Database Users

3G drops to GSM when receiving calls and during calls

I searched all the threads and found nothing on this as far as I can see. I have been having this since day one with my G1. Every time I receive a call on my G1 or during the call it drops from 3G to GSM. I had stock T-Mo roms on my G1 (Pre/Post Cupcake) then JF 1.51 and now cyanogen 4.0.2 and this problem persists. I called T-Mo a few times on this and they exchanged my G1 3 times and gave me a new battery and charger free of charge. Does anyone else have this issue or know of a work around? This happens when I am at home and work. I travel for work to different locations and it still happens. When my phone rings it automatically drops 3G and goes to GSM (no icon next to the radio icon in the status bar). While making calls it stays on 3G for about a few seconds before it craps out and drops to GSM. It totally skips EDGE and GPRS. T-Mo said they sent out radio antenna tech's to the antennas near my home and they said all is fine and dandy. I live In Queens NY and work in the Bronx. When I travel to Brooklyn its the same as well as driving though Manhattan. I hope someone can help me with this.

PeterC18st said:
I searched all the threads and found nothing on this as far as I can see. I have been having this since day one with my G1. Every time I receive a call on my G1 or during the call it drops from 3G to GSM. I had stock T-Mo roms on my G1 (Pre/Post Cupcake) then JF 1.51 and now cyanogen 4.0.2 and this problem persists. I called T-Mo a few times on this and they exchanged my G1 3 times and gave me a new battery and charger free of charge. Does anyone else have this issue or know of a work around? This happens when I am at home and work. I travel for work to different locations and it still happens. When my phone rings it automatically drops 3G and goes to GSM (no icon next to the radio icon in the status bar). While making calls it stays on 3G for about a few seconds before it craps out and drops to GSM. It totally skips EDGE and GPRS. T-Mo said they sent out radio antenna tech's to the antennas near my home and they said all is fine and dandy. I live In Queens NY and work in the Bronx. When I travel to Brooklyn its the same as well as driving though Manhattan. I hope someone can help me with this.
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ive always had this as well .. just never considered it a bug lol ... but i could see why someone would wanna keep their 3g while on a call .. reminds me of how sidekicks would lose data connectivity due to a call

xidominicanoix said:
but i could see why someone would wanna keep their 3g while on a call .. reminds me of how sidekicks would lose data connectivity due to a call
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Could you elaborate?
If you've had 3 G1's and a tech says there's nothing wrong with the network then it's clearly an issues with cupcake, be it a feature or a bug...
I don't really see why you would want to keep data conectivity while in a call, (unless you're downloading something in the background..?) so it sounds like a way to save battery..

AdrianK said:
Could you elaborate?
If you've had 3 G1's and a tech says there's nothing wrong with the network then it's clearly an issues with cupcake, be it a feature or a bug...
I don't really see why you would want to keep data conectivity while in a call, (unless you're downloading something in the background..?) so it sounds like a way to save battery..
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Here's a perfect example where 3G would rule when working properly.
I'm talking to my wife on my BT headset while driving home from work. I have my G1 on my dash with google maps running with traffic patterns showing. While talking I am able to talk clearly on 3G and still see where traffic is building so I can avoid it. Being stuck in rush hour in NYC sux homeless man [email protected] Whenever I do this and my 3G connection drops my call quality drops and we both hear it while we're talking and then it cuts in and out and the call drops then I dont get updates. It's a feature I would really like to have. Even when Im working and talking and downloading a new update of an app. This happens when I am at a static location as well. I know driving from cell tower to cell tower can have bad effects but it does the same when I'm just at home or any of my work locations. When 3G works properly which is rare its amazing. Its helped me get un lost and find my way many of times.
Point being when T-Mo released the 3G statement they said all users with 3G phones will expierence higher call quality from the extra bandwidth. Why would they cap or or disable it when they are promoting it? I see the the point of saving battery life but it still shouldnt be happening. 3G is made for that feature to work voice + data being accessed together.

