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[Q] NS4G Nexus S 4g, very poor signal, seeking advice

Hello all,
I just received my new Nexus S 4G for Sprint yesterday (5/14) and I love the phone, but I have just awful service on my phone.
I live in Princeton, NJ, which is a town notorious for not having the best service (for all providers) to begin with, but compared to my Epic4G that I came from, there is definitely something wrong with service for my NS4G. Note: there is no 4G here, so I cannot test that.
There are not much discussion of poor signal for the NS4G here on XDA, but there are numerous reports from people having similar problems elsewhere, i.e. http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/67927?start=0&tstart=10
I will describe my problem...
Calls and texts, MMS, works just fine... however, my 3G service is abysmal. Running speedtest.net, half of the time I pull in 30-40 KB/s, occasionally (maybe 1 out of a dozen times) I can pull in 40-80 KB/s. The other half of the time, either speedtest refuses to run because of network problems, or I literally pull in 3-6 KB/s. My browsing experience is horrendous, almost useless, downloading apps from the market is a 20 minute ordeal.
I have been able to connect to a WiFi network, and everything seems OK from that standpoint.
My fellow XDA users, I seek advice from you all...
I know that the NS4G is brand new to the Sprint network, and is the first CDMA nexus phone. I know that other phones have launched with similar problems, and they usually receive fixes relatively soon...?
Do you think I should try swapping my NS4G for a different one? In my opinion, I think if I swapped the NS4G, I would just have a different phone with the same problems.
Should I wait 30 days and see if service improves by then?
Anyone with similar experience? Suggestions? Switch back to Epic4G and wait it out (noooooo! )?
Thanks

I'm having the same problems, except I'm pulling slightly higher speeds than you. I've talked to sprint and they got a tech to come check out my towers and they'll let me know by monday if its a tower problem, or if it's just slow speeds in my area (its not my phone as i'm able to pick up normal speeds in other areas). I'm giving sprint a week or two to clear this up or else i'm taking the phone back within the 30 days.
also, did you try updating your prl/profile? it's unlikely that it'll help, but worth a shot.

I get around 3mbps on 3G
And around 5-6 and sometimes 7 mbps on 4g
Som im clearly not having this issue, but i will go roaming after the phone falls asleep for a while.

same problem
Im having the same problem I only had the phone 12 hrs I thought mayb it was da tower den I did a speed test between my epic n the ns4g n the epic blows it out the water not on da speed test app but in real life testin like pullin up web pages

The signal is weird. Signal strength at work on my Epic was 5-6 bars. Nexus S 4G is 1-2 bars. Signal strength is between -76 and -92. I forget what my Epic was pulling in actual numbers strength wise. Speed is the same awful crap though on 3G.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

I've had two Nexus S devices on Sprint and they both exhibit the same weak wireless reception. In real life I would say the differences are minor or insignificant but I was hoping for better or at least same radio reception as my almost 3 year old HTC Hero and clearly that isn't the case. Hopefully Sprint can rectify this in the future with some sort of update since I'm not aware of T-Mobile users having similar problems which would indicate an actual hardware flaw(?).

I'm almost sure its a sprint side issue. I left sprint for 3 months and came back and I've had an epic, evo, and nexus exhibit the same behavior. Before I left sprint I had zero issues and I've owned all of their smartphones and one point or another. It just seems like its slower in certain areas though.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

try updating PRL

Since our phones don't accept network pushed updates you're going to have to do a manual prl update. If that hasn't been done your service will suffer. That should help a bit.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

I've tried all the tricks, updated profile, PRL, reactivated my phone, etc.
Nothing is working...,
I've also noticed (completely unrelated issue) that my earpiece speaker crackles at any volume; its subtle but very annoying.

This seems to be an issue for people with the nexus. My old phone had full bars whereas with the nexus I'm only getting 1 or 2 bars on 3g. Seems to be an issue with their towers or Google. Its an issue with their network and not the phone. I spoke to sprint earlier today and they said they are aware and working to resolve this. So they say if course..
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

Update (end of day 2):
For the last 5 - 6 hours I have been receiving moderate to adequate 3G service, albeit pretty inconsistent.
I now average 70-120 KB/s, and rarely drop below the lower 70s. This is more on par with what I was getting with my Epic4G for the last 6 months, always pulling in around 120-170 KB/s pretty consistently.
I've run 240 speedtest.net tests today, lol.
I hope it never goes back to how bad it was yesterday and this morning.
Time will tell, -- I'll let you know what happens.
I spent a good deal on the phone today with Sprint, 1 out of the 3 people I spoke to said that spotty reception on the NS4G was a known problem and engineers were at work fixing it. The others had no idea what I was talking about. I don't know what to believe.

