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Cell signal horrible

I get horrible reception in my house.my old galaxy nexus and my girlfriends iphone 4s gets fine reception and voice calls are choppy. Is my phone bad or what's the deal?
Sent from Vzw Galaxy SIII running Cleanrom 1.3

I'm going to go get a new sim card see if that helps am I safe take my phone in if it's rooted?
Sent from Vzw Galaxy SIII running Cleanrom 1.3

Welcome to Samsung phones.

tonytownsend said:
I get horrible reception in my house.my old galaxy nexus and my girlfriends iphone 4s gets fine reception and voice calls are choppy. Is my phone bad or what's the deal?
Sent from Vzw Galaxy SIII running Cleanrom 1.3
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From what I'm reading on various threads, it seems to be varying as to who has good reception and who doesn't. My S3 gets better reception than my HTC Dinc did.

Man I hate when this happens. I think you should keep asking around. I don't think your question will be answered here. Keep searching. Maybe installing other radio versions on your device is the answer, if you are into tinkering.

I feel your pain. Coming from a bionic which had phenomenal signal my sgs3 is meh meh meh. But I still love it!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

rednukleus said:
Man I hate when this happens. I think you should keep asking around. I don't think your question will be answered here. Keep searching. Maybe installing other radio versions on your device is the answer, if you are into tinkering.
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My signal also sucks.... can you direct me to where I can go about installing other radio versions?
in the mean time, I will look around here

Garrett67 said:
My signal also sucks.... can you direct me to where I can go about installing other radio versions?
in the mean time, I will look around here
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http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1788313
signal quality seems to vary a lot on our GS3's.. many people complain about worse signal while others have decent signal. personally, my signal is pretty similar to what I got on my old Thunderbolt.

I was getting terrible signal at my house as well. I called on Sunday and asked if there was an update or something to correct the problem. I was issued a new SIM card and it came today. 2 hours in and I have only had data flicker once and ot used to happen every 5-10 minutes. It doesnt hirt to make the call.

Switched out the sim today still crap signal at the house. I'm not gonna be living here much longer I get strong data signal at the house but voice sucks. I'm moving soon or I'd say I would buy a signal booster for the house
Sent from Vzw Galaxy SIII running Cleanrom 1.3

I get one bar inside my house. If it ends up switching to 3G (which is rare), i get full bars. The moment I go outside, I get full bars on 4G.
We have two phones and they are about the same, so I don't think switching them will help. The 3G is better than I got on my old DINC.
I do hope there will be a software update to kick it up a notch, but I'm not hating it. I really am not having issues anywhere else but home and one day I had to run into Walmart and got no reception, but I normally don't go there, so I couldn't care less. Oddly, when I was in Target across the street, I had full 4G reception. :shrug:

dagnisaun said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1788313
signal quality seems to vary a lot on our GS3's.. many people complain about worse signal while others have decent signal. personally, my signal is pretty similar to what I got on my old Thunderbolt.
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One thing I have noticed is that the bars shown on the notification bar, and what it ACTUALLY is getting differ sometimes. It it like there is a dealy, and a strange averaging algorithm.

Unfortunately I have a similar issue. Admittedly I don't live in the greatest spot for cellular signal but it seems the S3's radio is "weaker" in my situation than my HTC Desire and my Droid MX2. The MX2 seems to rule them all (and I've always read the one thing Motorola does well is radios). Normally the Desire and MX2 will read 5-10 dB better than the S3, and voice quality tends to be way better with either and I rarely drop calls. I haven't tried any other radio / modem, right now I am on VRLG1 (which is what the phone came with), maybe I will try going back to VRLF2 to see if it makes any difference.

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.
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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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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.
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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....
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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...

[Q] Arizona - Signal Issue - Normal or Not? Thx

Hello!!
Thanks everyone for stopping in.
so I have had my S3 since Black Friday .. 97 cents at Sams Club.. Woot
Ever since I purchases my phone I have yet pass 3 Bars for reception. Is this normal? I live in Arizona so I'm not sure if this is an issue I should worry about or if it is just normal.
Is there any way to figure out if my phone is defective? or has reception issues?
I did a speed test and
have gotten around 4500>7600dwn / 2000->3000up
I have Rooted/Unlocked and flashed a couple of different roms and So far am using a Root66 Rom. ..
I dont really use my phone as a phone all that often but so far haven't noticed any dropped calls or download stalls.
any Advice?
thanks everyone.
I have a Signal Strength of -103dBm 35asu..