It might just be there 3g network, imo tmobile reception is horrible. Like at my house it is so f'ed up, I can sit in my chair and have 3 bars then walk 2 feet and lose service. It does this all through my house and at my work. They said it must be something in the buildings I am in, bull**** I say because ATT never does that nor did vzw when I used them.

same thing happens with me and 3g and calls..also about the house thing, hows this one for u ill be sitting in the same spot and have good 3g reception and all of a sudden it drops to edge. I know a way around this is to set phone to 3G only but then in areas where theres non im screwed

I don't get it. My wife who had the original iPhone and then 3g and now 3gs never had this issue. She would stay on Edge and 3g depending if she waned to save batery life. My old BB 8700g would always stay on Edge never drop to GSM in my apartment. My 3G doesnt even fall to Edge it goes right to GSM. This is really annoying.

every t-mobile phone I have does this
I'm pretty sure its normal

No one knows if this is a hardware, software, or network problem. Except maybe HTC/T-Mobile/Google.
If your phone stays connected to 3G, it's all good. If it drops down to EDGE, even if for half a second, it will NOT reconnect to 3G until you hang up.

c2tmdsn said:
every t-mobile phone I have does this
I'm pretty sure its normal
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My coworkers Samsung t819 doesn't. That's regular cell phone not a smart phone.
Gary13579 said:
No one knows if this is a hardware, software, or network problem. Except maybe HTC/T-Mobile/Google.
If your phone stays connected to 3G, it's all good. If it drops down to EDGE, even if for half a second, it will NOT reconnect to 3G until you hang up.
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Click to collapse
If any of those 3 know they should fix it or at the very least advertise that the calls you make are dropped to the lower bandwidth of the GSM network.
T-Mo finally got 3G for the last year don't dumb it down guys. Fix this.
Yes it is true once your phone drops beneath 3G it will not go to 3G until you hang up the call.

try running 3g only or wdma only by creating phone info shortcut on anycut .. im going to try that out and see if it ever drops .. should be a temporary fix for you atleast with the whole maps thing and such but if you ever in an edge only are your screwed

turboyo said:
try running 3g only or wdma only by creating phone info shortcut on anycut .. im going to try that out and see if it ever drops .. should be a temporary fix for you atleast with the whole maps thing and such but if you ever in an edge only are your screwed
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I changed it to wcdma only in phone info. Hopefully this works. Everywhere I travel to throughout NYC has 3G. Hopefully this works. Also I have noticed that when downloading anything from 3G be it the market or browser it would drop from 3G to Edge as well.

PeterC18st said:
I changed it to wcdma only in phone info. Hopefully this works. Everywhere I travel to throughout NYC has 3G. Hopefully this works. Also I have noticed that when downloading anything from 3G be it the market or browser it would drop from 3G to Edge as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*UPDATE*
While at home downloading apps from Android Market on 3G with wcdma only selected the radio dropped with no netowkr connection. Bust.

PeterC18st said:
I don't get it. My wife who had the original iPhone and then 3g and now 3gs never had this issue. She would stay on Edge and 3g depending if she waned to save batery life. My old BB 8700g would always stay on Edge never drop to GSM in my apartment. My 3G doesnt even fall to Edge it goes right to GSM. This is really annoying.
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Did she use att or tmobile with the iphone? Because att has a much stronger 3g network then tmobile which could be why. I am pretty sure it is something to do with tmobiles network and not your phone, perhaps your area has to many users for it to stay on 3G. I have read about how the cell towers work and they have only so many bands for each user to access at any given time so if tmobile doesn't have enough towers or those things mounted on the towers it may be set up so you only get 3G for data usage and not calls since they don't technically require it to work.

