Database Develop

Simple EDGE question

Hello!
I have an unlocked, rooted, JF 1.5 modded G1 on the at&t network. I know that it will not work with 3g, but I noticed the option to "connect to 2g networks only" ...or something along those lines. Is there any reason to have it set on either one of those over the other for me?
Thanks! I tried to search but either I'm just a search criteria noob or it hasn't been discussed. I'm guessing the first one, though.

I would think that the "use 2G only" setting would save a little battery power since it wouldn't have to be constantly hunting for a 3G signal.

haserfauld said:
Hello!
I have an unlocked, rooted, JF 1.5 modded G1 on the at&t network. I know that it will not work with 3g, but I noticed the option to "connect to 2g networks only" ...or something along those lines. Is there any reason to have it set on either one of those over the other for me?
Thanks! I tried to search but either I'm just a search criteria noob or it hasn't been discussed. I'm guessing the first one, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery savings and improved performance if you are in a marginal 3G coverage area. Some users complained about dropped calls, etc., when the phone often switches between 2G and 3G. To run 3G you need a stronger signal than 2G which means that unless you have very good coverage from your cell tower, you might be switching between modes.

*#*#4636#*#* GSM to CDMA, fact or fiction.

So the *#*#4636#*#* GSM battery fix has been all over but I am unsure if it actually changes anything.
Here is what I have found:
I do the the *#*#4636#*#* dial, go to phone info, hit menu, then select radio band, force close, change to CDMA auto (PRL), then hit home.
Now here is the problem. Hold down home for recent programs and go back into testing (I found doing the *#*#4636#*#* lags and kills my phone sometimes). Hit Menu, force close, and take a look at what the preferred network type is: GSM.
As a test to the “visual glitch” theory, I changed the type to GSM/CDMA auto, when I return to the test menu, GSM/CDMA auto stays. So this menu is showing what it is actualy set to.
Every time you go to menu and select radio, the force close shuts off the radio and the menu says GSM. Is there really a “visual glitch” or does the GSM show because of the procedure followed??
Also it is referring to the PRL, which is the roaming list provided by Sprint, which is not going to have any GSM listing anyway.
I am not an expert by any means but there is more to this mystery then everyone is lead to believe. Battery life is a big issue and I am unsure if the “solution” is actually helping people.

The Time Without Signal fix works. Here's why.
Hitting menu and causing the force close causes it to reset to default. If you actually set it to GSM auto PRL, it is reading the Sprint towers off the PRL, and searching for a GSM signal at the same time. Try changing it to GSM only, and seeing if that causes the TWS to rise dramatically.
This solution was only meant to help people who's phones were searching for a non-CDMA signal.

Do we know if this is still a problem with the offical Sprint 2.1 update?

It hasn't been a problem for a few months now.

abcdfv said:
It hasn't been a problem for a few months now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not know that, I wonder how many people are doing this needless now.
I have been running fresh 2.1.1 and do it every time I reboot. No wonder I never saw a difference!

abcdfv said:
The Time Without Signal fix works. Here's why.
Hitting menu and causing the force close causes it to reset to default. If you actually set it to GSM auto PRL, it is reading the Sprint towers off the PRL, and searching for a GSM signal at the same time. Try changing it to GSM only, and seeing if that causes the TWS to rise dramatically.
This solution was only meant to help people who's phones were searching for a non-CDMA signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if my phone is CONSTANTLY at 50% +/- TWS... is this normal or should I change something?

kelmar13 said:
So if my phone is CONSTANTLY at 50% +/- TWS... is this normal or should I change something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should follow my guide on how to reduce it. It's in the sticky wiki.

Does 2G work on Telus with Milestone?

I'm currently using CM 6.1.2 on my Milestone.
If I switch to 2G mode in the mobile network settings, I have no connection.
If I use the Toggle 2G app, it doesn't seem to really do anything. If I set 2G to use one of the options that don't disconnect me (WCDMA, CDMA or GSM 2g/3g) it still shows 3G in the status bar so I'm not sure what the point is in using the Toggle 2G app.

Wondering the same thing myself...
Does anyone knows the answer?

zeppelinrox said:
I'm currently using CM 6.1.2 on my Milestone.
If I switch to 2G mode in the mobile network settings, I have no connection.
If I use the Toggle 2G app, it doesn't seem to really do anything. If I set 2G to use one of the options that don't disconnect me (WCDMA, CDMA or GSM 2g/3g) it still shows 3G in the status bar so I'm not sure what the point is in using the Toggle 2G app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not certain about this (i use rogers), but i believe that telus has no 2G (edge) network. They built a 3G only network just in time for the olympics to replace their cdma network:
So the toggler probably cant find a valid connection and retries 3G.
Manual mode cant find a network at all.
On rogers, i can fallback to 2g. This is normal according to what i think i know.
Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

thanks for the info.
That's what I thought so have given up on the idea of getting 2g to work
I guess when it comes to 3g and saving battery life, juice defender will have to do as it can turn off data when the screen is off but still have the phone working.

