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Whats the gprs and 3g reception like?

Hi.
I have a diamond and compared to my vario 2 the reception on gprs and 3g is very poor.
I only need to be about a mile from the mast and reception drops out while my vario 2 still has 2 bars and my friends nokia n95 has 3.
Could anyone try a comparison. I need to know if the radio is better than my diamond before spending a lot of money on the raphael.
Thanks in advance.
Sean.

I have had both devices in a lab environment and the radio performance (at least on the radio versions I tested) was as near identical as makes no difference - as would be expected due to the hardware being practically identical.
Comparing signal strength by number of bars (especially on devices from different vendors!) is an exercise in futility.

dabs said:
Comparing signal strength by number of bars (especially on devices from different vendors!) is an exercise in futility.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Biiiig 2nd. The iPhone 3G's got complained about a lot because "they only have 1 or 2 bars of service" yet the people would never complain of dropped calls or slow data connections. I think the 2.0.1 update did nothing more than lower the signal required to get a bar.

My reception levels seem ok (i.e. bars) but my data speeds feel slow.

I work in London and get HSPA, 3G and GPRS completely fine and of course the unit switches between them accordingly fine! This is on my HTC Touch Pro, but sadly I don't have the Diamond to compare with, but logically it should be the same since same hardware.
FWIW I updated the weather using HSPA whilst on the train this morning without problem, so I guess it's all down to coverage as always! Vodafone are pretty good in London.

b0yce said:
I work in London and get HSPA, 3G and GPRS completely fine and of course the unit switches between them accordingly fine! This is on my HTC Touch Pro, but sadly I don't have the Diamond to compare with, but logically it should be the same since same hardware.
FWIW I updated the weather using HSPA whilst on the train this morning without problem, so I guess it's all down to coverage as always! Vodafone are pretty good in London.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hrm I'm in London too but on T-Mobile. My Kaiser is fine but the Touch Pro is definitely having data issues.
For example, it doesnt always initiate a data session when you need one, like whne you want to refresh your RSS or sync email etc.

Syphon Filter said:
Hrm I'm in London too but on T-Mobile. My Kaiser is fine but the Touch Pro is definitely having data issues.
For example, it doesnt always initiate a data session when you need one, like whne you want to refresh your RSS or sync email etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear that, hopefully a ROM update (more specifically the Radio) will help you out! As always, the first ROM versions can be a bit funny which later versions iron out!
Out of coincidence, when you first started your Touch Pro, did you automatically set the settings according to the Network when prompted or did you perform this manually? I did this automatically as set by Vodafone network and all seems well!

b0yce said:
Sorry to hear that, hopefully a ROM update (more specifically the Radio) will help you out! As always, the first ROM versions can be a bit funny which later versions iron out!
Out of coincidence, when you first started your Touch Pro, did you automatically set the settings according to the Network when prompted or did you perform this manually? I did this automatically as set by Vodafone network and all seems well!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Auto configured as usual...

Also in London, on Vodafone, and I'm going to say that the Raphael is pretty much identical for signal strength as the Diamond. Not found any places where it won't work yet (rail tunnels excepted). 3G signal still isn't available inside my house. But it never was with any phone.
I never had any problem with the Kaiser, Hermes, Universal, Magician, or any other device. All the reflashing of Radio ROM's that goes on around here for an extrordinarily marginal (and subjective) improvment completely baffles me...!
@Syphon Filter - My wife is on T-Mobile with an original Touch. Can't get a signal in our house at all unless she hangs out of the window or stands in the garden, but that's T-Mobile in South-East London for you...

Oh that's bad news. I was hoping the different housing could give the Raphael some improvement on 3G reception.
The Diamonds 3G reception is definitely worse then the reception quality of my TyTN and if the Raphael is identical to the Diamond...

foo said:
Oh that's bad news. I was hoping the different housing could give the Raphael some improvement on 3G reception.
The Diamonds 3G reception is definitely worse then the reception quality of my TyTN and if the Raphael is identical to the Diamond...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said, it's all subjective. I've never ever struggled for 3G reception on my Diamond in any location where my Hermes (TyTN) worked. Even in low signal areas, the Diamond has never failed me.
Admittedly speaker volume was better on the Hermes, but that's a different matter...

Well it's not that subjective because it's simply counting bars.
Where Diamond shows 1 bar, TyTN shows 2 bars - same location, same time, same network.

foo said:
Well it's not that subjective because it's simply counting bars.
Where Diamond shows 1 bar, TyTN shows 2 bars - same location, same time, same network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But how do you know that 1 Diamond bar doesn't equal 2 Tytn bars?

hi
I understand about the bars but the problem is how far from the transmitter you can use the phone.
There are many places where I can make calls and use the interner on my tytn bus I can't on my diamond.
at work I can walk about and have a conversation with no problems on my tytn but with my diamond I can only use it by a window.
listening to internet radio while driving is no problem with the tytn but with the diamond I keep having to restart the stream at various places when I lose the signal completely.
This is why a comparison would be helpful
Thanks to everyone so far for the feedback on this

nuttyphilt said:
But how do you know that 1 Diamond bar doesn't equal 2 Tytn bars?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is of course a valid argument, but I also experienced, that the Diamond did not switch to 3G without forcing it by setting because of this weak 1 bar reception quality while the TyTN automatically switched to 3G.
So it seems that also the software internally assumed that the reception is too weak for 3G.
I would assume that the reception indicator is quite comparable between different HTC devices as the same operating system and the same manufacturer is involved.

