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[Q] Great signal but terrible performance

I work in a midtown Manhattan hi-rise near Rockefeller Center and get full signal bars on any phone in and around the office.
The problem is I get terrible performance. Voice calls are garbled and drop, and sometimes callers go straight to voice mail. E-mail, data and web work sporadically and load slowly if at all. The phone will actually get hot just sitting on the desk as if its CPU or transmitter is locked at 100%, and the battery drains quickly.
It's the same whether it's an iPhone, Android or Symbian smart phone or just simple dumb phone, and other people in my office have the same issues. I even notice the same kinds of things happening out on the street up to maybe a block away, but it seems to be at its worst when I'm in the building. But two blocks away, walking through Times Square or other busy places, everything is OK.
Any idea what could be going on and if there's any way to get around it? This is on AT&T.

Change baseband?

I think it's the fault of AT & T

AT&T is a terrible company

+1 on the AT&T being crap

I tried changing baseband but it didn't help, plus like I said it happens on all different kinds of phones. I've also tried manually switching from 850MHz over to 1900MHz band but that didn't help.
Updating my kernel might have actually helped a bit. It's hard to tell though, because the problem comes and goes.
I'm wondering if the signals are too strong and overloading the phone. Or maybe I'm exactly halfway between two strong towers in this building and they're interfering with each other, is that plausible? This is in the heart of NYC after all, AT&T must have a lot of towers in a very concentrated area around here.
Samsung Captivate i897
Serendipity 6.4
Baseband I9000UGKC1
Speedmod Kernel i897-13E-500MHz

I had a similar problem in my area once, it was rectified by the Network Provider.
Its due the GSM inter cell inheritence. Are you located very near to a Mobile Antenna tower.
It would be worth checking your own office building terrace for same

watt9493 said:
+1 on the AT&T being crap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've had nothing but trouble with them in the past

Teampokerface
Heres how you fix the issue. I had a friend with the same issue. 1. open the window of your skyrise 2. take phone are throw it out the window 3. take elevator down to lower level. 4. Find nearest Verizon or Tmobile or sprint store and port your number. 5. take new phone from new network to your skyrise. 6. Congrats your problem has been solved. ANYONE WHO HAS AT&T NEEDS TO GIVE THEM THE FINGER AND MOVE TO ANOTHER CARRIER.

Thanks but if I wanted to hear people say AT&T sucks I would have posted this to Yahoo or something. I get a much better rate with AT&T through my company's FAN account, and I'd rather not pay double to another carrier if this is a technical issue that can be addressed.
For now I can use wifi around the office and put up with the spotty voice coverage, but I was hoping I might find some helpful technical advice here since this is supposed to be a developers forum with presumably mature users.
rathore4u - I'll see if I can find someone at my provider's tech support who understands the GSM inter cell inheritence issue you suggested. Thanks.

