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[APP] Roam Control

I have been searching for this since I got my EVO. Over at android forums MrGreg has posted an app in the market that allows forced roaming on the EVO. I can confirm it works. I am in no means associated with this guy. This is something I have been waiting for since my Pre. Below is the link
http://androidforums.com/application-announcements/162379-app-roam-control.html

I was so glad to see this. I have been asking for this since I got my Moment, and then for the EVO. I jumped on it as soon as I saw it and it does work as advertised. I am quite a happy camper now!

Still waiting for the price to drop...

Not seeing it in market and app brain can't find it either, what's up wit dat?
sent from my iPhone 4...........destroyer.

For those who are having trouble finding it:
Get AppBrain and the Fast Web Installer, then just click Install on AppBrain.com from your computer.
For those with CyanogenMod 6:
Congrats, already have this, for free, built into CM6: Settings>Wireless & networks>Mobile networks>System select.

Apologize for the noob question, but why would you want to force roaming?

If you live in an area with poor Sprint signal (say, -100dB) but there's a strong roaming signal (-70dB Verizon), the phone will cling to the Sprint signal and wear down the battery (anything below -100dB, and it starts to really hurt).
If your signal is really bad (like at my work), you'll wind up constantly switching back and forth between roaming, and Sprint, causing you to be disconnected from the network, miss calls, get delayed texts and voicemail alerts, poor audio quality on calls, etc. The worst part, is that if there's ANY Sprint signal over -120dB (aka, if it's detectable at all), your phone will automatically jump from the roaming network, and onto Sprint's, and then back again when it loses Sprint's signal. In other words, even though you've got a strong roaming signal that you're attached to, your phone keeps on scanning for Sprint, and keeps on jumping to it whenever it can, draining your battery like mad.
At my work, there's a Verizon tower a 1/2-block down the road, and I get around -80dB when roaming, but otherwise get -105dB or worse when on Sprint, just because the frequencies used by Sprint are poorer at penetrating walls. So, I looked at my battery stats since I was only getting about four hours of battery life, and saw that my Time Without Signal was anywhere between 20-50%! I switched to Affiliated Networks in my settings (aka, roaming-only)
The trade-off is, you can only get 1X data when roaming like this, not 3G data. To get 3G roaming, you'd have to load a Verizon PRL, which you can't do on an AOSP ROM, since you need the EPST app.

People with G2X signal problems...

Hi all, Just wanted to contribute to this wonderful community as it has given me so much. I was having signal issues, very weak 4g...Constant switching from 4g to E. I read about people who didnt have the right 4g service applied to their contract from T-Mobile.
Mine was a $25 a month data service which did not benefit my phone like it should. The guy who helped from t-mobile showed me that indeed my phone should have been running the $30 4g service which replaces the one I had. Once I had the switch done my service went from E - four bars to 4g - three bars instantly.
Go check your contract and make sure you make the switch if you have a 4g phone. Good luck. I'm running the eagleblood 1.02 and its perfect, Never had any freezes, Reboots etc...A little screen bleeding but overall best phone I have had.
I have also removed the blue tape behind the cover for the heck of it. NOt sure if it has had any effect but definitely check your services.

I have the 4G Data on my plan, and I still have the same issue. Thanks Anyway

This is NOT true. My very good friend works in the tech support side for T-Mobile and he told me the only difference between the 4G plan and my plan is 5$. The 4G plan is only a computer code for pricing and does nothing for your service. I should know because I had it on my phone and after he took it off for me, guess what.....I still got the same service and download speeds.

The problem with this phone is low signal strength. It seems to have problems with low signals, 1-2 bars and then loses connection intermittantly. If your 4G keeps going down to 2G do a hard reset to clear the settings. It should keep the 4G regardless of the signal after. For me I lose the signal at home especially if I hold the phone from the bottom with my palm to the back, I can watch the bars go away then when I remove my hand it raises up. Antenna is in a bad place I think. LG messed up!

