Related
Any way to accomplish this?
I need this BAD too! Reception at work is god awfull. Please help! SOS
What does your user name mean? Natural light or natty boh light?
Please someone make an app to turn on/off roaming; I'm willing to pay money for it (and I'm sure a lot of people are willing to do so too).......
LOL if it were this easy.......
Roaming is of no use to me but I always like to look in to issues that people are having. I grep'd what code we have available to us for our phones and the only two options I came across were:
ro.com.android.dataroaming = true
xml: name="sync_while_roaming">false
So all I can tell you is that I can control whether it roams or not (which can also be easily changed in our settings menu) but not to force it to roam. I googled if it was possible in android at all and couldn't find any results.
Do you know what towers are around you or what towers we can roam on? I wonder if it would be possible to hack in a verizon rom dump from eris and force it to roam on their towers. However that won't allow you to come back to Sprint. And Sprint has been known to cancel contracts of people who roam too much.
has anyone tried to update the PRL to a verizon PRL?? I tried it, but i'm not sure how successful it was, as both Sprint and Verizon signals are strong in my area.. Put the PRL on the SD card and use ##PRL# to update it..
flipzmode said:
Roaming is of no use to me but I always like to look in to issues that people are having. I grep'd what code we have available to us for our phones and the only two options I came across were:
ro.com.android.dataroaming = true
xml: name="sync_while_roaming">false
So all I can tell you is that I can control whether it roams or not (which can also be easily changed in our settings menu) but not to force it to roam. I googled if it was possible in android at all and couldn't find any results.
Do you know what towers are around you or what towers we can roam on? I wonder if it would be possible to hack in a verizon rom dump from eris and force it to roam on their towers. However that won't allow you to come back to Sprint. And Sprint has been known to cancel contracts of people who roam too much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The towers around me are Verizon towers. Yeah, I undestand that (Sprint has been known to cancel contracts of people who roam too much) and I don't want to Roam all the time, just here at work. The phone is mostly on roaming while at work but is is continually searching for a Sprint tower and that drains the battery so fast! The only workaround for me is to set the phone to airplane mode until about the last three hours of work but then even when the phone is turned on it constantly tries to switch to a very weak sprint signal and I keep losing connection just about every 2 or 3 minutes, so using the phone in work is practically useless for me right now
@mroneeyedboh: Natural Light. My ode to cheap beer.
One area I frequent has a weak Sprint signal, and a "decent" Verizon signal. It would take "excessive" roaming, for 3 consecutive months for Sprint to flag you for abuse. So you have some breathing room. I remember my G1 had an option to manually select the network available. However, I'm not entirely sure that having a network option isn't just a customary feature of a GSM device, and not Android specifically, since its obviously compatible world wide.
I have the same exact situation at work where I get no signal on sprint but it tries to find it draining the battery and preventing it from using the very good verizon signal. I had to force it to EVDO only just to be able to check my gmail and confirm my XDA forum registration since webmail is blocked at work. This the kind of thing I bought this phone for to always have access to my email. Switching to EVDO Only mode is really cumbersome and annoying, and still gives a bad although slightly better signal. If I forget to switch it back to allow 1x Data, I can't use SMS and when I call sprint it hangs up immediately unless I switch it back on. I would use very minimal time data and voice roaming compared to my outside of building data and voice use as I'm sure is the case for most people with bad sprint coverage inside buildings.
Greefus said:
I have the same exact situation at work where I get no signal on sprint but it tries to find it draining the battery and preventing it from using the very good verizon signal. I had to force it to EVDO only just to be able to check my gmail and confirm my XDA forum registration since webmail is blocked at work. This the kind of thing I bought this phone for to always have access to my email. Switching to EVDO Only mode is really cumbersome and annoying, and still gives a bad although slightly better signal. If I forget to switch it back to allow 1x Data, I can't use SMS and when I call sprint it hangs up immediately unless I switch it back on. I would use very minimal time data and voice roaming compared to my outside of building data and voice use as I'm sure is the case for most people with bad sprint coverage inside buildings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a widget in the market to switch 3g on and off. can't remember the name.
