ive noticed that i get a 4g and a 2g icon but wheres the 3g icon? has anyone seened it?
Travling through the middle of nowhere over the last 3 days I've seen, no signal, G, 2G, 3G, & 4G. It's there.
I also have not seen the 3G icon. I drive through the city and would think when I get out if 4G I would at least still be in a 3G area. Wonder if something may be wrong....
Sent from my T-Mobile G2X using XDA app.
Cyberdan3 said:
I also have not seen the 3G icon. I drive through the city and would think when I get out if 4G I would at least still be in a 3G area. Wonder if something may be wrong....
Sent from my T-Mobile G2X using XDA app.
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Same here but this is the first 4G device I have had and I know for a fact most of my city is covered by 4G. What is also weird is that in areas where I would have 1 or 2 bars with my Vibrant, it is telling me I have full bars worth of 4G with the G2X.
its there in the framwork i checked..
Im just wondering why it doesnt display 3G when its on UMTS... it sticks to 4G all the time...
very strange in the instruction manual it also shows 3g icon!
Rmoved
Sent from space
death1246 said:
its there in the framwork i checked..
Im just wondering why it doesnt display 3G when its on UMTS... it sticks to 4G all the time...
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A lot of this has to do with the fact that T-Mobile's 3G towers == their 4G towers so if you're in an area where all of their towers have been upgraded to HSPA+ you will NEVER show 3G because you're always on a 4G tower. The only time you will show a 3G signal is if you're in an older area where they have pre-HSPA+ upgradeable towers. This is how T-mobile can say they have the biggest 4G network because almost all of their old HSPA/3G equipment has been turned into 4G equipment via software upgrades.
I have had my g2x for about 5 days and all I ever see is 4G or E never 3g. I have been checking in the settings/about phone/status and even when the phone is showing 3-4 bars of 4G it is still on umts. In the exact same location and within a minute or so when checking it with my Vibrant I will have 3 bars of H or 3G and in status it shows as hspda or hspda+. What is that about? I have checked this out at least 6 to 7 times a day and it is always the same only umts on the G2X and Hspda or Hspda+ on the Vibrant. I called CS and they wanted to send out another G2X I reluctantly said yes. I do really like this phone and will try to be patient but the device I have now has multiple issues. I am going to take the stance that this is an isolated case and the new one will be golden!!!
brentil said:
A lot of this has to do with the fact that T-Mobile's 3G towers == their 4G towers so if you're in an area where all of their towers have been upgraded to HSPA+ you will NEVER show 3G because you're always on a 4G tower. The only time you will show a 3G signal is if you're in an older area where they have pre-HSPA+ upgradeable towers. This is how T-mobile can say they have the biggest 4G network because almost all of their old HSPA/3G equipment has been turned into 4G equipment via software upgrades.
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This is true. There's pretty much no need for a '3G' icon. Though, technically, it's debatable whether or not T-Mo's (or any other carriers) offerings right now are actually '4G' (according to the standards committees that define those things), but that's a different argument
tl;dr: T-Mo's 3G and 4G operate on pretty much the same technology, so if you're in an area where there was 3G, you'll probably have 4G. It doesn't need to switch back and forth or be toggled like the other solutions (looking at you Wi-Max)
Is it normal for the phone to go straight from "4G" to "2G"? Should the phone ever show "3G" or anything of the like? I was in an area on the coverage map that said "3G" but the phone was hunting between "4G" and "2G" where "2G" will absolutely access NO DATA... Is it also normal for "2G" to be useless..
Dial *#*#4636#*#*
Then "phone settings"
Then change "wcdma preferred" to "wcdma only"
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Just did that, seemed to show 0-1 bars of 4G and it was still enough to get data to load, so I guess that works.
Is there just no 3G that will ever display on this phone? I know there is a mix of HSDPA and HSPA+ in my area, but it's only ever said 4G.
chrisizzle492 said:
Dial #*#*4636*#*#
Then "phone settings"
Then change "wcdma preferred" to "wcdma only"
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
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Click to collapse
-Go into the dialer and dial *#*#4636#*#*
Wait what? Doing that is going to make it so that you will only ever be able to use data if you are in a 4G/3G data area.
