Tips for improving reception on TMobile in USA? - ONE Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello XDA,
I'm using my OPO on TMobile's network in USA, and I've noticed that my reception has been weaker than it should be. The reason I know the network isn't the problem is because my wife's Galaxy S5 gets significantly better dBm values than my OPO in the same location. My OPO also seems to have trouble maintaining an LTE signal and often doesn't recover service after leaving a dead zone until I toggle airplane mode. My wife's Galaxy S5 doesn't have these issues. I tried tweaking the APN settings according to some articles I found online, but that only seemed to help marginally.
I recently unlocked the bootloader to install the Xposed framework and flashed Franco kernel to improve the battery life, but the signal problem seems to have gotten worse. Anyone have any tips? Are there better modem drivers I can flash?

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Bad network signal / reception?

I was wondering how everyones experience with network signal is on their S6.
I upgraded from an S4 i9505 to the S6 SM-G920F and I notice that the signal to my network is about -5dBm worse on average. It means the phone isn't as good at keeping signal in a low signal area, and it drops from 4G to 3G much more often that the S4 in the same place.
Maybe my antenna is bad or does anyone else experience this?
Also, don't use the signal bars as a judge of your signal. Samsung has changed them, for example they now show 2 bars 4G when my S4 shows 1 bar. Both phones could have -105dBm and the S6 will show 2 bars but S4 1 bar. It makes it look as if the S6 signal is the same or better when in fact the true signal is worse on the S6.
If you want to see your true dBm signal on the S6, go to the dialer and type *#0011# and choose STACK 1. Your signal is the RSRP.
Screenshots attached of S4 and S6, you can see S6 shows 2 bars with -109dBm and S4 shows 1 bar with -106dBm. S4 has a better signal, so don't believe the bars.
Well, i have a couple of flagship cell phone, including 2 motorolas ( Turbo and X 2nd gen) , i thing it might have differences from region to region , but from my experience , Samsung and LG was the ones with bad reception from past experience, S3 , S4 and S5 they were always with a bar or two lower than other phones, and when motorola has only one bar , sammy was with no signal at all ,long time already .
Well, motorola are the best in signal strength for me, follow by HTC. This time sammy has improved, i guess it's the in-house chips or something. Still no Motorola tough .
I guess we notice those things because we live or work in a region that has weak signal so a little bit more or less makes huge difference.
Here is my screen shot right now. The signal bar seems to be accurate with the signal db.
Thanks for the screenshot Galinha1. That's interesting that you find Samsung has improved this time around. I notice that your screenshot has "Ant RSRP Diff" at a minus number (-26) but I've never seen mine in a minus, you can see mine is at 14. I don't know what Ant RSRP Diff means though, any ideas?
If you find that the S6 signal is better than the S4, maybe I have a faulty device?
mupet0000 said:
I upgraded from an S4 i9505 to the S6 SM-G920F and I notice that the signal to my network is about -5dBm worse on average. It means the phone isn't as good at keeping signal in a low signal area, and it drops from 4G to 3G much more often that the S4 in the same place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exactly same experience. The S6 is more agressive drops to 3G. I'm coming from an HTC One M which in my everyday, according to OpenSignal, has 70-80% 4G connection 24/7, the rest 3G.
My S6 has around 30% 4G, 40% 3G and 30% Edge . Because of the great camera in the S6 I have decided to stick with it for now. Sadly. The great 4G signal in my area actually made me stay on 4G all day on the M8 and disregard wifi usage. On the S6 I've falled back to wifi which on my connection is a lot worse than 4G.
I'm really hoping for this issue to be in the Modem/radio firmware and not in the psycially device.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/help/lte-signal-indicator-issues-t3083001
mupet0000 said:
