Hi guys. I've got a saga to describe for those of you who are interested, but I'll try to keep it brief. I think it really boils down to one or two simple issues.
I've had Verizon phones for a long time, in Central Illinois. Probably about 10 years now. Rarely had problems with dropped calls. My previous phone was a Droid 1 ... worked great, very rarely (as I recall) had dropped calls.
Then in January 2012, as the Droid was killing me with general Android lag and unresponsiveness (but voice was still fine), I upgraded to a Galaxy Nexus. Loved it for Android performance. For the first 3 or 4 months I had it, I don't recall it giving me any undue trouble .. dropped calls were minimal if any, I think.
Then sometime around April or May, started getting a ridiculous number of dropped calls. Mostly at my home, throughout the day, but not just there, I've also experienced them a mile or two away from my house. The neighbor hood is fairly wooded, but that's never been a problem before.
Additionally, my wife has a "feature phone" (non-smartphone) also with Verizon and very rarely if ever has dropped call problems.
The topography at my house is along a river, we're right near a high bluff overlooking the river, with line of sight (besides the trees, of which there are not a ton, really) for at least a mile or so across the river. I think we're possibly within range of several cell towers.
I notice at most points when I'm in my house, using some apps that help you track signal strength and show you the cell tower ids, that I'm mostly one just two different ones, both of which seem to be maybe about 1 mile away. Also, if I'm walking up one flight of stairs, I pretty reliably see that same app showing the phone switching among possibly as many as 4 or 5 towers, in the space of about 5 or 10 seconds!
I suspect this may be caused by the topography in my area.
I also suspect that most of my dropped calls *may* have something to do with being in range of so many towers, or with the phone switching too frequently (or unnecessarily, really) among the towers, while I'm on the call, if this is possible (I have very little technical knowledge of cell phone radio technology -- hence this post).
Now, I've done a fair amount of research and talked to Verizon customer support about this at length. They've actually been very patient and good with me, but we still haven't arrived at the solution.
I originally thought the problem my be the Galaxy Nexus, but after getting a warranty replacement on that one, and even getting to try a Droid RAZR and then finally the GS3, I'm seeing virtually the exact same behavior on all of the phones. The symptoms do *not* seem to be directly related to signal strength exactly. I get usually about 50 - 60% of the total bars (maybe 3/5 or 4/5) in most parts of the house, yet *still* get these persistent drops.
Verizon's final best solution for me, basically, was to use a Network Extender. Despite my misgivings towards this, I have acquired one and it does seem to solve the problem for me, when I'm home, and when I'm in range of the device (its range seems pretty good in my house). One big problem with it though, ridiculously, is it seems that whenever it's on, my wife's Verizon phone starts dropping calls (and it never does otherwise). So there's a Catch-22 there, added to the fact that I'd rather not have to be running a Net Extender *and* the fact that I still see other drops when taking a walk or driving at least a mile or two from my house.
So, for those of you still with me, I'm wondering if
a) my theory about excessive switching, etc., is plausible, or if you have another one based on the facts I've outlined
b) if doing something like flashing an alternate radio ROM (I barely even knew there were separate ROMs for the radio -- I've done some rooting before of Android, but not the radio) might give me some more control or better performance. It'd be great if there were a setting somewhere where I could tell the phone to be less willing to switch towers or to give a higher preference to one tower, at least while in a certain GPS area (I know, I'm sure it's a reach).
Anyway, looking for a little education into why your opinions are of what may be causing this and if I have any remedies available that are feasible and may actually help.
Thank you for your attention and expertise.
Related
I work in a midtown Manhattan hi-rise near Rockefeller Center and get full signal bars on any phone in and around the office.
The problem is I get terrible performance. Voice calls are garbled and drop, and sometimes callers go straight to voice mail. E-mail, data and web work sporadically and load slowly if at all. The phone will actually get hot just sitting on the desk as if its CPU or transmitter is locked at 100%, and the battery drains quickly.
It's the same whether it's an iPhone, Android or Symbian smart phone or just simple dumb phone, and other people in my office have the same issues. I even notice the same kinds of things happening out on the street up to maybe a block away, but it seems to be at its worst when I'm in the building. But two blocks away, walking through Times Square or other busy places, everything is OK.
Any idea what could be going on and if there's any way to get around it? This is on AT&T.
Change baseband?
I think it's the fault of AT & T
AT&T is a terrible company
+1 on the AT&T being crap
I tried changing baseband but it didn't help, plus like I said it happens on all different kinds of phones. I've also tried manually switching from 850MHz over to 1900MHz band but that didn't help.