I am also in Phoenix and I was thinking the same thing, what modem are you using? I have just resorted to 3G and even then I haven't seen more then 3 bars. I'm on cleanrom 4.5 with stock kernel.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Im in West Phoenix and I do see low signal in my house (usually 1-3 bars with 2 being the norm). But out and about I get 4-5 bars 90% of the time when I am driving. I see normally about 14/4 on 4g and 1/1 on 3g at my house and usually 25/10 in Buckeye when I am there. Even with 1 bar in my house i have yet dropped a call. I find that the HE modem works best for me so I rock that with a K3 base.

not really sure on what modem I am using.
As Far as I know everything should be stock 4.1.1 from Root66's rom.
I am just hearing all these discussions with signal issues with the s3
the only thing i can really do to troubleshoot it is go down to the verizon store and see if they have a phone on a network I can test against.
If they get better signal on their phone.. then I would have to assume my phone is jacked.
troubleshooting these issues is difficult without a base to compare our statistics too.
currently I am in Apache Junction and 4g signal is abysmal .. 515dwn 1000up
..
but its apache junction.. so blah.

Ya It probably spotty on the east side I havent been over there in a while so I cant comment on how my phone is over there. If you are running a stock rooted K3 image then you are gonna be on the K3 radio which is the most current. You can flash another radio in your recovery from here and see if it helps.

I live on the east side (not as far as aj) and I get great signal. Full bars everywhere I go and 35-40 down 10-20 up. I would agree with going into a store and comparing side by side.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Edit: Stupid auto signature, I've got an s3 as well.

Signal sucks in apache junction. Lol. I used to stay out there. My little bro is there now with his Razr and he keeps complaining to me about signal.
I bet you get full bars in South Scottsdale/North Phoenix.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Q] AT&T users.

Love the Nexus 5. By far the perfect phone. But my question is does anyone get any drop signals? At times my data will just go completely blank then come back. Could be the my area. But just had to ask.

No problems with AT&T in SE Michigan.

Well it could just be the area that I am. The wife has a iphone 5s and she gets none of the drop calls.

No issues with me in STL.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

I definitely think that the signal is a bit worse than it was on my One X. It tends to drop completely in areas where my One X had marginal signal but still connected. I'm in Northeast Florida.

I've actually had this the last few days, a split second of no service and then back to normal. This is in thy southwest and west suburbs of Chicago.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I notice the signal strength shows low (2-3 bars lower) compared to my old S4 but when I make a call it jumps to max. Could this be a battery saving thing?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

android.gt said:
No issues with me in STL.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
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STL REPRESENT
couldn't pass it up.
---------- Post added at 09:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:30 AM ----------
marcusva79 said:
Love the Nexus 5. By far the perfect phone. But my question is does anyone get any drop signals? At times my data will just go completely blank then come back. Could be the my area. But just had to ask.
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Just to be clear you did not flash any custom roms with radios or anything right?

No issues here. I travel weekly for work and so far I can say no issues in the following areas:
Lexington, KY
College Station, TX
Atlanta, GA
Houston, TX
Knoxville, TN
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it is just AT&T and in your area. I carry a Verizon Galaxy S4 and my Nexus 5 on AT&T around. I can consistently get awesome coverage and 25-35mbit speeds on my Verizon phone. Sometimes I question if AT&T data is even working, and a speedtest will show only 5mbit down. I know its not the Nexus 5 because I can have other random people I am with on AT&T do speedtest on various phones and have the same issue.

marcusva79 said:
Love the Nexus 5. By far the perfect phone. But my question is does anyone get any drop signals? At times my data will just go completely blank then come back. Could be the my area. But just had to ask.
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I work in central Mass, and the signal in my office is horrid... for LTE. If I force it to only use HSPA+ (Settings > More... > Mobile Networks > Network Mode > 3G) I have full service of HSPA+ and no dropped signals. Coming from an HTC One (where there are like... 25 bars to display signal) I'm thinking it's just an aesthetic change for me mostly.

