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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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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.
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*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.

So my 3g doesn't work...always switches to HSPDA and then works.

Title says it all. When i have NO HSPDA I become screwed and I have to revert to EDGE otherwise I have no data connection. I haven't tried it out of town yet, but it's ridiculous. It says I'm on 3g, but then switches when I start a speedtest. Is that just because I'm always in HSPDA? Any ideas?
I'm on the Desire ROM. I don't think it's the rom though, because this happened on Cyanogen.

HSDPA is only on when necessary, when it isn't, your on 3G. You're in an HSDPA area, so when you use data your carrier bumps you up to HSDPA.

mudrock1000 said:
Title says it all. When i have NO HSPDA I become screwed and I have to revert to EDGE otherwise I have no data connection. I haven't tried it out of town yet, but it's ridiculous. It says I'm on 3g, but then switches when I start a speedtest. Is that just because I'm always in HSPDA? Any ideas?
I'm on the Desire ROM. I don't think it's the rom though, because this happened on Cyanogen.
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Assuming you're in the U.S. and on T-Mobile, this thread covers your issue:
3G --> H Data problems
Cheers,
Kermee

Ahh much thanks. So in theory if I leave the HSPDA area my 3g will work because it isn't trying to switch?

mudrock1000 said:
Ahh much thanks. So in theory if I leave the HSPDA area my 3g will work because it isn't trying to switch?
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If you leave an HSPDA area and only UMTS (3G) & EDGE are available, then in theory, yes. The data will transfer over 3G or EDGE. It's normal for the N1 to "idle" with the "3G" icon, but when you're actually doing data transfer, it'll switch to "H" if it's available.
In other words... nothing is broken. =)
Most people are confused by the "H" because on the *Stock* ROM, the "3G" icon doesn't differentiate between "UMTS/3G" and "HSPDA"... It'll always display 3G with either technology. The *Custom* ROM's differentiate which technology the handset is talking with the tower in regards to HSPDA and UMTS.
Cheers,
Kermee

Radio 4.06.00.12_7 fixed my loss of HSPA

I was running CM 5.0.6 on my N1 for several weeks along with the 4.04.00.03_2 Radio to try to solve some of the preference for EDGE that my TMO N1 had. The problem that I ran into was that I went from some HSPA to none in areas that I know are covered by HSPA. I would constantly use only UMTS! I just flashed Kang-O-Rama 0.8 which requires the FroYo radio and presto, either the base CM 5.0.8, Kang-O-Rama 0.8, or more likely the 4.06.00.12_7 Radio fixed my problem. In fact, I am now getting 2000-3000 kbps down and my phone seems to prefer 3g down to 1 bar where as before it would stick on EDGE until I forced it to WCDMA Only.
Just thought I'd post some good news about the new radio(possibly the radio that is).
Rick

I've never gotten more than 1mb down how can I tell if the phone is going into HSPA I'm running stock froyo and it only shows 3g before when I had CM it showed an H for HSPA

yiannit said:
I've never gotten more than 1mb down how can I tell if the phone is going into HSPA I'm running stock froyo and it only shows 3g before when I had CM it showed an H for HSPA
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Yeah, that's a bummer with the stock ROMs. Here's what I do to make sure that a relatively long data sesion is opened. Start a streaming app like Pandora or download a large email (i.e. with a 3meg picture) and then goto Settings -> About Phone -> Status and scroll down to Mobile network type. This should show either UMTS(if you are in 3g but no active data connection) or hopefully HSDPA if you ahve an active data connection.
There are other ways to tell, but this is what I do.
Rick

rickh925 said:
Yeah, that's a bummer with the stock ROMs. Here's what I do to make sure that a relatively long data sesion is opened. Start a streaming app like Pandora or download a large email (i.e. with a 3meg picture) and then goto Settings -> About Phone -> Status and scroll down to Mobile network type. This should show either UMTS(if you are in 3g but no active data connection) or hopefully HSDPA if you ahve an active data connection.
There are other ways to tell, but this is what I do.
Rick
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Edit. 10 chars

It wasn't really stock it was pauls version, now I'm running kangs .9 and no change
Actually I ran speed test and it did switch rio HSDPA but only 430kbps

I got it last night with the FRF85B, and my N1 seem to be staying in 3G more consistently today

After I went to FRF83 my reception went from only edge in my house to full bars of 3G. Reception has improved more than I could have hoped.

yunlin12 said:
I got it last night with the FRF85B, and my N1 seem to be staying in 3G more consistently today
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bryaslak said:
After I went to FRF83 my reception went from only edge in my house to full bars of 3G. Reception has improved more than I could have hoped.
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You guys want to tell us what city & carrier?

