My brother and I decided to go check out a pretty huge Verizon 4G cell site today for fun. We got to see the tons of equipment that powers Verizon's crazy fast 4G LTE network in person. When I was standing under one of the towers, I decided to run a couple speed tests. Thinking I'd be able to pull 40-50 Mbps down easily, especially with a signal strength of -45 dBm, I shocked to see I was only able to pull down 3.5 Mbps over LTE. Just half a mile away I could get anywhere from a 25-30 Mbps down average so why would I get such a terrible connection speed being so close to the tower. Was I just too close and getting too much RF interference? If anyone knows the technical stuff behind cell towers, let me know, I'd love to find out more about this!
It's because you're standing right under the tower. The tower projects the signal outwards rather than down. This means there are places around the tower you wont get good signal. This is the reason you got good signal half mile away. You were in line with the signal.
They go outwards and then go down as they go along, thats why living right next to a cell tower will give you bad signal, but being a few miles away will give you brilliant signal.
MrLadoodle said:
They go outwards and then go down as they go along, thats why living right next to a cell tower will give you bad signal, but being a few miles away will give you brilliant signal.
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Don't forget give you radiation also lol
Think about it, it's like standing in the middle of a hurricane. Minimal wind speed in the eye. Maximum wind speed a few miles in any direction from the eye.
MrLadoodle said:
They go outwards and then go down as they go along, thats why living right next to a cell tower will give you bad signal, but being a few miles away will give you brilliant signal.
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A few miles? In rural areas, maybe - with larger towers with a greater range but definitely not in urban areas.
ewd54 said:
It's because you're standing right under the tower. The tower projects the signal outwards rather than down. This means there are places around the tower you wont get good signal. This is the reason you got good signal half mile away. You were in line with the signal.
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Thanks for pointing that out, that probably explains the terrible data speeds I was pulling down. I don't think anyone could beat the -45 dBm signal strength I managed to get though.
htc fan89 said:
Don't forget give you radiation also lol
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Well there were warning signs posted all over the tower stating that the RF exposure exceeded FCC limits and to stay within 7 feet, but I thought living close to a cell site was relatively safe?
Should of taken a picture of the sign.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
no matter how the signal strength is, the hardware and software protocols are made for typical LTE speeds, you will not get those speeds. it may be error.
KRAZYADROIDMASTER said:
Should of taken a picture of the sign.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
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Did take a couple pictures of the tower and a sign with all the tower info. Didn't have time to hang around there much more before we got chased out.
No one lives 7 feet from those towers I'm sure...Maybe a hobo
antispiral said:
No one lives 7 feet from those towers I'm sure...Maybe a hobo
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A hobo lives somewhere haha lol
AOKP 4 LYF
Related
When i had my blackberry, i had full bars at my place, with this phone, i only get 2-3 bars. I also managed to reproduce signal strength issue while holding the bottom back of the phone with the CASE ON. The bar goes down 2-3 bars. Although calls didn't drop, data slowed down. I hope it's just poor calculation on the signal and a fix is on the way. Were you guys able to reproduce this issue or at least have less bars than your previous phone?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
My Captivate holds calls through areas that my BB Bold 9700 always dropped. Bars are not relevant, it's holding up the call that counts.
I did notice that I get fewer bars shown on this phone than my old iphone. My old iphone would show 1-2 bars in my living room. This phone shows no bars and if I leave the living room it goes to no signal icon. But I did a speedtest with no bars being shown and I got 1.2Mbps down speed and 148kbps up speed, so thats pretty decent. But you're right, I dont think the antenna in this phone is as good as in some other phones. Even sitting at my desk at work I barely get a signal, showing only one bar, where my old phone got 5.
derek4484 said:
I did notice that I get fewer bars shown on this phone than my old iphone. My old iphone would show 1-2 bars in my living room. This phone shows no bars and if I leave the living room it goes to no signal icon. But I did a speedtest with no bars being shown and I got 1.2Mbps down speed and 148kbps up speed, so thats pretty decent. But you're right, I dont think the antenna in this phone is as good as in some other phones. Even sitting at my desk at work I barely get a signal, showing only one bar, where my old phone got 5.
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Just wandering around XDA today -- thought I'd offer my 0.02c.
Remember if you compare against an iPhone that the recent adjustment to the display of the signal bars will show less bars than before. Also, AFAIK every mfr displays them differently anyway...
aikeru said:
Just wandering around XDA today -- thought I'd offer my 0.02c.
Remember if you compare against an iPhone that the recent adjustment to the display of the signal bars will show less bars than before. Also, AFAIK every mfr displays them differently anyway...
