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I have been searching for this since I got my EVO. Over at android forums MrGreg has posted an app in the market that allows forced roaming on the EVO. I can confirm it works. I am in no means associated with this guy. This is something I have been waiting for since my Pre. Below is the link
http://androidforums.com/application-announcements/162379-app-roam-control.html
I was so glad to see this. I have been asking for this since I got my Moment, and then for the EVO. I jumped on it as soon as I saw it and it does work as advertised. I am quite a happy camper now!
Still waiting for the price to drop...
Not seeing it in market and app brain can't find it either, what's up wit dat?
sent from my iPhone 4...........destroyer.
For those who are having trouble finding it:
Get AppBrain and the Fast Web Installer, then just click Install on AppBrain.com from your computer.
For those with CyanogenMod 6:
Congrats, already have this, for free, built into CM6: Settings>Wireless & networks>Mobile networks>System select.
Apologize for the noob question, but why would you want to force roaming?
If you live in an area with poor Sprint signal (say, -100dB) but there's a strong roaming signal (-70dB Verizon), the phone will cling to the Sprint signal and wear down the battery (anything below -100dB, and it starts to really hurt).
If your signal is really bad (like at my work), you'll wind up constantly switching back and forth between roaming, and Sprint, causing you to be disconnected from the network, miss calls, get delayed texts and voicemail alerts, poor audio quality on calls, etc. The worst part, is that if there's ANY Sprint signal over -120dB (aka, if it's detectable at all), your phone will automatically jump from the roaming network, and onto Sprint's, and then back again when it loses Sprint's signal. In other words, even though you've got a strong roaming signal that you're attached to, your phone keeps on scanning for Sprint, and keeps on jumping to it whenever it can, draining your battery like mad.
At my work, there's a Verizon tower a 1/2-block down the road, and I get around -80dB when roaming, but otherwise get -105dB or worse when on Sprint, just because the frequencies used by Sprint are poorer at penetrating walls. So, I looked at my battery stats since I was only getting about four hours of battery life, and saw that my Time Without Signal was anywhere between 20-50%! I switched to Affiliated Networks in my settings (aka, roaming-only)
The trade-off is, you can only get 1X data when roaming like this, not 3G data. To get 3G roaming, you'd have to load a Verizon PRL, which you can't do on an AOSP ROM, since you need the EPST app.
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.
I am on my 3rd device in 3 days. First one was rooted, second one was not. This current one is also not rooted as well.
Unless I am very unlucky, I am going to assume there is a definite issue with the network configuration on this device. Status says I have 3 bars of 4G coverage, however I cannot connect to the internet at all.
Network Signal Info says I am on UMTS with a -93DBM, data is connected. However nothing will load. If I put the phone into airplane mode and then turn airplane mode off the networking comes back online. Speeds are slow though, barely able to perform basic mobile web browsing and watching youtube and such isnt possible. Too slow an too long to buffer.
This doesn't only happen at my house, it happens in other areas as well but it does happen constantly at home. I a not a heavy data user on my account, 1-2GB monthly, so Tmo says they arent throttling me. They have replaced the SIM every time with the devices as well.
Suggestions? If I cannot figure this out soon I am going to cancel my service as I cannot pay for a service and phone that just doesnt work. Tmo seems stumped. They just keep replacing phones since I am within my 14 day return/exchange period.
However, 3 devices all having the same issues sure seems to either prove the phone has an issue, or m general area of Tmo service.
I live in downtown Tempe, AZ.
Your wifi works?
I have the same issue in my house... I have a weak signal and 4g drops down to 2g which is terrible.... 4g downloads are 3Mbps, but uploads are under 100kps
I changed the network mode to wcdma only which helps significantly. 4g drops, but quickly returns...
Give it a try...
I'm having the same issue here in Orlando. I've had 2 phones now (first one was just a bad unit) and both have had horrible network connectivity and reception. I take my SIM card out and put it in my 2 year old MT3G and it gets perfect reception and fast data transfers while the G2x is choking on network transfers.
Go complain here in LG forum. This is software issue.
http://www.lgforum.com/forum/boards/general/lg/topics/g2x-wifi-problems
have full bars but cant download anything. just sits at waiting for data connection.
We really need a baseband modem that works better. My bars goes to zero then to edge and then to 3g constantly. Any time it switches between the connections then the the bars goes to zero and it says there is no conection. Also noticed that 3g connection fluctuates very bad while doing a speed test.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
ceroglu said:
We really need a baseband modem that works better. My bars goes to zero then to edge and then to 3g constantly. Any time it switches between the connections then the the bars goes to zero and it says there is no conection. Also noticed that 3g connection fluctuates very bad while doing a speed test.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How are you getting 3g? Unless you meant to say 4g?
himmelhauk said:
How are you getting 3g? Unless you meant to say 4g?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-mobile only has 3g connection avaliable where I live, of course it says 4g on the phone but in reality it is only 3g.
ngerasimatos said:
I am on my 3rd device in 3 days. First one was rooted, second one was not. This current one is also not rooted as well.