Awww man you gotta be kidding me... I already get awful speeds with my Evo and now it's even worse with the Nexus 4g... the phone i'm planning on getting?!?!? this sucks =/

Anyone else's uploads constantly double or sometimes triple that of their download?
My last 5 3G speedtests in kbps
182/325
307/488
99/469
47/169
59/152
There is something seriously wacky with the way the radio is acting.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

Update (Morning of day 3):
Everything is back to crap again this morning. FML, lol
Edit:
Each speedtest.net test keeps returning downloads between 5 - 15 KB/s

I'm getting crap 3g speeds as well, up and down

Ditto. 3G reception at least 30% weaker than my Evo. Side note, my battery life has been crap too, I wonder if the phone is using more power trying to hold the signal?

I spent a little over an hour on the phone with sprint yesterday for this same issue. They trouble shot my phone, prl updates, network refreshes, nothing worked. They told me I had a defective unit and to exchange it. I went to best buy and the rep had an evo. He had full bars in the store, his dBm was -76 or whatever, it was in the 70's. Mine had 0-1 bars and a dBm of -96. He activated my new phone and checked it, same exact thing. He got sprint on the phone and they made him go through all the same bs prl updates and stuff. After a half hour, they told him they were looking into the issue.
Ive seen alot of people say its AOSP that causes the poor reception, and that is true to an extent. The EVO running CM does not get the same as sense roms. I live in a basement apartment, I know. On sense, my evo sent an mms message almost instantly. On CM, it wouldnt send them at all and it dropped calls like nobodies business.
When it comes down to it though, the radio on the Nexus 4G is just not performing well. I hope there will be some sort of update from google or sprint to address this in the very near future, or I will have left Verizon and sold my Thunderbolt for no reason...

I hope this issue can be fixed with a software update. I would like to know within the 30 day return period so I can get back on an evo running cm7 if I need to.

This is getting blown out of proportion in more ways than one. YES, the Nexus S 4G does not have as great of signal reception as the EVO or Epic. This is already well known. However, just like the iPhone 4 when it came out, the AOSP version of 2.3.4 on the NS4G doesn't display signal bars properly. That's part of the problem. But when you dive down into actually how many dBm's you're getting - that's where the problem lies.
In San Francisco, I typically get 600-1000kbps on 3G and 4mbps-8mbps on 4G WiMAX. Lately, after continually attempting to update the PRL on the device and so on, I've gotten results like the one below. This is on 3G in Daly City, CA just outside SF.
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AT&T service vs Net10 / StraightTalk / Red Pocket speeds

I am now convinced that companies like Net10, StraightTalk, and Red Pocket DO NOT offer the same speeds as AT&T.
I have been an AT&T customer for the past 10 years. However, the the last 5 months I have gone from AT&T to StraightTalk, to Net10, then to Red Pocket.
What I am exp, varies greatly and sporadically, and almost always seemed to be have a long hesitation at the start of downloading a webpage.
Last night, I went into the AT&T store. I told the sales person I had Red Pocket and I asked if I could buy the Samsung Galaxy S 4 on the prepaid service for 1 month then use my Red Pocket sim card after that. We looked up the information and found that I they will not unlock the phone for 6 months on a prepaid even when paying the full price.
So I wanted to test if the Red Pocket would work on the phone without unlocking it.
To my surprise she let me take out my Red Pocket sim card from my phone and put it in the Samsung Galaxy S 4. I changed the APN to the Red Pocket APN settings. And guess what!!!!
The internet and phone service worked!
Now it was time to do a data speed test. I noticed that the internet web pages always opened slowly on my phone and I wasn't sure if it was problem with my phone or if it was the Red Pocket service.
I had two S4's side by side so I was able to open the browsers on both and I spent an hour opening and closing web pages at the same time.
The phone that had the AT&T sim card was ALWAYS way faster at loading webpages then the Red Pocket SIM and I purchased the Red Pocket ultimate $65/mo. plan. The Red Pocket phone always had a day opening the pages and often times took a painfully long time to completely load a page. I experienced this same problem with Net10 and StraightTalk service.
So by saving money getting using these resellers of AT&T's service you are not saving anything. You are getting a service with slow choked data transmission.
Any one else have have any data on the speeds? Or to share your experience?

You said all that to tell us something we already knew?
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Companies like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are pretty much the top four faster networks (In no specific order). Naturally no contract companies that offer cheap voice and data plans are not gonna have top notch networks. You get what you pay for

They have a QoS in place for the MNVOs. They throttle them down and have worse ping because of this. Of course this goes off the old "you get what you pay for" paying.
There is no reason for ATT to provide top service to someone who pays less than their actual customers
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