crpercodani said:
Did she use att or tmobile with the iphone? Because att has a much stronger 3g network then tmobile which could be why. I am pretty sure it is something to do with tmobiles network and not your phone, perhaps your area has to many users for it to stay on 3G. I have read about how the cell towers work and they have only so many bands for each user to access at any given time so if tmobile doesn't have enough towers or those things mounted on the towers it may be set up so you only get 3G for data usage and not calls since they don't technically require it to work.
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My wife is on ATT. Isn't lower frequency better at penetrating through walls and such? (T-Mo 1700 MHz and 2100 MHz compared to ATT 1800 MHz) They haven't booted their 850 MHz antennas yet so I hear.
If that is true then why not boot me down to Edge or gprs why all the way down to gsm? I been living in the same area for 26 years. I have been with T-Mo before they even had antennas in my area and walking outside was the only way to get a signal with my phone. Now I get full reception in and out of my apartment and 3G connectivity in my apartment with a signal strength of -93dBm through out my apartment on 3G and -79 dBm on Edge.
T-Mo stated that this should not be happening. Hence the 3 phones new battery and charger and techs to the antennas. I'm starting to think its a HTC Android problem and not a T-Mo problem. Hopefully a new radio update can fix it.

I didn't even know GSM was still used in that way, I thought GPRS would be the bare minimum. How can you tell the difference? I use to only get a G icon and I looked it up and for the g1 it said that meant GPRS, what does it show for GSM? Not like any of this matters though.
I really have no idea why all this is happening to your G1 but I hope it gets resolved, good luck.
edit: on the tmobile coverage map it says edge/gprs and 3g, no gsm. does that make any difference? I checked for NYC overall not any specific boroughs.

crpercodani said:
I didn't even know GSM was still used in that way, I thought GPRS would be the bare minimum. How can you tell the difference? I use to only get a G icon and I looked it up and for the g1 it said that meant GPRS, what does it show for GSM? Not like any of this matters though.
I really have no idea why all this is happening to your G1 but I hope it gets resolved, good luck.
edit: on the tmobile coverage map it says edge/gprs and 3g, no gsm. does that make any difference? I checked for NYC overall not any specific boroughs.
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GSM is what Edge Gprs and 3G run off of. Think of it as a progression. GSM>GPRS>EDGE>3G.
The way I know it is on GSM is to the left of the Radio icon on the home screen there is another icon that shows the network your on. 3G=3G E=EDGE G=GPRS and no icon means GSM. GSM is still being used. Most SMS and MMS messages get sent to your from through GSM while you are on a call.

[Q] Intermittent Limited Service?

Hi All,
first off, thank you all for this amazing collection of information on this device and the rest of the android world. I have been a reader since I got my first MT3G in April of '10.
quick question. I noticed that every so often my phone (MT4G) loses its service connection. (little x over the bars in the notification panel) when this happens, I cannot call, text or access the internet. it usually cycles back on after a couple minutes. the fact that it comes back and it has happened both at work and at home makes me think its my phone's radio and not a tower issue.
stock rom
I do have the network mode set to WCDMA only.
anyone else have this issue? any thoughts or suggestions?

I've only seen this in an area that had no t mobile coverage. I assume this meant it was on an at&t tower for emergency calls only.
Could also be a sim issue but I'm not suggesting anything specific.
Does this happen with umts enabled?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

hhmm.. the sim is pretty new, i think i converted from my old voicestream card to a new tmo card when i got the mt3g last year...
honestly, i don't think i had this issue when it was set to gsm/wcdma auto.
I guess i'll try turning the network setting back to that and see if the problem persists.
Thanks!

bgkk said:
Hi All,
first off, thank you all for this amazing collection of information on this device and the rest of the android world. I have been a reader since I got my first MT3G in April of '10.
quick question. I noticed that every so often my phone (MT4G) loses its service connection. (little x over the bars in the notification panel) when this happens, I cannot call, text or access the internet. it usually cycles back on after a couple minutes. the fact that it comes back and it has happened both at work and at home makes me think its my phone's radio and not a tower issue.
stock rom
I do have the network mode set to WCDMA only.
anyone else have this issue? any thoughts or suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you have it set "wcdma only" its only going to connect to 3g/4g. T- mobile's 3g is very spotty so it going to drop signal every now and then. If you switch it to "gsm or wcdma" it will pick up "edge" also so you won't lose signal. If I'm wrong, someone correct me.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Puzzling coverage...

