Related
Ok...i added the Blaze Radio Mod to my Stock 4.0.4 Firmware on my Skyrocket. All went good. I see a 4G now. BUT...theres no bars in the signal. Why is this? And when i do the speed test now...keep saying try again. Ok...just now as im typing this...i changed the WCDMA to 1700....an now the speedtest gave me 3.00 Mbps download and 0.49 upload. But only 1 bar in my signal. Any way at all to improve that? I know my bar was more then that when i had edge or my other 3G phone. Let me know something if your reading this....and thanks.
THANKS TO ALL YOU GUYS ON HERE THAT REPLIED TO MY COMMENTS TO HELP. ILL TRY TO GIVE THANKS TO ALL OF YOU. THANKS AGAIN.
so on at&t uclf6 you were not getting 4G LTE? i have had no problems... i would not recommend using the blaze radio as it just never worked as well for me. have you tried some of the other ics radios? there are a bunch floating around. good luck
No i havent. People seem to be saying Blaze's Mod one is the only or at least best one. I mean...the 4G is there.....but no signal bars. Why would that be tho?
Oh..its unlocked using T Mobile now. If that helps.
I suspect the signal meter with with blaze mod is not that accurate. I routinely get in the a high percentage under cell standby time without signal, even in areas I know I have service. These are areas I spend multiple hours at a time at making and receiving calls.
Man..i dont know. Something is funny with this. When i turn my WiFi off....the 4G comes on...no signal bars...Market take a while to load. Few apps even timed out. And i KNOW im in a good coverage area. Is the Blaze Mod radio actually the best one? Is there others to use for us thats unlocked using T Mobile?
By saying 4G do you mean LTE or HSPA+?
It just shows 4G at the top. Is there another symbol? In my settings...about phone....it says Mobile Network Type:UMTS:3. I did see HSPA earlier for a bit. Guess i still have some fiddling to do. Wonder if there is another Radio that may give me more Bars. Mine shows 1 or none. But has the 4G symbol.
on skyrocket 4G isn't actually 4G it shows it when your connected to HSPA and I think also GSM not sure about the latter.
When your connected to LTE it will show 4G LTE.
Also by choosing WCDMA your actually choosing HSPA or at least that's how it looks to me.
Try different radios before working by stuff you read people say, each phone has different hardware, everyone leaves in different areas and thus each modem works differently for different people.
Also download network signal app from the market and check your dbm which means your reception, you can't count on bars because it's programmed differently for each modem -65 dmb and lower(or higher if your a match freak) is excellent -65 to -75 is good and the close it is to -100 is the worse reception you have.
kishke said:
on skyrocket 4G isn't actually 4G it shows it when your connected to HSPA and I think also GSM not sure about the latter.
When your connected to LTE it will show 4G LTE.
Also by choosing WCDMA your actually choosing HSPA or at least that's how it looks to me.
Try different radios before working by stuff you read people say, each phone has different hardware, everyone leaves in different areas and thus each modem works differently for different people.
Also download network signal app from the market and check your dbm which means your reception, you can't count on bars because it's programmed differently for each modem -65 dmb and lower(or higher if your a match freak) is excellent -65 to -75 is good and the close it is to -100 is the worse reception you have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm. True. Man..im tired of swapping all these Radios. Wanna find one that works decent at least. Some people say they get 1 to no bars in the house like i do. Then go outside an get 3 Bars. Im gonna download that Signal app. Sounds very interesting. I have it on LTE in the *#2263* now. Let me try the signal thing. Thanks man.
[Edit] Love the Network Signal Info Pro. Even tho its showing a frown for my mobile. But WiFi really good. I saw some Network Signal Boosters. I mean...do those really work if anyone know? Tried 2...didnt really see anything.
I had trouble activating my SIM earlier. It did not want to activate when i did initial set up on the device. So I skipped thinking that i can activate it after set up. So for about an hour it would not connect to T-Mobiles network, then it finally did, with bad signal. All i am able to get is mainly 3G and H data signal, no LTE/4G like i am paying for.
has anyone had a similar problem before? Do you think this can be a bad SIM? Any help is appreciated.
