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AT&T killing off edge?

Engadget and a few others are talking about AT&T trying to push users to 3G network and they think its so they can replace edge towers. Hope that means better late coverage and that when they throttle us it will be to 3G instead of three .10 edge
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The engadget coverage is incorrect in that it says its only happening in NYC right now. They have rolled out these messages in Boston before Engadget even covered the topic, and I have two friends that already upgraded their old, edge blackberries to Curve 9630s
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

This is good, they are trying to refarm the EDGE spectrum to put 3G on there, which means if they do that, 3G coverage will increase crazily.

Absolutely unrequired ... instead of consistently fighting for more spectrum, they should be changing their receivers.
The old spin orbital momentum controlled signals aren't nearly as effective as orbital angular momentum ones ... they wouldn't even need to worry about different encryption techniques. Twisted signals are just so much better.
This would just remove a layer of fallback, unless they switch the 3G network to be IP-switched rather than circuit switched. That would be sweet, would save them a ton of money, not like they would pass that to the customers though. Except for cheaper long distance calling I guess.

They have been slowing edge connections drastically over the past year to nudge people who still have edge phones to move over to 3G.
This was the primary reason why the iPhone 4S shipped without a disable 3G toggle(previously you were able to toggle off 3G and go onto EDGE)

nest75068 said:
They have been slowing edge connections drastically over the past year to nudge people who still have edge phones to move over to 3G.
This was the primary reason why the iPhone 4S shipped without a disable 3G toggle(previously you were able to toggle off 3G and go onto EDGE)
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The 3G toggle is back in iOS 5.1

rjohnstone said:
The 3G toggle is back in iOS 5.1
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Yeah, they are bringing it back on ATT primarily because of the overwhelming response to it being removed.
Logically in some areas you can get better edge coverage for phone(as it penetrates better than 3G coverage) but I have a feeling with how slow edge is now, not many people will actually use it for their browsing.
I personally when I had an I4, had my phone jailbroken with SBSettings and had a toggle to toggle on/off 3G so I could squeeze more battery life out of the phone(edge requires a lot less battery power than 3G)
I wish this was something they thought of on the SR. I would love to be able to turn off LTE / 4G HSPA+ when at home (I live close to Denton and LTE coverage is minimal - 1 bar if any and 4G coverage in terms of data is horrible). If I didn't have something managing my radios, my battery would deplete in mere hours. Currently I have Juicedefender managing the radios(data network) and shutting them down when I am on a wifi network. This saves me tons on battery while at home(or out and about and can connect to a wifi network)
Is it a hassle, sometimes(specifically if I get an MMS - because I have to turn Wifi off, wait for juicedefender to turn my radios back on, and then download the mms) but that doesn't happen enough for me to be concerned.

Is the radio in this device really that bad?

so long story short I am looking at ditching sprint where I have an EVO LTE. Trust me when I say I am used to crap reception and data speeds. I was reading the thread full of other people who have came from sprint and most seem happy but... I read a lot of comments from long time Verizon users saying things like " I have to contort like a monkey to get a message to go through". Are these just spoiled Verizon users that don't know how good they've got it? Or is coming from sprint a waste of my time? Thanks for any and all input.
PS: Verizon has LTE all over my area, sprint has not announced any LTE anywhere near me. Is the LTE utilized for voice and text? Will this help?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium

Im sure others have problems, but mine has been great. Not a single issue to speak of. Been running CM10 for 2 months now.

Gordon Ramsay said:
so long story short I am looking at ditching sprint where I have an EVO LTE. Trust me when I say I am used to crap reception and data speeds. I was reading the thread full of other people who have came from sprint and most seem happy but... I read a lot of comments from long time Verizon users saying things like " I have to contort like a monkey to get a message to go through". Are these just spoiled Verizon users that don't know how good they've got it? Or is coming from sprint a waste of my time? Thanks for any and all input.
PS: Verizon has LTE all over my area, sprint has not announced any LTE anywhere near me. Is the LTE utilized for voice and text? Will this help?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
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NO radio problems here.... I think a lot of people with problems may be on the border of having coverage where they are...? I have FULL bars no matter where I go in Michigan (except in Walmart) LOL I have LTE coverage too and it's been a solid performer and I may drop a call here and there but nothing out of the norm... Just my personal experiences...:good:

My .02
Go to a verizon store, put a rezound side by side to a samsung galaxy s3 and compare the dbm and asu and u will see how terrible the signal is . My phone is constantly at least 20 dbm less than the rezound .
It feels like i am back to sprint or tmobile since i got my device, constant data drops, phone call break ups and 4g/3g handing off is terrible .
Btw this is my 4th sim and second samsung galaxy s3 trial now , still reception in comparison to any htc phone is horrible.
Htc put their 4g antennas on the back cover which i think makes them practically immune to low signal issues.
Its a pretty phone , but if u want a device that actually communicates with satellites and cell towers, then get a real phone . not this one .
waiting for htc dlx

Mine has been completely fine.
Currently not being productive on my S3.