Unless I am very unlucky, I am going to assume there is a definite issue with the network configuration on this device. Status says I have 3 bars of 4G coverage, however I cannot connect to the internet at all.
Network Signal Info says I am on UMTS with a -93DBM, data is connected. However nothing will load. If I put the phone into airplane mode and then turn airplane mode off the networking comes back online. Speeds are slow though, barely able to perform basic mobile web browsing and watching youtube and such isnt possible. Too slow an too long to buffer.
This doesn't only happen at my house, it happens in other areas as well but it does happen constantly at home. I a not a heavy data user on my account, 1-2GB monthly, so Tmo says they arent throttling me. They have replaced the SIM every time with the devices as well.
Suggestions? If I cannot figure this out soon I am going to cancel my service as I cannot pay for a service and phone that just doesnt work. Tmo seems stumped. They just keep replacing phones since I am within my 14 day return/exchange period.
However, 3 devices all having the same issues sure seems to either prove the phone has an issue, or m general area of Tmo service.
I live in downtown Tempe, AZ.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if there is an issue with our network in Arizona?? I live in Chandler, and work in Scottsdale. my data times out ALLL THE TIME. Both here at home, and at work. Same with my text messaging. Literally, I do exactly what you do with the "airplane" mode. That's the only way to get my data and text working again (besides restarting).
Here are the issues I posted in the LG Forum:
http://www.lgforum.com/forum/boards/carriers/t-mobile/topics/few-issues-with-g2x#26861
(first issue posted is what you are talking about)
I dont think this is a regional issue. Downtown Minneapolis here, and I cant get it to stay on wifi or Edge/4g for more than a few minutes at a time. G1 has no trouble and shows strong 3g while my sisters mt4g shows full 4g. 4g/E symbol just flickers on my g2x leaving me with no connection. I can connect to wifi fine, but even with wifi sleep set to never it still disconnects every few minutes, and has to be toggled on/off to reconnect. Until toggling it just sits flickering 4g/E with no data connection.
I've never seen my Evo drop a E/4g/wifi connection and struggle to reconnect once in the year I've had it. My g2x does it almost every time I pick it up.
Did you try going into Mobile Networks in Settings and changing the mode to WCDA Preferred or something? That'll stop the flip flopping. That's what I have it on and that's what the phone came with out of the box.Also try Auto in that menu.
So in my house i have anywhere between 2-4 bars of service (using a 6 signal bar meter) on my HTC Thunderbolt (same thing happened on my Samsung Fascinate, and my HTC Incredible). I use my phone as my primary source of internet via wireless teather or klink. (no DSL/Cable available). I get data speeds between 50k-120k, and never have any issues with data interruptions. I play world of warcraft for many hours straight without ever having an issue.
I can't hold a conversation on my phone in my house....anywhere. My calls consistently break up, and unless i go outside it will likely even drop. Outside where i get 3-5 bars of service it's still not great. The person on the other end constantly is asking me to repeat myself because of the breakups. I don't understand how data can be so good, and phone service can be so bad. Does anyone know why this would be the case?
I’m not sure this is the place to ask or if someone who knows the board better can move this.
I’m using cell phones as rural internet because there’s nothing here other than signing a 2-year contract and using satellite internet, and there’s a fiber-optic project supposedly under a year away.
I recently got moved (Straight Talk) from AT&T towers to T-Mobile. Uptime is around 30%, and after observing and trying to use for a week or so I figured out: Some towers work, some don’t. I can see a signal strength in “about phone” around -115 dbm when there’s no internet, that’s more like -92 when it works. I can fairly reliably get on a working tower for a couple minutes by:
Go into Airplane Mode (Android 5.02) for a minute, turning the radio off, then back on. Turn the wifi hotspot back on. On the computer drop and reestablish the connections to the phone’s AP (ifdown, wait, ifup), ping something to test. Slightly cumbersome and it switches back fairly soon. Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours. How busy the phone system is may affect this.
This particular phone is rooted so I could edit some text files if I knew which. I don’t know if the weak signal tower doesn’t work just because of the weak signal or if it’s located someplace without internet. If I could choose a preferred tower, or blacklist the bad one, or set the minimum acceptable signal to like -100 dbm, those would all work. There are probably apps for this. Or maybe it’s control the phone companies don’t want you to have.
ab1jx said:
I’m not sure this is the place to ask or if someone who knows the board better can move this.
I’m using cell phones as rural internet because there’s nothing here other than signing a 2-year contract and using satellite internet, and there’s a fiber-optic project supposedly under a year away.
I recently got moved (Straight Talk) from AT&T towers to T-Mobile. Uptime is around 30%, and after observing and trying to use for a week or so I figured out: Some towers work, some don’t. I can see a signal strength in “about phone” around -115 dbm when there’s no internet, that’s more like -92 when it works. I can fairly reliably get on a working tower for a couple minutes by:
Go into Airplane Mode for a minute, turning the radio off, then back on. Turn the wifi hotspot back on. On the computer drop and reestablish the connections to the phone’s AP (ifdown, wait, ifup), ping something to test. Slightly cumbersome and it switches back fairly soon. Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours. How busy the phone system is may affect this.
