I've received conflicting answers:
1. It is constantly searching for LTE and wastes battery
2. It doesnt use any more battery because you aren't in an LTE area.
On at&t since you cannot change your network mode it will drain due to constantly searching for lte signal.
Ascertion said:
On at&t since you cannot change your network mode it will drain due to constantly searching for lte signal.
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Will this make that not happen?
I need to know, because the ability to turn off LTE is my deciding factor between the AT&T US version and the International version.
Related
This is probably of no interest to anyone outside the U.S.
So everything we know in the U.S. about LTE has come from VZW users who were the pioneers. The article in the link below brings up some interesting points. First, give up on LTE roaming as there are 12 different frequencies it's approved to run over. Second, and maybe why battery life sucks for VZW users, is that their LTE phones are CDMA but use GSM and a separate radio for LTE. So here's a question. The article says AT&T is using the 700mhz frequency for LTE. Do you think that since we're GSM to begin with that the radio in the SGS2 might already support 700mhz but not have it enabled? A dev found AT&T's LTE APNs and logos in the 2.3.4 leak which is why I'm asking the question. If the AT&T LTE SGS2 has a different radio, could it still use our ROM? I'd also imagine the AT&T LTE SGS2 won't have the battery life issues that VZW folks suffer simply because hand-off between 2/3/4G/LTE will be within a single radio on a single protocol. Thoughts?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388526,00.asp
Hi, my GS3 is draining battery very fast ( can't even last a day). I am trying anything I am able to do to increase one charge's lifetime. I tried turning off LTE by going to mobile networks\network mode and chose GSM/HSPA (Automode) instead of the defalt GSM/HSPA/LTE (automode) but it doesn't seem to have any impact. It still shows 4g in the notification bar at the top of the screen. When i checked APN, still rogersLTE is selected and there isn't any 3g APN options there. so how do you exactly turn off the LTE? tks,
quekou said:
Hi, my GS3 is draining battery very fast ( can't even last a day). I am trying anything I am able to do to increase one charge's lifetime. I tried turning off LTE by going to mobile networks\network mode and chose GSM/HSPA (Automode) instead of the defalt GSM/HSPA/LTE (automode) but it doesn't seem to have any impact. It still shows 4g in the notification bar at the top of the screen. When i checked APN, still rogersLTE is selected and there isn't any 3g APN options there. so how do you exactly turn off the LTE? tks,
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Lolz. You did turn it off. On Rogers hspa is 4g,lte is 4glte. On Telus rom hspa is properly marked with h+. You are using ltemobile apn whether you're on gsm or lte or wcdma. You can manually input other apn's.
Check or select with *#2263#.
You can even select lte only and choose just one currently working frequency on Rogers and ignore the rest. Potentially saving battery by not searching for others while still getting speed benefits from lte. Provided you are in densely serviced by lte coverage in your area. Or wcdma(hspa) only which is what I use.
Sent from my GT-I9300
Idan73 said:
Lolz. You did turn it off. On Rogers hspa is 4g,lte is 4glte. On Telus rom hspa is properly marked with h+. You are using ltemobile apn whether you're on gsm or lte or wcdma. You can manually input other apn's.
Check or select with *#2263#.
You can even select lte only and choose just one currently working frequency on Rogers and ignore the rest. Potentially saving battery by not searching for others while still getting speed benefits from lte. Provided you are in densely serviced by lte coverage in your area. Or wcdma(hspa) only which is what I use.
Sent from my GT-I9300
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I followed your instruction by pressing *#2263# and chose wcdma and picked 850 ( i didn't know which one to choose) and it worked. now the phone shows i am hspa only. thank you. now i will see if that;ll save me some battery life.
Yeah, because we don't have custom section when picking, unlike i9300 model, and Rogers runs wcdma on 1900 as well as 850,I would preferably chose wcdma all, to take advantage of 1900 band as well.
It is lte that runs only on one band forgot which 1700 or 1900 as I'm with Fido and no lte sim, so far till 700 band is launched in canada, so that one can be selected alone.
Sent from my GT-I9300
quekou said:
I followed your instruction by pressing *#2263# and chose wcdma and picked 850 ( i didn't know which one to choose) and it worked. now the phone shows i am hspa only. thank you. now i will see if that;ll save me some battery life.
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The battery life seems far more dependant on lte coverage than which radio you are using. I have been playing with this in the ottawa area (turning off lte) and get big gains if i am in areas with spotty coverage and no gains in areas with solid coverage.
Luckily my house gets great lte...
Sent from my NookColor using xda app-developers app
Hey folks,
I am currently using an unlocked S4 from Wind Mobile on the Virgin Mobile network. It is technically the T-Mobile variant - SGH-M919V.
In comparison, the Virgin/Bell S4 is the SGH-I337.
My phone usually stays on LTE but it tends to revert to 3G in some areas, but never on 4G or H+. I had thought that the bands were compatible on the virgin mobile network, which brings me to my question.
Does your S4 ever revert to 4G or H+ when not on LTE? If that is the case, I am thinking of trading my Wind S4 for the Virgin/Bell S4.
Appreciate your feedback.
Thank you.