Anyone who's more knowledgeable than me, can please tell me if by changing anything in the ## menus, (like ##diag# or ##data#), can we force the phone to roam? (I'm asking because I just got the MSL number out of my device and now can change any of those settings).
TIA.
daveli said:
Anyone who's more knowledgeable than me, can please tell me if by changing anything in the ## menus, (like ##diag# or ##data#), can we force the phone to roam? (I'm asking because I just got the MSL number out of my device and now can change any of those settings).
TIA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, can't help you. I interested in this thread, so I'm bumping it.
This sounds like something the CDMA radio manages. I'm not familiar with the lower level processes and configurations on Android, but this might be part of a closed source process. I don't know if Android is supposed to have such a thing?
You could try setting the Home SID/NID to the SID/NID of the tower where you work, and then set the phone to Sprint Only. This in theory should force the phone to stay on the roaming tower, but I'm not sure if this will override the PRL. Probably not.
Subscribing... I would give anything for this. I got this shiny new hero and can't use it at my house. It was so awesome that I kept it. A friend can sit next to me on verizon and get almost a full signal.
I have tried the GV + Sipsorcery + sipdroid thing to make and receive calls over wifi but it is so unreliable. If I could just switch to use the roaming verizon tower by my house I could justify keeping this thing.
I am new to android development, but not new to development, linux, or java. So I will probably investigate this more.
flexgrip said:
Subscribing... I would give anything for this. I got this shiny new hero and can't use it at my house. It was so awesome that I kept it. A friend can sit next to me on verizon and get almost a full signal.
I have tried the GV + Sipsorcery + sipdroid thing to make and receive calls over wifi but it is so unreliable. If I could just switch to use the roaming verizon tower by my house I could justify keeping this thing.
I am new to android development, but not new to development, linux, or java. So I will probably investigate this more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyone looking into what someone else found? That he was able to force roam the Hero?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=616405
I am hopefull
Apart from force roaming does anyone know of an app that would let you manually select your towers (or a built in way to do it).
I don't want to force roaming actually, I just want to switch to the verizon tower near my house so I can use my phone at home. I don't want to do it anywhere else. Just once instance.
I had a junk nokia a long time ago and it even had an app that let you manually select your tower and gave me all the serial/id info about it. What is the next closest think on android for this?
flexgrip said:
I don't want to force roaming actually, I just want to switch to the verizon tower near my house so I can use my phone at home. I don't want to do it anywhere else. Just once instance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is, by definition, force roaming.
Oh, you're right, but what I meant was that I don't want to be anywhere and kick myself off the sprint towers onto any other tower using an app or setting. I just meant in one location I would like to switch to a defined tower. There is a big difference between an app that lets you select your network towers and another that forces your phone off of sprint onto any roaming tower. But thanks for a helpful post.
As far as the CDMA hero goes, is there anything helpful in the radio updates that might lead to controlling the network selection? I am wrapping some projects up this week and I do not care to dig through the source to see if a quick app is possible.
I'm pretty sure you should NOT mess with the radio...
flexgrip said:
Subscribing... I would give anything for this. I got this shiny new hero and can't use it at my house. It was so awesome that I kept it. A friend can sit next to me on verizon and get almost a full signal.
I have tried the GV + Sipsorcery + sipdroid thing to make and receive calls over wifi but it is so unreliable. If I could just switch to use the roaming verizon tower by my house I could justify keeping this thing.
I am new to android development, but not new to development, linux, or java. So I will probably investigate this more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or, you could call customer care, and tell them that you get no service at home, and require an AIRAVE. They sent me one free, and waived the 4.99 month charge. Just explain to them, you need your phone, you have small kids or whatever, you need service in your home.
AIRAVE is the best thing ever. I went from no service in my house, to 5 bars at all times, who cares if its only 1X, I can still make and receive calls, and have WiFi for my data needs.