Updating my kernel might have actually helped a bit. It's hard to tell though, because the problem comes and goes.
I'm wondering if the signals are too strong and overloading the phone. Or maybe I'm exactly halfway between two strong towers in this building and they're interfering with each other, is that plausible? This is in the heart of NYC after all, AT&T must have a lot of towers in a very concentrated area around here.
Samsung Captivate i897
Serendipity 6.4
Baseband I9000UGKC1
Speedmod Kernel i897-13E-500MHz
I had a similar problem in my area once, it was rectified by the Network Provider.
Its due the GSM inter cell inheritence. Are you located very near to a Mobile Antenna tower.
It would be worth checking your own office building terrace for same
watt9493 said:
+1 on the AT&T being crap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've had nothing but trouble with them in the past
Teampokerface
Heres how you fix the issue. I had a friend with the same issue. 1. open the window of your skyrise 2. take phone are throw it out the window 3. take elevator down to lower level. 4. Find nearest Verizon or Tmobile or sprint store and port your number. 5. take new phone from new network to your skyrise. 6. Congrats your problem has been solved. ANYONE WHO HAS AT&T NEEDS TO GIVE THEM THE FINGER AND MOVE TO ANOTHER CARRIER.
Thanks but if I wanted to hear people say AT&T sucks I would have posted this to Yahoo or something. I get a much better rate with AT&T through my company's FAN account, and I'd rather not pay double to another carrier if this is a technical issue that can be addressed.
For now I can use wifi around the office and put up with the spotty voice coverage, but I was hoping I might find some helpful technical advice here since this is supposed to be a developers forum with presumably mature users.
rathore4u - I'll see if I can find someone at my provider's tech support who understands the GSM inter cell inheritence issue you suggested. Thanks.
Hi all, please welcome me whom had bought the Optimus 3d just 2 days ago. I love this phone. Please do let me welcome you all to talk about a flaw, which I've found out right away with the new phone since 2 days ago! I've been with some others Android phones, so, I should say I've had good experience with Androids.
I realized that Optimus 3D has some kinda hardware Radio receiver flaw (I really don't know what should I really call it) similar to the famous iPhone 4 dilemma in the beginning. I found out that the "Radio receiver" is located somewhere at the bottom of the phone, where our hands most often holding the phone with. The hand will block out the signals and the signal bar will be reduced by a lot as much as to zero (if the signal strength itself is not strong in the 1st place!) Try find this yourself, have some experience by holding the phone at the bottom and let go and holding the phone and again let go, keep trying this you should see the signal strength that will drop and rise and drop and rise again. Or is this only my phone? But I've never experience this phenomenal with other Android phones!
Also, I don't know this has the directly link to the downloading issue or whenever browsing nets, the network data will drop very very often. I hardly got successful downloads from the market without few retries. Thank god at least at the moment I can temporarily fix it by turning off and on again with the data enabling shortcut in the pull down menu.
Please help me here and advice! Very much appreciated!
Since the famous iPhone 4 drama for a lot of phones these stories pop up once in a while. I know lots of people furiously believed the Samsung Galaxy S had the exact same problem but after a week or so nobody ever talked about it anymore.
I myself have absolutely no problem whatsoever with the signal, not even when I completely cover the entire phone with my hands leaving just a small spot to read the signal it never drops, not by one bar. I've never had a single download dropped with either 3G or wifi and I've downloaded my share of stuff from the market and other places.
I've tested this with my T-Mobile simcard (which has pretty horrible coverage here) and with my Vodafone simcard (which has great reception) and with both simcards the signal strength stays exactly the same according to the bars. Even when I go to the settings the dBm and asu values stay exactly the same, no matter how long and how bad I cover the phone.
So far you're the first and only person I've read about having these issues so I think it just could be an isolated incident, although that would be bad for you as that would mean you could have a defective phone
This problem is not something new and is not related with O3D.
All the phones have the same issue.
It is normal that if put your hand on the antenna the reception will drop.
The radio waves just work like this.
However the atenuation from your hand is most accentuated on higher frequencies like 2100Mhz.
On every phone even on the oldest phone with external antenna you will meet this phenomenon.
The difference between 4 bars and 1 bar is only around 10dBm which really isnt that massive a drop at all. Now that you've pointed this out i do see that the signal strength varies a little depending on how you hold the phone but its not enough to panic about i don't think. The iphone 4 problem was significantly greater in that the iss was that a user's hand would electeically short the mobile network antenna to the bluetooth and wifi antenna causing a total loss of signal. While 10dBm or so is a definite dip in signal strength, it's an acceptable level of attenuation and i dont see it causing any real world day to day network problems that you wouldn't experience with any other high end smartphone.