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Yes, especially since Apple said they "were completely wrong in calculating signal strength and the number bars to display". Seems they can make the bars whatever they feel like. I would go by the dBm before any bars.
cellgeek said:
My Captivate holds calls through areas that my BB Bold 9700 always dropped. Bars are not relevant, it's holding up the call that counts.
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This^ Unless you're dropping calls, I wouldn't worry about it.
derek4484 said:
I did notice that I get fewer bars shown on this phone than my old iphone. My old iphone would show 1-2 bars in my living room. This phone shows no bars and if I leave the living room it goes to no signal icon. But I did a speedtest with no bars being shown and I got 1.2Mbps down speed and 148kbps up speed, so thats pretty decent. But you're right, I dont think the antenna in this phone is as good as in some other phones. Even sitting at my desk at work I barely get a signal, showing only one bar, where my old phone got 5.
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The iphone had vastly inflated bars to hide its poor reception. Thats what made the iphones antenna problems appear to be even worse.
k2snowboards88 said:
The iphone had vastly inflated bars to hide its poor reception. Thats what made the iphones antenna problems appear to be even worse.
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QFT. Apple faked bars... Enough so to where it showed as many as 2 bars more than what it should have.
Everyone does this to some extent, and being the open platform that Android is, I'd suspect they're probably going to be the most accurate as far as bar representation.
I wish carriers would just start putting the signal level there instead.
The signal strength reporting on this phone isn't very granular. It's basically the same as the bar indicator. 5 bars is -51 dBm, 4 is -81 dBm and 3 is -97 dBm. My tests with all signal strengths so far in terms of download speeds in 3 locations in Manhattan are identical. I'm getting ~3mps down and ~300 kbps up (AT&T please fix this!).
Is anyone reporting dropped calls or data slowdowns due to signal loss?
This phone updates the single faster then anyphone I have ever owned. I *think* most phones a buffered a little but this phone, My girlfriend was driving the other day and I was watching the bars change constantly.
Since I got this phone on Saturday, I have rarely had full bars even when driving through town. But I haven't had any problems with performance so far. Still, it bothers me because I want to be sure that I don't have a lemon as other people I know have been getting full bars.
I can hold my samsung captivate between my butt cheeks and i get full bars, i just had to say it, cause now that the icrap4 has the anntennaassgape, everyone thinks there device will have it to, its not the smartphone scene's fault that apple doesn't know how to design high end smartphones...
adamandro12 said:
Since I got this phone on Saturday, I have rarely had full bars even when driving through town. But I haven't had any problems with performance so far. Still, it bothers me because I want to be sure that I don't have a lemon as other people I know have been getting full bars.
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That just means this is the only phone you've owned that displays bars correctly...
I went from 5 bars (3GS) down to 2 bars (on the Android).
Simple fact is that Android's representation of bars is closer to what it should be.
rafyvitto said:
I can hold my samsung captivate between my butt cheeks and i get full bars, i just had to say it, cause now that the icrap4 has the anntennaassgape, everyone thinks there device will have it to, its not the smartphone scene's fault that apple doesn't know how to design high end smartphones...
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Hahahaha. I couldn't agree with you more.
I'm referring to other captivate owners who have told me they get full bars.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
adamandro12 said:
I'm referring to other captivate owners who have told me they get full bars.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Only way I'd trust something like that, testing if you've got reception issues, is having them side by side.
Oh good, I thought I was the only one with this problem just got the mine and I notice the signal would change constantly thinking of returning it .
A friend of mine had mentioned she was picking up a spotty signal for 4G on Central Ave in Colonie/Albany this week.
Anyone else in the area notice this? I'm kind of excited for it to get turned on. I'd love to see what kind of speed I get at work.
A friend of mine just got the Thunderbolt and he was getting 4G signal yesterday in the Colonie Sand Creek Rd area, albeit spotty, as well. Most apps were completely downloaded and installed before I even got to pulling down the notification bar to open it. Crazy fast.
Pretty sweet to see an Albany, NY post. It looks they have 4g up along a stretch of central ave. I can get it on i-90 near exit 4-5, and on central in west gate area to the boarder with Colonie. It seems to extend to Washington ave.
Hopefully they expand it out soon.
Unfortunately I think the 4g outage delayed things a little.
I work right near the airport so I'm hoping that it will cover around there. I live off of exit 7 on the northway so if it reaches me at my home, I'll be even more pumped.
madzozs said:
I work right near the airport so I'm hoping that it will cover around there. I live off of exit 7 on the northway so if it reaches me at my home, I'll be even more pumped.
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Yeah I live near the hospitals. I don't use a ton of internet at home, so if it gets to me I'm floating the idea of ditching the cable modem and just tethering when necessary.
