Off Network - ONE Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've finally got my brand new OPO setup, so I moved my SIM over from my old phone (SGS 3). It looks like I mostly have full bars, but it says OFF NETWORK.
I've got AT&T & live out in the country with marginal reception. I have a microcell to get better signal in the house. I tried unplugging the microcell to see if it was connected there & just displaying something weird, but it stayed off network with full bars.
Heading into town to get a case & going to swing by AT&T to snag a new SIM as well as checking on signal & connectivity. I was able to place a test call just fine.
Any thoughts? New SIM? Something else messed up?

Hummm... Half way to town (wife driving) & it finally picked up AT&T. It might just be poor reception in my area, although my SGS 3 did better. Doesn't explain the lack of microcell connectivity though.

Got home to full bars of OFF NETWORK, fired back up the microcell. I got a good connection to the microcell according to the phone within a few minutes. Things now seem to be working as expected.

Related

[Q] Bad radio or terrible coverage?

I left sprint for the galaxy S 4g on the the day it was available, and have been very, VERY unhappy with the reception on the phone. I checked the coverage maps on t-mobile.com before I switched, and both my work and home locations are supposed to be in "maximum coverage" areas for voice AND data, but I am getting only 1 - 2 bars and edge (EDGE!!!) most of the time. often the phone drops to "no service" at my work location.
I love the device, but I never, NEVER had these issues with sprint. I can't believe that I actually see the E network symbol at the top of the phone, and not at least 3G.
Could this be a radio problem? Or are the coverage maps at t-mobile.com that inaccurate?
At least for the two locations where I have less-than-ideal coverage, the T-Mobile maps hint at that.
Both on a Nokia N900 (3.5G) and my SGS4G, what I actually get is probably a notch or two down -- for example, "4G Good" means I probably get 4G outside, but more likely am getting 3.5G or 3G, especially if I'm inside.
Life in LA said:
I left sprint for the galaxy S 4g on the the day it was available, and have been very, VERY unhappy with the reception on the phone. I checked the coverage maps on t-mobile.com before I switched, and both my work and home locations are supposed to be in "maximum coverage" areas for voice AND data, but I am getting only 1 - 2 bars and edge (EDGE!!!) most of the time. often the phone drops to "no service" at my work location.
I love the device, but I never, NEVER had these issues with sprint. I can't believe that I actually see the E network symbol at the top of the phone, and not at least 3G.
Could this be a radio problem? Or are the coverage maps at t-mobile.com that inaccurate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are getting EDGE you are in a 2G area. I have a 2G tower close enough that it would smash my motorhome if it fell over. I get between 4 to 16KB/sec transfer rate. From the research I've done, T-M is putting up new towers but they have a long way to go before the coverage is going to be available. Also I have found that when I am surfing the web, My phone misses calls. When I am talking on the phone, my computer can't surf the web very well. T-M claims they have 4G in place in major service areas but the reviews I've read they are lucky if it's 3.5G.
thanks
I am swapping the device today after work. hopefully, it resolves my issues. If not, it's back to sprint. (they called me with a "win back" pitch the other day, maybe they'll refund the ETF I paid...
Life in LA said:
If not, it's back to sprint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had to chuckle a bit with the recent announcements in the business world. Thankfully, any device we just bought will be obsolete by the time any merger goes through...
Bummer
well, it wasn't the device!
Brand new unit, and I'm sitting here at work with 1 bar and EDGE network! (despite the fact that the coverage maps show me in the maximum coverage area for voice and data!) NEVER in the 2 years I had sprint did I ever see the edge network pop up on my phone.
Back to sprint I go!
Life in LA said:
Brand new unit, and I'm sitting here at work with 1 bar and EDGE network!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How are you holding the device? do you have a shock-case for it?
Nearly every cell phone i have ever used suffered from the "Grip of Death" problem that was over-hyped on the iPhone. It's a normal and natural interaction that if you are holding both sides of the phone your signal will be crap.
T-Mobile just has spotty coverage in some areas. I live in a highly populated area, and I still lose 3G in certain places. I don't even get reception in my apartment, but my laptop with Verizon 3G does. I left AT&T because of a lack of Android devices, and my wife and I were sucked in by T-Mobile's free smartphone sale thing. Now AT&T has the Atrix and another cool phone and we're stuck with crappy coverage.