It all depends how much internet you use per month. ST is perfect if you use less than 2gb dont mind saving a few dollars each month.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

buyslake said:
I am now convinced that companies like Net10, StraightTalk, and Red Pocket DO NOT offer the same speeds as AT&T.
I have been an AT&T customer for the past 10 years. However, the the last 5 months I have gone from AT&T to StraightTalk, to Net10, then to Red Pocket.
What I am exp, varies greatly and sporadically, and almost always seemed to be have a long hesitation at the start of downloading a webpage.
Last night, I went into the AT&T store. I told the sales person I had Red Pocket and I asked if I could buy the Samsung Galaxy S 4 on the prepaid service for 1 month then use my Red Pocket sim card after that. We looked up the information and found that I they will not unlock the phone for 6 months on a prepaid even when paying the full price.
So I wanted to test if the Red Pocket would work on the phone without unlocking it.
To my surprise she let me take out my Red Pocket sim card from my phone and put it in the Samsung Galaxy S 4. I changed the APN to the Red Pocket APN settings. And guess what!!!!
The internet and phone service worked!
Now it was time to do a data speed test. I noticed that the internet web pages always opened slowly on my phone and I wasn't sure if it was problem with my phone or if it was the Red Pocket service.
I had two S4's side by side so I was able to open the browsers on both and I spent an hour opening and closing web pages at the same time.
The phone that had the AT&T sim card was ALWAYS way faster at loading webpages then the Red Pocket SIM and I purchased the Red Pocket ultimate $65/mo. plan. The Red Pocket phone always had a day opening the pages and often times took a painfully long time to completely load a page. I experienced this same problem with Net10 and StraightTalk service.
So by saving money getting using these resellers of AT&T's service you are not saving anything. You are getting a service with slow choked data transmission.
Any one else have have any data on the speeds? Or to share your experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I am on ATT branded Straight Talk in a small town in Oklahoma but still receive 4g (H+) and I consistently have 6mbs down & 1.5mbps up, the only drawback is the ping which averages 100ms for me. My home internet connection is only 5.5mbps/800k with 24ms ping. I have never been throttled and am a very heavy user and this is on a variety of att branded & unlocked phones (i4/4s/5, S3, note 1 & 2, htc vivid, etc). I am a reseller so I can play with all the newest. I get so many requests for unlocking to use ATT ST/net10 but nobody seems to get it, they are both ATT so there is no need for an unlock. Everything you get is done through APN & for more extensive tweaking through build.prop edits. When I go to Tulsa I get 10-14mbps down & around 5mbps up. I know this is not anywhere near LTE but for prepaid service in a small town or a big city you cannot complain. My girlfriends ATT bill for 2 lines with her grandfathered unlimited is $190 a month. My service for a year is $500 WITH tethering, you do the math and tell me that data speeds are THAT important.

yosoywilson78 said:
Well I am on ATT branded Straight Talk in a small town in Oklahoma but still receive 4g (H+) and I consistently have 6mbs down & 1.5mbps up, the only drawback is the ping which averages 100ms for me. My home internet connection is only 5.5mbps/800k with 24ms ping. I have never been throttled and am a very heavy user and this is on a variety of att branded & unlocked phones (i4/4s/5, S3, note 1 & 2, htc vivid, etc). I am a reseller so I can play with all the newest. I get so many requests for unlocking to use ATT ST/net10 but nobody seems to get it, they are both ATT so there is no need for an unlock. Everything you get is done through APN & for more extensive tweaking through build.prop edits. When I go to Tulsa I get 10-14mbps down & around 5mbps up. I know this is not anywhere near LTE but for prepaid service in a small town or a big city you cannot complain. My girlfriends ATT bill for 2 lines with her grandfathered unlimited is $190 a month. My service for a year is $500 WITH tethering, you do the math and tell me that data speeds are THAT important.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Straight Talk, Net 10, Red Pocket uses AT&T towers for those that do not know.
Could you share your APN Settings? Any other modifications to improve data speed?
I pay for the 2 GB of supposedly unthrottled AT&T tower use through Red Pocket and at times it is almost unbearable. Although, I have to say net10 is the worst out of the 3 carriers. Unuseable in my opinion. I don't recall having as many issues with StraightTalk but Net10 is terrible.
The only reason I left StraightTalk is because I could not get a microsim from anywhere.
Is the ping is what causes the delay at the start of the webpage downloading?

Shook if you already know then why even respond? I am sure lots of people never tested a Samsung Galaxy S IV side by side with Red Pocket and AT&T card.
Also you knew about everything I posted? The 3 and 6 months waiting period?
wow

buyslake said:
Straight Talk, Net 10, Red Pocket uses AT&T towers for those that do not know.
Could you share your APN Settings? Any other modifications to improve data speed?
I pay for the 2 GB of supposedly unthrottled AT&T tower use through Red Pocket and at times it is almost unbearable. Although, I have to say net10 is the worst out of the 3 carriers. Unuseable in my opinion. I don't recall having as many issues with StraightTalk but Net10 is terrible.
The only reason I left StraightTalk is because I could not get a microsim from anywhere.
Is the ping is what causes the delay at the start of the webpage downloading?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Red Pocket is 2G service only, Straight Talk and Net10 are both 3G (HSDPA) only... this goes for the guy above as well.
You will not get 4G from any of these providers, however as stated earier Straight Talk and Net10 will both give you very reasonable speeds of ~6mbits over AT&T's 3G network.
There are MVNOs that offer 4G on AT&T towers but none of the options being discussed offer this.
MVNOs are an excellent option as long as you take the time to understand what it is you're getting.