I'm still on the MT3G $24.99 a month unlimited data + 400 texts plan, my phone gets great 4G speeds, (at least as great as T-Mo's "4G" is capable of) definitely faster than the same plan on my N1.
ETA: I'm in Seattle, T-Mobiles U.S. base of operations. I dunno for sure, but it makes sense that the data coverage here would be a little better than in a lot of other areas.

ashton4life said:
The problem with this phone is low signal strength. It seems to have problems with low signals, 1-2 bars and then loses connection intermittantly. If your 4G keeps going down to 2G do a hard reset to clear the settings. It should keep the 4G regardless of the signal after. For me I lose the signal at home especially if I hold the phone from the bottom with my palm to the back, I can watch the bars go away then when I remove my hand it raises up. Antenna is in a bad place I think. LG messed up!
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Click to collapse
I'm suddenly having IPhone 4 flash-backs!!! Sheesh.. For what its worth I was having the same issues with low to no signal, but I recently (last night) installed the 2.3.3 GB Rom and I must confess that I have all the bars and no WIFI sleeping issues.. YMMV..
They didn't change the radio firmware but apparently my phone likes the GB ROM better I guess.....
Good Luck

dlammons said:
I'm suddenly having IPhone 4 flash-backs!!! Sheesh.. For what its worth I was having the same issues with low to no signal, but I recently (last night) installed the 2.3.3 GB Rom and I must confess that I have all the bars and no WIFI sleeping issues.. YMMV..
They didn't change the radio firmware but apparently my phone likes the GB ROM better I guess.....
Good Luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So do you think the Gingerbread update may help the low signal issues? I returned my phone today and now I have to wait for them to send me my deposit back. I may just wait a month or so and buy it again if others see a difference also. The Tmobile 2.3 update is suppose to happen some time this month.

I got my unlimited 4g with 5gb cap for $20/month,u got ripped off
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

bobthq said:
I got my unlimited 4g with 5gb cap for $20/month,u got ripped off
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
It doesn't matter if you have the 4g plan or the regular plan. The speeds stay exactly the same. Anyone who thinks the 4G data plan has anything to do with your data speeds needs to delete there screen name and stop fallowing this website.

The plan doesn't affect the speed or the fluctuation issues of 4G/2G/EDGE. It basically just comes down to your coverage area.
I was having absolutely no issues with 4G signals since I bought the phone, but when I went to Dallas last weekend I was having weak signals, slow downloads, etc. Went back to Austin and signal was fine like before.
I'm still on the old G1 unlimited data plan and speeds are faster than when I was on my G1.

g2x signal weaker then g1 signal
My G2x gets a weaker signal then my G1 does in the exact same spots. My G1 can be 3g when my G2x is EDGE in the exact same spot. Walking from an EDGE spot to 3g/4g coverage area my G1 bumps up 100-500 feet sooner the the G2x. Nobody at LG or t-mobile would do anything about it. Returned the g2x on day 14 but they had to pry it out of my hands because other then having a sucky signal I loooooved the phone.

I was told by a customer service rep that works for sprint that 4G for Tmobile only works if you switch to Sprint and put the sim card in the Sprint phone. Then you will have to get some foil and wrap your phone in it and hold it 91 degree from the angle of the sun.

I got my G2x a few days ago and was having some serious signal issues. Half of the time it was on emergency calls only. T-mobile suggested I swap my SIM that I had for 3 years, saying they had reports of older sims not working with the upgraded HSPA+ 42 towers. It immediately fixed the issues everywhere except at home where they are having problems upgrading that tower.
If you have signal issues, try swapping out that old sim. Also check if you are in a market that is getting upgraded

lokibtm said:
I got my G2x a few days ago and was having some serious signal issues. Half of the time it was on emergency calls only. T-mobile suggested I swap my SIM that I had for 3 years, saying they had reports of older sims not working with the upgraded HSPA+ 42 towers. It immediately fixed the issues everywhere except at home where they are having problems upgrading that tower.
If you have signal issues, try swapping out that old sim. Also check if you are in a market that is getting upgraded
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. Apparently my old SIM card was only good for Edge whereas I got a free 3G (works with 4G) sim card replacement at a T-Mobile store.