T-Mobile does not have a very big 3G coverage map, so doing this essentially makes it so that you have to stay within a known 3G area. 2G, IE EDGE will get you around 150kBps on T-Mobile which isn't really all that bad all things considered.
I would definately switch back to the Auto setting.
The problem is, even with 4 bars of 2g, the phone literally cannot browse the internet at all... almost as if I were connected to GPRS.
mbaran said:
Is it normal for the phone to go straight from "4G" to "2G"? Should the phone ever show "3G" or anything of the like? I was in an area on the coverage map that said "3G" but the phone was hunting between "4G" and "2G" where "2G" will absolutely access NO DATA... Is it also normal for "2G" to be useless..
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Click to collapse
Yes. 4G (HSPA) doesn't really require better signal strength than 3G (UMTS) - so an area is either 3G or 4G capable depending on if T-Mobile has upgraded the tower or not.
2G (EDGE) can work on a much weaker signal so your phone will drop back to it from 4G.
Please correct me if I'm wrong
this is what i put in a similar thread:
I'm guessing the reason you won't see 3G is because Tmobile has upgraded most of their 3G network to HSPA+ so it'll show the 4G unless you actually go to a place that still has just 3G versus the HSPA+
Is there an order to the way Skyrocket works:
If LTE is available it would connect to LTE
If LTE is not available it would try to find 4G and connect to it
If 4G is not available it would search for 3G and connect to it
If 3G is not available, it would connect to "normal GSM"
Skyrocket is a LTE/4G phone, so does it mean that whenever I make phone calls I should be connected to LTE or 4G?
I had 4G showing in the top bar for 3 days but I haven't seen 4G all day today.
And I do not see LTE or 3G there either (I am not sure if there is LTE in New York).
There is just WiFi and those signal strength bars.
If it says 4g and LTE under your are in a LTE area. If it says 4g you are in a hspa+ area. If it says E you are on edge.
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using XDA App
Oh and when you make a call it will say 4g you can't make calls with lte only 4g.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App
The indicators in the info bar can be misleading. If you want to know which network you are connected to, go to "settings", "about phone", "status", and look under "mobile network type".
And for people that have data connection issues from time to time, I am willing to bet that if you look under "mobile network type" while you are having the data connection problems you will see the network type changing every few seconds or so. The phone is generally in an area where there are weak data connections in all areas and it can't decide which network to grab hold of, therefore, none of them work. I think this isn't a problem with the phone, but a problem with how AT&T's towers handle connections in weak areas.
justcalled said:
Is
I had 4G showing in the top bar for 3 days but I haven't seen 4G all day today.
And I do not see LTE or 3G there either (I am not sure if there is LTE in New York).
There is just WiFi and those signal strength bars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because you're connected to wifi. When using wifi, the network icon goes away. If you turn wifi off, you will see it again.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App
Scott1479,
So I still don't see 4G. However under "Mobile Network Type" it alternates between HSPA and UMTS - I understand these are 3G networks. Very interesting
There isn't voice over LTE on AT&T (or anywhere else as far as I know).
Hello everyone,
Just got my Nexus 5 with carrier AT&T and got my LTE activated using the IMEI that came with the N5 and everything works great. Just a quick question regarding the icons that are shown depending on which network you are on. When on LTE it will show LTE above the signal bar. When not on an LTE band it will switch over to H. My understanding is that the H stands for HSPA+. Would this be the equivalent of 4G? I was under the assumption that the H was basically 3G. I also thought then when using LTE it is considered LTE/4G, so wouldn't the LTE switch to a 4G symbol, or does the Nexus 5 not have this and that would be what the H is referencing.
Thank you.