Here's teh scoop...
I was in Vegas at CES and all was fine. I was tethering and 4G was blazing. Left on Friday, got back to SoCal and on Monday my Epic running Bonzai4All (RFS) would no longer connect to the 4G network. Found out from Sprint there was a trouble ticket in my area and 4G was down for a couple days. It's back up now but my phone won't connect anymore. Took it to a corp repair store (after having flashed back to stock of course) but they couldn't fix it so they ordered me a "new" one.
I don't think it's a hardware issue because when I click the 4G icon the phone cycles through SCANNING>CONNECTING>OBTAINING IP ADDRESS and then it just disconnects. Feels more like a programming issue (ie, dialer codes... then some numeric setting somewhere in the programming menu)
Has anyone else had this happen to them. I did nothing to my phone between the time I was in Vegas and back in SoCal so other than the outage, the phone no longer connecting to 4G seems quite random.
4G is noG
I have the epic4g, I live in Vegas.
Although this is supposed to be 4G for the entire city, the phone spends 95% of the time "disconnected" from 4G.
I have already had sprint replace the phone, the same thing happens with the new phone.
It seems its a software issue, if I turn on 4G and move, do anything, it will disconnect. Heck, it even disconnected in the parking lot outside the Sprint store. Of course they kept telling me there was nothing wrong with the phone when they test, so I go outside, try to connect to sprint.com, get error of no connection and bring phone back in.
On a recent trip, I attempted to use 4G to rent a movie for my son. In the course of 30 minutes, it must have disconnected once every 1-2 minutes. It does not reconnect on its own, you have to manually disconnect, then reconnect to get it running again. It appears if you are "mobile", it has major issues. If you are sitting in one place (not walking or anything) it will keep its connection.
Kind of retarded if you ask me - I know 100% its a phone issue, something is messed up. Of course, when I complain to Sprint, I am the only one having this issue.
I am actually going to try to get them to credit me the 10 bucks a month back, after all, I never use 4G - not because I dont want to, its just not worth the hassle. I cannot even browse the web - it disconnects so often I get the no connection error screen. 3G has no issues, but is slow.
I have searched many forums, but cannot find any fixes for this issue. It would appear that you are having the same deal as I am now.
No idea. My phones locked on 4g 80% of the time. While driving, walking etc. Only use 3g in buildings made of kryptonite that block signals.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
I live right outside of Baltimore, and according to sprints coverage maps I should have 4g where i live. We all know how coverage maps go, but i am getting the "obtaining ip address" then fail. But I just kind of ignored it and thought nothing of it.
After seeing other people with similar problems, do you think i should have it serviced? i am paying for insurance.
Did anybody figure this out?
This happened to me after flashing a new rom, seemed to work after a reboot.
i have the same problem, and a simple reboot did NOT my problem.
I know for a fact that I get reception in my house, and I've tried in a Sprint Store when I was testing the Photon 4G. Still can't connect; more specifically it disconnects after attempting to obtain an IP address.
I have already tried messing the WiMAX Extension settings in ##3282#
I'm running SyndicateROM Frozen 1.2 | Genocide 2.0 Kernal | EC05 Modem.
Note: 4G was working before i tested UrbanDecay, which was a EG22 ROM. I did flash SRF1.2 with the EG22 installed. i have tried updating the modem and I'm back to EC05. still no luck.
Suggestions?