I'm on the Three network, have an unlocked HTC desire HD with 17 m2 radio.
Normally I get terrible signal in the flat that i live in, its a granite building in Aberdeen. Occasional the signal is around 1 bar, sometimes grey, and most of the time its X.. (no service), but i still manage to get 3G or H. When looking at the APN settings and specifically at available networks when doing a manual search, next to 3 is a green star which I assume means it's connected to 3 mobile network. But sometimes i get amazing signal, full bars, which puzzled me! so I looked at the available networks and next to 3, there was no star, so i tried calling a number and it rang and came through. I also tried using mobile internet when in this "good coverage" state, and google would not load (G is displayed in the notifications bar). After a while, the bars would drop to 1 or grey, and i would then get H or 3G, and google loads again. What's going on? and how can i take advantage of this when i have no signal.

try and find the app called open signal maps
that can be used to see where the signal-towers are
and how good the signal is
or use this site and search your adress
http://opensignalmaps.com/
sincere regards,
blokhoofd

The antenna is really wierd.
Normally I only get 2G connection.
But if I completly take my hand off the lower cover and lift the phone up a bit for a better signal, I get a 3Mbps connection, though as soon as I lower my phone back to normal the 3G signal is completly gone or gets really bad (zero bars and lower than EDGE speed)!
The antenna in this phone sucks really bad, my old Nokia phone atleast had a stable connection.

This is very bad news... I was considering DHD, but if there are isseus with gsm signal than I am really worried... Is it also happening on the stock ROM?

As long as network coverege is good you should be okay.
I swaped my SIM card with a friends and with better coverege, 3.5G worked good (solid 2Mbps), only slight drop if SIM cover is completly covered, which doesn't happen in normal use.
I just can't understand how I can get such high speeds with my SIM while on a badly covered area. haven't tested how well other devices pick up the 3G signal (my old phone wasn't 3G yet)
I'm still using stock ROM btw.

Have you tried a different radio?
People are reporting different results with them, so might be an idea to play around and see if anyone of them works better for you

I've tried the new Orange radio and I'm getting better signal, although threes coverage isn't great I would expect the device to seamlessly change between 3.5g and gprs but it doesn't it'll get stuck on hsdpa network until the x appears and sometimes it'll go to gprs and go back to three bars. Before it would be on x all the time and that's probably why the battery was quite ****. 3g doesnt penetrate buildings very well and I live in a granite building so would explain why I get better gprs signal. I just wish the antenna was smart and changed seamlessly.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

So annoying dhd still not selecting the next best connection just no service but if I select to detect network automatically it connects eventually
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

H and 3g switching

Anyone noticed on gs2 it switches to 3g until H is needed for data. If I'm in an H area it doesn't stay in that mode all the time.
I know H drains battery more so on the gs1 could the same functioning be transported. In theory giving better battery life?
Just my input and maybe a tribute to my old faithful gs1 and the great community
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

Same for my sgs2 (I am on orange)
At first I just thought signal was not so great in area I live but then the H pops back when I start downloading and using net, I can see why they have made it this way but I am also a little unsure as to how much this helps, the swapping from 3g to h then 3g to h and so on and if this itself does not either slow our use as we wait for it to swap back to h and if saves energy or uses more? (like in a car changing gears more often uses more fuel)

skibadee said:
Anyone noticed on gs2 it switches to 3g until H is needed for data. If I'm in an H area it doesn't stay in that mode all the time.
I know H drains battery more so on the gs1 could the same functioning be transported. In theory giving better battery life?
Just my input and maybe a tribute to my old faithful gs1 and the great community
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. There are quite a few people with 3G and HSDPA issues:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1074396
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1073958
Yours may not be an actual problem if your getting decent speeds but mine is failing to stay on HSDPA when downloading and getting very poor results (64kbps) in an area which I normally get around 2000kbps.
I've spoken to Samsung but they have yet to respond with a resolution.