Don't think I can add anything more to this discussion, on the basis that all of my 3G HTC devices have performed almost identically even in weaker signal areas.
I must just be very lucky? Best of luck to the rest of you though.

For me connection is definitely very very similar between the touch pro and tytn II. However I do think that the point at which is switches of 3g, becauase it doesn't think there is a good enough connection, may well be too early. It definitely seems to switch between 3g and gprs more often than the tytn II. Hopefully this can be fixed quite easily with an update.

Mine's going back.
My Hermes and Kaiser never lose the network in my house. My Touch Pro is constantly on and off. All with T-Mobile SIMs.
Shame 'cos it looks like a great device.

I have two phones here. TYTN II and a Raphael. Both on T-Mobile UK
The trusty TYTN II has 3 bars and always shows a 'H' whilst the Raphael is drifting from 'G' to 'H' and 1 bar occasionally losing a signal altogether.
I really want to like this phone but I might have to keep using the old one till HTC sort this out

I have both the Diamond and the Raphael side by side on the same network (Vodafone) and the signal strength is exactly the same.

[Q] Is the Fuze weaker in signal grabbing than the Tilt?

I changed from a Tilt to a Fuze. I now tried the Fuze on my wife's T-mobile. I noticed that the Fuze seems weaker. My working place is really bad for T-Mobile. With my tilt I get 2 bars and sometimes 1. With the Fuze, I get 1 and sometimes when I try and update the weather, I loose all connection. And sometimes I get dropped calls.
Now, I know the radio has much to do with this. But in general, has anybody noticed if the Fuze seems weaker than their old phone? I can't judge 3G/H because I never had it till now.

no absolutely not id say at worst the same if not better. It has all to do with the radio as well.

I figured as much. Maybe ATT optimized it for 3G network of theirs. I was hoping if anybody else on another network noticed a drop of signal quality with the stock rom/radio with tmobile.

I'm using the stock Fuze ROM, and I have worse reception on the bay area AT&T network. It's not a matter of bars on the display - it's that the calls are dropping in areas that never did with the Tilt.
My Tilt gets better reception. But it has a more mature radio. Hopefully this is an issue of radio firmware, and not bad hardware.

You do know where the antenna is in your device???
(read the manual)
In bad reception area's your hand can easily block the "low" signal....

I just switched from the Tilt to a Fuze 3 days ago and have definitely noticed the Fuze is weaker where I'm at (Statesville, NC).
And Karloe is right, the antenna is in the base of the phone, where I normally hold it. I've been holding it at the top and people on the other end of the line say it is clearer than when I first got the Fuze. Calls aren't dropping as much either.
Kind of awkward to hold the phone this way though....
It worked great when I was in Winston-Salem yesterday, had excellent 3G also.

I don't think the signal is worse than the Tilt. The display shows less bars than the Tilt did, but every phone displays signals differently.
As someone else said, the antenna is at the bottom, so you have to hold it differently than the Tilt.
So far I haven't had any dropped calls on the Fuze and I've had a few on the Tilt. Call clarity seems to be better on the Fuze than it was on the Tilt too.

Single is DEF worse then my 8525 I could take screen shots to prove it.

So far in my experience fuze has been giving me better reception that the tilt.

My Fuse def has less signal than my previous phones.
At my home in long island, NY I always had 4 to 5 bars on any phone I had.
The fuse only gives me 2 bars.

I live in a rural area and have noticed that while I usually only averaged two bars on my tilt, sometimes in a sweet spot I would get three.
The fuze peaks at two in sweet spots and a lot of the time it is hunting for a signal.
That being said, the tilt was the same way before I upgraded the radio rom many moons ago.
One thing I can say is that while the indicator shows poorer reception (it is just an icon) on the fuze, my call quality is better and is far less garbled during calls.

I work in NYC and with my tilt I would always have problems getting a signal in Manhattan. I could have full 3g reception in one signal spot, take one step foward and it would start searching for a signal. With my fuze Ive never seen less than 3 bars so far. It gets better reception than my tilt for sure.

My tilt had better reception while at home. The tilt never cycled through e -> g -> 3g like the fuze did. I agree that once the radio matures it will get better, but my stock tilt never had this problem when new. I also maintained a pretty steady 3g speed on the tilt whereas the fuze had huge swings in speed.
=

You have to security unlock your phone, but I just flashed the Blackstone radio and it appears to get a little better signal than my stock ATT radio did.
I know it all depends on the area and conditions, but some of you that say it has worse reception might want to try some of the different radios that are out there.