Excessive Tower Switching Causing Chronic Dropped Calls

Hi guys. I've got a saga to describe for those of you who are interested, but I'll try to keep it brief. I think it really boils down to one or two simple issues.
I've had Verizon phones for a long time, in Central Illinois. Probably about 10 years now. Rarely had problems with dropped calls. My previous phone was a Droid 1 ... worked great, very rarely (as I recall) had dropped calls.
Then in January 2012, as the Droid was killing me with general Android lag and unresponsiveness (but voice was still fine), I upgraded to a Galaxy Nexus. Loved it for Android performance. For the first 3 or 4 months I had it, I don't recall it giving me any undue trouble .. dropped calls were minimal if any, I think.
Then sometime around April or May, started getting a ridiculous number of dropped calls. Mostly at my home, throughout the day, but not just there, I've also experienced them a mile or two away from my house. The neighbor hood is fairly wooded, but that's never been a problem before.
Additionally, my wife has a "feature phone" (non-smartphone) also with Verizon and very rarely if ever has dropped call problems.
The topography at my house is along a river, we're right near a high bluff overlooking the river, with line of sight (besides the trees, of which there are not a ton, really) for at least a mile or so across the river. I think we're possibly within range of several cell towers.
I notice at most points when I'm in my house, using some apps that help you track signal strength and show you the cell tower ids, that I'm mostly one just two different ones, both of which seem to be maybe about 1 mile away. Also, if I'm walking up one flight of stairs, I pretty reliably see that same app showing the phone switching among possibly as many as 4 or 5 towers, in the space of about 5 or 10 seconds!
I suspect this may be caused by the topography in my area.
I also suspect that most of my dropped calls *may* have something to do with being in range of so many towers, or with the phone switching too frequently (or unnecessarily, really) among the towers, while I'm on the call, if this is possible (I have very little technical knowledge of cell phone radio technology -- hence this post).
Now, I've done a fair amount of research and talked to Verizon customer support about this at length. They've actually been very patient and good with me, but we still haven't arrived at the solution.
I originally thought the problem my be the Galaxy Nexus, but after getting a warranty replacement on that one, and even getting to try a Droid RAZR and then finally the GS3, I'm seeing virtually the exact same behavior on all of the phones. The symptoms do *not* seem to be directly related to signal strength exactly. I get usually about 50 - 60% of the total bars (maybe 3/5 or 4/5) in most parts of the house, yet *still* get these persistent drops.
Verizon's final best solution for me, basically, was to use a Network Extender. Despite my misgivings towards this, I have acquired one and it does seem to solve the problem for me, when I'm home, and when I'm in range of the device (its range seems pretty good in my house). One big problem with it though, ridiculously, is it seems that whenever it's on, my wife's Verizon phone starts dropping calls (and it never does otherwise). So there's a Catch-22 there, added to the fact that I'd rather not have to be running a Net Extender *and* the fact that I still see other drops when taking a walk or driving at least a mile or two from my house.
So, for those of you still with me, I'm wondering if
a) my theory about excessive switching, etc., is plausible, or if you have another one based on the facts I've outlined
b) if doing something like flashing an alternate radio ROM (I barely even knew there were separate ROMs for the radio -- I've done some rooting before of Android, but not the radio) might give me some more control or better performance. It'd be great if there were a setting somewhere where I could tell the phone to be less willing to switch towers or to give a higher preference to one tower, at least while in a certain GPS area (I know, I'm sure it's a reach).
Anyway, looking for a little education into why your opinions are of what may be causing this and if I have any remedies available that are feasible and may actually help.
Thank you for your attention and expertise.

[Q] Location services using WiFi and Cell Tower

I just got myself a Japanese Sharp Aquos Xx 203sh from SoftBank and so far pretty pleased with it but for one thing, location.
As long as I'm outside and have good GPS signal its very fast but as soon as I go into a big building its game over, likewise when I'm outside and disable GPS. I installed OpenSignal to see if I was seeing enough cell towers and most of the time I see at least 4 ot 5, around where I live often 8 or more. Also plenty of WiFi around.
Does anyone know of any software that I can use to check if the phone is having problems with location finding using WiFi and Cell Towers? My old iPhone finds me in seconds with GPS off so its not like its not possible. Also dont think its antenna as signal is strong and I can even watch 1SEG TV.
Look forward to any help I can get, have already spoken to their support and well.. you know how that goes, me explaining technology to them.

[Q] No signal in my home.....fine anywhere else

Alright, first some general info:
Phone: Nexus 5 T-Mobile Branded
Software: Android L
Plan: Unlimited Data 30$/month
Location: Urbandale, IA
Troubleshooting Steps: Just about everything, called customer care talked to them and walked through all their steps, checked APN settings, restored phone, tried a lower OS on the phone, tried a different radio, tried new SIM, disabled common house hold possible interference (Wifi, Microwaves, ect.), tried other phone (Blackberry Torch, Samsung Galaxy SI(Vibrant) and SII), I do have WIFI calling on those phones, but it's a pain in the rear to have to changed phones every time I get home, and I'm not going to use those as all of them are outdated, don't tell me to get a new phone as this one is not even four months old. I'm an IT Cyber Security Specialist, so I have the background knowledge of how to fix many tech issues. So save the BS and give it to me straight please.
Problem:
As you most likely can tell from the title, I don't have service in my home. I sometimes do, but it's gone and I haven't even touched/moved the phone. I've always had terrible coverage in my home, but never this bad. I can walk ten feet out of my garage or front door and have three to four bars. If i go down a few houses into my neighbors home I have perfect signal (That also rules out the possibility of the house's building material causing problems as the house is the same material and finish as mine, it's not more then four years old.) I don't understand what is happening here...it's beyond a lot of things I've seen. I can receive a text, pick up my phone to respond and then my service is instantly gone before I hit send. It's like its purposely being dropped (That's just a stupid idea though). So I honestly have no clue what is going on according to the pre-paid coverage map I should have "Good" service where my house is located yet I continually drop signal. I get great service in most other area's and do not have the signal dropping in and out anywhere else, so I'm really confused as to what is happening here. The Nexus 5 doesn't currently support WiFi calling as Nexus devices are pure Google devices and can't be modified by the carrier with things such as bloatware, custom OS, ect, hence no WiFi calling. Any help would be appreciated.