Well, I think I made some progress with this.
On my phone, I was also loosing the connection when switching from 3G to 2G but it's working now. I can get calls, it's only the data aver 2G that doesn't work now.
I have the Cronos rom on my phone, I can tell you what I did if you're interested.

Yes please do.
If it works on cm6 then at least I can also save juice by not using juice defender... oh the irony... lol
edit: hey look at all them Canadian flags, eh?!
Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

Took me a lot of time to find the right switches combination.
Anyway, I have Toggle 2G auto managing the 2G/3G and for the bottom 2 options:
2G network: WCDMA preferred (3G/2G)
3G network: GSM auto (PRL)(2G/3G)
If I check under Setting/About/Phone/Status, I see written mobile network type UMTS.

Hmm... I had those 2 settings reversed when using toggly2g
I will try that.
Right now, my mobile network type shows up as HSPA.
Your post prompted me to find the difference and came up with these 2 useful pages just before my head exploded.
Awesome thread: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1600012-HSPA-vs.-UMTS
Handy chart at the bottom of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System

s0ulreaver said:
Well, I think I made some progress with this.
On my phone, I was also loosing the connection when switching from 3G to 2G but it's working now. I can get calls, it's only the data aver 2G that doesn't work now.
I have the Cronos rom on my phone, I can tell you what I did if you're interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this not the same then as just shutting off data?

Caz666 said:
Is this not the same then as just shutting off data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure but I don't think so. You can turn off the data but have the phone connected to the 3G network, right?
I think you could get data over 2G but it's just very slow, right?
With Telus I don't think they allow data over 2G.
zeppelinrox, I wonder why yours shows like this, what do you have active under those settings?
What ROMs are you guys using?

zeppelinrox said:
Hmm... I had those 2 settings reversed when using toggly2g
I will try that.
Right now, my mobile network type shows up as HSPA.
Your post prompted me to find the difference and came up with these 2 useful pages just before my head exploded.
Awesome thread: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1600012-HSPA-vs.-UMTS
Handy chart at the bottom of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I'm on 2G it shows as UMTS
With 3G (mobile data enabled) I see it alternating from 3G/UMTS to H/HSPA.

I'm on CM6.
My phone always shows HSPA except if I set it to use 2G then it shows GPRS - which is when I have no data and no phone signal.
I did use the Telus baseband file in AOR though... I wonder how it will behave if I use the Canada baseband....
Also, here's a neat trick....
dial *#*#4636#*#*
A Testing App will show up....
Select Phone Information and then goto the bottom.
You can set your preferred Network type.
Ok so that listbox shows all the different options.
The only options that will save are:
GSM only (2g - I get nothing - shows as GPRS)
WCDMA only (3g - shows as HSPA)
GSM auto (PRL) - (3g - shows as HSPA as well)
All the other options either are not selectable or just revert back to GSM auto (as is the case with WCDMA preferred)
I just did a few speed tests and I seem to get faster speeds with GSM auto than I do with WCDMA only
Gonna try that Canada baseband now....
Edit: Same thing. Except the speed test is slower for both WCDMA and GSM autio so best off using the Telus baseband.

The dial trick doesn't work. I dial the sequence as a phone number, right?
It disappears then nothing changes.

ah.. yeah sometimes it takes 2 or 3 tries...
do you use adw launcher?
If so, you can actually create a shortcut for it... I figured it out today.
1 Press and hold on homescreen and select Custom shortcut
2 Press "Pick your activity"
3 Select the second item on the list ie. Activities (with the ADW icon)
4 Wait for all stuff to load, scroll down to Settings, and press the arrow next to it to see the long list of activites that Settings.apk can do.
5 Scroll down near the end of the list, you will see Testing(.TestingSettings)
6. Select that and press OK on the next window.
I also made one for Battery History, which is actually part of the Testing app but is usually only accessible through Spare Parts.

I still can't get the trick to work... doesn't do anything on my phone
Right now I'm on the 2501 rom (latest 2.2.1 from Motorola) and I can say it's the best I've tested so far!
Outstanding battery life!