My phone at the top shows H+ on Red Pocket, what does that mean? 3g doesn't? AT&T does not have 4G where I live yet.

I have no issues with Straight Talk. I get 6to7 megs down and thats good enough for me
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

Friends Red Pocket Mobile Data Throttle My Red Pocket Mobile Down To Slow Speeds
Thanks for watching and I appreciate if you can send your sincere condolences to Red Pocket for there business practices.
Charging people 59.99 for 3GB Data then not allowing the customer to go above 0.12 K/B's in download speed. Unfair practice for customers who PrePaid the entire month prior expecting to get 3GB of Data instead Red Pocket is Throttling the customers.
All Android and Iphone on ALL IOS will be expericning the issue of Data Throttle Slow Internet Speed. Straight Talk does the same thing. AT&T Has a major Lawsuit for the same thing now Red Pocket is lining up for failure as well.
If you too want to make sure your not getting Data Throttled Just Download the Speed Test App In Your App Store on your phone and start a Speed Test it's FREE.
If You want to get a hold of me during this investigation contact [email protected]
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youtu.be/4WGLuf9UlJg Red Pocket Data Throttle!

net10 vs verizon
buyslake said:
I am now convinced that companies like Net10, StraightTalk, and Red Pocket DO NOT offer the same speeds as AT&T.
I have been an AT&T customer for the past 10 years. However, the the last 5 months I have gone from AT&T to StraightTalk, to Net10, then to Red Pocket.
What I am exp, varies greatly and sporadically, and almost always seemed to be have a long hesitation at the start of downloading a webpage.
Last night, I went into the AT&T store. I told the sales person I had Red Pocket and I asked if I could buy the Samsung Galaxy S 4 on the prepaid service for 1 month then use my Red Pocket sim card after that. We looked up the information and found that I they will not unlock the phone for 6 months on a prepaid even when paying the full price.
So I wanted to test if the Red Pocket would work on the phone without unlocking it.
To my surprise she let me take out my Red Pocket sim card from my phone and put it in the Samsung Galaxy S 4. I changed the APN to the Red Pocket APN settings. And guess what!!!!
The internet and phone service worked!
Now it was time to do a data speed test. I noticed that the internet web pages always opened slowly on my phone and I wasn't sure if it was problem with my phone or if it was the Red Pocket service.
I had two S4's side by side so I was able to open the browsers on both and I spent an hour opening and closing web pages at the same time.
The phone that had the AT&T sim card was ALWAYS way faster at loading webpages then the Red Pocket SIM and I purchased the Red Pocket ultimate $65/mo. plan. The Red Pocket phone always had a day opening the pages and often times took a painfully long time to completely load a page. I experienced this same problem with Net10 and StraightTalk service.
So by saving money getting using these resellers of AT&T's service you are not saving anything. You are getting a service with slow choked data transmission.
Any one else have have any data on the speeds? Or to share your experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well ive noticed verizon gets service in my school but att(net10) doesnt but they get the same service outside

Wifi problems

has anybody else had WiFi problems with their 7pro? I had WiFi problems with my 6t as well it'll say connected no internet and the Wi-Fi is very slow opposed to data when there is no other problem with other devices using the same Wi-Fi connection. sometimes the Wi-Fi won't work at all even if my phone says it's connected apps will not load. I am on a t-mobile variant flashed to international since the day I bought it a week ago any insight to this would be great because I see that people have this issue a lotk

Yeah WiFi "speeds" on the 7Pro are abysmal. I have around 1/3rd to 1/4th the speed compared to my previous 5T. Something completely unexpected, thought the phone would be as least as fast if not faster.
Same thing on 9.5.5/9.5.7 and with various kernels

Yeah I'll vouch for that too. My WiFi speeds and connection strength for that matter are terrible! I came from a 6T that honestly had no problem with WiFi whatsoever, so this is annoying. Well, I hope the next update addresses WiFi, because the 7 Pro is a nice phone! It's a shame!

Add me as another for this list. My speeds are absolute crap, seemingly capped at 15mbps across all networks I've tried. My sons Pixel 3 on the other hand flies on the same. So not a router or ISP issue. So disappointed as everything about the 7 Pro is awesome but can't live with such poor WiFi, have a feeling it affects the HotSpot capability and speed too whatever the issue is.

Hi all!
I had that too - a simple wipe cache of all the phone's resources fixes the problem (turn off the phone then hold volume down and power button till the recovery mode kicks in and then just go to wipe cache and reboot, e voila!). I had some 10 MBps (lol!), now it is almost 80 Mbps, which is what I should get given my old WiFi system. Never settle!

Along with wiping the cache as the previous poster said...another thing that sometimes works is to reboot your router while at the same time doing a network reset on the phone. This way all the connections are fresh and new. I know this has been a solution for many different phones over the years. YMMV

T-mobile variant flashed to International
Same problem here. I have the T-Mobile variant and flashed international prior to 40 day unlock. It shows I have WiFi and or data but nothing loads. I rest my phone and all is good. It happens 2-3 times a day. I've tried wiping cache and it still happens. I vaguely remember having network issues before I flashed the international software but, I'm not sure if it's the T-mobile variant phone or if its international software. Any ideas?