[Q] Losing network with the Inspire 4g

Hi all, after a fruitful unlocking, rooting with the hack-kit, i updated the radio using the hack kit itself. However previously as well as with the new radio, the network reception was bad. I can tell this as my phone was showing no network whereas a friend along was chatting away on his phone. I thought this might have to do something with the radio. Hence i loaded up the Android Revolution HD 5.2.3 along with the recommended radio 12.54.60.25_26.09.04.11_M2; although the data speeds improved greatly, it is still losing connections in areas where other phones are easily able to make a call. I had this radio yesterday only, so should i wait for sometime or there is something wrong with the hardware?
I've also had this issue, and tried troubleshooting in the same ways. Randomly, my phone will cycle through all the connections (GSM, 3G, H, etc) and then go to "no service" no matter if i walk around or even go outside. I have called AT&T about this issue to see maybe if there are issues going on with the towers in my area...and they report no probems. The closest tower to my apartment is less than a mile away, and I live in a metropolitan area. So then they had me go to a store to have the sim card replaced because its plausible that a bad sim card could cause this issue. So far, with a new sim card, it's still having signal issues. So the next step is to do a warranty exchange.
AT&T service in my area is awful. Since moving south to Florida I have had the same problem but it's not unique to my Inspire. I experienced the same sort of nonsense with my old blackberry. Trying different radio/ril combos has given me some better results but it's an been an issue ever since I got south of Georgia.
It's one thing when the service is bleek in a certain area, thus causing you signal issues. But in an area that has AT&T coverage all over, like in the instance of my area, then you really can't blame the coverage. In my situation, AT&T was unable to explain why I'm having these issues in the area that I am in. They even logged in my account that if replacing the sim card has no affect, then they will go ahead and do a warranty exchange.
cavsoldier19d said:
It's one thing when the service is bleek in a certain area, thus causing you signal issues. But in an area that has AT&T coverage all over, like in the instance of my area, then you really can't blame the coverage. In my situation, AT&T was unable to explain why I'm having these issues in the area that I am in. They even logged in my account that if replacing the sim card has no affect, then they will go ahead and do a warranty exchange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the coverage in my area should be great. The closest tower to my home is just over a mile away. I live right outside of Tampa. AT&T has coverage here. If I can get 5 bars on "H" one moment and 0 bars on anything a moment later without moving the phone I doubt it's just generally poor service in my area specifically. In any event I hope you're issue gets solved. I'd be interested to see what the resolution is
Well i understand the network issues might be there, but then if i see on the other phone (Galaxy S) its showing full network at the same place. So I assume there is something in my hardware or software which is having some issues...
Be sure to check teh signal strength between the two phones(android) by pressing *#*#4636#*#*>Phone Info Compare the dBm and asu of the two. Make sure the contacts between the batt and sim covers are clean as both are antennas for different radio's(sell and BT)
Tx Redneck said:
Be sure to check teh signal strength between the two phones(android) by pressing *#*#4636#*#*>Phone Info Compare the dBm and asu of the two. Make sure the contacts between the batt and sim covers are clean as both are antennas for different radio's(sell and BT)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok... will try with this and see what is the problem... anyways it's just a 3 day old new phone and the battery cover... well i am still trying to open it... what a mess... would you recommend flashing another radio and check or i am the only one with the network losing problem here?
Out here in Cincinati my signal has been going to garbage and I'm stock. If I put the sin in my Samsung focus I get 4 bars and 3g, in my inspire I'm lucky to get 2 bars. I think it has to do with inspire and 2.3.3 dident help me at least
Sent with Dr. Brown Technology & my HTC Inspire 4G