Same Bad Reception
starstreak said:
I changed from a Tilt to a Fuze. I now tried the Fuze on my wife's T-mobile. I noticed that the Fuze seems weaker. My working place is really bad for T-Mobile. With my tilt I get 2 bars and sometimes 1. With the Fuze, I get 1 and sometimes when I try and update the weather, I loose all connection. And sometimes I get dropped calls.
Now, I know the radio has much to do with this. But in general, has anybody noticed if the Fuze seems weaker than their old phone? I can't judge 3G/H because I never had it till now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I definitely agree. I would routinely get 4 bars with my tilt in my apartment. I'm lucky to get 1 bar with the Fuze. Anyone have a suggestion for the best radio for those of us who have not security unlocked yet? I'm willing to do the unlock if there are no other viable options.

Thank god I'm not the only one. My TILT always had full bars on 3g at home in my condo in Chicago. The Fuze constantly cycles from G > E > 3g and I have yet to be on a call that has not been dropped.
I'm debating returning this. While I know I can flash better ROMs to be faster, I don't know of any better radios currently to flash.

stevieraveon said:
Thank god I'm not the only one. My TILT always had full bars on 3g at home in my condo in Chicago. The Fuze constantly cycles from G > E > 3g and I have yet to be on a call that has been dropped.
I'm debating returning this. While I know I can flash better ROMs to be faster, I don't know of any better radios currently to flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have noticed this as well. My Fuze is very quick to changef rom G > E > 3G > H.
With my Tilt it was almost always on H especially with the 1.70.19.09 radio. All in all I do think that it could be dependent on the radio it self. I guess with time we will see if it's the radio or the device itself.

stevieraveon said:
Thank god I'm not the only one. My TILT always had full bars on 3g at home in my condo in Chicago. The Fuze constantly cycles from G > E > 3g and I have yet to be on a call that has been dropped.
I'm debating returning this. While I know I can flash better ROMs to be faster, I don't know of any better radios currently to flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try some different radios from this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=439566
Unfortunately so far I haven't noticed any big differences between them in regards to reception. I've tried quite a few of them.

[Q] Fuze bad reception tips? (Solved - HW issue fixed)

[Edit: See post # 7 for hardware fix that solved my problem]
I need help with improving calling reception on the used AT&T Fuze I bought for use on the TMobile USA network, specifically North-Eastern USA (NYC metro area).
I have SIM unlocked the phone (thanks to purchased unlocker from Olipro), I have flashed with several ROMs (starting with NRG's EnergyRom "photon" series), and I have tried various Radios and matching ril dlls. It surprises me just how bad reception is. In areas that my old T-Mobile Wing (a.k.a HTC Herald)gets almost full signal, the Fuze fluctuates from three "bars" down to none, with the signal being lost and reacquired constantly. I have tried "locking" the band to 850 and 1900 GSM (which is what Tmo USA uses) with little effect.
I'm at a lost. I have tried searching this forum, but several posts are related to AT&T network (understandably as it is an AT&T phone) and issues with TMobile UK reception (which is supposedly bad). For the most part, it looks like TMobile USA should have great reception in general in my area..... but I don't. I know my area has coverage by looking at other phones, just not my Fuze.
Can anyone from the NYC Metro area (mostly northern NY area) who has successfully connected the Fuze to Tmobile help me? What ROM and Radio combo worked best for you?
Plus, can anyone with experience tell me if it is possible that my phone has a hardware problem. Could there be something wrong with the antenna? How could I test this, and or fix this if it is hardware?
(Note: I am referring to regular GSM signal. I know that there is no 3G for me due to unsupported 1700 3G radio band.)
Thanks.
Nonpaq

Radios I have tried are:
Ralp 1.10.25.18
Ralp 1.14.25.35
BS 1.17.25.09
Quartz 1.11.25.01
X1 1.10.25.18
Each was tried with the default RIL in ROM and the version specific RIL (when available). All have been identical with poor GSM reception.
Has anyone been successful with using the FUZE on TMobile in northeastern US?
Another question: Does keeping a radio for longer period of time help improve the signal locking, as if the tower and phone need to "learn" about each other? I remember old non-smartphones used to have to have their list of available towers updated so that the phone could recognize newer, closer towers. I assume that this is no longer the case.
Plus: Fieldtest shows occasionally the GSM 850 band is used, but most of the time the band is listed as "PCS". Is that the GSM 1900 band? I believe that Tmobile mostly uses 1900 in this area as well as 850. Is it possible I am not seeing the 1900 band?
-nonpaq

I have the Fuze on T-mobile as well. I am in the SouthEast and have good luck with Radio 1.14.25.05. I've tried them all. This Radio I've used for almost 5 months now; good reception, good GPS, good batery. Try it, with matching rilphone ofcourse. good luck.