coolguy949 said:
I notice the signal strength shows low (2-3 bars lower) compared to my old S4 but when I make a call it jumps to max. Could this be a battery saving thing?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
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2 biggest battery drains are screen and radios. Newer radio chips are much better at conserving juice. And why turn up the radios if you don't need them. S800 soc has a lot of battery saving features, and newer lte chips use a lot less juice.
In other words, yes, that's a battery saving thing.
Coming from a gnex, this has great battery life, and has double the cores and clock speeds, and a graphics chip that compares to a lower end pc add in video card. Gotta love that technology!

Very bad reception (GSM/3G) + weakish Wifi

So I bought a Nexus 5 the other day, a used D821) and I am a little displeased with the reception. It's very, very bad. A lot worse than on my HTC One and the spare Gnex I borrowed for a while (my One's being repaired).
I've googled and searched like a madman but nothing helps me. I do not use 4G because it's not in my plan (don't want it and don't need it). I can hardly get 3G on this thing, mostly 2G and sometimes not even that. On other phones with this carrier I have awesome signal reception in my room at home but with the Nexus 5 it's hardly 1 bar. Also the wifi is kind of weakish and I didn't expect everything to be as good on a budget-ish phone as on a top price premium HTC One but the signal shouldn't be this bad.
When I'm out I hardly if ever get 3G signal. I have edge pretty much all the time and sometimes not even that. On my other phones I have awesome reception. I tried flashing an earlier modem (.17) that was said to work better but it didn't help.
No dust in my sim tray (I just cleaned it..) and my sim card's just fine.

Almost 100 views and nothing?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Not much to say I think. The signal is the signal.
I find my N5 nearly as good as moto x. And both far better than my S2.
Not much can be done about signal strength.
Sorry I couldn't help.

just a shot in the dark, but try this. add these lines to the end of your build.prop file, save them, then reboot for them to take affect.
ro.ril.hsxpa=3
ro.ril.gprsclass=12
ro.ril.hsdpa.category=27
ro.ril.hsupa.category=7

Try flashing a different modem. The .23 gets bad reception in my experience. A quick search for nexus 5 modems will bring you to the download page. .15 or .17 work good.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

simms22 said:
just a shot in the dark, but try this. add these lines to the end of your build.prop file, save them, then reboot for them to take affect.
ro.ril.hsxpa=3
ro.ril.gprsclass=12
ro.ril.hsdpa.category=27
ro.ril.hsupa.category=7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do, thanks.
MrObvious said:
Try flashing a different modem. The .23 gets bad reception in my experience. A quick search for nexus 5 modems will bring you to the download page. .15 or .17 work good.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
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Please read the entire post. I've already tried changing modems
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

@simms22 Those lines seem to have improved my 3G signal. I seem to be getting H at home where I used to get E.
It's still not rock solid, though. It seems to be unstable. Same can be said for the GSM signals (calling/texting)

Theshawty said:
@simms22 Those lines seem to have improved my 3G signal. I seem to be getting H at home where I used to get E.
It's still not rock solid, though. It seems to be unstable. Same can be said for the GSM signals (calling/texting)
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Click to collapse
i was actually hoping that it might make your 3g-h/h+ situation better. i get slightly better data speeds using those lines.

simms22 said:
i was actually hoping that it might make your 3g-h/h+ situation better. i get slightly better data speeds using those lines.
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It did make it better, but only slightly. Around -95 dB now and before it was around -105dB
But this phone is weird signal-wise. Before I bought this I had borrowed a Gnex because my One is being repaired and the Gnex had full bars here or nigh full.
Maybe it's the hardware?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Compared to my coworkers, I generally get a better data signal in a tough area. That includes a Gnex, iphone and various samesungs.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

bblzd said:
Compared to my coworkers, I generally get a better data signal in a tough area. That includes a Gnex, iphone and various samesungs.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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My Gnex beats my N5 in signal reception
Then again, I live like 6362 km from Toronto