I've been getting about 12 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up in the 4 g area's...With my cable modem I get 6 Mbps down 1 Mbps up...
They're doing testing in Syracuse, too.
Sent from my ThunderBolt using Tapatalk
4G is up and currently in testing for the Albany area. I know it extends out to Amsterdam not sure how much further past it will go but it seems like it'll cover a good stretch from Albany to Amsterdam and points south and north.
Recently I had to move to an area where if I drive two minutes in any direction I have no signal/service. The coverage map says tmobile doesn't even have towers around here and it borrows at&t towers and 2g data. Unfortunately the spots they chose to cover are extremely spotty. Now I realize there is more than likely absolutely nothing that can be done without switching carriers but for specific reasons I'm not interested in doing that. I figured I would at least ask if there DOES happen to be something that can be done though... no harm in that. A lot of people on here know a lot more than me about this sort of thing. Someone please (at least try) to give me good news!
Probably not though. Oh well.
Sent from my LG-P999
They make personal cell towers for your house (that's definitely not the right word for them). But unfortunately it wouldn't do anything for the areas around it.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Ehh I got wifi calling plus the signal at my apt is fine. I will eventually just unlock it and use a different carrier. Probably the only thing that can be done.
Sent from my LG-P999
e4e5nf3nc6 said:
Ehh I got wifi calling plus the signal at my apt is fine. I will eventually just unlock it and use a different carrier. Probably the only thing that can be done.
Sent from my LG-P999
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Just and FYI, the only other service that it can be used with is ATT witch as you stated in OP will only be 2g.
Could be worse.
You could have 100% perfect signal *everywhere* except home. As in, I drive 1 minute in either direction and my signal becomes perfect 4G...
I'm triangulated between 3 towers at close distance... apparently at the point where they all 3 are equidistant a phone will have difficulty locking onto any one specific tower due to interference from the others... same reason AT&T realized selling cell signal repeaters could actually make signal worse for some people...
I even found a New Year's surprise from T-Mobile, ran a speedtest right after midnight and got the fastest speed I've ever gotten (anywhere) on 4G less than a mile from my home. Got all excited, got home, and had horrible signal as usual ...
lotherius said:
Could be worse.
You could have 100% perfect signal *everywhere* except home. As in, I drive 1 minute in either direction and my signal becomes perfect 4G...
I'm triangulated between 3 towers at close distance... apparently at the point where they all 3 are equidistant a phone will have difficulty locking onto any one specific tower due to interference from the others... same reason AT&T realized selling cell signal repeaters could actually make signal worse for some people...
I even found a New Year's surprise from T-Mobile, ran a speedtest right after midnight and got the fastest speed I've ever gotten (anywhere) on 4G less than a mile from my home. Got all excited, got home, and had horrible signal as usual ...
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I have the SAME EXACT issue as you. Horrible speed at home, but as soon as I step outside, perfect 4G. I easily pick up 6mb in my area. Heck, I usually pick up 10mb. ;D
I just need to move to a new area. It is Verizon-dominant around here and everything else just basically doesn't work. It really is frustrating though paying for the phone service and not having jack when I am out and about. I have no service almost anywhere I have to go on a daily basis except for my apartment. I don't have a home phone so that's useful but part of the reason of having a cell phone (especially the one I bought) is being able to send a text or use the internet WHEREVER I am!!!
Coming from a Bionic. On that phone, I kept LTE in every room of my apartment. On this Galaxy S3, I only get LTE in one room and the others throw me onto 3G. Just seeing if anyone else was experiencing something similar, hopefully enough people are affected to warrant a fix in a future update.
Have you tried network booster from market?
White Hot! GS3.
LuRock said:
Have you tried network booster from market?
White Hot! GS3.
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Never heard of it. Comments say all it does is quickly turn your phone to airplane mode then back to normal. No, I'm not downloading an app for that
I will agree with you the signal on this is not as good as my 4s on att
Mine is pulling the same dbm's as maxx was.
I'm coming from the Razr Maxx...and I do notice a slight decrease in radio strength...nothing to complain too much about though...my main concern is the 4G LTE speeds...with my MAXX while being very close to an LTE tower I was getting 30+ Mbps download and 20+ Mbps upload... when standing in the same spot with my GS3 I only get about 6 Mbps download and 7 Mbps upload....I did test all around the city and I never break those numbers....My Maxx used to smoke it was so fast... If anyone else is experiencing this then hopefully a future update will fix it...or maybe my phone is buggy?? or the SIM card is bad?? I have no clue...I'm coming from Sprint from before my MAXX so anything over 150 Kbps is fast for me LoL...but still I know the Verizon network is fast and my GS3 is Slowing me down when it shouldn't....
my signal is the same on this as my bionic dbm is the same
monkey28rb said:
I will agree with you the signal on this is not as good as my 4s on att
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Worthless comparison. You're comparing a different phone on a different network. There is so much wrong with this I can barely even touch it.