I came from Sprint at the beginning of the month. On Sprint it had gotten so bad that I was on 1 bar 90% of the time in the middle of the New Orleans area. I gave up waiting for it to get better and installed Roam Control so I could force it to roam on Verizon. Forced roaming only gets you 1x data, but it gave me full signal which prevented dropouts and draining the battery.
Now I'm on Verizon with the S3 and have no signal issues. I don't think I've ever seen less than 3 bars. The signal starts might be lower than other phones based on other people's experience but I wouldn't know because I haven't had any problems to make it worth checking. I think it really depends on your area. If your current phone is rooted, you could try Roam Control to get an idea of what the signal strength will be like, although you'll be stuck on 1x data.

I too was scared by the reports in various threads that these devices have horrible radios. We switched to Verizon from ATT because ATT doesn't work at all at my office (searching for reception).
I haven't been looking at dBM or anything but from a functional standpoint I haven't had any issues. There are some areas where before I was getting 4-5 3G bars on my ATT iPhone4 where the SGS3 bounces between 1-3 bars 4G LTE. It's always disturbing when you see 1 bar of reception, but the phone operates well even getting 4-5Mbps in speedtest. If you look at bars (I know not really accurate) and whether or not I can browse, call, etc. the SGS3 compares favorable to the wife's iPhone5. In fact there were a couple places where I was getting 1-2 bars 4G and the iPhone5 dropped to 3G.

Her are some screen shots of my signals after an update last night. These are the best I've gotten on both and better than anything I saw on my Rezound.
Currently not being productive on my S3.

Never had an issue with signal on my S3. You also need to realize that the most vocal people are those that have an issue. For every 1 person posting about an issue there a dozens that have no problem at all.

Signal on my s3 is great its 100 times better then gnex was and about on par with my old droid RAZR.

dwyw42 said:
I came from Sprint at the beginning of the month. On Sprint it had gotten so bad that I was on 1 bar 90% of the time in the middle of the New Orleans area. I gave up waiting for it to get better and installed Roam Control so I could force it to roam on Verizon. Forced roaming only gets you 1x data, but it gave me full signal which prevented dropouts and draining the battery.
Now I'm on Verizon with the S3 and have no signal issues. I don't think I've ever seen less than 3 bars. The signal starts might be lower than other phones based on other people's experience but I wouldn't know because I haven't had any problems to make it worth checking. I think it really depends on your area. If your current phone is rooted, you could try Roam Control to get an idea of what the signal strength will be like, although you'll be stuck on 1x data.
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This doesn't work, each manufacturer measures it slightly differently. You have to use a third party app to compare phones that are not the same model.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Yes, it is. My GS3 consistently drops in places where my Rezound and iPhone work without a hiccup.

I actually just switched from Sprint to Verizon last week and love it. My gs3 has great reception and the network is very fast. I get a consistent 30 mbps down all over my area. With Sprint I was lucky to get 500 kbps
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

The Nexus was the worst for reception. The S3 is a close second. It seems to be people in some parts of the country don't notice the issue - possibly because they don't use their phone much or because they have towers that use different technology than the towers in the areas I travel. I spend a lot of time in Los Angeles, Vegas and Dallas. I can be at 4 bars one second and no bars (drop the call) and go back to 4 bars the next.
I was on Sprint and the HTC EVO 3D had that same issue even though the EVO didn't. I did always get crap data speeds on Sprint though. Some phones get great signal like the Motorola - so the question is - which is more imporant to you - the PDA or the phone. I use about 3000 minutes per month so I notice quickly when there are issues with a phones reception. My data speeds on the S3 are much better than I had on Sprint.

No the radios are not bad.
Excellent service, all the time here. In fact, I've never seen my phone with less than 3 bars, anywhere I go. And I travel a lot.

Yes the radios are very bad.....although improving. With the HE radio I finally have seem -99 dbm at my house although most of the time it is around -105. This is much improved compared to the original radio where I saw on average -110. I still drop calls in areas where I never have before. The poster that stated that HTC's have better signal are definitely correct. My wifes old rezound normally saw -80 to -85 at my house and never dropped calls anywhere. My old Thunderbolt was the same. Funny thing is that no matter what direction I go from my house, once I am a minute away I get full reception.....no matter what way I go. The radios don't do a good job of reaching out for the signal. The range is bad. Those stating that they are happy with their radios are probably in areas that don't have any weak spots. I'm holding out for newer radios cause every release seems to be a small step in the right direction.