Sorry to hear about your problem my phone isn't here yet so I can not give insights yet but will let you know if anything arises
Getting the same problem here, not getting LTE only H... this is my first time with a LTE phone so maybe my area doesn't have LTE, going to Uni tmrw and see if i get LTE there (which is should)
I like in Central Jersey so don't know if they have LTE there, i am pretty sure they have it in Northern Jersey, specially the Newark, Jersey City, NYC area's
U have lte in your area?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Try setting your APN to fast.t-mobile.com instead of epc.t-mobile.com
Yes. You can do a zip code search on there coverage. My zip is 37075 its got great coverage. I feel its a SIM problem.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
T-Mobile does NOT have nationwide LTE so theres no guarantee that you actually have LTE where you are. Best to make sure of that before you do anything else.
And just so you know, their coverage site does not distinguish between LTE and HSPA+ since they consider both 4G.
No LTE here on a new T-Mobile account. My roommate has it on his S4. I'm hoping it just takes time to provision. Using fast.t-mobile.com
i get lte anywhere i go..im in miami
LTE is not a huge deal as long as I get HSPA+ its fast where I am. It shows Excellent coverage in my area, so yes I may not get Real LTE, but i should get good HSPA+ and cell service. Right?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Try setting the preferred network to LTE. No clue if this will work on a Nexus 5, but it works on a Nexus 4. Even with the appropriate hacks, I only get LTE in my area when I do the following.
1. Enter *#*#4636#*#* in the dialer
2. Go to "Phone information"
3. Change the "Set preferred network type:" dropdown to "LTE only".
LTE started working after about 4 hours after setting up my new T-Mobile account.
Farva0412 said:
I had trouble activating my SIM earlier. It did not want to activate when i did initial set up on the device. So I skipped thinking that i can activate it after set up. So for about an hour it would not connect to T-Mobiles network, then it finally did, with bad signal. All i am able to get is mainly 3G and H data signal, no LTE/4G like i am paying for.
has anyone had a similar problem before? Do you think this can be a bad SIM? Any help is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What apn do you have? Fast.t-mobile.com
Mines been working great all day.
Azmuh said:
Getting the same problem here, not getting LTE only H... this is my first time with a LTE phone so maybe my area doesn't have LTE, going to Uni tmrw and see if i get LTE there (which is should)
I like in Central Jersey so don't know if they have LTE there, i am pretty sure they have it in Northern Jersey, specially the Newark, Jersey City, NYC area's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I live in Sayreville as well, same issue. No LTE. I'm assuming it's just the coverage. I'll find out on my commute to work tomorrow.
chakra said:
What apn do you have? Fast.t-mobile.com
Mines been working great all day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Fast.t-mobile.com APN. I live in Nashville. It just may be my house. I am going out tomorrow will do more testing.
jimgreco said:
I live in Sayreville as well, same issue. No LTE. I'm assuming it's just the coverage. I'll find out on my commute to work tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I live in Nashville, well the outskirts. I may not have LTE but the HSPA+ should be decent. Like I said above it may be my house. I get crap wifi reception in here so thats probably the reason.
maramos said:
LTE started working after about 4 hours after setting up my new T-Mobile account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What city are you in?
Farva0412 said:
What city are you in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brooklyn
maramos said:
LTE started working after about 4 hours after setting up my new T-Mobile account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maramos said:
Brooklyn
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. Thats why you got LTE. Still Rolling out in my area. I am actually not upset about it. The HSPA+ is pretty dang good.
I've been in LTE since I turned on my phone. I'm in Connecticut
Sent from my NEXUS 5
My N5 flips between HSPA+ and LTE pretty much without rhyme or reason. Interestingly, HSPA+ is about as fast down most of the time, but of course LTE is faster uploading.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
I just helped my son install the hybrid modem for his Nexus 4 and set up the T-mobile APN for it. I was about to tell him that he would have to go somewhere else to test it since I never get LTE at home, and then boom, the 4G icon shows up on his phone! I checked Network Signal Info and sure enough, it's got an LTE connection with about 6Mbps transfer rate. Sitting right next to him my N5 has only 3G with occasional switches up to HSPA and back, and a very low transfer rate. What gives? I am able to get LTE on the N5 in other areas of town and it works wonderfully, but around my home it is very weak and almost never runs in LTE mode.
