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New to T-Mo, data question?

Is it normal for the phone to go straight from "4G" to "2G"? Should the phone ever show "3G" or anything of the like? I was in an area on the coverage map that said "3G" but the phone was hunting between "4G" and "2G" where "2G" will absolutely access NO DATA... Is it also normal for "2G" to be useless..

Dial *#*#4636#*#*
Then "phone settings"
Then change "wcdma preferred" to "wcdma only"
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

Just did that, seemed to show 0-1 bars of 4G and it was still enough to get data to load, so I guess that works.
Is there just no 3G that will ever display on this phone? I know there is a mix of HSDPA and HSPA+ in my area, but it's only ever said 4G.

chrisizzle492 said:
Dial #*#*4636*#*#
Then "phone settings"
Then change "wcdma preferred" to "wcdma only"
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-Go into the dialer and dial *#*#4636#*#*

Wait what? Doing that is going to make it so that you will only ever be able to use data if you are in a 4G/3G data area.
T-Mobile does not have a very big 3G coverage map, so doing this essentially makes it so that you have to stay within a known 3G area. 2G, IE EDGE will get you around 150kBps on T-Mobile which isn't really all that bad all things considered.
I would definately switch back to the Auto setting.

The problem is, even with 4 bars of 2g, the phone literally cannot browse the internet at all... almost as if I were connected to GPRS.

mbaran said:
Is it normal for the phone to go straight from "4G" to "2G"? Should the phone ever show "3G" or anything of the like? I was in an area on the coverage map that said "3G" but the phone was hunting between "4G" and "2G" where "2G" will absolutely access NO DATA... Is it also normal for "2G" to be useless..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. 4G (HSPA) doesn't really require better signal strength than 3G (UMTS) - so an area is either 3G or 4G capable depending on if T-Mobile has upgraded the tower or not.
2G (EDGE) can work on a much weaker signal so your phone will drop back to it from 4G.
Please correct me if I'm wrong

this is what i put in a similar thread:
I'm guessing the reason you won't see 3G is because Tmobile has upgraded most of their 3G network to HSPA+ so it'll show the 4G unless you actually go to a place that still has just 3G versus the HSPA+

Connection order: LTE, then 4G, then 3G, then plain GSM?

Is there an order to the way Skyrocket works:
If LTE is available it would connect to LTE
If LTE is not available it would try to find 4G and connect to it
If 4G is not available it would search for 3G and connect to it
If 3G is not available, it would connect to "normal GSM"
Skyrocket is a LTE/4G phone, so does it mean that whenever I make phone calls I should be connected to LTE or 4G?
I had 4G showing in the top bar for 3 days but I haven't seen 4G all day today.
And I do not see LTE or 3G there either (I am not sure if there is LTE in New York).
There is just WiFi and those signal strength bars.

If it says 4g and LTE under your are in a LTE area. If it says 4g you are in a hspa+ area. If it says E you are on edge.
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using XDA App

Oh and when you make a call it will say 4g you can't make calls with lte only 4g.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App

The indicators in the info bar can be misleading. If you want to know which network you are connected to, go to "settings", "about phone", "status", and look under "mobile network type".
And for people that have data connection issues from time to time, I am willing to bet that if you look under "mobile network type" while you are having the data connection problems you will see the network type changing every few seconds or so. The phone is generally in an area where there are weak data connections in all areas and it can't decide which network to grab hold of, therefore, none of them work. I think this isn't a problem with the phone, but a problem with how AT&T's towers handle connections in weak areas.

justcalled said:
Is
I had 4G showing in the top bar for 3 days but I haven't seen 4G all day today.
And I do not see LTE or 3G there either (I am not sure if there is LTE in New York).
There is just WiFi and those signal strength bars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because you're connected to wifi. When using wifi, the network icon goes away. If you turn wifi off, you will see it again.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App

Scott1479,
So I still don't see 4G. However under "Mobile Network Type" it alternates between HSPA and UMTS - I understand these are 3G networks. Very interesting

There isn't voice over LTE on AT&T (or anywhere else as far as I know).

HTC one S EDGE speeds

Herro! first time poster, long time lurker! i searched around, and couldn't really find a similar problem.
I got an HTC one S from Fido, unlocked it, and i've been trying to use it on Bell. I tried several different APN's until one finally worked...but only EDGE speeds! It's also draining my battery extremely quickly. also, when i put my bell sim card inside, preferred network mode changes to WCDMA instead of HSPA (like on the fido sim).
why is this happening? i was told a fido phone would work on bell with no problem. why no 4g speeds?
thank you and i appreciate the responses in advance

HSPA uses WCDMA, so that makes no sense... Under preferred network you should have WCDMA only, 2G only, or WCDMA preferred if I recall correctly as I'm not on stock HTC rom atm so can't check. Are you getting an "E" signal indicator or are you just getting a slow connection? What does it say under About phone>Status>Mobile Network Type?