I found another way to run Testing App.
With Google gesture search you can set it to launch Settings actions
Let it scan and then write "testing" on the screen
Edit: oh crap I mistyped the code.
Its *#*#4636#*#*
I had 4536 before so I fixed it
Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

zeppelinrox said:
I'm currently using CM 6.1.2 on my Milestone.
If I switch to 2G mode in the mobile network settings, I have no connection.
If I use the Toggle 2G app, it doesn't seem to really do anything. If I set 2G to use one of the options that don't disconnect me (WCDMA, CDMA or GSM 2g/3g) it still shows 3G in the status bar so I'm not sure what the point is in using the Toggle 2G app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, after doing some more tests and trying different apps (2G/3G switchers) I can say those apps work only if your cell phone company has both 2G/3G network.
In Montreal, only Rogers has both.
Easy to test (btw: I'm using the FroyoMOD rom): go in "Settings" -> "Wireless & Networks" -> "Mobile Network Settings" and check "Use only 2G networks".
See if your cell phone company is listed when you do a search under "Network Operators". If it's not, don't bother using a 2G/3G switcher.
When doing this, in Montreal I see only Rogers listed. If I uncheck "Use only 2G networks" I see all 3 of them: Bell, Telus and Rogers.
Hope this helps!

build.prop

Can somebody be so kind and upload stock buid.prop for Bell AHD?
Wanna see differences between the AT&T and Bell setup - looking for way to enable network type switch in phone info
Thanks

here you go!
please extract it to get the build.prop for a bell AHD

Well, I tried replacing build.prop in hope that will enable band switch but it did not
I would really like to have option enabled in settings or trough phone info.
In phone info i can switch between LTE/GSM/WCDMA and LTE/CDMA/EvDO/GSM/WCDMA.
Any other choice reverts back to LTE/GSM/WCDMA. I have done EB40 battery mod and I am not worried about battery life as I can pull out 2.5 days on medium usage but 70% of my day I do not need LTE so I was hoping to extend battery life even more by switching to EDGE

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.mangelow.network
Try that app and see if it works for u... o used it on my atrix 2
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app

I dont know what ATT did...
I followed instructions from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1386383 and I got network switch enabled in settings but when I select GSM only setting does not stick...Reverts back to LTE.
I tried adding ATT 3g APN (wap.cingular) but it wont connect to the data network at all???
Really stuck now.
Generaly I always used 2g data connection when I am at work as I still can get my emails and mms and do some basic browsing and internet radio streaming. Then if I stream videos or download apps or upload large amount of pics I would switch to 3g (LTE in this case)
I wonder does it have anything to do with account provisoning for LTE???
I really would like to have that option enabled and working. I know ATT is in the process of phasing out 2G data on account of LTE but as long as it is available I would like to use it...

After completing the steps in that post and deleting the backups change the operator to maritime. Successfully dropped down to 2G /EDGE. Thanks for this thread. Was hoping someone would post a bit of information on it. Here's some screenshots.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX

Great - I did it too, bad thing it does not stick after reboot - reverts to auto select network but its better than before
I wonder what the heck is Maritime in network selection...
Anyhow will look more into keeping manual network selection after reboot.

h078 said:
Great - I did it too, bad thing it does not stick after reboot - reverts to auto select network but its better than before
I wonder what the heck is Maritime in network selection...
Anyhow will look more into keeping manual network selection after reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would have never have guessed to search for networks and select Maritime. Thanks for the tips guys. I can now force 2g at work.

seh6183 said:
Would have never have guessed to search for networks and select Maritime. Thanks for the tips guys. I can now force 2g at work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
h078 said:
Great - I did it too, bad thing it does not stick after reboot - reverts to auto select network but its better than before
I wonder what the heck is Maritime in network selection...
Anyhow will look more into keeping manual network selection after reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maritime is another AT&T network. It was actually the default on my Atrix 4G. Sadly, the Atrix HD doesn't display the code for each maritime network. Shouldn't be to hard to switch the default to it if we knew which code it was. Setting the default to Maritime wouldn't help considering there's 3.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX

Very interesting. If set to 3G only on Maritime it displays the 4G without LTE. Through Phone Info, it shows that I'm connected through HSPA as well. Selecting Automatic sticks with HSPA unless I get better LTE service. Seems like 3G is a good balance between speed and battery life.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX

Neroga said:
Very interesting. If set to 3G only on Maritime it displays the 4G without LTE. Through Phone Info, it shows that I'm connected through HSPA as well. Selecting Automatic sticks with HSPA unless I get better LTE service. Seems like 3G is a good balance between speed and battery life.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there any proof that disabling LTE saves battery life? In older phones, disabling 3G would save battery life because there were separate chip-sets for 2G and 3G services. That isn't the case now, a single chipset handles all signaling. Thus, there are no chips that are powered down when 4G is disabled. I would expect battery savings to be minimal.
Additionally, because of the increase efficiency of the LTE network (combined with less network loading), your phone will have an open data connection for a much shorter time, when transmitting data.