My observations....
When i was using my Nexus One as my main phone... i could tell the day hey turned on HDSPA+ in my area...i was getting about 5mb down and 1.5 - 2 MB up almost consistently for about a few weeks ...then it dropped down to regularly 2-3 down and about 1.5 up. Which is about what i was getting up until i ot my G2x. Now my top speeds are about 7MB down and if i am lucky i hit 1mb up otherwise it is almost always a hair below 1mb up. Yes i know the Nexus one was not 4g HSDPA+...but like i said i could tell they day they turned it on. When i got the Nexus One i switched from Blackberry and I never switched my actual plan until i got the G2x. So to me it seems there is some type of throttling involved somehow. Just think about it... if you go over your 5GB limit with the so called unlimited plan.... they throttle your speed right? hit has to be done automatically.... so why can't some type of computer coding error be wrong on someones phone/account an only giving them 3g or less speeds?
Also is anyone getting terrible upload speeds like me? Before you say upload speeds do not matter unless you are uploading... consider that even when you download...a data packet has to be sent back (Uploaded) to say give me the next set of data packets for download... and the faster your upload is...you would see increased/faster downloads also. Think T1 vs aDSL at the same speed. It seems that our data is not "unlimited" and it is aDSL as well. Sorry i am rambling LOL anyway i would much rather get steady 3MB down and 1.5 up if it got better battery life. I did notice when i had my nexus one it would only kick in the high data when you went online like opening a web browser etc.. otherwise it throttled it down. (yes i saw it change by quickly going back to the settings are for status and watched it change back and forth) which was done in a fix that helped battery life... by increasing the idle time.
As far as switching 2g (edge) to 4G and never showing 3g..i read a few posts that said that LG was aware of this and would be fixed in the next patch update or/ Gingerbread update. So perhaps this is also effecting people phones as well.
Sorry if i strayed from topic... i just tried to paint a bigger picture about throttling speeds based on plan or phone type. Maybe it does not happen to everyone...but it could happen to some.

In my home I get very weak signals with any phone, whether its GSM or CDMA but when I tried the G2x it continuesly disconnected and lost signal. This happened more on the G2x then any of my previus 5 phones. I was forced to return it. I would have kept it but this was a big problem. I believe that this phone does definetly have reception problems plus it loses the signal just holding the phone from the bottom with my palm to the back, basically just holding it normally. If I raised my hand to the top it got better.... I really liked it. I'm back with my old LG envy2 and it never loses signal any where in my home. I may just try the Sensation when it comes out and pass on the G2x getting fixed.

Using old unlimited verizon plan as home internet... any one done it?

So I've been waiting to get internet at my apartment, and have been using my one m8 tethered as home internet (thanks to the help on this forum getting a ROM running on it that lets me use the mobile hotspot).
Its working great. However, i'm at 120GB with 5 days to go. Being that this would be, under most carrier plans, an insane amount of data... I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this. I definitely haven't seen any throttling or slowdown. Runs PS4 games, streaming, whatever. I was actually at 60GB 5 days into the month and have made a concereted effort to slow down lol, otherwise I might be in the 300-400GB range. That said, it really isn't too bad.
I actually just ordered time warner cable for $40/mo, so I guess I'm moving on anyway. But I'm curious if anyone has been doing this for an extended period and if Verizon ever made a stink.

Someone I know does. He canceled all wired tv, phone, & internet service to his home and has been using his verizon S4 for it all for over a year now. He's on the old unlimited data plan. It is apparently working well for him but he had to get a special wifi card for his PC to use the hotspot from the phone. He uses a wifi capable "smart" bluray player to get all his TV programming from youtube, netflix, and amazon prime. He said it was a learning curve to find all the tv programming he used to watch on cable but he has been able to get it all, albeit, at a later release date then the mainstream networks' prime time debuts.

I do it, but with T-Mobile.
Just one thing though....constant wifi tethering will destroy your phone. Specifically the battery, but all that heat and energy use can't be good for the rest of it either. I ruined 2 batteries on my Galaxy Light in less than a year. Ruined 2 Motorola Razr Maxxes this way too. You don't want to be doing this with a phone like the M8 that is practically impossible to repair.
If you choose to go this route, pick up a cheap (rootable, obviously) phone with a removable battery, like a Galaxy S3 to use as your "home" phone.

The S4 is better then the S3 in that regard because it supports that newer faster LTE (aws?), the wifi hardware is quite a bit more advanced (faster), and the repairs (if ever necessary) are easier. Wifi tether does use a lot of power but you'll be plugged in for that most of the time, especially at home. The circuitry holds up just fine in the S4 as long as you're not aggravating the situation with over-volting / over-clocking.

I had been using my old Droid 4 as a home gateway/router before I got the One working. Perhaps I could just use that as my home router.. it worked well enough but would cut out occasionally (annoying during games... the One doesn't do that). If anything the Droid 4 seemed to have a stronger wifi signal when it worked though... better range, just as fast as the M8.
Do you know how much data your friend goes through?

The Droid 4 does/did get really hot while tethering. To the point I'd usually rest it on a cold can of soda or something while using it, lol. The One doesn't get nearly as hot.

