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Any chance we will get better signal on this phone in the future???

Let me start off by saying that this is by far the best phone I've ever had feature wise and this thing is smooth and quick, but my signal strength is no where near as good as my thunderbolt was. I live just outside of Pittsburgh and the signal has always been great here. Since I got this phone, I have noticed many spots where I have no signal at all where I previously had a good signal. Do you guys think there's any chance that Samsung will release something that gives us a better signal. That's my only gripe.

In settings>about phone what is your baseband version?

Vrlg1

Certain ROMs tweak signal settings to get better results.
-Need to figure out how to do something with your phone? Check out this Guide
-Did my rantings somehow help you? Hit the thanks button [email protected] :silly:
-Sent from my Synergized SIII

Brian Gove said:
Certain ROMs tweak signal settings to get better results.
-Need to figure out how to do something with your phone? Check out this Guide
-Did my rantings somehow help you? Hit the thanks button [email protected] :silly:
-Sent from my Synergized SIII
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I have tried all the different ROMs and so far the signal has been subpar on all

Likely, yes
ercDROID said:
Do you guys think there's any chance that Samsung will release something that gives us a better signal. That's my only gripe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a distinct possibility that we will see at least one more baseband released for this device. Snapdragon wasn't in the original concept for the S3. It might very well have been a little rushed.
The VRALEC baseband that was used during early development has been leaked.
The VRALF baseband shipped with the first phones out the door (like mine).
The VRALG baseband shipped with the second batch of phones and as I understand it was rolled into the OTA update that I would have received if I'd chosen to live within Verizon's little corral for this device.
This thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1788313
was the first "modification" I rolled onto my phone (or any phone for that matter) and it did help me pick up 1X coverage where I didn't have it before. The thread indicates that each phone might respond a little better or worse to a given baseband depending on its own manufacturing variances. You might give the older (VRALF) baseband a whirl and see if it yields an improvement for you. As with everything Odin... proceed at your own risk =)

That shipped on my phone. Tried it for a while but not long enough. I know that in my house the signal strength was the same but not sure how it was in some of the weak areas. I might give it a try. Can't hurt.

My signal has been all over the place but I haven't dropped any calls. I have been running root66 and haven't had any problems but now I'm CleanROM for the past two days so we will see.

thunderbolt as far as I remember reports RSSI and S3 is reporting RSRP which is a proper way of reading LTE signal values, but it's ~20dBm lower. My signal is much better on S3 than let's say GNex.

Yea I would hope with the phone updates, it gets us new ones. Complain enough and they might just listen to us.

Signal is great on my device. Have not been anywhere where there was no signal...must be the area maybe?

droidstyle said:
Signal is great on my device. Have not been anywhere where there was no signal...must be the area maybe?
Click to expand...
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Do you always have stable 4g?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium

blestsol said:
Do you always have stable 4g?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Yes its rock solid never pulls less than 10mb down from anywhere in my city...even gets good 4g in the surrounding areas. I have only found 2 areas in a 50mi radius that it switches to 3g.

the signal on my S3 is worse than my fascinate. A phone, which, was known for having bad reception.
samsung just seems to have horrible radio in their phones. The guy one cube over at work gets 1-2 bars of 1x on his bionic, I get nothing

jtiger12 said:
the signal on my S3 is worse than my fascinate. A phone, which, was known for having bad reception.
samsung just seems to have horrible radio in their phones. The guy one cube over at work gets 1-2 bars of 1x on his bionic, I get nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree, i had a fascinate for well over a year...