GuestK00279 said:
has anybody else had WiFi problems with their 7pro? I had WiFi problems with my 6t as well it'll say connected no internet and the Wi-Fi is very slow opposed to data when there is no other problem with other devices using the same Wi-Fi connection. sometimes the Wi-Fi won't work at all even if my phone says it's connected apps will not load. I am on a t-mobile variant flashed to international since the day I bought it a week ago any insight to this would be great because I see that people have this issue a lotk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Today my 5Ghz has just stopped working period. can't connect to a 5Ghz or use the mobile hot spot at 5Ghz which i did use every single day for work, now i have to use the 2.4Ghz but it is WAY slower. anyone figure out why?

clevenger23 said:
Today my 5Ghz has just stopped working period. can't connect to a 5Ghz or use the mobile hot spot at 5Ghz which i did use every single day for work, now i have to use the 2.4Ghz but it is WAY slower. anyone figure out why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure it's the phone?

seeing as i have now tried multiple locations and wifi's yes. and my work phone can connect just fine to all the ones including my home, just the oneplus can not.
it stopped while in use like it just died.

Does anyone know how to solve this issue yet? Can't seem to find any fix
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I wonder why I got this slow, I used to have 100+ on my old iPhone X (same 5g wifi)

My wife and I both have this problem as well. Fortunately we have truly unlimited data, or tie would be unacceptable. Sometimes it's super fast, sometimes it's so slow apps decide you're offline. I've never seen any sort of fix; it's probably an OS/kernel level issue.

Same issue!!!
I have also created thread on onePlus official forum!
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/2-4-ghz-band-wi-fi-not-working.1208128/#post-21456923
GuestK00279 said:
has anybody else had WiFi problems with their 7pro? I had WiFi problems with my 6t as well it'll say connected no internet and the Wi-Fi is very slow opposed to data when there is no other problem with other devices using the same Wi-Fi connection. sometimes the Wi-Fi won't work at all even if my phone says it's connected apps will not load. I am on a t-mobile variant flashed to international since the day I bought it a week ago any insight to this would be great because I see that people have this issue a lotk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

In Houston, I have no wifi issues with my 7pro on ATT!!!!

Router settings are going to play into this. Many variables beyond "my phone doesn't work" I can get over 200mbps on a fast router and connection properly configured for N or AC. Even on 2.4ghz, 60-100mbps works.

I just got this phone coming from a Poco F1 that decided to stop charging unless turned off and I've gotta say that this is very disappointing. First problem was that the phone wouldn't go above 10 Mbps. Changed my AC router config from 80 Mhz to 40 Mhz and that helped increase it to > 100 Mbps but if I go into Wifi settings the max the phone ever sees as receive/transmit speeds is 192 Mbps. It doesn't matter if it's 5 Ghz or 2.4 Ghz. Tried changing settings in the router and even tried a different router, same thing. Reset network settings, same thing. Reset the entire phone, same thing. This is the t-mobile unlocked variant of the phone.
Is there anything that can be done? Would a custom rom or converting it to the international version help?
EDIT: lol this is clearly either a hardware issue or some OS limit. I enabled hotspot and connected my Poco to it and the Poco also sees 192 Mbps max. This sucks...

I have the same problem with my op7P.
after downloading and installed an update, my WiFi could not be detected anymore....
it just could not find any WiFi
Needless to say, hotspot also failed.

I was able to fix my above problem (stuck at 192 Mbps max) by switching to the Pixel Experience ROM. Unfortunately, battery drain was excessive (and fingerprint stopped working out of the blue) so rolled back with MSM tool and upgraded to 10.3.3 using local upgrade. Back to stuck at 192 Mbps so this is definitely a rom problem.

I never had wifi problems with mine OP7 pro. Maybe a router problem!
I'm using 5Ghz and wifi rocks on Op7p.
top gif sites
top gif sites

Slow, unstable data WiFi & 5G T-Mobile

My note 20 Ultra on T-Mobile seems to have intermittent data speeds and or unstable connections regardless whether or not it's on WiFi (6) Verizon Fios 1GB or 5G.
If I'm on WiFi I would need to turn it off and back on to get respectable speeds, on 5G I'm getting slower speeds than my Note 10 with 4G.
Is anyone else having this issue?
Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

get it replace

Same issue here on Wifi unfortunately :\

no such issues on ultra 20 5G 512 unlocked on tmo in LA.
agree, get it replaced. obviously thats not how the phone should work.

rsacipher said:
My note 20 Ultra on T-Mobile seems to have intermittent data speeds and or unstable connections regardless whether or not it's on WiFi (6) Verizon Fios 1GB or 5G.
If I'm on WiFi I would need to turn it off and back on to get respectable speeds, on 5G I'm getting slower speeds than my Note 10 with 4G.
Is anyone else having this issue?
Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just curious, did you set the phone up from scratch or did you restore a backup from another phone? If you restored data from another phone I'd do a FDR before exchanging the phone.