Hmm strange. Have you tried different modems/radios? Is your house like literally right next to the tower? Is it just T-Mobile that this happens to? I have a friend with a metal roof and signals for cell phones get weakened badly in their house.

I have the exact same thing and I can say in my case it is not the phone(and most likely the same for you).We have 3 different providers(Tmob,Orange and 3 as im in the UK) and between us access to 8 different phones- N5,N4,HTC Desire,HTC One M7,ZTE Blade,LG O3D,Iphone 4s an8 5s.
All with different radios,modems etc and they all exhibit the same issues with the only same factors being my house and whats in it and its geography.
It`s one of those things that we have got used to since moving into the house-god knows what the neighbours think of us leaning out the windows and doors to make calls:laugh:

Choosing/blacklisting cell towers

I’m not sure this is the place to ask or if someone who knows the board better can move this.
I’m using cell phones as rural internet because there’s nothing here other than signing a 2-year contract and using satellite internet, and there’s a fiber-optic project supposedly under a year away.
I recently got moved (Straight Talk) from AT&T towers to T-Mobile. Uptime is around 30%, and after observing and trying to use for a week or so I figured out: Some towers work, some don’t. I can see a signal strength in “about phone” around -115 dbm when there’s no internet, that’s more like -92 when it works. I can fairly reliably get on a working tower for a couple minutes by:
Go into Airplane Mode (Android 5.02) for a minute, turning the radio off, then back on. Turn the wifi hotspot back on. On the computer drop and reestablish the connections to the phone’s AP (ifdown, wait, ifup), ping something to test. Slightly cumbersome and it switches back fairly soon. Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours. How busy the phone system is may affect this.
This particular phone is rooted so I could edit some text files if I knew which. I don’t know if the weak signal tower doesn’t work just because of the weak signal or if it’s located someplace without internet. If I could choose a preferred tower, or blacklist the bad one, or set the minimum acceptable signal to like -100 dbm, those would all work. There are probably apps for this. Or maybe it’s control the phone companies don’t want you to have.

ab1jx said:
I’m not sure this is the place to ask or if someone who knows the board better can move this.
I’m using cell phones as rural internet because there’s nothing here other than signing a 2-year contract and using satellite internet, and there’s a fiber-optic project supposedly under a year away.
I recently got moved (Straight Talk) from AT&T towers to T-Mobile. Uptime is around 30%, and after observing and trying to use for a week or so I figured out: Some towers work, some don’t. I can see a signal strength in “about phone” around -115 dbm when there’s no internet, that’s more like -92 when it works. I can fairly reliably get on a working tower for a couple minutes by:
Go into Airplane Mode for a minute, turning the radio off, then back on. Turn the wifi hotspot back on. On the computer drop and reestablish the connections to the phone’s AP (ifdown, wait, ifup), ping something to test. Slightly cumbersome and it switches back fairly soon. Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours. How busy the phone system is may affect this.
This particular phone is rooted so I could edit some text files if I knew which. I don’t know if the weak signal tower doesn’t work just because of the weak signal or if it’s located someplace without internet. If I could choose a preferred tower, or blacklist the bad one, or set the minimum acceptable signal to like -100 dbm, those would all work. There are probably apps for this. Or maybe it’s control the phone companies don’t want you to have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be possible to exclude certain towers, but for all intents and purposes, it is not possible to include/select/lock-in specific towers. Here is why, if the tools and methods to do so were readily available, then, inevitably more people would use those tools and methods. The more people were to use those tools/methods, the more unstable the whole network would become because the system would not be able to shift the load between towers to equalize/stabilize the network as a whole.
This is because the system works by balancing load, sometimes a signal can be weaker than another but, at the same time, also be faster than other. Stronger signal does not always equal faster speeds.
The concept would be similar to having more than one router/wifi signal at home, then, having everyone in the house and any/all neighbors that are in range, all connected to the same signal/router. The signal they are all connected to would be slow and unstable, the system must have the ability to "bounce" everyone around between all of the routers in order to keep performance at optimum levels "across the board". If everyone is "locked" to the one signal/router, the system can't manage itself, which leads to degradation.
Poor signal in rural areas can be expected, there isn't much you can do about it. The towers are positioned to provide coverage to as many customers as possible from their location. Also, some of the issue in rural areas is a "line of sight" thing. The lay of the land can be a hindrance to signal.
I also live in a rural area of a rural town. I get crappy signal when using cellular network, more down time than up time. I deal with having a decent(but still slow) signal for 1-2 minutes and then when the phone's system runs the next wifi/cellular data re-scan to search for better signal, everything stalls as if I'm getting no signal and it doesn't resume until it either keeps the connection it already has or it just drops out completely for 5-8 minutes until the next time the re-scan can find a signal to connect to. Then the cycle starts over with decent signal for 1-2 minutes or so, until the next re-scan, anyway. I have to turn of mobile data when at home because the virtually continuous re-scanning drains the battery and the device runs warmer than it should normally.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