I can confirm bionic signal > SGIII
jtiger12 said:
the signal on my S3 is worse than my fascinate. A phone, which, was known for having bad reception.
samsung just seems to have horrible radio in their phones. The guy one cube over at work gets 1-2 bars of 1x on his bionic, I get nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i traded up from a bionic and indeed get weaker signals with the SGIII from the same locations (including some dropped calls).
Solution: purchased a Samsung Network extender for Verizon Wireless of ebay for my home. Now 4-5 bars
Its stupid I had to do that since I live in a major city (pop>600,000)

hollywoodo said:
i traded up from a bionic and indeed get weaker signals with the SGIII from the same locations (including some dropped calls).
Solution: purchased a Samsung Network extender for Verizon Wireless of ebay for my home. Now 4-5 bars
Its stupid I had to do that since I live in a major city (pop>600,000)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Motorola has the best radios, this is nothing new...however part of the reason the gs3 gets better battery life is because of reducing power to the radio and wifi antenna. As already stated signal is no issue for me, i could care less if it had twice the signal. It does seem to be a issue for other folks, so hopefully a new radio version will roll out or some crafty dev will figure out a way to increase voltage to the radio(if even possible) at the expense of battery life.
---------- Post added at 10:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 AM ----------
On a side note i just compared signal with my mother inlaws moto razr, -101db on the razr vs -107db on my gs3.

Those with signal issues

I was having signal issues in areas with less then 3 bars for the most part. Sometimes I would randomly lose service for a few seconds here and there. My calls where dropped or the caller would cut in and out during the conversation. If your having similar issues then your phone is most likely defective.
I just got a refurbished SGS3 from Verizon and the radio works flawless compared to my VRALF2 purchased in July. I would suggest calling Verizon and complaining if your having similar problems because my phone was defective.

Software problems

Not sure how you can conclude it was your phone. Unless you tried the new radio on your old phone before swapping. Otherwise you are comparing apples to oranges.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

No actually Hardware problem, most likely the radio itself.

xceebeex said:
Not sure how you can conclude it was your phone. Unless you tried the new radio on your old phone before swapping. Otherwise you are comparing apples to oranges.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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Ive been around the block here at xda so i know phone software and flashing. Software wise I tried it all.

I'm glad these radio issues haven't plagued the vzw sgs3 like they have the vzw gnex. Getting my S3 tomorrow. Hoping I get a good one, but my chances are way better with this phone than doing the refurb constant receive and send back like my g/f's Gnex. She went through 3 with radio issues before we got a good one.

got556 said:
I'm glad these radio issues haven't plagued the vzw sgs3 like they have the vzw gnex. Getting my S3 tomorrow. Hoping I get a good one, but my chances are way better with this phone than doing the refurb constant receive and send back like my g/f's Gnex. She went through 3 with radio issues before we got a good one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing it just a quality control issue. My girlfriend has the Moto Razor which has an great radio in it and she never had signal issues. I was beginning to think that the radio in the GS3 was just terrible. After some time with this new phone its right on par with the razor as far as call quality. Her razor still has the slight edge when it comes to signal strength.

Moto will always have the edge for the forseeable future on radio quality/reception. (notwithstanding the bionic....lol (but that was software IMHO)).
My razr's always had a better signal than any Sammy phone I've had. My HTC radios have always been pretty good also. Lets face it, Samsung's radios are their weakest link IMHO.

got556 said:
Moto will always have the edge for the forseeable future on radio quality/reception. (notwithstanding the bionic....lol (but that was software IMHO)).
My razr's always had a better signal than any Sammy phone I've had. My HTC radios have always been pretty good also. Lets face it, Samsung's radios are their weakest link IMHO.
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Click to collapse
100% agree.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

I'm new here, so first of all: Hi Guys!!!
I got some Issues with the radio, too. So I tried some different baseband versions with nearly no result
I currently use the LH1 baseband. Since some days I own 2 SIM's from 2 different Providers (Vodafone & T-Mobile).
Unfortunatly I only have an old Nokia N97 for Comparsion, but that doesnt matter atm.
What I've tried to figure out was, whats the source for this Issue - the phone, the provider or the baseband.
Well, I tried both SIM's in both devices and tried a few basebands for the SGS3, with the result that I got a little better Signal with Vodafone SIM and LH1-basband, than with the same baseband and T-Mobile SIM.
T-Mobile: about -105dBm
Vodafone: about -95dBm
The Signal-Strengh on the N97 is nearly identic with both SIM's.
So my final result is:
Baseband on the SGS3 sucks but can be changed to may get some better signal strengh specific for each provider!
Lets wait what official JB will change.