Try a network reset, then clear system cache on the boot menu.
Ask carrier for a reset on their side.
Clear sim toolkit data, double check configuration
if no joy replace sim card.

ggrant3876 said:
Just curious, did you set the phone up from scratch or did you restore a backup from another phone? If you restored data from another phone I'd do a FDR before exchanging the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I set it up from scratch.
Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

blackhawk said:
Try a network reset, then clear system cache on the boot menu.
Ask carrier for a reset on their side.
Clear sim toolkit data, double check configuration
if no joy replace sim card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give this a try.
Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

rsacipher said:
I'll give this a try.
Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More than likely a settings, software or firmware issue rather than hardwire.
It possible the base load got corrupted; if so a hard reset would not fix it.
It's irritating to send one back only to have the same issue crop up on the replacement and find out it's a settings issue that is easy to correct.
Been there, done that.
Samsung tech support is just about useless, but do document the problem with them.
Keep looking and send it back for factory service as the last option.
Samsung Experience centers can possibly find it or reflash it. They have diagnostic tools. They may do good... good luck.
Make sure the issue isn't the case... just saying.

I had issues where my unlocked would "unregister" itself with TMobile forcing me to reboot. I chatted with their online folks and they suggested I replace my "over 7 yr old sim".
knock on wood, after that the issue went away.
My wifi has been totally solid. I pay for a 500/500 plan with Frontier and I get 512/509 consistently on wifi. Little slower than wired but that's to be expected.

rsacipher said:
I'll give this a try.
Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Compusmurf said:
I had issues where my unlocked would "unregister" itself with TMobile forcing me to reboot. I chatted with their online folks and they suggested I replace my "over 7 yr old sim".
knock on wood, after that the issue went away.
My wifi has been totally solid. I pay for a 500/500 plan with Frontier and I get 512/509 consistently on wifi. Little slower than wired but that's to be expected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should handle a sim like a stick of ram.
Few people handle them properly and this can cause a lot of avoidable trouble.
ESD easily can damage them.
>If you can see, feel or hear a static charge it's already enough to cause damage. ESD input protection is limited at best.
>Do not touch contacts.
>Do earth ground yourself before handling; a wrist strap and earth grounded ESD mat are best but simple touching an earth ground after sitting down can work.
>Best to do with humidity above 50%.
Almost all sim card failure are the direct result of ESD damage... it can take years to manifest itself.
Damage can be accumulative or the result of one exposure. Failure afterwhich is completely unpredictable.
Learn to it yourself if you want it done right...

blackhawk said:
You should handle a sim like a stick of ram.
Few people handle them properly and this can cause a lot of avoidable trouble.
ESD easily can damage them.
>If you can see, feel or hear a static charge it's already enough to cause damage. ESD input protection is limited at best.
>Do not touch contacts.
>Do earth ground yourself before handling; a wrist strap and earth grounded ESD mat are best but simple touching an earth ground after sitting down can work.
>Best to do with humidity above 50%.
Almost all sim card failure are the direct result of ESD damage... it can take years to manifest itself.
Damage can be accumulative or the result of one exposure. Failure afterwhich is completely unpredictable.
Learn to it yourself if you want it done right...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK, I've never touched the contacts. Just moved from phone to phone over the years. Never replaced it the whole time.
I didn't have any spares either.
Guy at local store took one look and said it was well past it's date and just swapped it out for me no charge.
As far as humidity. HA. I live in Florida. Between heat, mosquitos and sand, humidity is one of those things we have an over abundance of.
Guy at store suggested replacing every 3 years or so. Said it's why they "force a sim" in the package with every new phone they ship. (I always just tossed them) Going forward, maybe I'll just change it out the next time. (I know I can do it online, just never bothered)

Compusmurf said:
AFAIK, I've never touched the contacts. Just moved from phone to phone over the years. Never replaced it the whole time.
I didn't have any spares either.
Guy at local store took one look and said it was well past it's date and just swapped it out for me no charge.
As far as humidity. HA. I live in Florida. Between heat, mosquitos and sand, humidity is one of those things we have an over abundance of.
Guy at store suggested replacing every 3 years or so. Said it's why they "force a sim" in the package with every new phone they ship. (I always just tossed them) Going forward, maybe I'll just change it out the next time. (I know I can do it online, just never bothered)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's old. No clue if they upgrade protocols, code but it would seem likely.
At 90% humidity a static charge doesn't last long and is harder to form in the first place. At 10% it's everywhere.
Nothing worse than the AT&T guy walking across carpet in leather shoes before they handle a sim card in the nice dry air conditioner store.
In 10 years I only ever saw one person at a phone store do it the correct way... no joke.

blackhawk said:
10% it's everywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Last time I was in an area with 10% humidity, people were shooting at me.