Could it be that the N4 is connecting on a different LTE band? If so, why is the N5 not using that band as well? Is there something that can be done for the N5 to tweak it to improve its LTE reception or how it chooses how to connect to available LTE signals?
Both N4 and N5 have 1700 band so it should get perfect HSDPA.
It might be the towers in your area are busy or the signal is weak.
I use straight talk t-mobil and I get HSDPA around 15Mbps and my friend get a little more on LTE here in chicagoland.
Also for people on Straight talk if you want to get LTE att version you need to get a new simcard and change APN and for t-mobil
just get a new simcard and boom you get LTE.
Idk if I'd worry about it. In most places the HSDPA speeds for T-Mobile are the same or better than the LTE speeds you would get. I'm in the far north chicago suburbs and I get LTE and HSDPA downloads at 25mbps. The LTE coverage is still a bit spotty. Its probably only worth it if I you're in a developed urban area. However it is a bit strange that you guys have the same hardware, service and location but different connections. The only thing I can think of is that I've seen some people instruct to setup the apn as fast.tmobile.com. however mine only worked with fast.T-Mobile.com (with the dash). I would also check to confirm that your phone is set to lte preferred (LTE/gsm) and not gsm priority. Those are the only things I can think that I can think of. Hope it helps.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
gorilla p said:
Idk if I'd worry about it. In most places the HSDPA speeds for T-Mobile are the same or better than the LTE speeds you would get. I'm in the far north chicago suburbs and I get LTE and HSDPA downloads at 25mbps. The LTE coverage is still a bit spotty. Its probably only worth it if I you're in a developed urban area. However it is a bit strange that you guys have the same hardware, service and location but different connections. The only thing I can think of is that I've seen some people instruct to setup the apn as fast.tmobile.com. however mine only worked with fast.T-Mobile.com (with the dash). I would also check to confirm that your phone is set to lte preferred (LTE/gsm) and not gsm priority. Those are the only things I can think that I can think of. Hope it helps.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-Mobile 4G LTE will properly works on fast.t-mobile.com, fast.tmobile.com is not the proper APN (the - matters)
There are just way too many variables. Maybe his modem has better reception, newer sim card, etc.
RobinD42 said:
I just helped my son install the hybrid modem for his Nexus 4 and set up the T-mobile APN for it. I was about to tell him that he would have to go somewhere else to test it since I never get LTE at home, and then boom, the 4G icon shows up on his phone! I checked Network Signal Info and sure enough, it's got an LTE connection with about 6Mbps transfer rate. Sitting right next to him my N5 has only 3G with occasional switches up to HSPA and back, and a very low transfer rate. What gives? I am able to get LTE on the N5 in other areas of town and it works wonderfully, but around my home it is very weak and almost never runs in LTE mode.
Could it be that the N4 is connecting on a different LTE band? If so, why is the N5 not using that band as well? Is there something that can be done for the N5 to tweak it to improve its LTE reception or how it chooses how to connect to available LTE signals?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fwiw there are other threads where people have reported that the N4 picks up LTE in the same place that an N5 does not. So you are not alone. N4 may have a stronger radio. That would be unfortunate... Never good to see a step backwards on something as important as that.
Sent from my Nexus 5
Good news everyone! I too has having this problem. My Nexus 4 was an LTE champ and then it was a huge let down that my Nexus 5 was treating LTE like it had cooties, but now my Nexus 5 works the way it should. What I did was go to my nearest T-Mobile store and told the representative what was happening. He called tech support and they ended up doing some sort of reset to my account. I also had questions about my SIM card and felt that it could have been at fault. He offered to switch it out to the new ISIS SIM and as soon as my phone booted up, it was on LTE. Since then, it has behaved like my Nexus 4. I am even in my office where the Nexus 5 wasn't picking up LTE, but my Nexus 4 was, and it is on LTE at the moment.
I am not sure if the reset that tech support did solved the problem or the new SIM, but I would definately give that a try--it didn't cost me anything and now I am happy with my Nexus 5. Good luck!
In my experience my N4 has slightly better signal pickup than my N5.
