5 bars. In the same exact area HSPA+ gets very good speeds of 6mbp+
To test this, i forced 4G on my note 4 at my house and got a 1mbps speed test. Before upgrading to the note 4 from t-mobile i had an old note 2 from verizon running H+ getting 6mbps+ at my home.
Update: i really think the note 4 or the modem is causing the issue. Testing again my my house. When i first force the 4G connection the speed test are horrible. (< 1 mbps). After some time it seems idling in 4G it seems i got pushed into H+ reframed?(but still 4g icon) and getting consistance 6mbps.
I also noticed that the note 4 drops LTE to 4G at 2 bars or so when LTE speeds is definitely present and running at 20mbps
Hspa+ shows as 4g. If you go to other network settings where the apn is you can select lte,wcdma, options. In remote areas my 4g speed is better than my lte . The lingo is kinda weird so every carrier has different definitions of 4g. Hspa+ is technically 3.5g lol.
The app Advanced Signal Status let's you choose your network type.
Install it from play store and lock it to what you want. Try phone calls and SMS for the modes you try because some modes will be data only.
I noticed this today at home. I forced it to WCDMA mode only, it took like 10 mins for it to eventually show "4G" at my home office. The signal and download speed were terrible when forced into WCDMA hspa mode+ (4G) . In the same room and home my Note 3 would get a very good signal this time last year when I used the Note 3.
Perhaps T mobile has done something to the cell site here? Or The Note 4 isnt working as it should?
Ive had the same issue. So i work in one city and live in another. So when i get to work my data is slooooow. I force it to 4g and after a while back to lte. Speeds are fine. Same thing happens when i get home. Tmo told me to just restart my phone but that doesnt always work
Same situation with me. LTE tower doesn't reach my room but I got 10mbps in my living room....and my room I get less than 1mbps and goes to lte to 4g often with very slow speeds. I even have a LTE booster which doesn't really help much with speed. Without the lte booster I get almost 0 signal in my room
I used to have same problem during lte upgrade in my area. On lte around 8+ up and down while on 4g speds were 15-20 down and less than 2 up. Ping times were longer on 4g. After upgrade I no longer need to switch between lte and 4g
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
darekz said:
I used to have same problem during lte upgrade in my area. On lte around 8+ up and down while on 4g speds were 15-20 down and less than 2 up. Ping times were longer on 4g. After upgrade I no longer need to switch between lte and 4g
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But is T Mobile removing their 4G HSPA wcdma towers? I used to get a very good db signal in my office, now -115db at best for 4G in same location but band 4 700Mhz is now present? Any relationship between these ...
See the below screen shot. On that menu you can pick the non LTE function and force H+. You can also switch back to LTE.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
Thanks I had already figured out how to.force a specific data connection , hence why that thread I posted was asking what the default option is, since I didn't write it down.
But back on subject, 4G next to non existent now at home after 700mhz band 12 availability.
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
What is UMTS? I never get Hspa+
I've found that my data is ridiculously slow (I'm talking edge speeds) when I turn WiFi off, even when I am in an area that gets a strong LTE signal. I feel like my device does not automatically connect to the best available tower; rather, it seems to try to latch on to whatever tower it was connected to before I connected to WiFi. Toggling "mobile data" off then on again seems to reconnect my device to the closer/better tower and the speed improves drastically. (It's possible that toggling airplane mode or network modes will do the same thing). When you are in an area that has poor LTE, you might consider keeping it off. Change the selection from “LTE/WCDMA/GSM” to just “WCDMA/GSM” and you'll be on the slower HSPA+ network (though, I believe it still shows the 4G icon). You can always change it back when you are in a better area.
4G is back up and running in my home location. Must have been temp disabled when they rolled out 700mhz band 12 LTE in my area.
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

Speed test dropped to 10-20% of yesterday

I had my Nexus 6 (M 6.0.1) activated on Sprint yesterday to test their network with the idea of cutting my bill in half. I live in a Spark enabled area ad was hoping that my home would see better service than my friends with Sprint that have older phones have seen. While I find that areas between the Spint store and my home have some real possibilities, there were a surprising number of dead spots ( I let LTE Discovery run and checked at lights). At home, according to LTE Discovery it sees the 3 bands but I am in a fringe area and 41 apparently won't connect or if it does no data passes. I seem to alternate between Band 25 -110.0 dBm and Band 26 -101 dBm.
Yet, yesterday I was getting consistent 6 Mbps to 12 Mbps. This was on a Sunday which with T-Mobile would have been a peak usage day. Today, on what would be a light traffic day (my neighborhood would be gone to work today) ! am barely getting 1 Mbps. I have powered down, checked settings, nothing seems to work. Any ideas why this is happening and what I could do about it? I am sitting in exactly the same spot I was sitting yesterday.
So, before I drive over to Sprint and turn this off, I was wondering if there are any suggestions. 6 - 12 Mbps I could live with, but not 1 Mbps. I left T-Mobile for similar speeds. AT&T manages 20-30 Mbps in the same area. I would really like to cut my bill, but it has to do better than what I see today.
ourtech said:
I had my Nexus 6 (M 6.0.1) activated on Sprint yesterday to test their network with the idea of cutting my bill in half. I live in a Spark enabled area ad was hoping that my home would see better service than my friends with Sprint that have older phones have seen. While I find that areas between the Spint store and my home have some real possibilities, there were a surprising number of dead spots ( I let LTE Discovery run and checked at lights). At home, according to LTE Discovery it sees the 3 bands but I am in a fringe area and 41 apparently won't connect or if it does no data passes. I seem to alternate between Band 25 -110.0 dBm and Band 26 -101 dBm.
Yet, yesterday I was getting consistent 6 Mbps to 12 Mbps. This was on a Sunday which with T-Mobile would have been a peak usage day. Today, on what would be a light traffic day (my neighborhood would be gone to work today) ! am barely getting 1 Mbps. I have powered down, checked settings, nothing seems to work. Any ideas why this is happening and what I could do about it? I am sitting in exactly the same spot I was sitting yesterday.
So, before I drive over to Sprint and turn this off, I was wondering if there are any suggestions. 6 - 12 Mbps I could live with, but not 1 Mbps. I left T-Mobile for similar speeds. AT&T manages 20-30 Mbps in the same area. I would really like to cut my bill, but it has to do better than what I see today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your data speeds will differ all the time, at the same place, no matter what. oh, and btw, sprint sucks! and 6-12mbps sucks for lte, i see from 30-60mbps on tmobile.

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