H is hspa+ which is faster than 3g but not as fast as lte. I am usually on H+ or lte. I rarely get the 3g symbol on AT&T. I also found that H+ is almost as fast as Verizon LTE. I think it is due to do many devices on their network.
eevingsa the
jm700wx said:
H is hspa+ which is faster than 3g but not as fast as lte. I am usually on H+ or lte. I rarely get the 3g symbol on AT&T. I also found that H+ is almost as fast as Verizon LTE. I think it is due to do many devices on their network.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, so basically you won't get the 4G symbol on the Nexus 5 using AT&T? Mainly what happens is i'm on LTE, then when I make a phone call it switches to H (HSPA+). I thought AT&T is able to do voice calls over a 4G network. I may be wrong.
celphtitle said:
Thanks, so basically you won't get the 4G symbol on the Nexus 5 using AT&T? Mainly what happens is i'm on LTE, then when I make a phone call it switches to H (HSPA+). I thought AT&T is able to do voice calls over a 4G network. I may be wrong.
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Click to collapse
You may have to manually add in AT&T's LTE apn (which you can find with a quick google search) if your phone doesn't automatically pick it up. Also make sure your SIM card has been provisioned to work with the LTE bands (use with another 4G phone ex. S3, HTC One)
k3anan said:
You may have to manually add in AT&T's LTE apn (which you can find with a quick google search) if your phone doesn't automatically pick it up. Also make sure your SIM card has been provisioned to work with the LTE bands (use with another 4G phone ex. S3, HTC One)
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Click to collapse
Well I get LTE, I just don't get 4G. I figured the phone doesn't show a 4G icon, but if it does, then I'll check my sim in another device.
Google just changed the "4G" icon to "LTE". On jelly bean, LTE would show "4G" if you had the hybrid N4 radio flashed. hspa+ has always shown "H" on the stock ROM. Some custom ROMs have you the "H+" symbol though.
As for voice calls on at&t, they go over their hspa+ network, at&t uses their LTE for data only at this time. BTW, at&t considers their hspa+ to be "4G".
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
gotzaDroid said:
Google just changed the "4G" icon to "LTE". On jelly bean, LTE would show "4G" if you had the hybrid N4 radio flashed. hspa+ has always shown "H" on the stock ROM. Some custom ROMs have you the "H+" symbol though.
As for voice calls on at&t, they go over their hspa+ network, at&t uses their LTE for data only at this time. BTW, at&t considers their hspa+ to be "4G".
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Awesome, exactly the answer I was looking for. So I am good to go then, I see the LTE icon, and H when making voice calls.
Thank you very much.
celphtitle said:
Well I get LTE, I just don't get 4G. I figured the phone doesn't show a 4G icon, but if it does, then I'll check my sim in another device.
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Click to collapse
4G and LTE are the same thing. LTE is a denotation of the network standard just like 3G is EDGE. If you're getting LTE above the signal indicator you are on the 4G network.
EDIT: gotzaDroid explained it much better than I did.
k3anan said:
4G and LTE are the same thing. LTE is a denotation of the network standard just like 3G is EDGE. If you're getting LTE above the signal indicator you are on the 4G network.
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yea my concern was that when I would make a phone call, the LTE would switch to H. I didn't know that H was basically AT&T's "4G".
celphtitle said:
yea my concern was that when I would make a phone call, the LTE would switch to H. I didn't know that H was basically AT&T's "4G".
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Click to collapse
Yeah, it is the same on T-Mobile. When they refer to 4G, they are referring to HSPA+ (or H). I like to call AT&T and T-Mobile's 4G, fauxG since it is really just an improvement upon 3G. I don't know who shot first, but I wish the marketing teams would have called it 3G+ or something instead of lying to everyone or at least referred to LTE as 5G. So now everyone has 4G and 4G LTE and really LTE deserves more as it isn't a hack job to get more speed. It will replace all the legacy networks and even eventually be used for voice transmission.
Yes it switches because they're currently you cannot surf the web while being on a phone call with LTE, so it auto switches to hspa+ so you can surf the web while talking
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda premium
dijit4l said:
Yeah, it is the same on T-Mobile. When they refer to 4G, they are referring to HSPA+ (or H). I like to call AT&T and T-Mobile's 4G, fauxG since it is really just an improvement upon 3G. I don't know who shot first, but I wish the marketing teams would have called it 3G+ or something instead of lying to everyone or at least referred to LTE as 5G. So now everyone has 4G and 4G LTE and really LTE deserves more as it isn't a hack job to get more speed. It will replace all the legacy networks and even eventually be used for voice transmission.