Keep in mind that the power consumption and heat generation of the screen still dwarfs that of the wifi module. While using the phone as a home internet gateway the screen will likely be off most of the time.
I don't know about his data useage quantity but he's almost always got something streaming video of some kind. Its probably not ideal for serious gaming because the signal does drop out from time to time. Toggling airplane mode on and off again reestablishes a full-speed connection pretty quick but it would be disruptive in a game.

well. my signal on the One hasn't dropped and I've been logging a lot of Destiny this month. Sometimes you'll get a little lag but it isn't bad.
Just saw that VZW is hiking unlimited prices $20/mo... wonder if that'll get challenged by the FCC (like throttling etc): http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/08/tec...ted-plan-increase/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

I have old UDP and use my phone hotspot to devices it in my motorhome. All was good until 2 months ago when I used 50-60gb and they throttled me since. No 4g at all from home tower. get 4g elsewhere .
How do I approach customer service to get un-throttled? New reports say they are not throttling anymore.
Thanks.

Try cycling airplane mode on/off to reestablish a 4G data connection.

0reo said:
Try cycling airplane mode on/off to reestablish a 4G data connection.
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Click to collapse
Tried that 50 million times. She a no work! Others get 4g at my place not me.

This is my SOLUTION
Verizon 4G LTE Broadband Router With Voice
Works like a charm.

Born<ICs said:
I have old UDP and use my phone hotspot to devices it in my motorhome. All was good until 2 months ago when I used 50-60gb and they throttled me since. No 4g at all from home tower. get 4g elsewhere .
How do I approach customer service to get un-throttled? New reports say they are not throttling anymore.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would just call them and explain your problem as you have here, and leave out the throttle part.
back up your data firs, they will likely have you factory reset at some point.
it could be a problem with your phone, or a problem with the towers in your area. they will determine which.
its very unlikely they are throttling. they wouldnt reduce the 4g signal output on an entire tower to do it, and they are actually prohibited from doing it by the fcc.

bweN diorD said:
i would just call them and explain your problem as you have here, and leave out the throttle part.
back up your data firs, they will likely have you factory reset at some point.
it could be a problem with your phone, or a problem with the towers in your area. they will determine which.
its very unlikely they are throttling. they wouldnt reduce the 4g signal output on an entire tower to do it, and they are actually prohibited from doing it by the fcc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.
Thank you. Ended up swapping Sim then got consistent signal a few days later. No idea what they did on their end. Swapped Sim to 6P and all is good now.

I did this when I was doing my internship. I mainly just streamed Netflix and only hit 256GB that month. There was a time Verizon was throttling my data even though they wouldn't admit it until I eventually got transferred to an engineer . None of their support tiers could answer my questions and kept telling me they didn't have the capability to throttle so the problem is my fault. I somehow eventually talked to an engineer at Verizon and the engineer didn't directly admit it but rather, he implied that they do have that capability and the support techs were lying. One tech blamed "tower service in the area" and another tech blamed the unlocked bootloader on my 2013 Moto X DEV for causing the connectivity issues even though I was running the stock ROM and even restored everything back to stock prior to calling. Hahaha.. The funny thing is that the connection went back to normal directly after that call ended. Weird how that works....

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.

Download speeds SUCK! What gives?

Anyone else having an issues with downloading updates for apps over network/cellular connection?
When I do it, it is painfully slow and in a side by side comparison with my Note 10 plus it gets smoked (5G vs 4G). The Note 10+ will have already downloaded the app, installed it and opened it while the A71 5G is still at 10% downloading.
The only way I can get the download speeds to increase is to turn on the WiFi and it definitely speeds up but still not as fast as the 4G on the Note 10+.
I also tried switch my network band from 5G to 4G but still having the same issue.
Am I missing something? Is the joke on me?
**edit**
On the line with T-Mobile support and they have me testing my download/upload speed with Internet Speed Test via Google. So far my results have been pretty consistent:
0.52 Mbps download
0.52 Mbps upload

quick update:
On the phone with Tmo tech support this morning. They're telling me that ALL A71 5G phones are experiencing this. That the ball was dropped on it. They are expecting the firmware update to fix the issue. The rub is if I want to return this phone today is my last day (14 days) or I can wait to see if the firmware update works. Double sucks because I traded in my Note 8 for this because the Tmo promo. T-Mobile tech support is well aware of this issue.
Currently basebands ending in TSV are getting the firmware update. I have TEL and they did not know when that was being pushed out.
If you are wanting to run the same speed test that I was instructed to run, on your A71 5G, go here and follow the instructions:
https://support.google.com/websearc...t&visit_id=637324165013460751-1430605442&rd=1
If it is like mine, you will get vastly different results compared to Speedtest by Ookla: www.speedtest.net
Side note: While talking to Tmo tech support they're also having issues with the Note 4 losing LTE abilities, just in case you know anyone using them still.