The real reason is probably differences in the radios' priority algorithms. Set your N5 to LTE-only and see what happens, I imagine you'll get LTE.
dijit4l said:
I am not sure if the reset that tech support did solved the problem or the new SIM, but I would definately give that a try--it didn't cost me anything and now I am happy with my Nexus 5. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you not get LTE at all, or really poor LTE signal/speed?
tcristy said:
Did you not get LTE at all, or really poor LTE signal/speed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would get LTE eventually only to lose it when it reached 2 bars or lower. It was really weird. I would be in areas where one would get 5 bars of LTE and the phone would sit on HSPA until I would show the phone it was on LTE by switching to LTE Only under the secret dialer menu and then back to GSM/LTE (if you use LTE only, you will lose voice). Then it would hold LTE until it reached 1-2 bars and then go back to HSPA.
I hope this helps.
I am seeing strange readings of signal strength. I see a 10+ db difference between what is reported in the phone status and an app like rootmetrics.
I don't know which one is misrepresenting the signal strength but it seems the roometrics is more accurate because my nexus 4 the signal strength is roughly the same on lte.
Can anyone else confirm?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Eckono said:
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've noticed the same thing.... my girlfriend has the Galaxy S3 and has better signal then me all the time... WTF?!?!?!?!?!
I'm tempted to go to the Note 3. I can deal with alot of things, but signal issues isn't 1 of them.
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
s13silviaguy said:
I've noticed the same thing.... my girlfriend has the Galaxy S3 and has better signal then me all the time... WTF?!?!?!?!?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your phone is showing data signal hers is showing cdma 1x voice. .. please download signal check app and you will see true db of 1x 3g lte signal. .. so you can compare
Sent from my SM-G900P using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
Eckono said:
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Signal bars lie. Do this on both of your samsung phones:
Go in to your phone app, and dial ##DEBUG#
Enter 777468 for your lock code
Select LTE Engineering
Go down to RSRP. The number next to RSRP shown in dBm is your LTE signal strength.
Compare numbers.
I did this vs my wife's iPhone 5 and found that although her signal indicator was showing 3-4 more bars than my s5 we both actually had the same signal strength.
Thanks I'll do that asap. The only reason I'm thinking something is wrong is because in areas I had 4G all the time on my Note 3 and S4 I'm barely get 4G or I'll drop to 3G. Then when I'm watching YouTube, if I stop a video , fast forward, or rewind, if I'm on cellular I can never get the video to play back. I get the error tap to retry. But when on WiFi I can I can.
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Eckono said:
Thanks I'll do that asap. The only reason I'm thinking something is wrong is because in areas I had 4G all the time on my Note 3 and S4 I'm barely get 4G or I'll drop to 3G. Then when I'm watching YouTube, if I stop a video , fast forward, or rewind, if I'm on cellular I can never get the video to play back. I get the error tap to retry. But when on WiFi I can I can.
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You also have to read about cfbs and triband phones ... which can cause the data issues
Sent from my SM-N900P using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
well if i dont remember note 3 and s3 dont use the spark network and the s5 does soo,.,.its prob a bad spark connection they are still upgrading the towers ..
The s5 signal bar shows data strength instead of voice strength
When you make a phone call, it switches to the voice signal strength, which is why it seems to get higher all of a sudden
-Sent from Tapatalk
Eckono said:
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you disable certain bands? I want to try it as well as something seems to be killing my battery. Thanks
Yea, in the last year I have had an iphone 5, Note2, and Note3. New Orleans is newly upgraded to LTE (not yet Spark), and coverage was great on those three phones. This S5, however, constantly switches from LTE to 3G in areas where the other three phones stayed on LTE. It also drops to no data at all way too often in areas where data is fine. (I play Ingress, so I am VERY familiar with the signal capabilities all over town)
Is there any hope of this phone's signal strength being improved with software updates? Will Spark make a difference when it hits New Orleans?
This piece of garbage is pretty pathetic signal-wise compared to my other devices I've recently used. I've got Sprint to agree to a phone swap, but if that's not going to make a difference, perhaps I should just go back to my Note3.