Well I loaded up Energy Titanium latest build (Nov 10) and had radio version 1.17.25.09 from before, and all of a sudden I was getting 3 to occasionally 4 "bars" in my home (previously I would get two "bars" max). It would occasionally drop and rescan for signal but not often. Outside had a solid lock on the signal.
I thought I finally found the perfect combo, but unfortunately when I got to work, indoors, 40 miles away from home, it was the same ol' story. Mostly no signal lock, with an occasional 1 bar signal.
Watching FieldTest data is interesting though. While scanning for signal, I can see the NCell info get data, which I understand are cell towers the phone "sees" but are not locked in. It fluctuates from 1 to 6 towers seen, down to none with the phone not moving. The receive strength reported for these towers varies from -106 dbm to -97 dbm, but does not lock on to the signal. (I occasionally get GPRS lock with zero bars). Can anyone explain this to me.
Plus, can any of these reception problems be related to using an AT&T phone on the T-Mobile system, preventing the towers from allowing a lock? I always thought that the SIM card's IMEI controlled access, but could tmobile somehow lock out unknown phone models?

tt1114 said:
I have the Fuze on T-mobile as well. I am in the SouthEast and have good luck with Radio 1.14.25.05. I've tried them all. This Radio I've used for almost 5 months now; good reception, good GPS, good battery. Try it, with matching rilphone ofcourse. good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed the Radio 1.14.25.05 and installed the matching RIL version and now I'm getting a lock of 1 "bar" where previously I did not. Fieldtest shows the same signal strengths as before for Neighboring Cell Towers [NCells] except now it is locking onto a signal of -105 dBm or better. (I even got 2 "bars" at -103 dBm ) According to the ARFCN field , it is now locking into the 1900 band (CNs in the 600s) where previously it would only lock into the 850 band (CNs in the 100s).
Looks good so far as I can actually get phone calls now!!! Thanks for the recommendation. (By the way... it looks like the signal gets better as time passes. By the time I finished this post, the phone is showing a steady 2 "bars").

My saga continues.....
My two bars at work were short lived. Signal is now back to 1 or no bars. I am going to experiment with some of the older radios.
Heres an interesting thing. I experimented with another persons AT&T SIM card and reception was great!! From the same location, AT&T gives "Full Signal" yet TMobile gives barely 1 bar and cannot hold onto the signal. Now I realize that the TMobile towers might be located further than the AT&T towers causing the difference in signal levels, but if not that, what else can cause one to be so much better than the other. (Keep in mind, my other TMobile phone, the HTC herald, gets great service, as does the other person's regular AT&T phone. So I know there is service here.)
I know the ROMs are not service specific, but are the radios optimized for particular services. Is there any radio that may be more generic, or optimized for the 850/1900 GSM band that TMobile USA uses?

I fixed my bad reception problems with my fuze on TMobile USA. It turns out that it was a hardware issue, the antenna was not making a good contact to the circuit board.
I opened my Fuze by removing the four screws under the back cover. Then use a flat plastic "stick" to separate the casing from the keyboard (careful, the back speaker is connected by a short wire from the circuit board to the back plate.) The GSM antenna is at the bottom (looks like black tape from the outside back). It connects to the circuit board by contact tabs that touch when the back plate is on. What I did was slightly lift these tab "fingers" so that they extended a little more. The theory is that when I reconnect the back plate they will press harder on the contacts on the other side.
After putting everything back together, I'm getting full service where previously I got only two bars.
If you have bad reception, and you are not afraid of voiding your warantee and cracking open your phone's case, you should try this simple fix. I recommend looking up the disassembly guide as there are several potential problems you need to be careful of. First, the back speaker wire can easily be broken. Second there is a main circuit board and a smaller daughter board which can separate. There are two connectors, a large one about the middle of the phone, and a small on on the side. Make sure both are connected (pressed together) before reassembling the phone case.
Let me know if this is useful for you. I can put together a step by step guide if you want. Just PM me.

where did you get the radio 1.14.25.05?
where can i find this radio with the matching RIL???
thank you im also having the same trouble with my htc fuze for t-mobile

What's the reported signal strength of the One S compared to other phones?

There have been a few reports that the One series has poor reception.
For example my HTC Desire constantly has about 7-9dB** lower signal than my old Nokia N79 - I was hoping that the new One S would have better reception, but the forums are complaining about fewer "bars" of signal strength. Unfortunately the latter is meaningless because "bars" are uncalibrated and signal level is highly dependent on exact position and whether the unit is held in the hand or not.
Rather than hearsay, I would like to know if One S owners could do a comparison with their old phone to see if it is much worse.
Using the *#*#4636#*#* code if you could report the signal level (dBm) and the connection mode (3G, 2G, GSM whatever) between your One S and old phone when lying in the same position on the desk*
*holding it in your hand, or putting it somewhere else in the room or changing the connection type or changing the carrier will all invalidate any meaningful comparison.
**
+3dB is a doubling in received power and +10dB is a 10x increase in received power, likewise -3dB and -10dB are halving and one tenth the power, so it's a significant difference.