Compusmurf said:
AFAIK, I've never touched the contacts. Just moved from phone to phone over the years. Never replaced it the whole time.
I didn't have any spares either.
Guy at local store took one look and said it was well past it's date and just swapped it out for me no charge.
As far as humidity. HA. I live in Florida. Between heat, mosquitos and sand, humidity is one of those things we have an over abundance of.
Guy at store suggested replacing every 3 years or so. Said it's why they "force a sim" in the package with every new phone they ship. (I always just tossed them) Going forward, maybe I'll just change it out the next time. (I know I can do it online, just never bothered)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Compusmurf said:
Last time I was in an area with 10% humidity, people were shooting at me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've handled a lot of ram sticks and sim cards... never had one fail. Those sim and ram modules are 100% when they are shipped... what's that tell you?
A little care saves a lot of needless trouble shooting.

I have spoken to the T-Mobile reps, and it looks like it's a known issue with the S20 Ultra 5G models, and looks like it's been passed on to the Note 20 5G models. It has specifically to do with the 5G models. The non 5G models work just fine. They said they are in contact with Samsung to get it fixed, but it's not something that you will see fixed just by replacing the phone. I am on my #3 Note 20 Ultra, and still same issue with T-Mobile. I was on Verizon 2 weeks ago ( I literally just switched to T-Mobile), and when I had Verzion, I had 0 issues.

I turned off 5G and am getting much faster data speeds over LTE and the connection seems more reliable.
I'm not a fan of having to reinstall everything with a replacement and hopefully they have a software update that fixes it.
Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

rsacipher said:
My note 20 Ultra on T-Mobile seems to have intermittent data speeds and or unstable connections regardless whether or not it's on WiFi (6) Verizon Fios 1GB or 5G.
If I'm on WiFi I would need to turn it off and back on to get respectable speeds, on 5G I'm getting slower speeds than my Note 10 with 4G.
Is anyone else having this issue?
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Click to collapse
I have exactly the same issue. Everything is up to date and I have two massive Asus Rapture AX-11000 routers in mesh wired to a 2 Gbps fiber connection. And I am in Singapore, we have 5G.
Unfortunately my speed test ranges from great speed to miserable speeds:
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Question Cellular Signal Not as good as other phones? 4g LTE/5g T-mobile

I own two Samsung Galaxy a32 5G phones on T-Mobile. Prior to this I owned a pixel 3A, and also I own a LG Stylo 4. While using the Samsung GalaxyA32, one thing that I've noticed is that the signal pick up for the cellular service is not as good as the pixel or the LG Stylo 4. The pixel and the LG Stylo 4 utilize only the 4G LTE signal. This one obviously has the 4G LTE, and the 5G connection. What I'm noticing is that in places where there is low signal and able to make phone calls using the pixel 3A and also the LG Stylo 4 but I'm unable to do so with the Samsung Galaxy phone. Initially I thought it was just a problem maybe with the 5G, and the 5G switching over with to the 4G LTE, and during that network switch that could have led to drop calls. Therefore what I have done is change the mobile networks to only 4G LTE 3-g, 2G, connection. Even with that I am seeing that the pixel, and the LG Stylo for having a better connection with the 4G LTE and that of the Samsung Galaxy A 32. I do not believe it is a defective phone since I'm having the same issue with two of the phones. I've called T-Mobile before, and made sure that I have a latest SIM card, I've also done Network resets. And even Factory resets. I did not think that now was a time where different phones got better signals than others, like Nokia did back in the 90s. Is anyone else having a similar type of issue? I have been updating the software as it comes out as well. Otherwise its a good Free Phone....

The modem in the A32 is not that great. At my house I get around 6-10mbps over 5G while the recent OnePlus Nord N200 5G thats now free gets upwards of 40mbps which is on par with my other devices.

I also got this phone for free through T-Mobile by turning in my Moto Z2 and I am not so happy about... Sure it was 3 year old phone but at least it wasn't as cheap as this.
I'm not sure about mobile data being slower or worse than other 5G phones but It wouldn't surprise me at all.. The Wifi (chip?) they use I know for sure is cheap, as it doesn't work or connect with cameras I use for work remotely. It also disconnects from my home wifi or has poor range. My mom got the same phone with the trade in and same problems. I'm planning on selling it while it still has some value and going back to Motorola or even a google pixel.
I understand it being a budget phone but to cheap out one of the most important aspects of a phone is just bad.

I have both Oneplus N200 5G and Samsung A32 5G. Both on Tmobile and I have no issue with Samsung MTK chip, in fact, it out perform SD480 modem with 5G.
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There's a big difference between signal strength and data transfer speed.
You can have good signal strength but poor transfer speeds, but not vice versa.
Try clearing the system cache and a network reset.

This device built-in antenna or modem may not be the best for your T-Mobile LTE connections...