Data dropping

My phone has dropped data randomly two times this morning. I could only get it back by doing a switch to airplane mode. Anyone else with this problem? Is this a phone issue that I need to get a new one?
Sent from my HTC One X
Mine has dropped several times. when coming to and from work. It seems to always happen when it connects to wifi. when i leave work and its wifi, i lose all signal entirely.
I don't use wifi though that's the thing. I called ATT and they said it may need a new simcard......which this was. So I swung by and got one and the lady at the store said that my phone may be going bad! LOL wow I love how they train their people.
YES. Most definitely, this is the same problem I'm experiencing. I had another thread posted about how the 4G icon was lit but there was no signal. The icon now seems to be a little more accurate...But still.
At home I switch on WiFi so I don't run up my data but if I look at the settings for mobile network the status underneath in gray text keeps showing that it connects and disconnects. Endlessly. The phone isn't moving. My wife has signal on her iPad and iPhone (I know those are 3G).
I have to turn on airplane mode and then off...Then mobile network on and it seems to help a little. However it's still super spotty.
This is pretty much only indoors but I don't know. I'm going to go around town and try it out. On their coverage map I'm in a big zone of LTE coverage. Outside I have seen 30Mbps on LTE using speedtest.net app. So I don't know. I thought it was very odd given the houses here in CA don't exactly have super thick insulation and every other cell phone (Sprint, my wife's on AT&T, etc.) seem to be AOK. It's just this new One X that just can't stay connected to the 4G.
Going under settings > about > network ...
I see my signal strength....some readings are...
-109 dBm 4 asu
-101 dBm 6 asu
-107 dBm 2 asu
I have no idea what values I should be seeing - what is considered good?
Mobile network type says HSPA. Service state says in service. Icon up top is 4G with one bar. If I turn off WiFi I could not load a web page or anything. That's what annoys me. I usually see like 2 bars and that's fine...But if I see the damn bars and the 4G icon....I sure as hell expect the data to work, even if a little slower.
It's just SUPER flaky. Again outside seems to help but to be honest I haven't sat and watched it. For all I know it could be connecting and disconnecting over and over outside as well but just have a stronger connection when it is actually "on."
I'm annoyed and speechless. I'm not in the boonies. I've never experienced anything like this before. I'm actually at my desk in front of a window. Uh...WTF?
Just picked up lunch and watched the data while on the trip.
This phone is unusable. It's gotta go back. Well, I guess it's welcome back Sprint. Sooooo disappointed.
All I got was HSPA. The only time I get LTE and those fast 30Mbps down is at night time. AT&T is such a joke and their network is NOT ready for this phone.
I'm in Palo Alto, CA. It's not the middle of no where. This is embarrassing. Either that or somehow I have a defective phone or SIM card or something I have no clue here...It's really really bad and I'm obviously not the only one.
3 days and it's been horrible, the only reason why I didn't notice sooner is because I've been using the phone on WiFi most the time.
tom_m said:
Just picked up lunch and watched the data while on the trip.
This phone is unusable. It's gotta go back. Well, I guess it's welcome back Sprint. Sooooo disappointed.
All I got was HSPA. The only time I get LTE and those fast 30Mbps down is at night time. AT&T is such a joke and their network is NOT ready for this phone.
I'm in Palo Alto, CA. It's not the middle of no where. This is embarrassing. Either that or somehow I have a defective phone or SIM card or something I have no clue here...It's really really bad and I'm obviously not the only one.
3 days and it's been horrible, the only reason why I didn't notice sooner is because I've been using the phone on WiFi most the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how fast is the HSPA you're getting?
1-3.56Mbps down and 0.04-1.03Mbps up.
Out on the street downtown.
Best I've ever had was at night on LTE 30Mbps down and like 17Mbps up.
All to the same test server. Trying servers several states away it varied, sometimes I'd even see 20Mbps down to a far away server.
Again this is all WHEN I'm actually connected to the data network.
The thing just can't hold a connection. Constantly dropped.
edit-- ok so right now same time of day, servers, etc. Sprint's 3G is a little slower, but at least I'm not getting dropped.
and on a side note, i got a REALLY helpful lvl1 tech support lady on the phone. much better experience than i thought. there was an issue in the area before. but basically i'm going to give it another shot. if no good tomorrow, swap for a new phone. they'll call me back friday and we'll see... crossing my fingers.
Any update on this? I've got a new One X and work night shifts twice a week. I've notived tonight that the data drops when the phone is idle and obviously nothing pushes.
There's got to be a way of turning this off. I can see why HTC would call it a feature, but there has to be a flag or a switch somewhere....