I just got my galaxy and where i live its a really hard to get signal area, but i have own the rezound , regular razr n maxx , galaxy nexus , and the lg and all get good service just tried this galaxy where i live at and lost 2 drop calls and text messages come as errors and thats in stock within. The first 30 minutes owning the phone like wtf
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

aalopez10 said:
I just got my galaxy and where i live its a really hard to get signal area, but i have own the rezound , regular razr n maxx , galaxy nexus , and the lg and all get good service just tried this galaxy where i live at and lost 2 drop calls and text messages come as errors and thats in stock within. The first 30 minutes owning the phone like wtf
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
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Its probably a little early to tell. I had my phone for 30 days before i ruled out everything but the phone itself. But I had those exact problems with mine as well.
Things that i checked for right away.
Network/Tower issue
4G Sim card
Different modem software ( I tried all 3)
Factory Reset
Different Kernels

toy028 said:
I was having signal issues in areas with less then 3 bars for the most part. Sometimes I would randomly lose service for a few seconds here and there. My calls where dropped or the caller would cut in and out during the conversation. If your having similar issues then your phone is most likely defective.
I just got a refurbished SGS3 from Verizon and the radio works flawless compared to my VRALF2 purchased in July. I would suggest calling Verizon and complaining if your having similar problems because my phone was defective.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am on my forth Galaxy S3 for call and data dropping. I use my phone mostly at the same 2 locations, work and home and my data drops constantly on all 4 phones. I have had the sim replaced twice. I have 4 lines on my account one of which is a Droid Razr which was handed down to my girlfriend. I can't recall ever having a dropped call or data with that phone. We were in the Vons grocery store Sunday and we both wanted to d/l the Vons app. It took her less than a minutes on the Razr. It took me almost 19 min and the app is less than 2mb. My phone is still stock. Its a beautiful phone but I'm really starting to hate it.

Maybe I spoke too soon about radios not plaguing this phone. LOL.
Get mine today. I'll have an iphone 4s and gnex to compare dBm and asu numbers. (Scratch that....can't find that info on the iphone (g/f's phone)) (found how to do it....not messing with it while she's using it)
Right now my Gnex is at -87 dBm and 53 asu and I am in a very strong 4G area.

Yeah im having dropped call issues then the phone says lost service and then no sim card detected then new sim card detected and then it gets signal back. The messages the phone displays are not exactly what i stated but similar. I talked to some vzw rep on the phone and she said that i am on the edge of the 4g service area. And that 4g is fairly new where I live. Should that affect my calls though?
Btw i had a htc incredible 1 and it never gave me those issues...i feel as though the speakers were better on the incredible too.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

equisbox said:
Yeah im having dropped call issues then the phone says lost service and then no sim card detected then new sim card detected and then it gets signal back. The messages the phone displays are not exactly what i stated but similar. I talked to some vzw rep on the phone and she said that i am on the edge of the 4g service area. And that 4g is fairly new where I live. Should that affect my calls though?
Btw i had a htc incredible 1 and it never gave me those issues...i feel as though the speakers were better on the incredible too.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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Just keep calling back. Tell them you stayed at a friends house that has great 4G service for a few days or something similar. They gave me the same excuses. What helped me is that there are two other people in the house on the same plan that have 4G phones and they haven't dropped any calls. You have to be persistent and almost demand what you want sometimes but do it as nice and respectful as possible.

well i'll post the other side of this....I had horrible signal issues, tried replacing SIM, no luck. got new phone sent out, same problem. Coming form galaxy nexus with no probs. Calls drop, drop only parts of audio then come back etc. I am in the same places I have been for the past 6 or so years and never had problems until this phone. Can't get signal in my basement or my office, neither of which haev been a problem in the past. so if a new phone fixed it for you, consider yourself lucky.
btw what is a good signal in terms of dbm? in between work/home mine stays in between -90 to -120

I have had my SGIII for a few weeks now and also notice a lack of 4G strength, and I am in NYC. I am coming from the Droid Charge. I am holding off on doing anything until the JB update, if it comes within a reasonable amount of time...i.e. within the next month or so.