OK, here's some evidence for you. HTC One S with Three UK monthly contract sim inserted and Motorola Defy+ with Three UK PAYG sim in. Both phones laid on desk in similar position with nothing to interfere with them.
HTC One S -105dBm (4ASU)
Motorola Defy+ -89dBm (12ASU)
This is pretty much what I've been getting with Network Signal app.
Incidentally, if I put the sim out the One S into the Defy+ then I still get -89dBm as you would expect as both sims use Three UK network. I can't put the PAYG sim into the One S as it's not a micro sim.
Pretty much damning evidence. Does mean the One S loses signal a lot faster when signal is marginal. Doesn't seem to be a great difference when signal is strong between the 2 which is a PITA when trying to show the problem in the Three shop If I go to York later I'll re run the test's and report back. I'm not sure where to go from here. I'll contact HTC support and see if they show any interest. Not overly hopeful of getting any where with Three customer support?

Richy101 said:
Pretty much damning evidence. Does mean the One S loses signal a lot faster when signal is marginal. Doesn't seem to be a great difference when signal is strong between the 2 which is a PITA when trying to show the problem in the Three shop If I go to York later I'll re run the test's and report back. I'm not sure where to go from here. I'll contact HTC support and see if they show any interest. Not overly hopeful of getting any where with Three customer support?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the data point. I'd say it's valid to take them to the Three shop, put them side by side and say look, there's a 16dB difference. (strictly speaking the noise figure of the receiver should also be known, but this is set in the GSM/UMTS specs and should be less than a dB or two difference).
It's been my belief that Nokia and Motorola have the best antenna engineers - all the Nokias I've owned have had great signal reception, despite the fact that the number of base stations was much lower in the late 90s early 2000s.

I cannot compare to old one, I got micro sim and dont have adapter yet (comming from ebay).
I found that I got alot lower signal, thought as I mvoed to micro sim I changed carrier...
Question - how much signal is needed for "OK", and at which point its to weak?

Stiflerlv said:
Question - how much signal is needed for "OK", and at which point its to weak?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to OFCOM the mimum signal level is -110dBm (including some fading margin).
At that level you will get very slow data speeds - I consider anything less than -90dBm as pretty low.
I was in the Vodaphone store and they had SIMs in a One X, One S and Wildfire S - all of these were within a few dB of eachother - unfortunately my (roaming) HTC Desire would not connect to Vodaphone.de, so I couldn't get a 4th reference point.
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/3g_rollout/statement/statement.pdf
Currently I'm mostly interested in 3G reception - if this is poor then the phone will spend a lot of time (and battery) looking for signal, loosing contact, toggling back and forth between 2G and 3G etc. However, need to consider that 3G can exist on both 900 and 1800MHz in Europe. If poor antenna design is the culprit then this may only effect one of the bands, meaning that certain users have great signal, whereas others report poor reception.

aza314 said:
According to OFCOM the mimum signal level is -110dBm (including some fading margin).
At that level you will get very slow data speeds - I consider anything less than -90dBm as pretty low.
I was in the Vodaphone store and they had SIMs in a One X, One S and Wildfire S - all of these were within a few dB of eachother - unfortunately my (roaming) HTC Desire would not connect to Vodaphone.de, so I couldn't get a 4th reference point.
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/3g_rollout/statement/statement.pdf
Currently I'm mostly interested in 3G reception - if this is poor then the phone will spend a lot of time (and battery) looking for signal, loosing contact, toggling back and forth between 2G and 3G etc. However, need to consider that 3G can exist on both 900 and 1800MHz in Europe. If poor antenna design is the culprit then this may only effect one of the bands, meaning that certain users have great signal, whereas others report poor reception.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mainly need this for calls (not so much data) so till 110 Im still ok?
I often get 100+ :/ Lowest I have seen is 90. Returning the phone hoping its glitch

Stiflerlv said:
I mainly need this for calls (not so much data) so till 110 Im still ok?
I often get 100+ :/ Lowest I have seen is 90. Returning the phone hoping its glitch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At -110dBm you have very little margin. As long as you aren't walking around the house it should be ok.
But it really depends on the coverage in your area.
NB: the numbers are dBm and negative i.e. a -90dBm signal has a hundred times more power than a -110dBm signal:
10^((-90dBm-(-110dBm))/10) = 100

aza314 said:
At -110dBm you have very little margin. As long as you aren't walking around the house it should be ok.
But it really depends on the coverage in your area.
NB: the numbers are dBm and negative i.e. a -90dBm signal has a hundred times more power than a -110dBm signal:
10^((-90dBm-(-110dBm))/10) = 100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nice, comparing to my old HTC Tattoo and test simcard I got from carrier, Its around 15-20 dBm better signal for Tattoo...
Im gonna go for warranty I guess

Bump. Like to hear how it compares with other phones on the T-Mobile USA network.
Thanks in advance.

I was just going to create a new thread on this topic until I found this. I would have to say the reception on the one s is considerably worse than other tmobile phones. Today I traveled to an area with generally poor reception and my wife's blackberry bold 9900 had 1 bar of 4g while my one s had an "x" for not signal at all.
When I used my galaxy s2 in the same exact area i used to get at least 2 bars of 4g. It actually worries me that i get zero reception while our other phones were still on 4g, not even edge.
Can this be fixed with a radio software fix or is this a hardware issue? Im pretty pissed because I want to like this phone so much.
What are the experiences of others?