This happened to me. Some type of data corruption. I had to Odin back to a prerooted tar, not restore anything, test 4G, working then only restored apps with no data. When I did restore data I lost 4G again. So do not restore any data. Set everything back up again.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
kennyglass123 said:
This happened to me. Some type of data corruption. I had to Odin back to a prerooted tar, not restore anything, test 4G, working then only restored apps with no data. When I did restore data I lost 4G again. So do not restore any data. Set everything back up again.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then it is what I had feared... After I got so far too! I'm going to have to reformat my SD card while I'm at it. A few of my videos also got corrupted.
jerm1027 said:
Then it is what I had feared... After I got so far too! I'm going to have to reformat my SD card while I'm at it. A few of my videos also got corrupted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I tried everything first, even had Sprint refresh my phone. I guess some WiMax files got corrupted. You could try a reflash but if your ROM backs up and restores data it probably will still not work. I was able to restore apps only and selectively restore a few apps with Titanium though.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I generally use my shift at home or work on wifi. This week I'm on vacation and have been using Sprint's network primarily. I was using a CM7 nightly for a while and noticed that I've never seen the 3g icon, only 1x. I confirmed this by installing an app from the market called 'Opensignal' which shows details about your connection, which tower you're connected to, etc.
I flashed to a sense based ROM (Mik) and have the same issue- 1x only. However, it now always displays the 3g logo when data is 1x, even if roaming.
It seems that something in my phone is keeping me stuck without 3g that persists through reinstalls/wipes. I'm hoping there is some type of hidden setting or config option I can look at outside of the standard settings in the system.
Any ideas other than flashing back to stock/unrooted?
You will find that the stock sense rom will show 3G always as well. You can open up the dialer and dial ##33284# Choose EVDO engineering, and look at the state.
And if not in a sense rom *#*#info#*#* will let you view you connection details.
Toasted by Nightly.
Unfortunately I would ruu back to stock, update profile and prl in update section then see if that helps. Run speed tests and keep a record of results to help in the process of elimination. Could it just be the tower you're near or some Podunk town out in the sticks that doesn't have good equipment? Go to a sprint store with working displays. Do speed tests with the display then your phone. Maybe you got a lemon?
You could be roaming or on an old system. Turn roaming off and set network to sprint only and see if that makes any difference. I know years ago I went to my home town in the Midwest and throughput and signal was poor until I went into a major city (like the capital) then speed and signal was good again.
Thanks, I didn't realize HTC always made the 3g logo show- that's really stupid. *#*#info#*#* shows me good stuff and re-confirms me getting 1x only.
Will any of the settings listed attempt 3G data only? I set it to EVDO but it seemed to stay at 1x.
falz said:
Thanks, I didn't realize HTC always made the 3g logo show- that's really stupid. *#*#info#*#* shows me good stuff and re-confirms me getting 1x only.
Will any of the settings listed attempt 3G data only? I set it to EVDO but it seemed to stay at 1x.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
##3282# & ##33284# are your best bet to edit anything if you're not planning on running an RUU, really you shouldn't have to, just turn EvDo only on and see if it even connects. Maybe the 1X towers are stronger than EvDo, if you have it at all.
Reset data profile entirely through ##3282# - you need your MSL - MSL Reader is on the market.
Try that and document your speed results, etc. Then update your prl. If you really want to, then go ahead and apply the 3G speed fix mentioned in Android Development (not necessary but if you're concerned with speed you might wanna try every step.)
If all that fails, you do still have the RUU and start fresh approach. Personally before I'd do anything I'd get ahold of another android device, maybe not HTC, and see what it's doing for speed, etc.
Sent from my PG06100
Great info. Using the info code I've set it to EVDO only but it still says its at 1xRTT, even after a reboot(!). My wife has a Sprint LG optimus S- I've looked at its settings and its connected @ 3G so I know whatever tower in my area should connect.
I got my MSL from that app and can get to edit mode via ##3282# but I do not see an option to reset, only to change to other profiles that appear to have the same config. It was choosing profile 1, I changed it to 0 with the same results.
How do I reset data profile?
Edit: ##33284# lists evdo as 0 (disabled) but does update info as to its signal strength and so on. This is all still with the phone set to EVDO only but yet connecting at 1xRTT.
I seem to have it working now. The change I made was ##3282#, EVDO, preferred mode = auto. This was previously set to CDMA. After a reboot I now have 3g.
I'm curious what this is set to for others? I've never been in these screens before and have this feeling that I've never had 3g data (I've had my phone since launch day).