How much can different phones affect signal strength?

So we've been testing a Verizon and T Mobile phone (currently have Sprint) as Sprint has been pretty poor in our area as of late. The T Mobile phone is a Galaxy Blaze, and with it we get amazing 4G signal in the street outside our house. However, we can move literally 3 feet closer to the house, and the signal will drop to absolutely nothing. Inside the house it just frequently switches between very low 4G and very low Edge signal. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Is there any chance that a different phone (we want Nexus 4's) would have stronger reception and not have this problem, or is our house pretty much screwed?
Different internal radios will be different, yes.
However, I get absolutely no signal in my house with my T-Mobile S3. I don't find this to be a problem since T-Mobile has native calling over WIFI. Whole house is covered by strong WIFI signal and the call quality has been pretty great when used that way. I don't know if you can get WIFI calling onto the Nexus 4, I would guess probably not but who knows (maybe someone has found a way) - I'd have to research that.
I don't know how well a signal repeater would work, but it seems like it could since you could place it outside the home where it would have access to a great signal and repeat it inside.
If your Sprint phone can roam on Verizon, I'd question how much of a difference it would make to switch to Verizon itself. I have had both and the signal in my home was basically the same - the Sprint phone was connected to the same Verizon towers the Verizon phone was. I'm sure there might be some technical reasons there would be differences at some point (radios, how roaming is dictated), but I never noticed them in practical use.
Depends on the plans you're looking at and where you're willing to compromise.
For whatever reason, roaming doesn't seem to fix the problem on Sprint here. Verizon gets great signal, but 4 days in the 2gb plan is clearly not going to work. This pretty much leaves T-Mobile our only choice. T-Mobile also seems to just get better and faster service everywhere we go, so it would still be better than Sprint, as we're used to not having service at home anyway. It would just be unfortunate to have to continue like that.

Reception on 5 vs 4

Hello,
I have my Nexus 5 on order and it's currently in route via UPS. For those of you that already have it in hand, whats your opinion about it's reception vs the Nexus 4's? The reason why I ask is because my nexus 4 has crap reception in my office and I can't get a signal while co-workers on the same network carrier can get a signal just fine (a weak but reliable one). It doesn't help I'm in a basement behind 3 feet of concrete and steal beams, but if I go to the stairs I get a signal right away.
If anyone who previously had "bad" reception in certain areas could test this with their new Nexus 5 and share the info that's be great!
Because of my bad circumstances and office location, I'm hoping I can get a basic signal for just talk/text. I'd be fine without data since I don't surf the web on my phone while at work.
Sooo.. got my N5 yesterday and I normally have bad signal at home. I had the same bad signal so assumed everything was the same.
Got to work this morning and previously where I had a great signal with my N4 where I sat I get literally no cellular signal on the N5. Tried forcing down to 3G/HSPA and still nothing. As soon as I walk out of my area and close to the front of our building my signal comes back almost full.
Anyone experiencing these same issues? Not too pleased with this but I'd feel better if other people are affected at least.
*edit*
So in a completely random way I turned data roaming on and off just for ****s and giggles and within 5 seconds of turning it off I all of a sudden had a full HSPA signal. ????? It appears to work flawlessly now.

Categories

Resources