On tmo us, I'd have to say that my signal is the same as it was on my g2x. I'm either in an area with awesome signal (work), or an area with practically no signal (my 100 year old house).
I wouldn't call either situation dramatically different than the last few phones I've had.

Mike,
On one hand, I did some testing with a galaxy s2 and found ours to be comparable usually, but on the other, there are signal drops issues and the days switching so there still is something odd here.
I also hope to have it fixed by a radio update than a hardware one...
I also like this phone much except for its network issues.
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA

Well, HTC wanted my phone back in for investigation. Duly sent it back and it was pretty much turned round within the day. All they have done is load the latest software version which in truth if I'd not packaged it up on Monday could have done myself. I believe Three UK released the update on Monday anyway?
Network connection seems to be slightly better but not by a great deal. I'm not sure what I expected from HTC. If it's hardware there seems to be little knowledge of a problem with them and firmware/software they'll only have the latest versions and hope for the best. I'll just have to see how it goes for the time being. I always have the option to sell it and look for something else.
Not right impressed with HTC's packaging back of phone. I stupidly wrapped it in bubble wrap and put it in a box to dispatch. They simply found a box and chucked it in it so it was free to rattle about all the way home. As a result it has picked up a chip of the coating on it's top edge - unless it was done on the work bench. Certainly wasn't like that when it went as use a Case-Mate Tough cover. Not overly upset about that but should I mention this to HTC? Seems a bit of a poor do

I finally get my HTC One S TODAY! As soon as I do, I will do a comparison. I work for T-Mobile (until my call center closes), so I have a bunch of phones to compare with and test against.

I don't have another (working) phone to compare, but my circumstances make that moot anyway. I have the international One S on AT&T, and since the phone lacks the UMTS 1900 I expected to get lower than usual signal compared to my Desire (A8182, RIP), but hoped that most areas have been upgraded to 850 by now.
Anyway, at work (inside concrete block building with metal structure roof) I am getting between -107 and -88db, (with 10 asu?) depending on where in the building I am. In a larger city I usually get between -30 to -18db, But I do not live or work in a large city.
Even so, so far battery life is way over expectations. currently on 53 hours on a single charge, with 23% battery remaining.

I always get 3/4 bars like my Amaze.

mmceorange said:
I don't have another (working) phone to compare, but my circumstances make that moot anyway. I have the international One S on AT&T, and since the phone lacks the UMTS 1900 I expected to get lower than usual signal compared to my Desire (A8182, RIP), but hoped that most areas have been upgraded to 850 by now.
Anyway, at work (inside concrete block building with metal structure roof) I am getting between -107 and -88db, (with 10 asu?) depending on where in the building I am. In a larger city I usually get between -30 to -18db, But I do not live or work in a large city.
Even so, so far battery life is way over expectations. currently on 53 hours on a single charge, with 23% battery remaining.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In another thread the box of the tmobile version says it has the 1900 UMTS band. You may be better of with an unlocked tmobile version.

Just tried at a TmoUS store. My HD2 had about -63dB, HOS on display had only -75~-79dB. Disappointed.

motionUS said:
In another thread the box of the tmobile version says it has the 1900 UMTS band. You may be better of with an unlocked tmobile version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sure you're right, but I like the look and feel of the "MAO" much much more than the gray/blue. If T-mobile (or better yet, Telus) gets the black version I will likely switch.

jjmai said:
Just tried at a TmoUS store. My HD2 had about -63dB, HOS on display had only -75~-79dB. Disappointed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That means absolutely nothing. You don't even know if they are connecting to the same cell site.
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA

[Q] Cell reception - What's your experience?

Hello One-S users!
I recently got myself an unbranded One-S here in the Netherlands. I came from the LG 2x that I've had since the day it was available. Been experimenting a lot with different ROM's and BB, with different results across the board. Overall though the 2x has been a very nice phone to have and use, albeit not with the stock ROM's. Reception has been very good, probably the best of all the phones I've owned.
And now there's the new One-s... I've been using it for a few days so I won't go into details on battery life, user experience and all that stuff that needs a few days before making any useful conclusion. Except for reception!
I live in a particular area where there's very bad signal and only two towers in the whole area. The One-S seems to really struggle to get AND keep connection to the network. Actually, when used indoors (at home) it is impossible to get any signal at all, whereas the 2x and my girlfriends iPhone4 have no problems at all. Not great reception, with breakups during calls, but at least the work. The One-S doesn't. I've been seeing this behavior outdoors at other locations as well, around where I work I have had no reception issue's with the 2x, the One-S shows really spotty reception.
I'm on the latest OTA which is 1.78.401.2
What's your take on this, do you have any reception issue's?