Dont know if its an issue for me as it swaps back to 3g once its got all it needs (page loaded) its stays 3g until i click on next page or it needs it then jumps to H again.

voodoochild2008 said:
Dont know if its an issue for me as it swaps back to 3g once its got all it needs (page loaded) its stays 3g until i click on next page or it needs it then jumps to H again.
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Click to collapse
Same here - no problem with speeds or whatever, but once it's finished it changes back to 3g. I'm on vodafone.

I'm in Australia with H+ and it will only switch to that when I'm actively downloading something, could be a battery saving feature?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

It's not an issue, my SGS does the same thing.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Ahh see my sgs (i9000)didn't. It was always on H or 3g depending on signal.
I flashed God knows how many Roms and kernels (mainly darkys & voodoo/speedmod) it never switched like this.
Oh and my battery lasts way longer on my sgs2
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

I noticed this too but I have yet to properly test it to see if that's actually what it's doing....

my nexus one also stays on H always and never switches back and forth for the data transfer.
however i thin kit is network dependent sometimes, because when i traveled to a different city a few weeks ago suddenly it would switch between 3G and H anytime data transferred. as soon as i drove about 15 minutes north out of that city, it returned to constant H and back to normal.
so i dont know exactly how or why this is caused. i'd prefer to jsut stay on H and not change back and forth.

Depending on Carrier actively terminating HSPA when data transfer finished?
Is the same on my HD 2 .
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

I chose Orange via CPW. I received my SGS 2 yesterday. Such a stunning phone but I'm returning it as I can't connect via HSPDA. My two O2 Galaxy S's sitting on same desk connect at H without issue. If I take out the Orange contract SIM and replace it with one of my O2, the SGS 2 connects at HSPDA immediately. Definitely an Orange issue.
Hopefully I can take advantage of CPW policy to find a network that works for me. Would be great if I could keep the handset (put protective screen on it and time spent customising handset) and pop in another SIM.

Anyone tried changing the preferred network type? On my Nexus One the default (which I never changed) was WCDMA preferred, on the GSII it's GSM/CDMA auto (PRL). A brief bit of research online suggests that this does affect how the phone switches between available network types.
(*#*#4636#*#* then Phone Information, then scroll down, for those who don't know where this is)

snoopstah said:
Anyone tried changing the preferred network type? On my Nexus One the default (which I never changed) was WCDMA preferred, on the GSII it's GSM/CDMA auto (PRL). A brief bit of research online suggests that this does affect how the phone switches between available network types.
(*#*#4636#*#* then Phone Information, then scroll down, for those who don't know where this is)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for useful info

I get this issue when I have GSM/WCDMA (Auto mode) selected.
Speed tests are rather slow even when it switches to H. When I select WCDMA only I get great speeds (3Mb+). Still switches between 3G and H though.
My issue is that I've never been able to connect to H+ in central London on Three. Not sure if it's my phone or the network.

This is actually how the umts/hspa technology works. HSPA as a technology is only for data, so it's used only then. Carriers drops the connection back to umts if data is not used.
This is also related to the FastDormancy bug discussed here. So it might also relate to why this phone does it so often or fast.
I've tested two usb-modems and another phone in my location and they all do exactly the same thing what galaxy s ii.
My network provider always drops the connection to 3G if data is not used, it can't be forced. A way around it is to keep a small download going.
E.g. if I use a usb-modem on my laptop and want to keep it in HSPA (for some reason...), I just put wget with 1kt/s download in the background.
The networks capacity is not limitless, so older technologies is used instead.
Hope this clarifies things.