Thanks for the screenshot Galinha1. That's interesting that you find Samsung has improved this time around. I notice that your screenshot has "Ant RSRP Diff" at a minus number (-26) but I've never seen mine in a minus, you can see mine is at 14. I don't know what Ant RSRP Diff means though, any ideas?
If you find that the S6 signal is better than the S4, maybe I have a faulty device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, i don't know for sure if it's better than S5, it's been around 7 to 8 months i last used my S5 . But i remember that it was a really bad device for signal and call quality. Looks like it's better or is the placebo effect from a shiny new toy . About yours been faulty , well, before last week i would say no for sure, i would assume a firmware or modem software issue, not hardware, but i bought my S6e 2 weeks ago, and i had a lot of drop calls, random reboots , freezes ,and people complaining that they call me and the phone rings once or twice and hung up , and in my end i never saw that attempt of calling, so i tried a new firmware, updated, downgraded it.. still having issues. So i went to my carrier and they didn't even let me finish my complains and handed me a new device. I went back home , thinking that couldn't be hardware issue and this new one would have the same problems. But now it works as it supposed to do . So i guess they might have a lot of faulty devices and software issues for those initial batches . Although i still have some drop calls, and 3g or 4g drops , is not that noticeable like it was before.
I have no idead what ANt RSRP Diff means.
I hope you solve your problem, anything i can help you let me know.
better than my old nexus 6 and m7. plus it holds onto lte much longer
I also have issues with cell reception. I'm on att, and although in areas where signal is strong there are no issues, I have serious issues maintaining a cellular connection when the signal is mediocre. I'm at my wits end with this. The phone seems to run fine, no issues besides the fact that I don't get signal in many areas that my old Nokia lumina 930 had no issue getting reception. Also, ive compared with a few friends iphone 6's and they have signal while my s6 will have nothing. I will be bringing the phone in tomorrow, but if anyone has any other suggestions to fix this besides factory reset, which I've already done, I'd appreciate the help.
I also had problems with cell reception. (no signal, drop calls)
As suggested on several forums I changed the network mode in settings to WCDMA/GSM and this seems to solve the reception problems. This way I am not be able to use 4G but at least I can make calls now XD
hnos said:
I also had problems with cell reception. (no signal, drop calls)
As suggested on several forums I changed the network mode in settings to WCDMA/GSM and this seems to solve the reception problems. This way I am not be able to use 4G but at least I can make calls now XD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well looks like it's many more of us than I thought... I am on EE and reception is a joke ( joke anyway on EE) but with S6 reception is much weaker than on any previous phones I've had. What firmware r u running
misiokicio said:
Well looks like it's many more of us than I thought... I am on EE and reception is a joke ( joke anyway on EE) but with S6 reception is much weaker than on any previous phones I've had. What firmware r u running
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am on stock 5.1.1 G925FXXU2BOFJ
I believe the version is the same for the G920F
Just came back to Verizon after being with T-Mobile for a year. Signal is pretty much the same at the house as I has always been.
click for larger image
Around town it is normally pretty good. At work, it is much better than T-Mobile ever was.
S4 has better 4G signal then S6
This seems to be a problem world wide. Looks like Galaxy S6 is having issues with 4G. I compared it with my old S4 and it's way worse.
Here are the results.
S4- 4G inside the house signal: -109dBm 31asu
S4 - 4G outside the house signal: -102dBm 35asu
S6 - 4G inside the house signal: NO SIGNAL
S6 - 4G outside the house signal: -113dBm 0asu
On my S4 I'm getting a better signal inside the house than what I get on the S6 outside the house.
Does anyone know the reason for this and is there a fix?
4G is calculated differently than a 3G signal
4G: (113 is good, 140 is bad)