Ive reflashed CM7 and 3g works there too now, i'm seeing the 3g icon for the first time.
Also its quite sneaky that HTC/Sprint only show the 3g icon on a Sense ROM. Had i never installed a non-sense based ROM i'd have never really known that i was stuck on 1x. Shame on HTC/Sprint.
falz said:
I seem to have it working now. The change I made was ##3282#, EVDO, preferred mode = auto. This was previously set to CDMA. After a reboot I now have 3g.
I'm curious what this is set to for others? I've never been in these screens before and have this feeling that I've never had 3g data (I've had my phone since launch day).
Ive reflashed CM7 and 3g works there too now, i'm seeing the 3g icon for the first time.
Also its quite sneaky that HTC/Sprint only show the 3g icon on a Sense ROM. Had i never installed a non-sense based ROM i'd have never really known that i was stuck on 1x. Shame on HTC/Sprint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to say this thread has helped me achieve EVDO (ive been 1x also since release). Sadly this doesn't work on AOSP roms for me, but i'm happy just getting what i'm paying for... and have been but haven't received. Its noticeably faster.
BUT.. for noobs not used to the ##3282# menu, after making a change, press the menu button and commit the change. I had gone through these steps changing the drop down and immediately restarting. Apparently you have to manually save these settings.. or at least on my phone.
where are you guys entering these numbers and "EVDO"? because mine is also showing 1x and i wanna fix that
AshyKnuttz said:
where are you guys entering these numbers and "EVDO"? because mine is also showing 1x and i wanna fix that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you get free thanks i guess... mouse slip up
anyway, its in your dialer, just use the keys as if the 'code' is a phone number
LOL double thanks
By the way i found out if you enable EVDO(DDTM) you might not receive some calls, just putting preferred mode on automatic will do the trick
falz said:
I seem to have it working now. The change I made was ##3282#, EVDO, preferred mode = auto. This was previously set to CDMA. After a reboot I now have 3g.
I'm curious what this is set to for others? I've never been in these screens before and have this feeling that I've never had 3g data (I've had my phone since launch day).
Ive reflashed CM7 and 3g works there too now, i'm seeing the 3g icon for the first time.
Also its quite sneaky that HTC/Sprint only show the 3g icon on a Sense ROM. Had i never installed a non-sense based ROM i'd have never really known that i was stuck on 1x. Shame on HTC/Sprint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the record the stock rom WILL show 1x. I've seen it. I guess that's when service is just plain terrible.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA Premium App
I would like to fix this on my phone as well but I'm having some trouble entering the code. When I go to my dialer and enter ##3282# nothing happens. What am I missing? Thanks.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
njeske said:
I would like to fix this on my phone as well but I'm having some trouble entering the code. When I go to my dialer and enter ##3282# nothing happens. What am I missing? Thanks.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only rom it works for me on is MikShift. Not even on the stock rom, though I did call and voice my complaints to both Sprint AND HTC, they didn't give a rat's ass.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA Premium App
If I install mikshift and make the change will it persist if I flash back to cm7?
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
njeske said:
If I install mikshift and make the change will it persist if I flash back to cm7?
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked for me. I also updated my Profile and PRL through sprint just for the hell of it.
njeske said:
I would like to fix this on my phone as well but I'm having some trouble entering the code. When I go to my dialer and enter ##3282# nothing happens. What am I missing? Thanks.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 Reboot your HTC EVO Shift 4G.