involver said:
Hello One-S users!
I recently got myself an unbranded One-S here in the Netherlands. I came from the LG 2x that I've had since the day it was available. Been experimenting a lot with different ROM's and BB, with different results across the board. Overall though the 2x has been a very nice phone to have and use, albeit not with the stock ROM's. Reception has been very good, probably the best of all the phones I've owned.
And now there's the new One-s... I've been using it for a few days so I won't go into details on battery life, user experience and all that stuff that needs a few days before making any useful conclusion. Except for reception!
I live in a particular area where there's very bad signal and only two towers in the whole area. The One-S seems to really struggle to get AND keep connection to the network. Actually, when used indoors (at home) it is impossible to get any signal at all, whereas the 2x and my girlfriends iPhone4 have no problems at all. Not great reception, with breakups during calls, but at least the work. The One-S doesn't. I've been seeing this behavior outdoors at other locations as well, around where I work I have had no reception issue's with the 2x, the One-S shows really spotty reception.
I'm on the latest OTA which is 1.78.401.2
What's your take on this, do you have any reception issue's?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a T-mobile branded One S (Gradient Blue) and the reception was horrible, so glad I got myself another GS2 (t989)

I'm experiencing same issues of reception on an unbranded EU phone with 1.78. 1.53 was worst!
I tend to have signal but no data, I tend to have signal in the notification bar but no actual signal.
I have many issues which weren't here in my old desire!
MicroSIM was replaced twice with no real help - It's the phone to blame...

Poor reception
I also have same problem. I am in pakistan using Telenor and phone is Tmobile UK unlocked.

It may work to disallow some energy-saving settings(of the ril) in the build.prop, however it brings risk to do so:
You have to know how to tweak the file, and get ready to re-flash the ROM/RUU in case of half-brick caused by bad tweaks.
involver said:
Hello One-S users!
I recently got myself an unbranded One-S here in the Netherlands. I came from the LG 2x that I've had since the day it was available. Been experimenting a lot with different ROM's and BB, with different results across the board. Overall though the 2x has been a very nice phone to have and use, albeit not with the stock ROM's. Reception has been very good, probably the best of all the phones I've owned.
And now there's the new One-s... I've been using it for a few days so I won't go into details on battery life, user experience and all that stuff that needs a few days before making any useful conclusion. Except for reception!
I live in a particular area where there's very bad signal and only two towers in the whole area. The One-S seems to really struggle to get AND keep connection to the network. Actually, when used indoors (at home) it is impossible to get any signal at all, whereas the 2x and my girlfriends iPhone4 have no problems at all. Not great reception, with breakups during calls, but at least the work. The One-S doesn't. I've been seeing this behavior outdoors at other locations as well, around where I work I have had no reception issue's with the 2x, the One-S shows really spotty reception.
I'm on the latest OTA which is 1.78.401.2
What's your take on this, do you have any reception issue's?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

That sucks! It is a great phone. Reception has been flawless for me. I have a TMOUSA-branded One S.

the worst reception ever...
well I lied a bit - as most of the time I'm getting no reception at all;/
sometimes around 60-70% of the time with no signal (when I click the cell stats in battery meter) and often when picked out of the pocket the phone is showing NO SIGNAL warning for one second...
Unlocked HTC One S, UK version, ceramic black, bought beginning of April
I had this problem from the start, but was hard to prove to get a new phone replacement, as when it does have good reception when signal coverage is great - with 10MBit/s download 3G speed which was amazing compared to my Desire Z (max 4MBit on 3G). The problem is, signal reception fluctuates a lot to a point of loosing it...
Wifi is affected as well, for example after a fresh reboot the Wi-Fi is at full speed, but give it an hour of mobile usage and it is at half of its performance. Wi-Fi isn't that critical (although I do not have signal in my garden where my Desire Z or iPad doesnt have any problem with my home wifi!) but the weak radio is!
I wasn't scared so much as I thought an update will come, and it did, so I have updated radio to 0.16 (1.78 RUU) from 0.15 (1.53 RUU) in a hope things will improve, and they did for 1 day - then I realized it was a placebo effect what I'm seeing.
In network stats I am mostly on -97 to -107 db in signal strength with 0-5 ASU, and when I have -93db I can celebrate! (which is considered pretty weak on my other android phones)
Researching this problem led me to believe it might be a software bug as well, as it varies - when you're doing a phone call, signal strength is simply stronger, you're out of a sudden see more ASUs and are say on -92db. As long as you hang the call, you're at -101 db again, soon after you can loose the signal when you're in placed with weaker coverage (park, too many in London).
Then I have places where I am absolutely unable to make a call, and the other day I do have 2 bars there and I am able to call without a problem.
Then the other day I can try 10 times and no chance - no signal, immediately rejected from a call app, can't even call voicemail.
The top icon notification is 'mad' most of the time - showing full strength from time to time only to fall to 1 bar (or no bar) on 80% of the time.
I would welcome some idea how to prove this thing to a seller to get a replacement, but as I said, if One S sees 20+ more ASUs (city coverage is great), you don't notice this thing and it can work flawlessly.
My conclusion is that HTC One S has only problem when the signal coverage becomes weak and it can't properly get hold of it like other phones do (Samsung Galaxy S Plus, for example, is ten times zillion million better than this - having much stronger signal when covered with pillows closed in a stainless steel box ;-)
Should we start writing the serial numbers here so we can see which batch of HTC One S phones is bad?
P.S. The USA T-Mobile update 1.83 is promising some fix to signal fluctuation - I don't know it this would help european version, even if it would not fluctuate, it would still be weak.
P.P.S. Switching ON the 'best wifi performance' haven't made a single difference for me, neither for radio strength nor in wifi. The only difference was big hit on battery life.