having problem with reception in my house since upgraded from S4 to S6 EDGE

i get reception problems in my house
never had those
it started the second i changed from s4 to s6
i dont know what to do
the only thing i can think of trying is to download my provider's stock rom for this device and pull the modem from there
the only one i could find is file named CEL-G925FXXU1AOD4
its 5.0.1 though and my device has the updated 5.1.1' would this modem work ?
Hello,
Return your Galaxy S6, it's useless if you want a signal. I also have the same problem coming from the Galaxy S4, I sent the S6 for repair twice and the signal is still poor. Samsung have made a horrible mistake with the antenna on the S6. it's the worst signal of any phone I've ever seen. And don't worry about 5.1.1, I have it on my G920F and the signal is still poor.
Change mobile providers. My signal is generally full on my S6 indoors and outdoors. In the basement at work right now I have Full bars, -95dbm, 10asu. No different than on S4 or HTC One M9.
How is changing mobile provider going to help an issue caused by the phone? We both notice worse signal with our S6s compared to other phones, on the same network. So Samsung probably has a huge batch with useless antennas.

[Q] Poor signal G920F on T-Mobile USA

HI there, I've seen some stuff in other forums and couldn't find anything through search on this forum (apologies in advance if it's there).
Big fan of the S6, especially since it supports the 700mhz band 12 for T-Mobile here in the states. Had a S6 Edge, but bought a 920F on Amazon for the cost savings. S6 Edge had amazing reception, especially in locations where previously I would have to rely on wi-fi. However, the 920F has horrible signal, often 2-3 bars less than other phones. To verify, I went to the tmobile store and got a new SIM card, and then when compared to other phone in the store my signal was 2-3 bars less than other Galaxy S6's there.
A quick google search found 1-2 threads on how AT&T restricts access to certain bands if not a registered IMEI. So, I called T-mobile and asked them to put a dummy IMEI, but that didn't change anything.
Any ideas if there is a way to improve signal on the 920F for T-Mobile via root + some flash?
Thanks!
When i use my G920i on T-mobile, it had same issue. When i stayed at home use lte, the frequency always stayed on Band 12, the speed is very slowly.

Very poor XLTE speeds & weak LTE altogether

Can somebody please help me figure out why I am getting poor XLTE speeds? In a couple different legit VZW stores I have played with the S6 and also G4 on display and speed tests there are pulling 75mbps down and even higher than that on a few tests yet my S6 doesn't seem to get any speed tests higher than the speeds I was seeing on my Galaxy S3......30-35mbps down at best. I also have noticed my dBm isn't nearly as strong as my S3 pretty much at all times. Driving right by a known VZW tower this morning I was getting -85 to -90 dBm LTE signal when with my S3 I would be getting -55 to -65 dBm LTE signal.
I am currently not rooted, running Build and Baseband AOC3. Will rooting make a difference? What about AOE2, is that build and/or modem significantly better? Also I currently do NOT have Advanced Calling enabled, will enabling that give me better speeds?
I apparently am missing something. This phone operates very quick imo but the antenna is a joke it seems., unless I am missing something incredibly obvious?
Any help on improving my speeds would be much appreciated. Thank you!
I hear you. I have been very disappointed in my S6 connection speed also. I am in 3g in a lot of places my old HTC DNA never was. I am also rooted running clean rom. So rooting will not help the weak signal.
wtgvr4me03 said:
I hear you. I have been very disappointed in my S6 connection speed also. I am in 3g in a lot of places my old HTC DNA never was. I am also rooted running clean rom. So rooting will not help the weak signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's ticking me off. Such a great fast device otherwise but the antenna blows and evidently there's no fix for it.
My understanding is that Verizon stores have a mini tower in their stores to shore what the network is capable of (or to get you to use their service) whichever way you look at it. However IRL the network has hundreds or thousands of other devices connected to each tower which slows down speeds dramatically. I live in a bigger city but I'm driving all day and when I'm home I have 4-5 bars but dismal speeds where if I'm in a smaller city I can have 2-3 bars and have great speeds.

Reception not recovering issues

Hi all
I recently upgraded from the Galaxy S5 to a Pixel. Something I'm noticing is that the phone is not recovering very well from reception dropouts.
While commuting on the train the reception drops in and out while going through tunnels etc. The S5 would obtain reception again pretty much instantly however I find that the Pixel is taking up to 3-5 minutes to get reception again. I find that a restart of the phone will sort the issue out. Putting the phone in and out of flight mode doesnt seem to help.
The phone is running Android 7.1. Has anyone experienced this issue or know how I can go about fixing it?
Cheers
I'm on T-Mobile. I went through 3 edge 7s and one Note 7. I had the same issue as you and sometimes they wouldn't re acquire signal till I restarted the phones. What do they all have in common with the Pixel ? The snapdragon 820/821chipset and modem !
The latest Nougat beta update for the 7 edge seems to have fixed the issue though and now it re acquires signal fast.
Sent from my SM-G935T using XDA-Developers mobile app
I recently upgraded the device to 7.1.1 which seems to have made a positive impact in alleviating the issue. The Pixel is now recovering much better from reception dropouts while on the train!

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