My workplace is in a giant tin hut of an industrial unit (read: faraday cage) and today while i had this phone there for the first time i saw no noticeable network coverage problems. The behaviour was as far as i can tell exactly tue same as my motorola milestone from which i upgraded.
Sent from my LG-P920 using XDA Premium App
As stated all phones can lose a bit of the reception when it's in your hand depending on how you hold it, the reason Iphone4 was such a big deal was that it was extremly sensitive when it came to left-handed people and they had a real problem with their antenna being totally blocked when holding the phone normally when speaking in it.
Later on media and uninformed people started fueling the flames as soon as they saw a bar drop when picking up the phone, radio waves are not magical rays or tachyons that can move though matter without interacting with it.
thanks for all the replies. Believe me or not, this is the 1st phone I realize this issue and it is so obvious, the bad news is, it is really bad for me that the antenna is located at the bottom, probably most others phones I've owned were at the top as a result i didn't got any problem before.
And another issue, I'm pretty stucked with the shipped rom now, really hope to see custom roms soon. I'm at the moment totally freak out with the inconsistent of data and the wifi, it keeps failing me, this really freak me off, what the hell is happening to me with this phone! I've never ever got any dropped data or wifi connections before. Arggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
I have no signal drop out no matter what hand positioning i use..
I'm in a very poor reception area. I do notice hand over phone a drop from 1 bar to none. Still not a red cross to indicate no signal but a drop of 1 bar all the same.
Just tested it.
Signal drops from 4 bars to 3 (1-2 in awkward positions) when hand-held. Not an real-life-usage impact though...
Thanks for all the test replies to support my findings. OK, now, I've realized that the hand holding issue has no direct impact to data drops. And the data drop is entirely due to the time issue which it does not lock down the data connection when swithcing data modes. And at the moment it can beasily over come to turn off with the data button in the pull down menu. I'm not sure though when in the situation when the signal strenght was so low, by holding with hands will give an direct effect of data drop or not. Will observe that
In low signal areas, I often have calls that enter a weird mode where roughly every 1 second voice cuts in and out. Anyone else experience this? My Fascinate in the same area never used to have this issue. -1 for the VIA POS. The problem seems to be there on all ROMS including the new EP1W.
When this happens on an important call, I have a growing urge to shatter the phone on the ground. Never had this feeling on previous phones, so once again Samsung has set a new record.
Yep, same thing in for me around 10 miles surrounding where I live. I believe the phone has a ****ty radio, but it is good enough for normal areas, but in an area that has a low signal or a tower with any slight issue, this phone reacts worse than most. My wife's incredible 2 works fine in the same area. When I got this phone, I was hesitant because I heard things about Samsung radios in the past, and low and behold, it was true. Sad because the battery life is great, the screen is great. But between the GPS locking taking forever once in a while, the lag, and most of all the issue you are describing. This thing is getting traded in as soon as the bionic comes back in stock. And if I hate that phone, I will simply switch to the incredible 2. Maybe it doesn't have 4g, but the phone flat out works out of the box and works well.
Just wanted to follow up because this is a real issue where you literally can't communicate with calls in certain areas on certain Charges. I tried two Charges and two sims and the problem still persisted, always in the area in my town only. My wife's Incredible 2 has zero issues. I switched to the Bionic today and the call issues are gone. As happy I was with the screen and battery life of the Charge, I am relieved to say I can now make phone calls wherever I want without concern, and that trumps anything else after all it is a phone first. Just thought people with this issue would like confirmation of other phones that do not have the problem.
I tried to like this phone, I really did. But the frequent voice cut outs and garble leave me feeling angry and thinking who gives a rip about the screen if you cant make a call.
Why did Samsung use this toy VIA chip? Its kindergarden level quality. Its a true POS designed by flunkies.
Hi guys
I've tried researching this issue from time to time but have never been able to find any definitive information. A couple of threads around the traps detailing similar problems, but that's it. Anyway, what happens is this: the phone will be showing a couple of bars or whatever, but there actually isn't any signal at all. Calls can be initiated, but wont actually connect, and then can't be ended either. The only way to resolve the issue is to reboot the phone, or activate airplane mode and then deactivate it again (which tends to take considerably longer than a simple reboot). I'm calling it a radio crash because that's what it seems to be, but I could of course be wrong about what is actually going on under the hood.
This post is basically part of an effort to diagnose the problem before I decide what this phone's future will be (have a new, different model on the way now).