I know exactly what you mean - had it the same!!!
Apparently there is a solution which is not hardware related:
There are network providers that doesn't support the signal fast dormancy as this phone tries to use. As a result, the phone disconnects from the service provider and tries to reconnect which takes several minutes.
In order to solve that until HTC will do it (if at all), you need to root your phone, get into build.prop file and then change the line ro.ril.fast.dormancy.rule=... to be ro.ril.fast.dormancy.rule=#.
This is thanks to jh787!
It seems to help me.

I'm in the Netherlands too, with an unbranded device and facing same troubles. Got my device lately with 1.78.401.2 preinstalled.
The reception is compared to my HTC Incredible S really bad.
I becomes irritated too by the FM Tuner recepetion. If you're moving on bccycle, car, train or bus the volume is getting up and down, up and down. And lot of areas I can't listen at all to the radio stations I could with the Incredible S

don't want to root just yet...
orenfl said:
I know exactly what you mean - had it the same!!!
Apparently there is a solution which is not hardware related:
There are network providers that doesn't support the signal fast dormancy as this phone tries to use. As a result, the phone disconnects from the service provider and tries to reconnect which takes several minutes.
In order to solve that until HTC will do it (if at all), you need to root your phone, get into build.prop file and then change the line ro.ril.fast.dormancy.rule=... to be ro.ril.fast.dormancy.rule=#.
This is thanks to jh787!
It seems to help me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, you probably mean the thread mentioned by jh787 at the bottom here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26923454
- it might fix the issue, the problem is I've tried 2 different mobile providers with same results and today I bought O2 PAYG microSIM to try the best (signal wise) London mobile provider to see if the fast dormancy is the problem. I don't want to root the phone yet as if it won't help the warranty is void. I'll report later.
- there's another tip in that thread
jh787 said:
also changing the following line to look as shown solved my no network issues when i was in areas of weak reception
ro.ril.disable.power.collapse = 1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have root yet, but just checked /system/build.prop file using Solid Explorer and I have this value already properly set as others have mentioned (1.78) but the phone still has weaker signal when idle and stronger when having a phone call.
Code:
# For HSDPA low throughput
ro.ril.disable.power.collapse = 1
As I understand this should be '#' instead of 1
Code:
ro.ril.fast.dormancy.rule=1
comparing to jh787 build.prop I am no wiser, as he's still at older 1.53 OTA and seems like T-Mobile branded phone.

I'm already on 1.78, checked his 2 comments and also found that the power collapse is 1 already. The fast dormancy I did change to # and believe me, after 6 weeks of screaming on the phone to be a phone, other than a great looking mobile computer, I'm using it flawlessly as a phone too!
Root is reversible via RUU and for me needed until HTC will provide an update which will either disable the fast dormancy or enable a switch to control it...

Ive had 2 One S's since launch and both of them have had appalling signal issues, Im on Vodafone UK and believe its their network at fault.
But i see here a range of providers and still crappy signal. I was thinking of cancelling my Vodafone contract and taking out a new one with another provider, As i really like HTC..... But after reading this thread im having doubts !
Im beginning to think the safe option would be to leave HTC and Go back to Samsung, And try to get the S3 !

azzledazzle said:
Ive had 2 One S's since launch and both of them have had appalling signal issues, Im on Vodafone UK and believe its their network at fault.
But i see here a range of providers and still crappy signal. I was thinking of cancelling my Vodafone contract and taking out a new one with another provider, As i really like HTC..... But after reading this thread im having doubts !
Im beginning to think the safe option would be to leave HTC and Go back to Samsung, And try to get the S3 !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you rooted already?
If so, try the build.prop change I mentioned before...

Im rooted, Ive ran every custom ROM, Ive flashed every radio, Ive done everything possible, Nothing works.
Ill give the build.prop edit a try later. not expecting much tho.

azzledazzle said:
Im rooted, Ive ran every custom ROM, Ive flashed every radio, Ive done everything possible, Nothing works.
Ill give the build.prop edit a try later. not expecting much tho.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give it a try - it worth it!
For me it solved 6 weeks of frustration w/o one shrink visit

change the line ro.ril.fast.dormancy.rule=... to be ro.ril.fast.dormancy.rule=#.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So at the end i have .rule=1 do i change that 1 to a # or put the # after the 1 ?

azzledazzle said:
So at the end i have .rule=1 do i change that 1 to a # or put the # after the 1 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Replace the 1 by #

azzledazzle said:
So at the end i have .rule=1 do i change that 1 to a # or put the # after the 1 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any news?
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA

Hasnt made any difference

azzledazzle said:
Hasnt made any difference
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? disappointing!!!
Then you probably got something else then - is the same carrier different phone have better than you on same locations?