Set it to Auto mode in the network settings.

frdd said:
HSPA uses WCDMA, so that makes no sense... Under preferred network you should have WCDMA only, 2G only, or WCDMA preferred if I recall correctly as I'm not on stock HTC rom atm so can't check. Are you getting an "E" signal indicator or are you just getting a slow connection? What does it say under About phone>Status>Mobile Network Type?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, all the tech support i've talked to said it makes no sense either . i get the same outcome whether i put it on WCDMA only or GSM/WCDMA auto. when i do the speed test, it always comes out under 1 mb/s. it actually has the 4G symbol up, but the speed isn't there.
mhmm, it switches between UMTS and HSDPA.

If you have UMTS and HSPDA under status its working, and those are also what connection you're really on. If you always have a 4g icon on status bar it seems like your carrier has modded the software like T-Mobile USA does so it always shows 4g no matter what's up in the real world.
Maybe you're not in a good location and that's why you get slow data. Also I have no idea how Canadian carriers work but I'd guess if you're connected to a 850 MHz cell you'll get worse speeds than on a 1700/1900 one. Don't you guys have insane data caps everywhere, perhaps you hit yours when speedtesting?

did you try a new sim from bell

[Q] Nexus 5 Simple Mobile 4G + Mobile Network Indicator

So I broke my N4 and got myself a N5. I thought to myself, "now I can finally take advantage of those 4G LTE speeds that I've been paying for!"
However, I only see the "H" indicator over my mobile networks though Simple mobile insists that they support 4G in my area. Am I missing something? Should I switch to another carrier? I'm I wrong for expecting to see a "4G" or "LTE" indicator in my mobile network strength indicator?
:-/

MkJackson said:
So I broke my N4 and got myself a N5. I thought to myself, "now I can finally take advantage of those 4G LTE speeds that I've been paying for!"
However, I only see the "H" indicator over my mobile networks though Simple mobile insists that they support 4G in my area. Am I missing something? Should I switch to another carrier? I'm I wrong for expecting to see a "4G" or "LTE" indicator in my mobile network strength indicator?
:-/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check your setting to make sure that LTE is the preferred network type.
Go Settings>Wireless & networks>Mobile networks>Preferred network type and make sure it says 'LTE (recommended)'.
If it does, then if you have no LTE, I'd blame the carrier.
Either they have LTE coverage but it's weak where you're at and you're falling back to HSPA+, or they don't and are calling HSPA+ (the H icon) '4G'
Did they say 4G or 4G LTE?
Simple Mobile uses T-Mobile's network and T-Mob defines HSPA+ as '4G'
If they didn't specify LTE, they only have HSPA+ in your area, hence the H icon.
If they insist LTE is available, try another carrier.

How do I know if I'm getting 4g signal?

I just changed the old seem I've had for a few years to a new "4g compatible" sim card since my new moto g has 4g. The thing is there has been no change in the icon I get on my status bar when I'm not connected to any WiFi. It's still a letter H and the signal triangle. Is the icon supposed to be different when I get 4g?

It is suppoded to say 4G or LTE, depenidng on the rom. I get LTE on custom roms and 4G n stock. Also check on the mobile networks settings the prefered type is 4G

It varies by model, carrier, and country. Symbols you will see for 4G are: 4G, LTE, H, H+. Like the previous post said make sure you have 4G/LTE select as preferred in your network settings. You can test your speed to see if it's 4G with apps like Speedtest from the Play Store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.zwanoo.android.speedtest&hl=en

bobbyphoenix said:
It varies by model, carrier, and country. Symbols you will see for 4G are: 4G, LTE, H, H+. Like the previous post said make sure you have 4G/LTE select as preferred in your network settings. You can test your speed to see if it's 4G with apps like Speedtest from the Play Store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.zwanoo.android.speedtest&hl=en
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speedtest isn't really a reliable way of determining connection type, I have seen areas where 3G/HSPA is much faster than LTE and other places where LTE is 100 times faster than 3G. The best way is by the symbol next to your mobile connection when WiFi is off, or use an app like Network Signal Info which will give you very detailed information about both your mobile and wifi connections.