2 Press your phone icon on the screen.
3 Enter ##3282#.
4 You have to give it roughly 10 seconds for the EPST screen to appear.
5 If the 1st 3 steps don't work, you may have to restore to the Stock ROM.
alcohol120% said:
It worked for me. I also updated my Profile and PRL through sprint just for the hell of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seem to have worked for me as well except on the next day...I got an (I believe unrelated) random wake-up reboot, it just decided to keep connecting in1x mode. Now I'm back to mik and I'm constantly in evdo rev a mode
I really like cm and I've had it fully setup to my liking...then when I discovered about opensignal and the whole 1x thing...I feel like I'm missing out on something. I think its more ocd than anything else since cm7 is fully functional anyway...but still. I do hope they figure out what the prob is. I can't wait to go back to cm
i dont need a signature
My phone works every but at home, I can't make a call or send a text from home. If I'm anywhere else it works fine. I can't seem to be able talk to the tower, if i use the open signal app it sees the tower and acts like I'm connected.
I'm running CM 7.1.0 speedy, I updated to 7.2 but had issues so i downgraded but that was weeks ago and it worked fine afterdown grageding.
It stopped working on 7-4, I live in the detorit area.
anybody run in to this before or know how to fix it???
*****updated
upgraded the radio, still no luck, flashed back to the stock ROM and still not working after updating the PRL. Called Sprint and the tech had me go though a bunch of resets and reprogramming. He still could not get it to work.
He said there was a issue at thee tower and they were working on it. He finally gave me a $15 credit on the account.
Is there a way to make you phone connect to a different tower?
You can force it to roam.
I believe the setting is under mobile network.
Its usually set to automatic, home is sprint network I believe, and I forgot what the other one is, but that one is roaming.
If you continue to have bad service at home, call Sprint. Then explain what's going on, and remind them that no service at home is grounds for being able to legally break contract. They will most likely offer you an AirWave. Just make sure it's free of charge. Lastly when you call make sure your on a Sense Rom.
TEAM MiK
MikROMs Since 3/13/11
I forgot to mention that my wife has the same phone an is setup the same. She has had no problem and my mother in-law has the same problem i do and she is running the stock ROM.
buddha112572 said:
I forgot to mention that my wife has the same phone an is setup the same. She has had no problem and my mother in-law has the same problem i do and she is running the stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a Nand of your current Rom. Then flash a Sense Rom, update PRL / Profile. See if that resolves the issue. If not call Sprint while your still on a Sense Rom. Ask them to reset your Data / Profile on their end.
prboy1969 said:
Do a Nand of your current Rom. Then flash a Sense Rom, update PRL / Profile. See if that resolves the issue. If not call Sprint while your still on a Sense Rom. Ask them to reset your Data / Profile on their end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I booted my sense rom (the one on rom manager) yesterday on bootmanager to update my prl/profile and it worked great.
Sent from my HTC Evo Shift using xda premium
sparksco said:
I booted my sense rom (the one on rom manager) yesterday on bootmanager to update my prl/profile and it worked great.
Sent from my HTC Evo Shift using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I know your Sense Rom runs with Zero issues, I have tried it . But he has some other weirdness going on.
I have three different people at Sprint reset my profile, none of it worked. I called on they way home and they are sending me the Air Wave, it is suppose to be free; we will see.
Oddly enough it was worked since I got home, I'm sure it will be out again in the morning. the thing about this problem I don't get is that it isn't just my phone acting up, it's almost like someone is hijacking the signal or cloned my phone or something and the network will not let two phones exist on the same number or address or what ever you want to call it.
Well I'm glad they're at the very least sending you an AirWave. Yes it's supposed to be free if your signal is non-existent at your home. The reason they do that is to keep you as a customer. Just keep an eye on your Bill . As for your phone being cloned, well it's possible. But very unlikely. If someone did it they would need access to your device for a good bit of time. I just noticed your in Detroit . How the hell are you having this issue in Detroit ???
I'm really not sure how one phone will work and one won't. I also really don't get how my phoe won't work since I'm less than a 1/2 mile from the closest tower, according to the Open signal app.
My house is aluminum sided, so I don't know if that is wreaking havoc on the new devices or not. I had a issue in the last year where my wireless router would drop out and I would lose connection with it. After repeat service calls I finally got a tech out that knew what he was doing and sugested that I switch routers or channels. After scanning for wifi for a few days I picked up on about 3 other people being on the same channel. I changed the channel and the problem went away.