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Click to collapse
It's no big deal. I considered HSPA+ more or less 3G+ anyway. All is well, you guys are great help. Got my phone unlocked the bootloader and set everything up, got my LTE (which I did not get with the nexus 4). Time to play around with the phone some more now.
I have had my Nexus 5 for a few days now and I have noticed quite a difference in reception between lte and hspa on T-Mobile. I will have lte marked and have one maybe two bars. Then I switched to hspa and then my bars went all the way up. Why is this?
dijit4l said:
Yeah, it is the same on T-Mobile. When they refer to 4G, they are referring to HSPA+ (or H). I like to call AT&T and T-Mobile's 4G, fauxG since it is really just an improvement upon 3G. I don't know who shot first, but I wish the marketing teams would have called it 3G+ or something instead of lying to everyone or at least referred to LTE as 5G. So now everyone has 4G and 4G LTE and really LTE deserves more as it isn't a hack job to get more speed. It will replace all the legacy networks and even eventually be used for voice transmission.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You realize LTE is also not REALLY 4G...
4G is a communications standard, that currently no one meets. In fact, many people report that T-Mobile HSPA+ is faster than Verizon LTE in their areas. Of course, now AT&T and T-Mobile both offer LTE and HSPA+. Which puts them above Verizon in my eyes, because when LTE goes out, you have HSPA to fall back on.
gotzaDroid said:
Google just changed the "4G" icon to "LTE". On jelly bean, LTE would show "4G" if you had the hybrid N4 radio flashed. hspa+ has always shown "H" on the stock ROM. Some custom ROMs have you the "H+" symbol though.
As for voice calls on at&t, they go over their hspa+ network, at&t uses their LTE for data only at this time. BTW, at&t considers their hspa+ to be "4G".
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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I'm with Australian network provider Telstra, and my phone shows 4G all the time(regardless whether it is transmitting data or not) when I'm in 4G coverage, 3G when I'm not in coverage and not having data acativity and H when it is transmitting data. Do you think it is the different device model and/or the network provider contributed to the difference between mine and what you guys have in the State?
maolin95 said:
I'm with Australian network provider Telstra, and my phone shows 4G all the time(regardless whether it is transmitting data or not) when I'm in 4G coverage, 3G when I'm not in coverage and not having data acativity and H when it is transmitting data. Do you think it is the different device model and/or the network provider contributed to the difference between mine and what you guys have in the State?
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Click to collapse
It wouldn't surprise me that the North American 820 model had the "LTE"symbol cooked in at the request of service providers here.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Simer03 said:
Yes it switches because they're currently you cannot surf the web while being on a phone call with LTE, so it auto switches to hspa+ so you can surf the web while talking
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda premium
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This confuses me. Can't the nexus 5 use both at the same time? You're getting text messages over HSPA(+) with LTE on.
I'm still puzzled why when I make a call why LTE goes away and HSPA+ shows up. This is on T-Mobile.
phoneman09 said:
I have had my Nexus 5 for a few days now and I have noticed quite a difference in reception between lte and hspa on T-Mobile. I will have lte marked and have one maybe two bars. Then I switched to hspa and then my bars went all the way up. Why is this?
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Click to collapse
Well, I have some good news to report. I was having the same issue as you and really getting down about it. I went to my nearest T-Mobile store and told them of my situation. The rep called tech support and he did some sort of reset to my account, I am not sure what exactly. I also asked if I could get a new SIM. I was given that new ISIS SIM and as soon as my phone fired up, it started using LTE. After I left the store, from being in my pocket, it was on HSPA for a few moments and then it finally chose LTE and stuck with LTE the entire time I was within its coverage. I am really happy with my phone now, it now behaves like my hacked Nexus 4 on LTE did.
jm700wx said:
H is hspa+ which is faster than 3g but not as fast as lte. I am usually on H+ or lte. I rarely get the 3g symbol on AT&T. I also found that H+ is almost as fast as Verizon LTE. I think it is due to do many devices on their network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't *entirely* true.