rosedog said:
quick update:
On the phone with Tmo tech support this morning. They're telling me that ALL A71 5G phones are experiencing this. That the ball was dropped on it. They are expecting the firmware update to fix the issue. The rub is if I want to return this phone today is my last day (14 days) or I can wait to see if the firmware update works. Double sucks because I traded in my Note 8 for this because the Tmo promo. T-Mobile tech support is well aware of this issue.
Currently basebands ending in TSV are getting the firmware update. I have TEL and they did not know when that was being pushed out.
If you are wanting to run the same speed test that I was instructed to run, on your A71 5G, go here and follow the instructions:
If it is like mine, you will get vastly different results compared to Speedtest by Ookla:
Side note: While talking to Tmo tech support they're also having issues with the Note 4 losing LTE abilities, just in case you know anyone using them still.
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Click to collapse
Hi Rosedog,
thanks for sharing this info. I just received my tmo A71 5G yesterday and while it shows full five bar reception and 5G connections, the data does not work at all for me. Disabling the 5G connection and the phone connects to 4G just fine. Re-enabling 5G and mobile data no longer works again.
I have contacted Tmo customer service and they also had a tech try a bunch of things, update my SIM card, check the tower my phone is pinging, I even factory defaulted my phone to no avail. They have escalated this to one of their "engineers" and I should get a call back on Monday.
Unfortunately, this being a fairly new phone, not much information that I could find but there was a support thread on TMO, I can't share the URL because I don't have any posts on XDA. lol =x
but the thread is titled: Samsung A71 5G Network Issues

rosedog said:
quick update:
On the phone with Tmo tech support this morning. They're telling me that ALL A71 5G phones are experiencing this. That the ball was dropped on it. They are expecting the firmware update to fix the issue. The rub is if I want to return this phone today is my last day (14 days) or I can wait to see if the firmware update works. Double sucks because I traded in my Note 8 for this because the Tmo promo. T-Mobile tech support is well aware of this issue.
Currently basebands ending in TSV are getting the firmware update. I have TEL and they did not know when that was being pushed out.
If you are wanting to run the same speed test that I was instructed to run, on your A71 5G, go here and follow the instructions:
https://support.google.com/websearc...t&visit_id=637324165013460751-1430605442&rd=1
If it is like mine, you will get vastly different results compared to Speedtest by Ookla: www.speedtest.net
Side note: While talking to Tmo tech support they're also having issues with the Note 4 losing LTE abilities, just in case you know anyone using them still.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the TEL firmware on T-Mobile and I've been getting far better speeds than you on my A71 5G. Right now the tower I'm on is a bit congested, but I ran the speedtest you linked and it showed 5.76 Mbps download / 11.5 Mbps upload. (phone shows a 5G connection)
About a week ago, I was in Washington Square Park in NYC (also on 5G) and was stunned to get 674 Mbps down: https://imgur.com/54xDrOT

jumpah said:
Hi Rosedog,
thanks for sharing this info. I just received my tmo A71 5G yesterday and while it shows full five bar reception and 5G connections, the data does not work at all for me. Disabling the 5G connection and the phone connects to 4G just fine. Re-enabling 5G and mobile data no longer works again.
I have contacted Tmo customer service and they also had a tech try a bunch of things, update my SIM card, check the tower my phone is pinging, I even factory defaulted my phone to no avail. They have escalated this to one of their "engineers" and I should get a call back on Monday.
Unfortunately, this being a fairly new phone, not much information that I could find but there was a support thread on TMO, I can't share the URL because I don't have any posts on XDA. lol =x
but the thread is titled: Samsung A71 5G Network Issues
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello Jumpah,
It sucks simply put. As I said earlier this morning T-Mobile is well aware of this. The rep told me that they cannot believe how the ball was dropped on this phone. They have been getting alot of complaints about it and I went through the same hoops except for the factory reset. We're stuck with a paper weight at the moment. It pisses me off because this was my intro to 5G before I made the jump to the Samsung Note 20 Ultra. I wanted to see the badass speeds when this opened up.
andrewNY said:
I have the TEL firmware on T-Mobile and I've been getting far better speeds than you on my A71 5G. Right now the tower I'm on is a bit congested, but I ran the speedtest you linked and it showed 5.76 Mbps download / 11.5 Mbps upload. (phone shows a 5G connection)
About a week ago, I was in Washington Square Park in NYC (also on 5G) and was stunned to get 674 Mbps down: https://imgur.com/54xDrOT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah your download speed on your current test is slower than my Note 10+ but definitely faster than my A71 5G. I would love to get first speed though.
**edit**
 @andrewNY after looking at your picture, that speed test looks like it was run using Ookla . I don't even bother looking at their speeds any longer. If I run their test I get 46.88 Mbps download right now. That is a difference of 9,015%, yours is 11,701%

Im On The latest ATG9 updated baseband so i assume i wont have this issue, my speed down seems fine my up seems a little low though but as long as my down is that fast im cool with it.
P.S.=Mine Was TEL when i got it.
SideNote =my update for ATG9 came in last night at midnight.

Mine has consistently gotten 25Mbps-30Mbps on "5G".
But I assumed TMo was pulling the same smoke and mirrors they usually do and park the 5G symbol on the display even when it isn't technically 5G.
They did the same during the transition from 3G to 4G and then from 4G to LTE.
I'll have to check it against my wife's Note 10.
On Wifi I show speeds off the scale on speedtest.net in excess of 100Mbps.
As this was one of the first 5G phones, and despite all the hype, TMo will still be rolling out 5G infrastructure for at least another 12mo, I wasn't expecting much except in major cities like NYC, LA, ATL, DAL, etc.
---------- Post added at 01:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 PM ----------
Just verified using my wife's Note 10 that we both are getting identical speeds on multiple tests.
My A71 5G shows a "5G" connection on the display.
Her Note 10 shows 4G LTE on the display.
TMo's coverage map claims I should have 5G coverage here.

Here in SC speeds have been up to par. 2nd 5g phone. Am getting better speeds on my a71 then my v60..

rosedog said:
@andrewNY after looking at your picture, that speed test looks like it was run using Ookla . I don't even bother looking at their speeds any longer. If I run their test I get 46.88 Mbps download right now. That is a difference of 9,015%, yours is 11,701%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Ookla speed test I posted was run at a different time and location to the Google speed test I quoted, so it can't really be compared there. I actually ran another Ookla test at the same time and got roughly the exact same speeds as what Google was showing me though.
BTW: I got a OTA firmware update today to the latest firmware; maybe check your device and see if T-Mobile made the update available to you, and if it helps.

Mine is T-Mobile-labeled on the box, while my service is with Sprint.
My wife has the same device.
I don't have a strong 5G signal at home, and it usually comes in
between 5Mb/s and 20Mb/s when testing with Ookla.
It fluctuates quite a lot.
The 5G indicator reliably comes and goes, with signal strength indicator
acting accordingly. Simple LTE-only signal is always high, with 5G
coming in at a lower strength while at home.
At my workplace, it's a different show entirely.
I've gotten as fast as 273 Mb/s on a strong 5G signal,
which is over 5-times the rate I pay for on a cable modem at home.
My home and workplace are less than seven miles apart.
4G LTE signals can get me as much as 25 Mb/s at home,
but it, too, fluctuates a lot. Voice calls are a colossal improvement, however,
with audio quality reported as excellent on both ends.
5G is definitely for real, while the implementation is far from being
fully deployed yet. We'll need to give it time before the newer 5G
is deployed across the current infrastructure.

andrewNY said:
The Ookla speed test I posted was run at a different time and location to the Google speed test I quoted, so it can't really be compared there. I actually ran another Ookla test at the same time and got roughly the exact same speeds as what Google was showing me though.
BTW: I got a OTA firmware update today to the latest firmware; maybe check your device and see if T-Mobile made the update available to you, and if it helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Saw your reply when you made it, just haven't had time to respond. I got the firmware update but that was not the fix, although I did get it fixed.
Last Friday being my last day to turn it in, I went to the store to turn it in. I explained everything to the associate (store manager) and while he was pulling up my account I started playing with the demo A71 (same base band) and it was getting fantastic speeds, mine was still getting 0.5 Mbps. The manager thought that it might be the sim card so he tried his in my phone and the speeds were drastically better. He got me a new sim and inserted it and the speeds were like his moments earlier. Getting the sim card exposed the real problem. It in fact was not the sim card but the service the associate had put my phone onto. Now my Note 10+ did not work
When I got the phone I had asked if there was a way I could have two phones ring at the same time when one phone number is called. I explained that I did not want to be sim swapping all the time from my daily driver (Note 10+) to my play/trial 5G phone (A71 5G). They told me digits could do that and it was only $10 a month. Sounded great to me... Technically it worked, both phones would ring, I could go to websites and it seemed to be as I was told. Unfortunately when the associate sold me the digits line he did not look at what type of account I have. I have an old account that has been grandfathered in (from 2010) and its a TAX EXCLUDED (TE) account vs. the newer kind of TAX INCLUDED (TI). Digits for a TE account gets you data and phone for $10 but NOT high speed data! That is only available for TI accounts and that cost $20/$25 a month. The only way I could get this to work was to do it the old fashion way of adding an additional line but that is $30 a month. So through ineptitude I was sold a plan that was not intended to do the things I was told it could do. We had to call into customer service (611) to see if they could do anything to help fix the issue at hand, like get me the high speed digits line. The system would not allow but what they did do was get me a new line that mimics my main line (all the bells and whistles) for $15 a month for my troubles. I took it and it works. I do not digits any longer but I did enjoy the fact that both devices could ring at the same time.
As for running the speed test, Ookla still gives me higher speeds on paper but only by 10 Mbps now.
What a stupid ordeal that took way too much time to figure out.

rosedog said:
Saw your reply when you made it, just haven't had time to respond. I got the firmware update but that was not the fix, although I did get it fixed.
Last Friday being my last day to turn it in, I went to the store to turn it in. I explained everything to the associate (store manager) and while he was pulling up my account I started playing with the demo A71 (same base band) and it was getting fantastic speeds, mine was still getting 0.5 Mbps. The manager thought that it might be the sim card so he tried his in my phone and the speeds were drastically better. He got me a new sim and inserted it and the speeds were like his moments earlier. Getting the sim card exposed the real problem. It in fact was not the sim card but the service the associate had put my phone onto. Now my Note 10+ did not work
When I got the phone I had asked if there was a way I could have two phones ring at the same time when one phone number is called. I explained that I did not want to be sim swapping all the time from my daily driver (Note 10+) to my play/trial 5G phone (A71 5G). They told me digits could do that and it was only $10 a month. Sounded great to me... Technically it worked, both phones would ring, I could go to websites and it seemed to be as I was told. Unfortunately when the associate sold me the digits line he did not look at what type of account I have. I have an old account that has been grandfathered in (from 2010) and its a TAX EXCLUDED (TE) account vs. the newer kind of TAX INCLUDED (TI). Digits for a TE account gets you data and phone for $10 but NOT high speed data! That is only available for TI accounts and that cost $20/$25 a month. The only way I could get this to work was to do it the old fashion way of adding an additional line but that is $30 a month. So through ineptitude I was sold a plan that was not intended to do the things I was told it could do. We had to call into customer service (611) to see if they could do anything to help fix the issue at hand, like get me the high speed digits line. The system would not allow but what they did do was get me a new line that mimics my main line (all the bells and whistles) for $15 a month for my troubles. I took it and it works. I do not digits any longer but I did enjoy the fact that both devices could ring at the same time.
As for running the speed test, Ookla still gives me higher speeds on paper but only by 10 Mbps now.
What a stupid ordeal that took way too much time to figure out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that's pretty crazy, but I'm glad you figured it out, and also that there isn't a critical issue with the A71 5G and speeds!

andrewNY said:
Wow, that's pretty crazy, but I'm glad you figured it out, and also that there isn't a critical issue with the A71 5G and speeds!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say I spent 8+ hours trying to get this fixed between tech support and in store support. Nobody thought to look at the account type before hand.

So I had this issue on At&t, couldn't for the life of me figure out why my cell speeds were so bad. At&t variant defaults apn to ATT ENHANCED.
I decided to use the same Apn for my LG V40 apn: NXTGENPHONE
The speeds are night and day, and 5G still works on NXTGENPHONE
On 5g default apn 47mbps on NXTGEN 255mbps
I tested switching between apns for 4 hours (I was at the beach)
At home default 4mbps and NXTGEN 20mbps.
If your on AT&T try the NXTGENPHONE apn

I can confirm speedtest.net reached download speeds in excess of 175Mbps in Atlanta, GA on 5G with 4-bar signal. That was both indoors, and outside, repeated in multiple locations.
As before, even though TMo's coverage map claims my home is a 5G area, I only get LTE speeds of about 25Mbps there.