Suffice it to say that, at the bare minimum, it's quite possible that you're simply closer to the AT&T tower than to the Verizon tower.
Yes it's not as good as my rezound. I have very weak signal in my office and the rezound would always get 1 bar and the gs3 gets no signal at all
I don't see any difference in signal strength from my previous phone (DX).
monkey28rb said:
I will agree with you the signal on this is not as good as my 4s on att
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Att or verizon? 3g or 4g/lte? Android or iOS? Uhhh maybe you have the wrong forum or you are just trying to be funny...... yeah let's go with it being a joke. Lol that was a good one .
I think verizon 4g is just a bit buggy still. I'm routinely in cherry hill new jersey and usually have full 4g here. The past 2 days 4g is no where to be found... Here's to hoping verizon gets this figured out.
-Hai guise I haz problems on the pre-alpha release and I don't know why.
I've had a lot of fluctuation in my mbps. Signal strenght is usually decent (3 bars on average) My fastest mbps was 25 down 23 up, but on average I get about 6-10/sec. I have had the phone for a week as of today, and I've only switched to 3g twice for about 30 seconds. I live in the chicago area where I believe there is a lot of coverage.
Still hoping Samsung can get a proper radio out both my thunderbolt and rezound get great signal and speed both at work and home twhere as the S3 get horrible speed and signal :'(
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
95talondsm said:
I've had a lot of fluctuation in my mbps. Signal strenght is usually decent (3 bars on average) My fastest mbps was 25 down 23 up, but on average I get about 6-10/sec. I have had the phone for a week as of today, and I've only switched to 3g twice for about 30 seconds. I live in the chicago area where I believe there is a lot of coverage.
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I get a huge fluctuation is speed too although I am on 3g and have not seen 4g yet.
Two speed tests done back to back, one can be as low as 30 kbps down with 500 kbps, the other 1500kbs down with 100 kbps up.
My phone is being returned as "DOA." It's not my network as I made the 3 hour drive to the city to compare it there. As compared to phones running the same apps, in the store, side by side mine was noticeably slower and far less consistent.
My battery life is miserable as well so if you have these issues- sounds like the device is faulty.
Let me stress- I have not received a replacement of my S3 yet so I am unaware if this issue is across the board, or, isolated to particular phones.
I have better speed and a good signal strength. coming g from the bionic so ...yeah
SightSeeker said:
Yes it's not as good as my rezound. I have very weak signal in my office and the rezound would always get 1 bar and the gs3 gets no signal at all
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Same here, my three Rezound's have a much better radio than any GSlll.
I knew this going in however, Samsung has always had [email protected] radios (my Droid Charge was the same way) & the radios in the Rezound are some of the best out there.
Just ran a speedtest in my office... 186kbps / 21 kbps on 3g... WTF?
Kreeker said:
Just ran a speedtest in my office... 186kbps / 21 kbps on 3g... WTF?
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Exact same symptoms mine displays.
Lame.
Keep trying it and see if it fluctuates.
Hmm I've been bouncing back and forth between no data, 1x, and 3g all day in an area I always have strong 4g. Weird.
EDIT: and full 4g just magically reappeared here. -83 dbm , 57asu
Ok so is there anything I can do software wise to amp up the signal strength on my d2lte/d2vzw ? I'm three walls away from the outside world. So if I lick my finger, hold my phone up, and stick my leg out I usually can get 1 bar of LTE at my desk. But most often I'm at like 1-2 bars of 3G. Verizon is supposed to put a booster in the building. But that could be end of the year before it happens! Its sad because the guy in the cube next to me gets LTE on his T-Mobile G3 and I have unlimited verizon thats virtually unusable.
talk2nate said:
Ok so is there anything I can do software wise to amp up the signal strength on my d2lte/d2vzw ? I'm three walls away from the outside world. So if I lick my finger, hold my phone up, and stick my leg out I usually can get 1 bar of LTE at my desk. But most often I'm at like 1-2 bars of 3G. Verizon is supposed to put a booster in the building. But that could be end of the year before it happens! Its sad because the guy in the cube next to me gets LTE on his T-Mobile G3 and I have unlimited verizon thats virtually unusable.
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Lol to the way you get LTE man. That's funny. Yea at work I can walk 15 to 20 feet and go from 4G to 3G. I don't get that but that seems to be how it is
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