Basically, ALL Saumsung radios suck.
My old Rezound has a MUCH MUCH better radio than either my G3 or my Wife's Droid Charge.
I am talking about actual use, not how many signal bars are showing etc....

jmorton10 said:
Basically, ALL Saumsung radios suck.
My old Rezound has a MUCH MUCH better radio than either my G3 or my Wife's Droid Charge.
I am talking about actual use, not how many signal bars are showing etc....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm...my issue with the Charge was not so much the 'top-end speed' of the radio, which was really good when in a good area, but rather the 'glitchiness or bugginess' when switching network areas, or with certain applications. For instance, I commute on the train to NYC every day from a dominant 3G area. When the train would switch into the 4G covered area, the radio would not automatically switch over to 4G until I would either do the airplane mode trick (which worked most of the time), or I would outright have to reboot. For the rare times it WOULD switch over automatically, the speed would be terrible until I airplaned or rebooted it as above...I am sure as hell hoping I don't have these issues with the SGIII...

Reception on this phone is poor (for me)

Did a test today with these phones - 2 S3's, Nexus, iPhone 4S, and Droid Razr Maxx. The test was done in my apartment which has poor signal in general. All phones were on Verizon, all on LTE except the 4S.
All 3 Samsung phones had the worst reception, constantly dropping to 1x, timing out on web pages, and poor speeds. Speedtest would be unable to find a server half the time. The Razr and 4S had no issues maintaining a steady signal.
More than one VZW tech support guy has told me they have similar complaints about the s3, it doesn't do well in poor signal areas. Also said there's a patch being worked on, don't know of he meant the recent modem update. My S3 didn't have the OTA.
Edit - A lot of people had problems with the word 'confirmed' in the title, even though I meant it as 'confirmed for me', which I have done.

ECrispy said:
Did a test today with these phones - 2 S3's, Nexus, iPhone 4S, and Droid Razr Maxx. The test was done in my apartment which has poor signal in general. All phones were on Verizon, all on LTE except the 4S.
All 3 Samsung phones had the worst reception, constantly dropping to 1x, timing out on web pages, and poor speeds. Speedtest would be unable to find a server half the time. The Razr and 4S had no issues maintaining a steady signal.
More than one VZW tech support guy has told me they have similar complaints about the s3, it doesn't do well in poor signal areas. Also said there's a patch being worked on, don't know of he meant the recent modem update. My S3 didn't have the OTA.
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thats funny i tested my s3 vs mother inlaws razr
results:
Razr- 3bars signal, -102db, LTE 12MB/s down
S3- 3 bars signal, -107db, LTE 12MB/s down

droidstyle said:
thats funny i tested my s3 vs mother inlaws razr
results:
Razr- 3bars signal, -102db, LTE 12MB/s down
S3- 3 bars signal, -107db, LTE 12MB/s down
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry, didnt you see the "confirmed" in the title? :silly:
as for the OP, this phone gets far better reception than the last motorola i owned.

ECrispy said:
Did a test today with these phones - 2 S3's, Nexus, iPhone 4S, and Droid Razr Maxx. The test was done in my apartment which has poor signal in general. All phones were on Verizon, all on LTE except the 4S.
All 3 Samsung phones had the worst reception, constantly dropping to 1x, timing out on web pages, and poor speeds. Speedtest would be unable to find a server half the time. The Razr and 4S had no issues maintaining a steady signal.
More than one VZW tech support guy has told me they have similar complaints about the s3, it doesn't do well in poor signal areas. Also said there's a patch being worked on, don't know of he meant the recent modem update. My S3 didn't have the OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you got money for all those phones it may just be time to get a new apartment
But for me I pick up 4g were my RAZR Maxx didn't even make a call. Couldn't be happier!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

I agree, the signal is awful - and I say that focusing on call quality. Constant dropping calls, and most of the time I cannot even understand someone when the signal is poor. Never had this problem with any of my other phones...

Same issue here, I just call from my crappy signal area thru WiFi. Problem solved because outside bad signal zone the phone radio (4G) is SOLID.

kintwofan said:
If you got money for all those phones it may just be time to get a new apartment
But for me I pick up 4g were my RAZR Maxx didn't even make a call. Couldn't be happier!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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I wish I had that much money I really wanted to make sure so I asked friends and a neighbor. Im going to keep the phone since it still makes calls, but will have to use wifi for data.

ECrispy said:
Did a test today with these phones - 2 S3's, Nexus, iPhone 4S, and Droid Razr Maxx. The test was done in my apartment which has poor signal in general. All phones were on Verizon, all on LTE except the 4S.
All 3 Samsung phones had the worst reception, constantly dropping to 1x, timing out on web pages, and poor speeds. Speedtest would be unable to find a server half the time. The Razr and 4S had no issues maintaining a steady signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've mentioned numerous times in various threads that Verizon told me in the first month of ownership that Samsung was planning to address signal-related (and wi-fi, among other things) issues in their second update for the Galaxy S III, at that time predicted for October. This info came from different levels of Verizon support.
So, perhaps that will come to pass and it may help your situation. Fortunately for me, it's not been an issue across locations I've travelled in three states thus far.
- ooofest

ooofest said:
I've mentioned numerous times in various threads that Verizon told me in the first month of ownership that Samsung was planning to address signal-related (and wi-fi, among other things) issues in their second update for the Galaxy S III, at that time predicted for October. This info came from different levels of Verizon support.
So, perhaps that will come to pass and it may help your situation. Fortunately for me, it's not been an issue across locations I've travelled in three states thus far.
- ooofest
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's good to hear. I hope this is not the Samsung JB update which is almost certain to get delayed by Verizon, and is released as a separate fix.

I'd be interested in the results of the test at different battery strength.
test each ar full, 90, 80, 70 and so on.
I notice my signal strength seems to drop off a cliff around 40 percent battery, consistently, and get progressively worse as the battery gets lower.
Havn't had time to do any testing, just something I noted.

Isnt it obvious? Your holding it wrong. You just need a bumper. Seriously what are you running? Stock or what? My signal is great but Speed Test varries has varied a bit from ROM to ROM but I wonder if that is just crazy weather and my odd hours. I haven't had any GPS problems either but have only used it lightly.

Confirmed - The GNEX has no signal issues. I owned 4 GNEX's and when I spoke to Verizon about data drops and bad signal that was the first they heard of it.
Confirmed - The Droid Charge is equal to the GNEX because that is what they offered me as a replacement if I wanted it.
Confirmed - A Verizon rep told me the Razr and GNEX have the same size screen.
I must agree with the OP. If a Verizon rep said it then it must be true.

Signal is worse than my Thunderbolt, I had that phone for over a year and now with the S3 there's a lot of areas i drop to 1x and the Thunderbolt had no issues getting 3g/4g
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Tests like this are completely based on location. What the OP should have said is of all the phones, the 3 Samsung get worst reception in his apartment.
Everyone has different results. Where some got poor reception with Motorola, HTC, the Samsungs seem to do better
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

ECrispy said:
Thanks, that's good to hear. I hope this is not the Samsung JB update which is almost certain to get delayed by Verizon, and is released as a separate fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They mentioned this as an update to the current level of OS, so that seemed to imply JellyBean was after October for us Verizon Galaxy S III owners.
- ooofest

bond32 said:
Tests like this are completely based on location. What the OP should have said is of all the phones, the 3 Samsung get worst reception in his apartment.
Everyone has different results. Where some got poor reception with Motorola, HTC, the Samsungs seem to do better
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
That's exactly what I said. It's only poor in areas with low signal.

ECrispy said:
That's exactly what I said. It's only poor in areas with low signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, it isn't even that.
Out here at work, we have many phones drop completely off, not even able to do text messages (out in the tool room) but there, I can still (slowly) surf the web in my S3.

My S3 was dropping calls left and right where I had exceptional service with my dx. I tried the vralg1 modem and waited it out 2 months. I finally called and b******and they sent me a new (refurb) one. Works wayyy better. I can now actually converse w. ppl on mi tele
EDIT: oh, and no more dropped calls. Its been about a week. I was getting >3 a day

In my current apartment, I was able to hear the other party on the line clearly in all parts of my apartment, and they could hear me, on my Moto Bionic
On this phone, I have to stand by windows or outside to talk, and even then they have to repeat themselves, or I repeat myself, now and then.
It's truly terrible.

I can certainly "confirm" that the radio in my two G3's sucks compared to my three old Rezounds.
I absolutely LOVE the G3's & I'll live with the poor reception, but it is a clear distinct difference.
I have one of my old Rezounds sitting here on my desk next to one of my G3's (CleanROM etc).
The G3 is ALWAYS in 3g, I have never once seen it get a 4g signal here but the Rezound's are in 4g 95% of the time.

GSIII Poor Signal

I am a new verizon customer and have the GSIII. I get about 2 bars max in my house and can barely make a call in my basement. Most of the time it hangs around 1 bar though. So i've been reading through the threads and can't seem to find anyone that has posted a fix for this. Is there one? It seems like there have been quite a few people with this issue. I expected to have better service when I switched to Verizon, but am slightly dissappointed so far. Hopefully it is just the phone.
1) Is there a fix?
2) Can I exchange my phone (it has only been 2 days).?
3) What is the best phone with Verizon? (i'm not an iPhone fan)
Thanks for your input!

We can't fix poor radio and antenna design. You can flash different radios to find the best one for you that's about it for this phone. Your other options are to call verizon and tell them to send you that micro cell tower that plugs into your modem and acts as a personal tower. Other choice is to switch phones. From what I hear motorola is supposed to have the best signal
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

cell128 said:
We can't fix poor radio and antenna design. You can flash different radios to find the best one for you that's about it for this phone. Your other options are to call verizon and tell them to send you that micro cell tower that plugs into your modem and acts as a personal tower. Other choice is to switch phones. From what I hear motorola is supposed to have the best signal
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He can also flash the ROMs ported from other carriers as those seem to have improve signal strength. I have tried Wicked Sensations,Goodness and Darthstalkers ROMs all have had an increase in signal strength.

irl5fan said:
I am a new verizon customer and have the GSIII. I get about 2 bars max in my house and can barely make a call in my basement. Most of the time it hangs around 1 bar though. So i've been reading through the threads and can't seem to find anyone that has posted a fix for this. Is there one? It seems like there have been quite a few people with this issue. I expected to have better service when I switched to Verizon, but am slightly dissappointed so far. Hopefully it is just the phone.
1) Is there a fix?
2) Can I exchange my phone (it has only been 2 days).?
3) What is the best phone with Verizon? (i'm not an iPhone fan)
Thanks for your input!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you just got your phone, I'd trade mine for the newer DNA. Samsung phones are notorious for not working well on Verizon's network. If you don't need your phone as a phone they are great but if you need a PHONE to be a PHONE you should switch while you can. There is always going to be someone here saying they have great signal so you must have gotten a defective one or you aren't using it correctly (?) but the truth is if you don't get good signal now - you won't a week from now. Switch to a better PHONE for Verizon's network which is good.
While the DNA is not perfect it works as a phone well which the S3 does not. The Motorolas seem to have much better phone reliability than the S3 (I just don't like the Motorolas as smartphones for some reason).
If you look through this forum you'll find tons and tons of posts about bad signal, weak signal, dropped calls, choppy calls and you'll also find tons of posts by people saying they don't have that problem. I travel a lot and use my phone about 3000 minutes a month so I can pretty much tell when a phone is good or bad. The S3 isn't the worst I've ever had - the Nexus was the worst and the EVO3D ranks just a little better than the S3 but all were bad as phones for making phone calls. I'm probably posting on craigslist to try and trade my S3 for the DNA as I don't think I can tolerate the crappy call quality on the S3 any more. I know my phone is bad because I have traded my phones with a friend or colleague to complete a call and they are on Verizon and while the S3 sucks, their phone will work fine.

Thanks for the input all! I contacted Verizon today and they did a soft reset, seemed to help a little bit. Still not quite the service i was expecting after making the switch from Sprint. I think i'm going to look into the DNA phones or something else and see how that works out.

My signal is as strong as wife's iPhone 5, FWIW. Eons better than what I had with Sprint, although Verizon has its share of dead spots.

You have 14 days. Never switched s phone out but I would try as many as possible to get the best one for me. Good luck.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

boe said:
If you just got your phone, I'd trade mine for the newer DNA. Samsung phones are notorious for not working well on Verizon's network. If you don't need your phone as a phone they are great but if you need a PHONE to be a PHONE you should switch while you can. There is always going to be someone here saying they have great signal so you must have gotten a defective one or you aren't using it correctly (?) but the truth is if you don't get good signal now - you won't a week from now. Switch to a better PHONE for Verizon's network which is good.
While the DNA is not perfect it works as a phone well which the S3 does not. The Motorolas seem to have much better phone reliability than the S3 (I just don't like the Motorolas as smartphones for some reason).
If you look through this forum you'll find tons and tons of posts about bad signal, weak signal, dropped calls, choppy calls and you'll also find tons of posts by people saying they don't have that problem. I travel a lot and use my phone about 3000 minutes a month so I can pretty much tell when a phone is good or bad. The S3 isn't the worst I've ever had - the Nexus was the worst and the EVO3D ranks just a little better than the S3 but all were bad as phones for making phone calls. I'm probably posting on craigslist to try and trade my S3 for the DNA as I don't think I can tolerate the crappy call quality on the S3 any more. I know my phone is bad because I have traded my phones with a friend or colleague to complete a call and they are on Verizon and while the S3 sucks, their phone will work fine.
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BOE how does your DNA phone do on battery life?

irl5fan said:
BOE how does your DNA phone do on battery life?
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Hello,
I haven't traded mine out yet for the DNA.

3G Issues

First of all, my LTE works fine, this is only an issue with the 3G radios. Basically, I often have issues with 3G actually sending and receiving data. When it does, it is slower than 1X for me. It drains the battery at crazy rates such as 20%/hr with little to no use. This has happened regardless of rom, although now I am on the stock f1 update and unrooted. I bought this phone used so there's no hope of a CLNR. I've had it "fixed" by samsung twice and nothing has changed. Any ideas? I have an upgrade but I'm waiting for the One or the 5S and REALLY don't want to use it on a phone I wouldn't be happy with.

Same exact problem here. 4G works fine. 3G is essentially useless. Often when it changes to 3G, I wish it would just go to 1X so that at least it would be functional. I've never really found a solution. The other day my phone was in 3G and I tried to send a text msg with a picture. It took almost ten minutes. Completely useless.
Friends with 3G Verizon phones never have any problems. They always get a solid 3G connection. I used to be with Sprint (useless) and set my Evo to roam on Verizon because the 3G was so much more responsive and quick than Sprint. Not seeing that with my S3.

usmaak said:
Same exact problem here. 4G works fine. 3G is essentially useless. Often when it changes to 3G, I wish it would just go to 1X so that at least it would be functional. I've never really found a solution. The other day my phone was in 3G and I tried to send a text msg with a picture. It took almost ten minutes. Completely useless.
Friends with 3G Verizon phones never have any problems. They always get a solid 3G connection. I used to be with Sprint (useless) and set my Evo to roam on Verizon because the 3G was so much more responsive and quick than Sprint. Not seeing that with my S3.
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Yeah none of my friends have issues either. My friend with her iPhone 5 was using it next to me and it loaded pages in just a few seconds, still slower than 3G, but mine took almost a minute.

Amphibliam said:
Yeah none of my friends have issues either. My friend with her iPhone 5 was using it next to me and it loaded pages in just a few seconds, still slower than 3G, but mine took almost a minute.
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Forgot to mention... My wife's also got an S3. Mine's rooted with CleanROM and LK1 modem. Her's has the latest update. She has the same issues with 3G. She also had them on MB1.
Fortunately my phone doesn't flip over to 3G often. But when it does, I just stick it back in my pocket, because it won't do anything useful until it switches back to 4G.
I've never found the answer to this problem, but I'd really like to. I understand that this is a 4G phone, but it should be able to fall back to 3G with no problems.

usmaak said:
Forgot to mention... My wife's also got an S3. Mine's rooted with CleanROM and LK1 modem. Her's has the latest update. She has the same issues with 3G. She also had them on MB1.
Fortunately my phone doesn't flip over to 3G often. But when it does, I just stick it back in my pocket, because it won't do anything useful until it switches back to 4G.
I've never found the answer to this problem, but I'd really like to. I understand that this is a 4G phone, but it should be able to fall back to 3G with no problems.
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FYI, I just tried AOSP for the hell of it and data speeds are much better. Too bad it seems a bit buggy. :/
nvm, speeds still absolutely blow

i have a network extender and most of the time I can't send pic messages..piece of ****...ive tried multiple basebands...im convinced its the phone
sent from a violated Vzw Galaxy s3

Amphibliam said:
FYI, I just tried AOSP for the hell of it and data speeds are much better. Too bad it seems a bit buggy. :/
nvm, speeds still absolutely blow
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Theoretically AOSP ROMs should have absolutely no effect on data or voice since they don;t touch the radio firmware.

I was in a 3G zone this evening and did a speedtest.
23 kbps down. It died when trying to run the upload portion of the test. Friends with regular 3G phones routinely get 800 kbps - 1200 kbbs down.
I agree. It has to be the phone. And given that it seems to happen across multiple radios and only to some people, it's probably hardware related. Doesn't matter when I get 4G. Sucks when I can't.

I'm going to be at camp for a week soon and I only get 3G there so I'm strongly considering buying a used 4S until a new phone comes.

I have 3g signal in the house.. wide open all bars with a network extender..I go outside to get 4g, then it will send pic messages. dumbphone
sent from a violated Vzw Galaxy s3

Amphibliam said:
I'm going to be at camp for a week soon and I only get 3G there so I'm strongly considering buying a used 4S until a new phone comes.
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I don;t think its a Samsung problem, more like a Verizon wide issue. If you look in the verizon user forums, all the Iphone and HTC and Moto folks complain about the same things.
https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/784496

I don't think so. Not only are they not complaining about just 3G, my friends' phones work fine.
Not only that, but my GNex I had before this somehow consistently had 2 mbps dl speeds on 3g.

Friends on Verizon with 3g only phones get excellent speeds where I am at. Verizon 3g is not the problem around here. On 3g phones, it is fast and responsive. When switching from Sprint, I went with Verizon based on the quality of its 3g.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

I thought it was just me been having the same problem. Suddenly no 4g at home and 3g is no good. Good thing I have the WiFi.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Shamec said:
I thought it was just me been having the same problem. Suddenly no 4g at home and 3g is no good. Good thing I have the WiFi.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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Too bad you have to rely on something else that you pay for independently for your phone to be able to do its job. These phones should work on 3G. I have to imagine that there are some who don't have 4G that have to rely on 3G. Maybe they just don't get this phone, or get it and return it?