I have this phone it does drop lte alot plus I have spark. But I have an offer to trade for a note 3 idk if I want ..I like yhe fingerprint scanner but this signal is boo boo ....
gregg37 said:
Yea, in the last year I have had an iphone 5, Note2, and Note3. New Orleans is newly upgraded to LTE (not yet Spark), and coverage was great on those three phones. This S5, however, constantly switches from LTE to 3G in areas where the other three phones stayed on LTE. It also drops to no data at all way too often in areas where data is fine. (I play Ingress, so I am VERY familiar with the signal capabilities all over town)
Is there any hope of this phone's signal strength being improved with software updates? Will Spark make a difference when it hits New Orleans?
This piece of garbage is pretty pathetic signal-wise compared to my other devices I've recently used. I've got Sprint to agree to a phone swap, but if that's not going to make a difference, perhaps I should just go back to my Note3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldnt worry about the phone swap. I skeptically did it to see if it would work and ended up wasting an hour in ths store. between my friends and family we have 4 GS5s that all have the same issues.
None of your previous phones were triband. They only could connect to 1900mhz LTE. The GS5 is a triband phone, aka spark, that can connect to 800/1900/2600mhz LTE. Unfortunately there are issues with the software on the towers (search eCSFB) that changes you between bands. I have turned off band 41 and it has helped a lot even tho my area is a "spark" area. I turn it back on once in a while to see if things are fixed.
There have been complaints that the GS5 has worse connectivity because of the water resistant design compared to phones such as the GS4. its really only a couple dbm from what i have seen when looking at actual signal values from engineering screens and when comparing the same band of LTE.
As far as shutting off bands, you will need your MSL code. you can either get it from a sprint rep (all i did was ask) or you can use the MSL reader here
tools.flashingtools.com
use dialer code ##3282# and go to edit. enter your MSL code and go to LTE. turn off B41 and restart your phone.
Shiftlock said:
As far as shutting off bands, you will need your MSL code. you can either get it from a sprint rep (all i did was ask) or you can use the MSL reader here
tools.flashingtools.com
use dialer code ##3282# and go to edit. enter your MSL code and go to LTE. turn off B41 and restart your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, Shiftlock! This is the kind of help I was hoping for. I'll give that a try!
:good:
Shiftlock said:
use dialer code ##3282# and go to edit. enter your MSL code and go to LTE. turn off B41 and restart your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I've got this turned off. Will it persist through resets and restarts? Or will I have to keep turning it off?
(have to remember to bookmark this so I remember how to turn it back on when Spark hits New Orleans, which I think is somewhat soon)
gregg37 said:
Ok I've got this turned off. Will it persist through resets and restarts? Or will I have to keep turning it off?
(have to remember to bookmark this so I remember how to turn it back on when Spark hits New Orleans, which I think is somewhat soon)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes this will stay until you either change it back or do a system update. I noticed that nd2 changed it back. You may want to check it after clearing data/cache if you flash any mods or roms. Luckily the msl won't change so it's easy enough to fix if needed
I'm getting LTE coverage in places I wouldn't with my s4. The data is definitely better
-Sent from Tapatalk
eyecon82 said:
I'm getting LTE coverage in places I wouldn't with my s4. The data is definitely better
-Sent from Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Better because of turning off band 41 or just comparing the S5 to the S4?
CCallahan said:
Better because of turning off band 41 or just comparing the S5 to the S4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess we'll never know....
(mine still sucks after trying that, btw)
Hi,
I've noticed that if I set network to 4G LTE battery drain is something like 1.5x/2x than 3G. Anyone else noticed this
Honor 6, International Version, with Lollipop
killian32 said:
Hi,
I've noticed that if I set network to 4G LTE battery drain is something like 1.5x/2x than 3G. Anyone else noticed this
Honor 6, International Version, with Lollipop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably you don't have good 4G coverage where you live/work, and phone must increase power to get decent signal.
Use 3G, and only swich to 4G when really need it, waiting that phone company installs new 4G antennas around you.
killian32 said:
Hi,
I've noticed that if I set network to 4G LTE battery drain is something like 1.5x/2x than 3G. Anyone else noticed this
Honor 6, International Version, with Lollipop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the 4g modem needs more power. So, the battery would drain isn't really a surprise. mikicl could be also right.