Hello, fellow Fi users!
It has finally gotten on my nerves enough to create a thread, hoping to find some answers or perhaps work together to come to a solution for Project Fi's dreadfully slow carrier switching logic. I'm not sure about others, but in my town and the surrounding areas, T-Mobile has excellent service. My town is the only town in the county that does not have Sprint LTE, but I do get some 3G in certain areas. The problem is that when I lose connection with T-Mobile for a certain amount of time, the phone will switch over to Sprint to use its 3G network. This is great because this is how the phone and SIM card are supposed to function. However, the 3G service in this area is slow, spotty, and unreliable so typically as soon as I connect (usually while driving or on the move) I lose service again.
The real problem occurs when the phone is extremely reluctant to switch back to T-Mobile. Almost every day I make a 25 minute commute to work that takes me along a route where T-Mobile service drops off for a minute or two. During this gap in coverage, the phone switches to Sprint. I experience one brief moment of Sprint coverage, and then lose that as well (mountainous area). At this point, the phone should search for Sprint service for a few more seconds and then attempt to switch back to T-Mobile. Instead, it stays on Sprint and will continue to do so for the rest of my commute. I have Sprint LTE coverage at my job, but it's the return trip back home that results in my phone sometimes having no service elongated periods of time. Many times I'll look down at my phone while out to dinner after work or something and notice I have no service and haven't for some time. It's simply stuck on Sprint mode instead of switching.
This has forced me to pay for and download FiSwitch on the Play Store. I'm not too upset about this, but I feel like it'd be a bit of fun to maybe try to modify the logic in Fi's networking switching. Now, I don't know if it's possible to actually modify the logic, or where the actual logic resides. But perhaps writing a script or something in Tasker or Trigger could suffice.
The Correct Way to Handle Network Switching?
There are many different areas of coverage and every situation is unique. But I feel like there is some piece of code in there that prevents the phone from constantly switching between Tmo and Sprint. I also understand that this is extremely new, unique and is a work in progress, as Fi hasn't even been out for a year. But if others also experience this issue, perhaps we can find a way to mitigate the problem of the phone getting stuck on one carrier and not switching to another.
Luckily, I have a lot of free time at my job, so I drew up a quick flowchart to show how I'd like to handle carrier switching.
For you savvy coders out there, this would just be a series of conditional statements, which are extremely easy to write, implement and test. Assuming I can't actually modify the logic written somewhere into the phone or the Project Fi app, I'm going to have to make a script or something perhaps in tasker. I can use dialer codes to force the phone to switch to a different carrier, just like FiSwitch does. I feel like it'd be pretty easy to implement, but I'm not sure if it's even possible.
Has anyone else experienced frustration with Fi's carrier switching? I want to know if this is just an isolated case because of topography of my area (Suburban valley, slightly mountainous) or if this is an issue experienced by users elsewhere as well.
I don't appear to have your switching problems. If I loose T-Mobile, it'll switch to Sprint. If I loose Sprint, it'll switch to T-Mobile. If I'm on Sprint's 3G, it'll switch to T-Mobile as soon as possible (available).
I'm using the beta Android N, but I don't remember there being a problem with switching when I was on MM. There could have been, I just don't remember.
Fi stays on whatever carrier has a higher quality signal, and more reliable! More bars doesn't necessarily mean a better quality signal! "QUALITY"is what i want if sprint with 2 bars is stronger and faster than tmo with 4 bars than i want sprint! Whatever's better! I'm sure the fi team spent countless hours and $$$ on developing this software, code, service whatever you wanna call it
hilla_killa said:
Fi stays on whatever carrier has a higher quality signal, and more reliable! More bars doesn't necessarily mean a better quality signal! "QUALITY"is what i want if sprint with 2 bars is stronger and faster than tmo with 4 bars than i want sprint! Whatever's better! I'm sure the fi team spent countless hours and $$$ on developing this software, code, service whatever you wanna call it
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That's their claim. But the Fi support forum has many posts from people where this does not happen. Here's a typical example where the phone switches from one to another, then stays on the weak carrier.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/project-fi/ucFRJiKp4Co;context-place=forum/project-fi
I've seen others where the guy and his wife both had 6Ps and his would change to the good network at home, but hers would stay on the weak one.