Tried again just now. Samsung a32 still get better result compare to oneplus n200.
Oh well..
Samsung is under a326usqu3auf7
Oneplus is under 11.0.1.5de18cb

All my A32's act the same in a rual area 5G unreliable etc etc data will stop working until airplane mode or disable 5G.. The OnePlus Nord N200, iPhone 12 Pro Max, OnePlus 8T,etc dont have that issue.
Also in some of your screenshots says XFINITY like you tested it over WiFi

hyelton said:
All my A32's act the same in a rual area 5G unreliable etc etc data will stop working until airplane mode or disable 5G.. The OnePlus Nord N200, iPhone 12 Pro Max, OnePlus 8T,etc dont have that issue.
Also in some of your screenshots says XFINITY like you tested it over WiFi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, you sound like I am providing fake testing. I am using N200 myself beause faster facial recognition. However, the fact remain that A32 is faster for me. Here is another shot while during the testing.
But, it is possible all depend on where user live? I am couple blocks away from T-mobile HQ in Bellevue WA.
BTW, I literally PM uninstall all t-mobile packages off both of my phones. why don't you do the speedtest between your N200 and A32 since you also have both, curious what is the different?

My issue is not just speed, its the point that the A32 will loose data randomly.
Example I put an A32 and N200 in the window facing my cloeset tower turn on hotspot let them sit there, within 30 min the A32 will drop the connection and or drop down to LTE while the N200 stays connected for days on end without issue. Granted I'm more rural but its the point the N200 holds on a consiant 30mbps while the A32 cant even maintain a connection. In city areas its fine.

hyelton said:
My issue is not just speed, its the point that the A32 will loose data randomly.
Example I put an A32 and N200 in the window facing my cloeset tower turn on hotspot let them sit there, within 30 min the A32 will drop the connection and or drop down to LTE while the N200 stays connected for days on end without issue. Granted I'm more rural but its the point the N200 holds on a consiant 30mbps while the A32 cant even maintain a connection. In city areas its fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i usb tether my a326u1 and it never drops, maybe you have a faulty one? maybe network depriorisation?

financeledger said:
i usb tether my a326u1 and it never drops, maybe you have a faulty one? maybe network depriorisation?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
USB tether same thing. Cant be faulty all 4 of them do this... If it was network depriorsation that would affect the N200 and OnePlus 8T as well which it doesnt. Granted the A32 works great in populated areas where signal is good, but rual areas it fails while others are still fine.

You guys may want to Google what bands each phone is compatible with. That's likely what's going on here.

No big deal, but I must say I'm a little confused that people in this thread seem to be confusing cellular "speed" (Mbps) with cellular "signal strength" (dBm), at least that's what it appears to be when I skim this thread.
If people are equating them, then that's fine - I won't quibble (as they're somewhat tangentially related even as they're two completely different measurement units of different things altogether).
What caused me to open this thread was the title said "Cellular Signal" even as it doesn't discuss anything about cellular signal strength.
If it's only about speed tests, then maybe the title can be edited by the OP, but if it's really about cellular signal strength, there are a bunch of good free ad free gsf free apps which measure & report cellular signal strength (usually it's measured in decibels of varying types) in a moving graph (the graph is the important part as the numbers themselves can fluctuate wildly).
Cellular-Z by JerseyHo
LTE Discovery by Simply Advanced
Mobile Trace by RFAssurance
Signal Spy by Novvia

The signal strength is easy to view in settings...

blackhawk said:
The signal strength is easy to view in settings...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Thank you for clarifying. I wasn't clear enough. I'm sorry.
This will get you instantaneous signal strength readings.
Android 11 Settings.
Tap About phone.
Tap Status information.
Tap SIM card status.
Scroll down to Signal strength.
This is your instantaneous signal strength in dBm & asu.
By way of additional useful signal strength functionality, most (if not all) of the free ad free apps I previously listed not only provide a moving real-time graph of that same instantaneous cellular signal strength in any of a number of measurements (e.g., RSSI, RSRP, RSRQ & SNR) but they also provide the unique tower ID (often down to the exact sector antenna) and the neighboring cells, along with frequency, band, EARFCN, etc.
I think some even estimate the location of the cellular tower on an OSM map (where even the unregistered homeowners' microcells are located on those maps - which aren't usually found on Internet databases).

no clue said:
LOL, you sound like I am providing fake testing. I am using N200 myself beause faster facial recognition. However, the fact remain that A32 is faster for me. Here is another shot while during the testing.
But, it is possible all depend on where user live? I am couple blocks away from T-mobile HQ in Bellevue WA.
BTW, I literally PM uninstall all t-mobile packages off both of my phones. why don't you do the speedtest between your N200 and A32 since you also have both, curious what is the different?
View attachment 5382925
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanna say, it might be doing worse on one device vs the other because the tests are running at the same time so they're both fighting for the limited bandwidth. And whatever device starts first gets the lead and keeps it.

Latest patch (baseband A326WVLU6AUK2, November 1st 2021) sort of fixed the bad wifi signal. However, my 5g signal is still trash with this phone (I'm with Telus).
I just keep it on LTE and it works nicely.