SkedAddled said:
Mine is T-Mobile-labeled on the box, while my service is with Sprint.
My wife has the same device.
I don't have a strong 5G signal at home, and it usually comes in
between 5Mb/s and 20Mb/s when testing with Ookla.
It fluctuates quite a lot.
The 5G indicator reliably comes and goes, with signal strength indicator
acting accordingly. Simple LTE-only signal is always high, with 5G
coming in at a lower strength while at home.
At my workplace, it's a different show entirely.
I've gotten as fast as 273 Mb/s on a strong 5G signal,
which is over 5-times the rate I pay for on a cable modem at home.
My home and workplace are less than seven miles apart.
4G LTE signals can get me as much as 25 Mb/s at home,
but it, too, fluctuates a lot. Voice calls are a colossal improvement, however,
with audio quality reported as excellent on both ends.
5G is definitely for real, while the implementation is far from being
fully deployed yet. We'll need to give it time before the newer 5G
is deployed across the current infrastructure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just adding my experience so far- I've been to several places around my home where i get 5 bars of "5G". Running any speed test on 5G is usually 20 mbits/sec slower than if I configure the network to 4G. It's so consistent that I don't bother to turn on the 5G network, as it will underperform.

steven.rn said:
Just adding my experience so far- I've been to several places around my home where i get 5 bars of "5G". Running any speed test on 5G is usually 20 mbits/sec slower than if I configure the network to 4G. It's so consistent that I don't bother to turn on the 5G network, as it will underperform.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I consistently get variable 5G results: At home, not so good. At work: VERY good.
I haven't tried setting to 4G-only yet, as VOLTE seems to be what enables 5G on my device.
Keep in mind also, that signal-strength bars are not neccessarily an indication of 4G or 5G signals.
My experience has shown that indicated signal-strength only applies to voice as on Sprint,
while 4G and 5G data throughput is typically lower-performance.

SkedAddled said:
I consistently get variable 5G results: At home, not so good. At work: VERY good.
I haven't tried setting to 4G-only yet, as VOLTE seems to be what enables 5G on my device.
Keep in mind also, that signal-strength bars are not neccessarily an indication of 4G or 5G signals.
My experience has shown that indicated signal-strength only applies to voice as on Sprint,
while 4G and 5G data throughput is typically lower-performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Much appreciated comment, bud, that would explain some things.
Still, it seems odd that when I enable 5G, even if the phone is actually getting 4g, it's still slower. Dunno if that's because the phone is still looking for 5g while it's downloading a test in 4G or what.... either way, I didn't really expect 5G to amount to much in Northeast ohio yet.
Cheers!
StevenRN

steven.rn said:
Much appreciated comment, bud, that would explain some things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've found that signal-strength indicator doesn't necessarily represent data-throughout rate,
or what one might expect if it shows a 'full' signal. I've seen tests fluctuate considerably
during the test itself when stationary.
I just did an Ookla speed test from home on 5G.
It wavered from around 6 or 7Mb/s to over 52Mb/s during the short time it took,
rising and falling repeatedly. When I'm at work, the throughput just continues to climb
during the test time until it tops out at whatever it can get: no fluctuation;
it just keeps increasing. It's topped-out at various maximums, but it ALWAYS just climbs to a max.
I had some sound-quality issues on 4G, in not being able to make out clear voice before,
while this new device is excellent, on both ends of a call.
steven.rn said:
Still, it seems odd that when I enable 5G, even if the phone is actually getting 4g, it's still slower. Dunno if that's because the phone is still looking for 5g while it's downloading a test in 4G or what.... either way, I didn't really expect 5G to amount to much in Northeast ohio yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably some bandwidth is being used, like you suspect, leeching some of it
away from your results.
My old HTC EVO 4G LTE went into a major battery drain when reliable data signals
weren't available, and I discovered that Airplane Mode would put a halt to that, lending
some credence to your suspicions. My takeaway has been that if the device is looking for a radio signal
it cannot find, it ramps-up the process, leading to processor use and battery drain, as well as
potential bandwidth usage due to signal-seeking.
As for deployment of 5G, you'd be surprised:
I live much closer to the population center of Grand Rapids, MI, than I do to my workplace
of a semi-rural community of Byron Center. The "Built-up-ness" of the immediate area
around my home has increased tremendously within the 8 or so years I've lived where I am,
while Byron Center remains much the same. Yet Byron Center has received the infrastructure
updates that my more population-centric home base has not, going back to 4G LTE.
There's just no figuring out when/why/how any given provider will roll out updates
to infrastructure, but it shows that some happen within very surprising places.

I have just got off phone with sprint. They refreshed my phone and I am getting better download speeds. They also said there upgrading my tower to 5G should be done in 5 to 7 days. Really don't know what the refreshing does.