gvoima said:
This is actually how the umts/hspa technology works. HSPA as a technology is only for data, so it's used only then. Carriers drops the connection back to umts if data is not used.
This is also related to the FastDormancy bug discussed here. So it might also relate to why this phone does it so often or fast.
I've tested two usb-modems and another phone in my location and they all do exactly the same thing what galaxy s ii.
My network provider always drops the connection to 3G if data is not used, it can't be forced. A way around it is to keep a small download going.
E.g. if I use a usb-modem on my laptop and want to keep it in HSPA (for some reason...), I just put wget with 1kt/s download in the background.
The networks capacity is not limitless, so older technologies is used instead.
Hope this clarifies things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My problem is not that it goes back to 3G but it's dropping back every few seconds, even whilst downloading. It doesn't happen on my other Android handsets on the same network. So it is a problem.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

I'm in U.S. on AT&T, with an HTC Inspire "4G" and SGS2. The Inspire stays on H+ at all times, idle or active. The SGS2 does bump up to H+ on demand it seems. BTW, The SGS Tools app with the dialer codes still works fine on this device. I've been messing with network bands since I got the phone.

Just to add. I'm using the same vodafone sim card from my old sgs and it always stayed on H unless signal was 3g only area.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

I've posted in many threads regarding this
It didn't do it on my SGS with same sim card/network. Speed results between the two are very similar. Only network performance issues experienced were when immediately after i swapped out the sim card from captivate to SGSII and shortly after i switched my data plan from smartphone plan to medianet

quantum reception??

hello everybody...just received my quantum 2 days ago (i live in italy)...it was locked to at&t so i unlocked it with a code...but the reception is very bad, so i wonder...if i debrand the phone from at&t perhaps it will get better reception...what u think? because the signal only shows g/3g and no 3g+ or H....i'm a bit worried about that...help please! =)

Beggy90 said:
hello everybody...just received my quantum 2 days ago (i live in italy)...it was locked to at&t so i unlocked it with a code...but the reception is very bad, so i wonder...if i debrand the phone from at&t perhaps it will get better reception...what u think? because the signal only shows g/3g and no 3g+ or H....i'm a bit worried about that...help please! =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the phone is showing 3G at any time, then you are set up for the appropriate bands to get high(er) speed data transfer and 3G voice. If you only see E, then your carrier is using the other bands and unfortunately, there is no way to reconfigure the phone via firmware.
As far as general reception capabilities of the Quantum, I find it to be superior to the S-E X10 I used to use (I still have it), so I don't think there is anything wrong with the design. What phone were you using before?

drtolson said:
If the phone is showing 3G at any time, then you are set up for the appropriate bands to get high(er) speed data transfer and 3G voice. If you only see E, then your carrier is using the other bands and unfortunately, there is no way to reconfigure the phone via firmware.
As far as general reception capabilities of the Quantum, I find it to be superior to the S-E X10 I used to use (I still have it), so I don't think there is anything wrong with the design. What phone were you using before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had an omnia 7...but it's the first time i use a phone that comes from the US...dunno, it's weird, because when the omnia was under hspa, tha phone showed me always 3g+...and with tha quantum it shows me always 3g, and very poor reception (only 1 bar)....but the most of time the signal is under gprs only....it's pissing me off =(

You are correct. This phone has really bad wifi and wireless reception. I had flip phone before this and in places where I had 1 or 2 bars before with LG I have nothing, no signal. Yesterday I had to leave Ikea building and turn phone off/on just to get reception because if after spending 2 minutes outside he couldn't lock the signal.
Regarding wifi, at home I have hi-gain antenna on my router. I can take my laptop outside on the parking lot, sit in my car and still browser on the internet. This is around 30m distance through 1 thick concrete wall. This phone is struggling to get signal on the opposite side of the home, behind 2-3 drywall walls.
I constantly have signal changing between 3G and H. Were unhappy with reception.

AT&T phones don't show H+ (3G+), it just reports it as 3G. Signal wise I live out in the middle of nowhere and I got pretty decent signal with it. You can change your primary band settings under the MFG app though (because its AT&T if 2100 is available it automatically swaps to it, although where youre at 2100 may not be a primary band).