OK, thanks. Line of sight - I'm at 1600 Feet elevation, people driving by stop to use the cell service before they go back into the next valley.
I've been with Straight Talk since 2015, originally using AT&T towers, I think we used 13 GB of data last month. AT&T worked very well, I'd say faster than satellite internet. Verizon is also an option.
A weak signal isn't the same weakness for everyone, some people will actually be closer to it. And the population density isn't very high around here. Lat 42.65, lon -72.83. I pay about $60/month for "unlimited data", some fraction of that must end up going to T-Mobile. If the county weren't going to be getting fiber optic networking soon I'd expect the money might go into building out cell systems to handle the load. There seems to be no scaling back and limiting everyone to some number of KB/sec, with that number decreasing as more people use it. My data's either in service or it isn't. -115 dbm is weak by everything I've seen.
I also have a Huawei E3372 modem I can put my SIM into. I bought a pair of small gain external antennas with 3 meter cords. I'd need to get those up high and run something like a Raspberry Pi as a router.

ab1jx said:
OK, thanks. Line of sight - I'm at 1600 Feet elevation, people driving by stop to use the cell service before they go back into the next valley.
I've been with Straight Talk since 2015, originally using AT&T towers, I think we used 13 GB of data last month. AT&T worked very well, I'd say faster than satellite internet. Verizon is also an option.
A weak signal isn't the same weakness for everyone, some people will actually be closer to it. And the population density isn't very high around here. Lat 42.65, lon -72.83. I pay about $60/month for "unlimited data", some fraction of that must end up going to T-Mobile. If the county weren't going to be getting fiber optic networking soon I'd expect the money might go into building out cell systems to handle the load. There seems to be no scaling back and limiting everyone to some number of KB/sec, with that number decreasing as more people use it. My data's either in service or it isn't. -115 dbm is weak by everything I've seen.
I also have a Huawei E3372 modem I can put my SIM into. I bought a pair of small gain external antennas with 3 meter cords. I'd need to get those up high and run something like a Raspberry Pi as a router.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am on Straight Talk also, but I'm on the Verizon side. In my opinion, the Verizon side is little better and has somewhat better coverage than the T-Mobile, Sprint or AT&T side. Other than when at home, I get perfect signal strength, the only reason I get crappy signal is I'm one of the ones dealing with line of sight. I'm several miles outside of town in a low-lying area between two hills.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

I should try Verizon. They're the default for landlines here but I got the impression they only did contract phones. I have 3 working Motorola XT1527s plus my modem, not interested in some contract phone. This T-mobile experience is my first other than AT&T. There's a website where you can download APK files to sideload, that runs through T-Mobile last I knew.
I think I've figured out how to talk to a human at Straight Talk. Call during east coast business hours, and in the 2nd menu mention data issues. The night/weekend people never seem to accomplish anything. They're eager to help bit they're most effective at the bulk of common issues like billing or changing a SIM. Took me over 10 phone calls last time to get anywhere.