This particular phone is rooted so I could edit some text files if I knew which. I don’t know if the weak signal tower doesn’t work just because of the weak signal or if it’s located someplace without internet. If I could choose a preferred tower, or blacklist the bad one, or set the minimum acceptable signal to like -100 dbm, those would all work. There are probably apps for this. Or maybe it’s control the phone companies don’t want you to have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be possible to exclude certain towers, but for all intents and purposes, it is not possible to include/select/lock-in specific towers. Here is why, if the tools and methods to do so were readily available, then, inevitably more people would use those tools and methods. The more people were to use those tools/methods, the more unstable the whole network would become because the system would not be able to shift the load between towers to equalize/stabilize the network as a whole.
This is because the system works by balancing load, sometimes a signal can be weaker than another but, at the same time, also be faster than other. Stronger signal does not always equal faster speeds.
The concept would be similar to having more than one router/wifi signal at home, then, having everyone in the house and any/all neighbors that are in range, all connected to the same signal/router. The signal they are all connected to would be slow and unstable, the system must have the ability to "bounce" everyone around between all of the routers in order to keep performance at optimum levels "across the board". If everyone is "locked" to the one signal/router, the system can't manage itself, which leads to degradation.
Poor signal in rural areas can be expected, there isn't much you can do about it. The towers are positioned to provide coverage to as many customers as possible from their location. Also, some of the issue in rural areas is a "line of sight" thing. The lay of the land can be a hindrance to signal.
I also live in a rural area of a rural town. I get crappy signal when using cellular network, more down time than up time. I deal with having a decent(but still slow) signal for 1-2 minutes and then when the phone's system runs the next wifi/cellular data re-scan to search for better signal, everything stalls as if I'm getting no signal and it doesn't resume until it either keeps the connection it already has or it just drops out completely for 5-8 minutes until the next time the re-scan can find a signal to connect to. Then the cycle starts over with decent signal for 1-2 minutes or so, until the next re-scan, anyway. I have to turn of mobile data when at home because the virtually continuous re-scanning drains the battery and the device runs warmer than it should normally.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
OK, thanks. Line of sight - I'm at 1600 Feet elevation, people driving by stop to use the cell service before they go back into the next valley.
I've been with Straight Talk since 2015, originally using AT&T towers, I think we used 13 GB of data last month. AT&T worked very well, I'd say faster than satellite internet. Verizon is also an option.
A weak signal isn't the same weakness for everyone, some people will actually be closer to it. And the population density isn't very high around here. Lat 42.65, lon -72.83. I pay about $60/month for "unlimited data", some fraction of that must end up going to T-Mobile. If the county weren't going to be getting fiber optic networking soon I'd expect the money might go into building out cell systems to handle the load. There seems to be no scaling back and limiting everyone to some number of KB/sec, with that number decreasing as more people use it. My data's either in service or it isn't. -115 dbm is weak by everything I've seen.
I also have a Huawei E3372 modem I can put my SIM into. I bought a pair of small gain external antennas with 3 meter cords. I'd need to get those up high and run something like a Raspberry Pi as a router.
ab1jx said:
OK, thanks. Line of sight - I'm at 1600 Feet elevation, people driving by stop to use the cell service before they go back into the next valley.
I've been with Straight Talk since 2015, originally using AT&T towers, I think we used 13 GB of data last month. AT&T worked very well, I'd say faster than satellite internet. Verizon is also an option.
A weak signal isn't the same weakness for everyone, some people will actually be closer to it. And the population density isn't very high around here. Lat 42.65, lon -72.83. I pay about $60/month for "unlimited data", some fraction of that must end up going to T-Mobile. If the county weren't going to be getting fiber optic networking soon I'd expect the money might go into building out cell systems to handle the load. There seems to be no scaling back and limiting everyone to some number of KB/sec, with that number decreasing as more people use it. My data's either in service or it isn't. -115 dbm is weak by everything I've seen.
I also have a Huawei E3372 modem I can put my SIM into. I bought a pair of small gain external antennas with 3 meter cords. I'd need to get those up high and run something like a Raspberry Pi as a router.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am on Straight Talk also, but I'm on the Verizon side. In my opinion, the Verizon side is little better and has somewhat better coverage than the T-Mobile, Sprint or AT&T side. Other than when at home, I get perfect signal strength, the only reason I get crappy signal is I'm one of the ones dealing with line of sight. I'm several miles outside of town in a low-lying area between two hills.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
I should try Verizon. They're the default for landlines here but I got the impression they only did contract phones. I have 3 working Motorola XT1527s plus my modem, not interested in some contract phone. This T-mobile experience is my first other than AT&T. There's a website where you can download APK files to sideload, that runs through T-Mobile last I knew.
I think I've figured out how to talk to a human at Straight Talk. Call during east coast business hours, and in the 2nd menu mention data issues. The night/weekend people never seem to accomplish anything. They're eager to help bit they're most effective at the bulk of common issues like billing or changing a SIM. Took me over 10 phone calls last time to get anywhere.