I've got my AHD on the AT&T network using a StraightTalk AT&T sim. $45.00 unlimited everything. With the APN that straight talk uses, it never searches for LTE. Just on 4g all day long, with no LTE searching at all.
Sent from my A200 using xda premium

Guys you need this app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm15Yy5waG9uZS5QaG9uZUluZm8iXQ..
No need to edit build.prop or root.

mandrsn1 said:
Is there any proof that disabling LTE saves battery life? In older phones, disabling 3G would save battery life because there were separate chip-sets for 2G and 3G services. That isn't the case now, a single chipset handles all signaling. Thus, there are no chips that are powered down when 4G is disabled. I would expect battery savings to be minimal.
Additionally, because of the increase efficiency of the LTE network (combined with less network loading), your phone will have an open data connection for a much shorter time, when transmitting data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm going on 4 hours of screen on time, 13 hours of listening to music, etc and still holding 62%. That's from jumping between 2G and 3G on an as needed basis.
--edit--
Seems the jellybean leak comes with this already done? Able to switch to just about everything. Getting HSPAP instead of HASPS a well.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX

Bad signal battery drain? Any way to force 3G over LTE?

My phone is sitting next to me at work. Barely using it, but it's just draining, at an alarmingly quick pace.
I have bad reception at my desk at work in LTE. As you can see from the pic, it's constantly looking for signal. Is it normal to create such a battery drain in that scenario?
I used to force my older android device to use 3G. Any way to do that? I don't see that option under mobile networks as I had in my older phone.

Go into your settings app, then into more, then into mobile networks, then change preferred network type from LTE to 3G.

I don't have that option, unfortunately. I had it on my old phone which was running a custom rom, but not on the at&t moto X.

Deactivate WiFi in not used, it makes a difference in gsm reception

neocryte said:
I don't have that option, unfortunately. I had it on my old phone which was running a custom rom, but not on the at&t moto X.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try going into the dialer, hit *#*#4636#*#*
To menu, phone info, scroll down to LTE/GSM Auto and choose wcdma preferred.
I have the normal menu on the XT1092, so I can't say for sure it'll work for you.

Shadowdancer123 said:
Try going into the dialer, hit *#*#4636#*#*
To menu, phone info, scroll down to LTE/GSM Auto and choose wcdma preferred.
I have the normal menu on the XT1092, so I can't say for sure it'll work for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I also grabbed an app called "4G Switcher" which does basically the same thing (allows you into that menu without using the dialer). I currently have it set to "GSM Auto" - does that accomplish the same thing? It's definitely not on LTE, as Speedtest indicates ~5 MBps download speeds, and the icon says "4G" instead of "4G LTE." How is WCDMA different from the GSM setting?

Judge584 said:
Deactivate WiFi in not used, it makes a difference in gsm reception
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - my WiFi is always off.

neocryte said:
Thank you. I also grabbed an app called "4G Switcher" which does basically the same thing (allows you into that menu without using the dialer). I currently have it set to "GSM Auto" - does that accomplish the same thing? It's definitely not on LTE, as Speedtest indicates ~5 MBps download speeds, and the icon says "4G" instead of "4G LTE." How is WCDMA different from the GSM setting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WCDMA is the European standard for 3G, speeds up to 30Mbps.
When saying GSM you generally mean 2G/EDGE. 0.12 Mbps(?)
But I don't know all of the settings in that menu, there are many that will probably lock you out of some bands you might want.
You should experiment and see what you get.
WCDMA preferred is what I've used for the past several years on android phones, this Moto X is the first where LTE is actually useful. =)
The "low" bandwidth LTE (800/900mhz) uses less power than 3G mode here.

Shadowdancer123 said:
WCDMA is the European standard for 3G, speeds up to 30Mbps.
When saying GSM you generally mean 2G/EDGE. 0.12 Mbps(?)
But I don't know all of the settings in that menu, there are many that will probably lock you out of some bands you might want.
You should experiment and see what you get.
WCDMA preferred is what I've used for the past several years on android phones, this Moto X is the first where LTE is actually useful. =)
The "low" bandwidth LTE (800/900mhz) uses less power than 3G mode here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it, thanks. WCDMA mode seems to give me better signal, so we will test with that one. Will report back with how this performs at work, hopefully helps the battery life.