I noticed myself that even though Tmobile has good coverage at my house, when I forced my phone onto Sprint just to verify it could connect, that it stayed on Sprint even though the signal was barely there. I left it to see if it would switch, but it didn't until sometime overnight. I also once was in a parking lot while trying to see if it would switch automatically and it got down to no connection on Sprint. I rebooted and it connected to 4 bars on Tmobile.
My experience was when I was first on the service. Since then, as far as I know it works ok. My phone is always on Tmobile except in extremely rare instances where it'll switch. Which makes sense where I live in Southern California, because Sprint has always been awful, while Tmobile has added lots more towers recently. The only times it was switched on its own was on the subway (yes there is one here), and at the airport in a certain lounge. I knew from experience that there's no Tmobile signal there, except Tmobile wifi calling would work on the wifi. Last time there, it connected to Sprint on its own, though the signal was weak. But both of those times, it correctly switched back to the much better Tmobile connection on its own.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one with this issue. I'm currently working on a Tasker profile to mitigate this issue. Will take some time to test and perfect, however. I'm still new to Tasker, so there's a lot of trial and error going on here. I wish I could just write something in c++ or JavaScript and have it handle this task instead. I'd be done already lol.
Alcolawl said:
I wish I could just write something in c++ or JavaScript and have it handle this task instead. I'd be done already lol.
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Why can't you? The source code is available, isn't it? A daemon can't be written to load on boot, poll for the strongest signal (at an interval) and switch when a stronger signal is present?
Voicebox said:
I noticed myself that even though Tmobile has good coverage at my house, when I forced my phone onto Sprint just to verify it could connect, that it stayed on Sprint even though the signal was barely there.
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That's normal, if you use the dialer codes or apps to force it to a single carrier, it will stay on that carrier until you run the dialer code to re-enable auto switching.
geoff5093 said:
That's normal, if you use the dialer codes or apps to force it to a single carrier, it will stay on that carrier until you run the dialer code to re-enable auto switching.
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I forgot to add that to my post. I ran the dialer code to switch, then dialer code to set back to auto. Which is why it switched on its own sometime overnight. When I was in the parking lot, the reason I rebooted was because I wasn't even sure there was a Tmobile signal since I assumed absolutely no Sprint signal would have triggered it.
Voicebox said:
I forgot to add that to my post. I ran the dialer code to switch, then dialer code to set back to auto. Which is why it switched on its own sometime overnight. When I was in the parking lot, the reason I rebooted was because I wasn't even sure there was a Tmobile signal since I assumed absolutely no Sprint signal would have triggered it.
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Howdy -
FWIW - I believe the forced-carrier-switch-by-dialer-code "expires" over time... I am not really sure on that window, but it doesn't seem to stick after a reboot anyway, and I've heard folks say things revert to the "auto" scenario after a couple hours.
Also - FiSwitch happens to be my little tinkering/learning project... I'm not sure I can be of any help but I'd be willing to try I know there is a way to use FiSwitch via Tasker, though that may be a bit redundant if you can fire off the dialer codes without it... just thought I'd toss that out there anyway!
I'm having the same problem. Project Fi worked perfectly on my Nexus 6P but the service has been terrible since I got a Pixel XL. Fi will switch me to Sprint and leave me with no bars for hours unless I manually switch to T-Mobile and then I will get full bars. The network switching actually does work--but it seems to do so very poorly, at least on this particular phone. Fi support has been no help at all.
Btw the dialer code command does expire over time. Even when I manually switch to T-Mobile if I go out for a drive the network will switch to Sprint at some point, regardless of the strength of the Sprint signal.