ercDROID said:
Yes the radios are very bad.....although improving. With the HE radio I finally have seem -99 dbm at my house although most of the time it is around -105. This is much improved compared to the original radio where I saw on average -110. I still drop calls in areas where I never have before. The poster that stated that HTC's have better signal are definitely correct. My wifes old rezound normally saw -80 to -85 at my house and never dropped calls anywhere. My old Thunderbolt was the same. Funny thing is that no matter what direction I go from my house, once I am a minute away I get full reception.....no matter what way I go. The radios don't do a good job of reaching out for the signal. The range is bad. Those stating that they are happy with their radios are probably in areas that don't have any weak spots. I'm holding out for newer radios cause every release seems to be a small step in the right direction.
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Same exact thing here! You took the words directly out of my mouth.
Sent by one of my many Anthromorphic Personifications

Here are the results of a real world test that I just did with a co-workers HTC Thunderbolt compared to my SG3:
Both phones on 4g and side by side
HTC dBM -66
SG3 dBM -92
I think the results are pretty clear. Nothing else really needs to be said about the quality of the SG3 radio......it is not as good as the competition. If it was close by a few dBM then it would not be of concern to me. A 26 dBM difference is huge!
Because of this difference in signal strength he was able to have much faster download speeds. I was 17 down compared to his 27 down.

[Q] LTE connectivity issues?

I checked, and to the best of my knowledge, Im under LTE coverage. But for some reason, I have yet to see any LTE icon or speeds. Anyone else having a similar issue at all? Might this be an APN issue or something?
EDIT: Nevermind, please delete.

I've noticed that this device really drops reception as hard as possible when in low reception areas, which seems to be done in order to save power.... because I put it in my pocket and reception is often E or no reception in my school (usually 0-2 bars of HSPA+ or EDGE), even though it is more than capable of staying at around 3 bars of reception of HSPA+ where my old device could maybe get 1-2. I know that's not a good comparison but it's clearly dropping down to 2G/no reception when not in use.

Call Quality and Signal Reception

I live less than 3 miles from Center city Philadelphia and I get terrible cell reception. My radio goes nuts constantly trying to keep a stable radio signal. It jumps from H to H+ to LTE constantly. I can stand in one place and watch it jump around all day. If I force LTE, LTE just drops out constantly. What is going on?
I have a few friends who all use the same carrier(T-Mobile) with different phones and don't report the same issue. I even have a buddy using a Gnex and he gets better reception than I do. Call quality is not very good either. I was making a call while walking home from class and had the other persons voice drop in and out when the wind started to blow. I dont believe that Wind was effecting my call. That makes no sense, but there was a correlation that went on for 20 minutes.
Anyone else having call quality/ signal strength issues? I am not talking about your data speeds, we have a thread for that. I am talking about tower connectivity and stability .

I don't use my phone for calling, but I'm trying out T-mobile in Janesville and Beloit Wisconsin and I notice that my signal bounces between GPRS, EDGE, 3g and H constantly as well. I have no other phone on T-Mobile to compare to though. Granted all signals have 1-2 bars in most places.

Use the app Sensorly to see what other users are reporting for signal coverage.

Does 4G have a more extended range than 3G?

Hello,
I was wondering if 4G antennas have a bigger range than 3G antennas. I will be moving to a more remote location and I will depend on the signal from a nearby town.
I was wondering if I should buy a 4G dongle for my mobile internet or just stick with my phone, which has H+. I know there is a signal there, but I don't know which type (3G or 4G). Considering the 4G dongles are way more expensive, I wouldn't like to invest in one and have a 3G signal. I also can't test the signal because I don't have a 4G phone.
So let's assume the antennas are in the same place, one is with 3G technology and one is with 4G and I am pretty far away (let's say 3/5 max bars of signal). From which antenna would I have a faster internet connection?

keeekeeess said:
Hello,
I was wondering if 4G antennas have a bigger range than 3G antennas. I will be moving to a more remote location and I will depend on the signal from a nearby town.
I was wondering if I should buy a 4G dongle for my mobile internet or just stick with my phone, which has H+. I know there is a signal there, but I don't know which type (3G or 4G). Considering the 4G dongles are way more expensive, I wouldn't like to invest in one and have a 3G signal. I also can't test the signal because I don't have a 4G phone.
So let's assume the antennas are in the same place, one is with 3G technology and one is with 4G and I am pretty far away (let's say 3/5 max bars of signal). From which antenna would I have a faster internet connection?
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Well 4g is not available everywhere. It depends on what carrier u have and where u are. But from what I noticed is 4g is not as strong as 3g. I get 4g at home but if I go in my basement or in the woods I only get 3g. It's very picky but if you get 4g you won't regret it, even if you don't get it everywhere.

4G is open to certain areas. The main areas I would say is the city. 3G range is allot better as its universal, although 4G is faster, 3G is good.
I can't say we can compare these two networks as 4G isn't universal and it currently isn't available everywhere.