I have much better signal at work with wcdma compared to LTE. But battery still seems to drain quick. I'm at 6 hrs off battery with just under 1 hr SOT, and at 60% already.

Screenshot. Android OS and System seem go be taking a lot too.

neocryte said:
My phone is sitting next to me at work. Barely using it, but it's just draining, at an alarmingly quick pace.
I have bad reception at my desk at work in LTE. As you can see from the pic, it's constantly looking for signal. Is it normal to create such a battery drain in that scenario?
I used to force my older android device to use 3G. Any way to do that? I don't see that option under mobile networks as I had in my older phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your problem is not bad signal but an app which keeps your phone awake, unfortunately it's rather difficult to hunt down on kitkat and above without root, the only way is to start uninstalling apps until the problem disappears.

Hmm, I have very few apps installed actually, and just Facebook and Gmail syncing. Are there any apps that can help identify the drain (GSam?)?

Don't look further, Facebook is known to be one of the worst android app for android
http://www.cnet.com/news/whats-killing-your-battery-androids-top-10-performance-sapping-apps/

Judge584 said:
Don't look further, Facebook is known to be one of the worst android app for android
http://www.cnet.com/news/whats-killing-your-battery-androids-top-10-performance-sapping-apps/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm interesting. I'll try uninstalling Facebook and repeating the experiment tomorrow at work, just to see if it drains slower. I wonder if auto-sync can accomplish the same thing instead of removing it entirely, but will try this way first. Going to take off a few other unnecessary apps as well, and will install GSam to see if it helps identify anything.

neocryte said:
Hmmm interesting. I'll try uninstalling Facebook and repeating the experiment tomorrow at work, just to see if it drains slower. I wonder if auto-sync can accomplish the same thing instead of removing it entirely, but will try this way first. Going to take off a few other unnecessary apps as well, and will install GSam to see if it helps identify anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had that before, it was the Moto app for me.
Go to google play, search for the term "motorola" straight up, and click your way through the updates that are available.
If you have never done this, there's a sensor firmware update and some other goodies.
After updating everything, go into the app "Moto" and clear cache and data, now re-run this and set up your stuff.
After this android os and system is always lower than cell standby.
And there's the usual GPS setting, go into GPS, and disable it fully.
Don't allow google to use passive mode, set it to "Device only"
ed, I have facebook installed but every single notification disabled.
It still runs a bit in the background, but not nearly as much. Not enough for me to notice a battery drain at least.

Shadowdancer123 said:
I had that before, it was the Moto app for me.
Go to google play, search for the term "motorola" straight up, and click your way through the updates that are available.
If you have never done this, there's a sensor firmware update and some other goodies.
After updating everything, go into the app "Moto" and clear cache and data, now re-run this and set up your stuff.
After this android os and system is always lower than cell standby.
And there's the usual GPS setting, go into GPS, and disable it fully.
Don't allow google to use passive mode, set it to "Device only"
ed, I have facebook installed but every single notification disabled.
It still runs a bit in the background, but not nearly as much. Not enough for me to notice a battery drain at least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shadow, that's very helpful - thank you. I had a lot of updates to do, and as you said a sensor firmware update. I disabled a couple Motorola things like Connect, Help, and Spotlight Player - but I do use Actions, Voice, etc. Updated everything, cleared data and cache, will see today how the battery performs.
Yep my GPS is set to device only, and interesting feedback on Facebook. I will keep it off the device today for testing but do want to put it back on as I use it on a regular basis.
Thanks again, will report back with my findings.

BTW how did you figure out it was the Moto app?

neocryte said:
BTW how did you figure out it was the Moto app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I wanted to kill the always on voice activation, it bugged out and wouldn't let me disable it after I switched back to Swedish system language, I was testing the voice recognition in english a few days.
So I wiped it, and suddenly my system and os battery drain dropped like a rock. =)
I have even enabled car detection and all the sensor stuff in the Moto app, except voice obviously, and it doesn't affect the battery any more.

Shadowdancer123 said:
Actually, I wanted to kill the always on voice activation, it bugged out and wouldn't let me disable it after I switched back to Swedish system language, I was testing the voice recognition in english a few days.
So I wiped it, and suddenly my system and os battery drain dropped like a rock. =)
I have even enabled car detection and all the sensor stuff in the Moto app, except voice obviously, and it doesn't affect the battery any more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah gotcha. I thought all that voice stuff was supposed to have a side processor that drained no battery! How did you turn all that stuff - disable in settings or disable app entirely? I don't need any of it either, just want to make sure the Moto Display and hand gestures still work.