Cant get 4g (HSPA+) only Edge

As stated Im on tmobile and my nexus 4 only shows Edge, No H or 4g. Its kinda frustrating because sometimes itll show H+ for a few sec then ill lose Service all together no signal bars no data signal then after a few moments its back to Edge lol. anyone else having this issue? im wondering if its a faulty 4g radio or something ?. thanks in advance.

Illusion81 said:
As stated Im on tmobile and my nexus 4 only shows Edge, No H or 4g. Its kinda frustrating because sometimes itll show H+ for a few sec then ill lose Service all together no signal bars no data signal then after a few moments its back to Edge lol. anyone else having this issue? im wondering if its a faulty 4g radio or something ?. thanks in advance.
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Maybe you only have EDGE service in your area? Or have you confirmed there is HSPA there with another phone?

Theres definitely HSPA in my area, i also have a galaxy s3 and s2 never ran into any issues. since i popped my sim in the nexus, service just comes and goes. but never any 4g

Illusion81 said:
Theres definitely HSPA in my area, i also have a galaxy s3 and s2 never ran into any issues. since i popped my sim in the nexus, service just comes and goes. but never any 4g
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Hmmm, make sure you don't have "Use only 2G networks" enabled in the data settings. I'm sure you checked that already though.. Check your APN settings maybe

yup that was the first thing i checked and Nope its not set to 2g only. About the APN setting i never touched that, is there a certain setting its suppose to be set to for Tmbile? its at default now..

Maybe try these? http://forum.androidspin.com/showthread.php/2615-SETTINGS-T-Mobile-APN-Settings
Or try to mess around with your 4636 menu

T-Mobile H/E connection

So i finally got my nexus 4 and I'm on T-Mobile network and noticed that at work i notice my signal is constantly switching from H (HSDPA+) and E (edge). It's kind of annoying since edge data is very slow. Is this a common issue with the n4? When i get H signal, i have two bars so i don't think it is being boarder line signal. Please let me know, really hope i don't have to return this sweet phone!!!!
Are there any updated radios yet that i can try? I know with Vzw galaxy nexus radios helped a lot with 1x/3g/4g switching.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Any info on this? I know what the symbols stand for, however why can't this hold a strong HSPA signal for more than a minute without switching to edge even if the signal is 2 bar? Doesn't seem right

check your APN's

bradm23 said:
Any info on this? I know what the symbols stand for, however why can't this hold a strong HSPA signal for more than a minute without switching to edge even if the signal is 2 bar? Doesn't seem right
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It happens to me as well but its not just my nexus 4. It happens to my iPhone and my brothers HTC one v. Its just that we have decent to bad signal at home. Signal gets spotty sometimes.
So if you're at home just use WiFi and leave data off.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

famoustito said:
check your APN's
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Thanks for the reply, any info how how to change the apns and what the best ones would be? I have been reading many people say their n4 idles with 3g and then ramps up to hspa when it calls for data usage. Mine doesn't act like this and just randomly drops to edge

Mine stays on 3g and only switches to H+ when I use data (custom rom icons). I think its normal

There is an app that takes you into the menu where you can choose network types, this is what is used to turn on LTE. Go in and put it to WCDMA Only, that should make it stay only on H+ and not go to Edge.
Play Store Link

link is not working

Dark lord me said:
There is an app that takes you into the menu where you can choose network types, this is what is used to turn on LTE. Go in and put it to WCDMA Only, that should make it stay only on H+ and not go to Edge.
Play Store Link
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moldovanos said:
link is not working
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You can just dial *#*#4636#*#* and it'll take you to that exact menu.

closedcircuit said:
You can just dial *#*#4636#*#* and it'll take you to that exact menu.
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If I try to go into the settings>Select Radio my com.android.phone FCs is there a way around that?
I am on stock 4.2.1