You'll see the LTE symbol when you're on LTE, that's easy.
You'll see the H when you're on HSPA or HSPA+, which means you'll see it when you're on the network that old phones used to just call 3G.
The other symbols are specifically for Edge. I know it doesn't seem like it, since one is a 3G symbol, but do a speedtest and you'll see it. Modern phones display things poorly for connections because of the differentiation of HSPA and HSPA+. It's obnoxious.
---------- Post added at 12:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 PM ----------
Zandeer said:
You realize LTE is also not REALLY 4G...
4G is a communications standard, that currently no one meets. In fact, many people report that T-Mobile HSPA+ is faster than Verizon LTE in their areas. Of course, now AT&T and T-Mobile both offer LTE and HSPA+. Which puts them above Verizon in my eyes, because when LTE goes out, you have HSPA to fall back on.
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Actually, that's not correct.
ITU-R said:
On December 6, 2010, ITU-R recognized that these two technologies, as well as other beyond-3G technologies that do not fulfill the IMT-Advanced requirements, could nevertheless be considered "4G", provided they represent forerunners to IMT-Advanced compliant versions and "a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LTE, and even HSPA+, are considered 4G.
As for the 'Why does it switch from LTE to HSPA+ when I make a call?' question, LTE does not support standard switch-based telephony, meaning you cannot make voice calls using the network. Some carriers (I think Verizon is ahead, but I don't remember) are going to be supporting VoIP soon (voice over IP), which allows calls to be made using the LTE network, but they're all data-based (think Skype). As such, current phones will switch to HSPA+ or CDMA to make the phone call and then switch back once it's done.
hotleadsingerguy said:
As for the 'Why does it switch from LTE to HSPA+ when I make a call?' question, LTE does not support standard switch-based telephony, meaning you cannot make voice calls using the network. Some carriers (I think Verizon is ahead, but I don't remember) are going to be supporting VoIP soon (voice over IP), which allows calls to be made using the LTE network, but they're all data-based (think Skype). As such, current phones will switch to HSPA+ or CDMA to make the phone call and then switch back once it's done.
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Click to collapse
That's not really accurate. Verizon's newer phones (Galaxy S3 for example) will let you call while on LTE. That's why I'm having such a hard time understanding why the N5 won't let LTE stay on while making a call. Doesn't it have a radio for data (LTE) and and radio for voice? Seems like both should be working in parallel like on VZ.
I just changed the old seem I've had for a few years to a new "4g compatible" sim card since my new moto g has 4g. The thing is there has been no change in the icon I get on my status bar when I'm not connected to any WiFi. It's still a letter H and the signal triangle. Is the icon supposed to be different when I get 4g?
It is suppoded to say 4G or LTE, depenidng on the rom. I get LTE on custom roms and 4G n stock. Also check on the mobile networks settings the prefered type is 4G
It varies by model, carrier, and country. Symbols you will see for 4G are: 4G, LTE, H, H+. Like the previous post said make sure you have 4G/LTE select as preferred in your network settings. You can test your speed to see if it's 4G with apps like Speedtest from the Play Store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.zwanoo.android.speedtest&hl=en
bobbyphoenix said:
It varies by model, carrier, and country. Symbols you will see for 4G are: 4G, LTE, H, H+. Like the previous post said make sure you have 4G/LTE select as preferred in your network settings. You can test your speed to see if it's 4G with apps like Speedtest from the Play Store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.zwanoo.android.speedtest&hl=en
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Click to collapse
Speedtest isn't really a reliable way of determining connection type, I have seen areas where 3G/HSPA is much faster than LTE and other places where LTE is 100 times faster than 3G. The best way is by the symbol next to your mobile connection when WiFi is off, or use an app like Network Signal Info which will give you very detailed information about both your mobile and wifi connections.