Thanks for reading, and any advice/information will be much appreciated
It sounds as if you have a defective phone, or it could be you carrier.
Have you tried a different phone.
Do other people have the same problem with that carrier
You could also think of it like this, carrier problem, you can connect to wifi if it doesnt have internet connection, it still can show full bars but nothing will load
Sent from my MB865 using xda app-developers app
I have an SGS3 now, with the same SIM in it (cut down to micro of course). Average signal strength (as reported by third party apps that don't pad) is about the same, but no dropouts at all (as monitored and reported by the No Signal Alert app). However the SGS3 supports both my carrier frequencies, and the Atrix 2 doesn't. Having said that, the SGS3 seems to stay on 2100MHz all the time anyway where I am.
I've also put a different SIM in my Atrix 2, from a network that is more compatible (850/2100), and although the dropouts are less frequent, they are still occurring. However, I haven't had a "radio driver crash" in over a week. The dropouts have only been momentary too, lasting no more than a few seconds, 1-3 times per day (mostly in the afternoon).
I'm also planning to charge the phone up and leave it at a couple of other locations for a day or two while continuing to monitor signal interruptions. Should be interesting.
Thanks for the reply
Just a quick update: left the phone at another location for a few days where the average signal strength is stronger, and not a single dropout was logged during that time. In certain areas this phone is obviously not as good as some others at maintaining a signal, but I don't think the dropouts themselves are indicative of a fault given this new information.
The previous instances of radio lockups/crashes are still haunting me a little, but this strange phenomenon is still yet to occur again. I also forgot to mention that I'd previously done a full restoration of the official 4.0.4 ICS release in order to return to the phone completely to stock, which might have something to do with that. Previously it was rooted, with only some minor modifications, but I guess it's not beyond the realm of possibility.
Wait i have an idea
Send me your apn data.
Motorola doesnt have the best antennas either.
Also does it crash at a certain time after it is turned on or is it random?
Sent from my SOUL
Alright, first some general info:
Phone: Nexus 5 T-Mobile Branded
Software: Android L
Plan: Unlimited Data 30$/month
Location: Urbandale, IA
Troubleshooting Steps: Just about everything, called customer care talked to them and walked through all their steps, checked APN settings, restored phone, tried a lower OS on the phone, tried a different radio, tried new SIM, disabled common house hold possible interference (Wifi, Microwaves, ect.), tried other phone (Blackberry Torch, Samsung Galaxy SI(Vibrant) and SII), I do have WIFI calling on those phones, but it's a pain in the rear to have to changed phones every time I get home, and I'm not going to use those as all of them are outdated, don't tell me to get a new phone as this one is not even four months old. I'm an IT Cyber Security Specialist, so I have the background knowledge of how to fix many tech issues. So save the BS and give it to me straight please.
Problem:
As you most likely can tell from the title, I don't have service in my home. I sometimes do, but it's gone and I haven't even touched/moved the phone. I've always had terrible coverage in my home, but never this bad. I can walk ten feet out of my garage or front door and have three to four bars. If i go down a few houses into my neighbors home I have perfect signal (That also rules out the possibility of the house's building material causing problems as the house is the same material and finish as mine, it's not more then four years old.) I don't understand what is happening here...it's beyond a lot of things I've seen. I can receive a text, pick up my phone to respond and then my service is instantly gone before I hit send. It's like its purposely being dropped (That's just a stupid idea though). So I honestly have no clue what is going on according to the pre-paid coverage map I should have "Good" service where my house is located yet I continually drop signal. I get great service in most other area's and do not have the signal dropping in and out anywhere else, so I'm really confused as to what is happening here. The Nexus 5 doesn't currently support WiFi calling as Nexus devices are pure Google devices and can't be modified by the carrier with things such as bloatware, custom OS, ect, hence no WiFi calling. Any help would be appreciated.
Hmm strange. Have you tried different modems/radios? Is your house like literally right next to the tower? Is it just T-Mobile that this happens to? I have a friend with a metal roof and signals for cell phones get weakened badly in their house.
I have the exact same thing and I can say in my case it is not the phone(and most likely the same for you).We have 3 different providers(Tmob,Orange and 3 as im in the UK) and between us access to 8 different phones- N5,N4,HTC Desire,HTC One M7,ZTE Blade,LG O3D,Iphone 4s an8 5s.
All with different radios,modems etc and they all exhibit the same issues with the only same factors being my house and whats in it and its geography.
It`s one of those things that we have got used to since moving into the house-god knows what the neighbours think of us leaning out the windows and doors to make calls:laugh: