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[VERIZON] Anyone noticing worse data connection and reception?

Coming from a Bionic. On that phone, I kept LTE in every room of my apartment. On this Galaxy S3, I only get LTE in one room and the others throw me onto 3G. Just seeing if anyone else was experiencing something similar, hopefully enough people are affected to warrant a fix in a future update.

Have you tried network booster from market?
White Hot! GS3.

LuRock said:
Have you tried network booster from market?
White Hot! GS3.
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Never heard of it. Comments say all it does is quickly turn your phone to airplane mode then back to normal. No, I'm not downloading an app for that

I will agree with you the signal on this is not as good as my 4s on att

Mine is pulling the same dbm's as maxx was.

I'm coming from the Razr Maxx...and I do notice a slight decrease in radio strength...nothing to complain too much about though...my main concern is the 4G LTE speeds...with my MAXX while being very close to an LTE tower I was getting 30+ Mbps download and 20+ Mbps upload... when standing in the same spot with my GS3 I only get about 6 Mbps download and 7 Mbps upload....I did test all around the city and I never break those numbers....My Maxx used to smoke it was so fast... If anyone else is experiencing this then hopefully a future update will fix it...or maybe my phone is buggy?? or the SIM card is bad?? I have no clue...I'm coming from Sprint from before my MAXX so anything over 150 Kbps is fast for me LoL...but still I know the Verizon network is fast and my GS3 is Slowing me down when it shouldn't....

my signal is the same on this as my bionic dbm is the same

monkey28rb said:
I will agree with you the signal on this is not as good as my 4s on att
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Worthless comparison. You're comparing a different phone on a different network. There is so much wrong with this I can barely even touch it.
Suffice it to say that, at the bare minimum, it's quite possible that you're simply closer to the AT&T tower than to the Verizon tower.

Yes it's not as good as my rezound. I have very weak signal in my office and the rezound would always get 1 bar and the gs3 gets no signal at all

I don't see any difference in signal strength from my previous phone (DX).

monkey28rb said:
I will agree with you the signal on this is not as good as my 4s on att
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Att or verizon? 3g or 4g/lte? Android or iOS? Uhhh maybe you have the wrong forum or you are just trying to be funny...... yeah let's go with it being a joke. Lol that was a good one .

I think verizon 4g is just a bit buggy still. I'm routinely in cherry hill new jersey and usually have full 4g here. The past 2 days 4g is no where to be found... Here's to hoping verizon gets this figured out.
-Hai guise I haz problems on the pre-alpha release and I don't know why.

I've had a lot of fluctuation in my mbps. Signal strenght is usually decent (3 bars on average) My fastest mbps was 25 down 23 up, but on average I get about 6-10/sec. I have had the phone for a week as of today, and I've only switched to 3g twice for about 30 seconds. I live in the chicago area where I believe there is a lot of coverage.

Still hoping Samsung can get a proper radio out both my thunderbolt and rezound get great signal and speed both at work and home twhere as the S3 get horrible speed and signal :'(
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

95talondsm said:
I've had a lot of fluctuation in my mbps. Signal strenght is usually decent (3 bars on average) My fastest mbps was 25 down 23 up, but on average I get about 6-10/sec. I have had the phone for a week as of today, and I've only switched to 3g twice for about 30 seconds. I live in the chicago area where I believe there is a lot of coverage.
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I get a huge fluctuation is speed too although I am on 3g and have not seen 4g yet.
Two speed tests done back to back, one can be as low as 30 kbps down with 500 kbps, the other 1500kbs down with 100 kbps up.
My phone is being returned as "DOA." It's not my network as I made the 3 hour drive to the city to compare it there. As compared to phones running the same apps, in the store, side by side mine was noticeably slower and far less consistent.
My battery life is miserable as well so if you have these issues- sounds like the device is faulty.
Let me stress- I have not received a replacement of my S3 yet so I am unaware if this issue is across the board, or, isolated to particular phones.

I have better speed and a good signal strength. coming g from the bionic so ...yeah

SightSeeker said:
Yes it's not as good as my rezound. I have very weak signal in my office and the rezound would always get 1 bar and the gs3 gets no signal at all
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Same here, my three Rezound's have a much better radio than any GSlll.
I knew this going in however, Samsung has always had [email protected] radios (my Droid Charge was the same way) & the radios in the Rezound are some of the best out there.

Just ran a speedtest in my office... 186kbps / 21 kbps on 3g... WTF?

Kreeker said:
Just ran a speedtest in my office... 186kbps / 21 kbps on 3g... WTF?
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Exact same symptoms mine displays.
Lame.
Keep trying it and see if it fluctuates.

Hmm I've been bouncing back and forth between no data, 1x, and 3g all day in an area I always have strong 4g. Weird.
EDIT: and full 4g just magically reappeared here. -83 dbm , 57asu

Is the radio in this device really that bad?

so long story short I am looking at ditching sprint where I have an EVO LTE. Trust me when I say I am used to crap reception and data speeds. I was reading the thread full of other people who have came from sprint and most seem happy but... I read a lot of comments from long time Verizon users saying things like " I have to contort like a monkey to get a message to go through". Are these just spoiled Verizon users that don't know how good they've got it? Or is coming from sprint a waste of my time? Thanks for any and all input.
PS: Verizon has LTE all over my area, sprint has not announced any LTE anywhere near me. Is the LTE utilized for voice and text? Will this help?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium

Im sure others have problems, but mine has been great. Not a single issue to speak of. Been running CM10 for 2 months now.

Gordon Ramsay said:
so long story short I am looking at ditching sprint where I have an EVO LTE. Trust me when I say I am used to crap reception and data speeds. I was reading the thread full of other people who have came from sprint and most seem happy but... I read a lot of comments from long time Verizon users saying things like " I have to contort like a monkey to get a message to go through". Are these just spoiled Verizon users that don't know how good they've got it? Or is coming from sprint a waste of my time? Thanks for any and all input.
PS: Verizon has LTE all over my area, sprint has not announced any LTE anywhere near me. Is the LTE utilized for voice and text? Will this help?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
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NO radio problems here.... I think a lot of people with problems may be on the border of having coverage where they are...? I have FULL bars no matter where I go in Michigan (except in Walmart) LOL I have LTE coverage too and it's been a solid performer and I may drop a call here and there but nothing out of the norm... Just my personal experiences...:good:

My .02
Go to a verizon store, put a rezound side by side to a samsung galaxy s3 and compare the dbm and asu and u will see how terrible the signal is . My phone is constantly at least 20 dbm less than the rezound .
It feels like i am back to sprint or tmobile since i got my device, constant data drops, phone call break ups and 4g/3g handing off is terrible .
Btw this is my 4th sim and second samsung galaxy s3 trial now , still reception in comparison to any htc phone is horrible.
Htc put their 4g antennas on the back cover which i think makes them practically immune to low signal issues.
Its a pretty phone , but if u want a device that actually communicates with satellites and cell towers, then get a real phone . not this one .
waiting for htc dlx

Mine has been completely fine.
Currently not being productive on my S3.

I came from Sprint at the beginning of the month. On Sprint it had gotten so bad that I was on 1 bar 90% of the time in the middle of the New Orleans area. I gave up waiting for it to get better and installed Roam Control so I could force it to roam on Verizon. Forced roaming only gets you 1x data, but it gave me full signal which prevented dropouts and draining the battery.
Now I'm on Verizon with the S3 and have no signal issues. I don't think I've ever seen less than 3 bars. The signal starts might be lower than other phones based on other people's experience but I wouldn't know because I haven't had any problems to make it worth checking. I think it really depends on your area. If your current phone is rooted, you could try Roam Control to get an idea of what the signal strength will be like, although you'll be stuck on 1x data.

I too was scared by the reports in various threads that these devices have horrible radios. We switched to Verizon from ATT because ATT doesn't work at all at my office (searching for reception).
I haven't been looking at dBM or anything but from a functional standpoint I haven't had any issues. There are some areas where before I was getting 4-5 3G bars on my ATT iPhone4 where the SGS3 bounces between 1-3 bars 4G LTE. It's always disturbing when you see 1 bar of reception, but the phone operates well even getting 4-5Mbps in speedtest. If you look at bars (I know not really accurate) and whether or not I can browse, call, etc. the SGS3 compares favorable to the wife's iPhone5. In fact there were a couple places where I was getting 1-2 bars 4G and the iPhone5 dropped to 3G.

Her are some screen shots of my signals after an update last night. These are the best I've gotten on both and better than anything I saw on my Rezound.
Currently not being productive on my S3.

Never had an issue with signal on my S3. You also need to realize that the most vocal people are those that have an issue. For every 1 person posting about an issue there a dozens that have no problem at all.

Signal on my s3 is great its 100 times better then gnex was and about on par with my old droid RAZR.

dwyw42 said:
I came from Sprint at the beginning of the month. On Sprint it had gotten so bad that I was on 1 bar 90% of the time in the middle of the New Orleans area. I gave up waiting for it to get better and installed Roam Control so I could force it to roam on Verizon. Forced roaming only gets you 1x data, but it gave me full signal which prevented dropouts and draining the battery.
Now I'm on Verizon with the S3 and have no signal issues. I don't think I've ever seen less than 3 bars. The signal starts might be lower than other phones based on other people's experience but I wouldn't know because I haven't had any problems to make it worth checking. I think it really depends on your area. If your current phone is rooted, you could try Roam Control to get an idea of what the signal strength will be like, although you'll be stuck on 1x data.
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This doesn't work, each manufacturer measures it slightly differently. You have to use a third party app to compare phones that are not the same model.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Yes, it is. My GS3 consistently drops in places where my Rezound and iPhone work without a hiccup.

I actually just switched from Sprint to Verizon last week and love it. My gs3 has great reception and the network is very fast. I get a consistent 30 mbps down all over my area. With Sprint I was lucky to get 500 kbps
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

The Nexus was the worst for reception. The S3 is a close second. It seems to be people in some parts of the country don't notice the issue - possibly because they don't use their phone much or because they have towers that use different technology than the towers in the areas I travel. I spend a lot of time in Los Angeles, Vegas and Dallas. I can be at 4 bars one second and no bars (drop the call) and go back to 4 bars the next.
I was on Sprint and the HTC EVO 3D had that same issue even though the EVO didn't. I did always get crap data speeds on Sprint though. Some phones get great signal like the Motorola - so the question is - which is more imporant to you - the PDA or the phone. I use about 3000 minutes per month so I notice quickly when there are issues with a phones reception. My data speeds on the S3 are much better than I had on Sprint.

No the radios are not bad.
Excellent service, all the time here. In fact, I've never seen my phone with less than 3 bars, anywhere I go. And I travel a lot.

Yes the radios are very bad.....although improving. With the HE radio I finally have seem -99 dbm at my house although most of the time it is around -105. This is much improved compared to the original radio where I saw on average -110. I still drop calls in areas where I never have before. The poster that stated that HTC's have better signal are definitely correct. My wifes old rezound normally saw -80 to -85 at my house and never dropped calls anywhere. My old Thunderbolt was the same. Funny thing is that no matter what direction I go from my house, once I am a minute away I get full reception.....no matter what way I go. The radios don't do a good job of reaching out for the signal. The range is bad. Those stating that they are happy with their radios are probably in areas that don't have any weak spots. I'm holding out for newer radios cause every release seems to be a small step in the right direction.

ercDROID said:
Yes the radios are very bad.....although improving. With the HE radio I finally have seem -99 dbm at my house although most of the time it is around -105. This is much improved compared to the original radio where I saw on average -110. I still drop calls in areas where I never have before. The poster that stated that HTC's have better signal are definitely correct. My wifes old rezound normally saw -80 to -85 at my house and never dropped calls anywhere. My old Thunderbolt was the same. Funny thing is that no matter what direction I go from my house, once I am a minute away I get full reception.....no matter what way I go. The radios don't do a good job of reaching out for the signal. The range is bad. Those stating that they are happy with their radios are probably in areas that don't have any weak spots. I'm holding out for newer radios cause every release seems to be a small step in the right direction.
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Same exact thing here! You took the words directly out of my mouth.
Sent by one of my many Anthromorphic Personifications

Here are the results of a real world test that I just did with a co-workers HTC Thunderbolt compared to my SG3:
Both phones on 4g and side by side
HTC dBM -66
SG3 dBM -92
I think the results are pretty clear. Nothing else really needs to be said about the quality of the SG3 radio......it is not as good as the competition. If it was close by a few dBM then it would not be of concern to me. A 26 dBM difference is huge!
Because of this difference in signal strength he was able to have much faster download speeds. I was 17 down compared to his 27 down.

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.

[Q] LTE connectivity issues?

I checked, and to the best of my knowledge, Im under LTE coverage. But for some reason, I have yet to see any LTE icon or speeds. Anyone else having a similar issue at all? Might this be an APN issue or something?
EDIT: Nevermind, please delete.

I've noticed that this device really drops reception as hard as possible when in low reception areas, which seems to be done in order to save power.... because I put it in my pocket and reception is often E or no reception in my school (usually 0-2 bars of HSPA+ or EDGE), even though it is more than capable of staying at around 3 bars of reception of HSPA+ where my old device could maybe get 1-2. I know that's not a good comparison but it's clearly dropping down to 2G/no reception when not in use.

question about cell radio signal

Hi guys recently I bought an unlocked g955u1 from best buy and am on Verizon. I've noticed that my cell signal has been reading a bit off despite doing the Verizon software update. My phone is almost always stuck on 3 bars lte according to lte discovery and the range of dBm will average -100 to as low as -108 which realistically should be 1-2 bars not 3. In the past the only time I've really saw inaccurate readings like this is when I've been on gsm carriers. It's not as much as a problem as more of an annoyance as everything works fine. My question is anybody know why it's reading so inaccurate?

The bars are more or less just approximate visualizations of the network strength anyway. It varies from carrier to carrier, as well as phone manufacturer. You're better off sticking with the dB display if you want a truly accurate reading. Imho.

I have a T-Mobile variant and have noticed the my DL and UL speeds are a lot faster than any of the phone I've had in the past. We live out from town and even on the Nexus 6 it shows 3 bars and on the S8+ I get all the bars and the DL speed on the other phones at my house are around 5Mbps and on the S8+ I get 17-20Mbps at the house now. In town it has gone up from 40Mbps to 55Mbps.

My ATT S8+ reception
While I agree that the dBm is what you should be looking at, I have noticed some funky things going on with my ATT S8+ in terms of reception. Using the same SIM card, placing the phone in the exact same place, my S6 Active has a signal strength of -124 dBm /asu 16/"In service" on LTE. The S8+ gets a signal strength of -113 dBm/asu of 0/"Out of service." To me this seems like the S8+ is actually getting better reception than the 6S Active but the phone is out of service. I also tried this same test in another location using a different cell tower. Same results, the S8+ gets better reception...but the phone does not perform as well. In location number 2 I have also notice the S8+ fish for better signal and switch from LTE to HSPA where the signal strength is -99 dBm but the asu is only 7.
Since I live in a area with weak cell coverage the S8+ is driving me nuts...I contacted ATT about it last night, will see what happens.

Also somewhat related:
I'm using a US Unlocked on T-Mobile, and I've noticed my signal dropping out in areas where I previously had great signal on my Pixel XL. My buddy (also on T-Mo) just got an LG G6 and had full signal when mine dropped out.
Anyone else notice a weak signal? If I flash the T-Mo firmware, will that improve my signal? Did I get a bad unit? I hope not as everything else is perfect, screen included.

i notice (with TMobile) that if i am in 4g lte, then move to area with only edge for a few mins, then back to the 4g lte area...my phone doesn't connect back to the best signal
only a reboot let's me reconnect to 4g lte