I'm pretty sure the M919 should fully support the 850 and 1900 MHz UMTS/HSPA bands, also you'd never see 3G or be able to do voice calls and texts without them.
I just got my SGH-I337M from Virgin yesterday and it definitely reverts to H+. So far it seems that it reverts from LTE to H+ after the phone has been sitting a while, and then if I start using the data it will kick up to LTE (probably doing that to save battery instead of keeping LTE on all the time?).
Who knows what could be going on with your unit. That is a Wind unit right? Maybe the software is different. One thing I know is that ROMs can show 3G/4G/H/H+ differently. Have you done a speed test while it is showing 3G? If it is true that you are falling all the way down to basic 3G/UMTS and not getting HSPA/HSPA+ then your speeds should be limited to less than 0.5 Mbps I think.
Thanks for the quick reply.
I managed to run a couple of speedtests when not on LTE. And they were around 2 Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps up. I don't think those are necessarily H+ speeds. But it's decent enough. Maybe then the reason I am seeing 3G is because of the way the ROM chooses to display non-LTE connections.
I double checked the supported bands, and it is true that the Wind S4 (T-Mobile variant) not only supports all the bands that the Bell/Virgin S4 does but the additional AWS band as well.
Is there a way for me to force the H+ connection on the phone, just to see that it works? Or should I possibly flash the modem/radio from the virgin/bell ROM?
Open up the Testing Menu, go into Device Info and see what it says for Network Type.
Make sure your wifi is off and hit "Run ping test" as few times and look at what it changes to.
HSPAP:15
HSPA:11
HSUPA:10
If you see these then it's fine, just icons are different.
Solved!
Okay,
I did a few things to verify that despite the phone showing 3G, it is in fact on 4G or H+ when not on LTE.
I went into ServiceMode by entering *#2263# in the Phone Dialer.
I forced non-LTE connections by changing the automatic preference to WCDMA 850 and WCDMA 1900 respectively.
These are the 2 bands that are 4G or H+ for Bell and Virgin Mobile Canada.
Then I ran speedtests to a close by server and got around 7 Mbps down and 3 Mbps, which are definitely 4G/H+ speeds.
Also, following @ChronoReverse advice, I found that the network type was in fact HSPAP: 15 and HSPA: 11 (screenshots attached).
So, in conclusion I can rest my obsessive personality and accept the fact that the phone is in fact capable & is running on 4G networks. It's a ROM thing I suppose.
Or in other words, the Galaxy S4 from Wind Mobile (or T-Mobile) is completely capable of running on Virgin Mobile Canada, Bell Canada, Rogers networks with full support of LTE and 4G/H+.
Embarrassed to say what a small little 3G icon does to a person these days!
Thanks for all the help!
I got an N910U for use on AT&T in the US. All the phones in my house get full bars since I am on a hill near a lot of cell towers. Except the N910U usually has 0 to 1 bars and only rarely gets LTE. I used LTE discovery app to see that it is almost always on band 2 where the signal is very poor, but very ocassionally switches to band 17 and gets full bars! Then it quickly switches back to band 2 and gets 0 or 1 bars. I tried flashing the other two modems I could find, but it did not change how it acted. I am about to send it back for a refund and get an N910T instead to see if that works better, but it would be much easier to find a solution to why it won't use the strongest signal,
Nevermind. I thought I did adequate research on this phone before I bought it for AT&T, and every Q&A on Amazon asking if the U worked on AT&T LTE said it did. But were wrong. The U does not have 700MHz band 17. So I must return it.
phoneturf said:
I got an N910U for use on AT&T in the US. All the phones in my house get full bars since I am on a hill near a lot of cell towers. Except the N910U usually has 0 to 1 bars and only rarely gets LTE. I used LTE discovery app to see that it is almost always on band 2 where the signal is very poor, but very ocassionally switches to band 17 and gets full bars! Then it quickly switches back to band 2 and gets 0 or 1 bars. I tried flashing the other two modems I could find, but it did not change how it acted. I am about to send it back for a refund and get an N910T instead to see if that works better, but it would be much easier to find a solution to why it won't use the strongest signal,
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SM-N910U Galaxy Note 4 does not support band 17, therefore the device does not support AT&T's main LTE band. The device, however, supports several AT&T's supplemental LTE bands, which include band 2, band 4, and band 5. You will only receive LTE signal if you are located in the area where one of these three bands is broadcasting.
Also, you will never receive the strongest signal that AT&T provides because AT&T utilizes device prioritization. The cell tower that you are connected to is programmed to provide best service to AT&T devices. The tower will constantly inform your phone to connect to 3G which is less congested in order to allocate network bandwidth for AT&T branded devices on its LTE network.
LTE-X said:
Also, you will never receive the strongest signal that AT&T provides because AT&T utilizes device prioritization. The cell tower that you are connected to is programmed to provide best service to AT&T devices. The tower will constantly inform your phone to connect to 3G which is less congested in order to allocate network bandwidth for AT&T branded devices on its LTE network.
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Thanks for the info. Does that mean I would still have a low priority if I got a N910T to use on AT&T?
phoneturf said:
Thanks for the info. Does that mean I would still have a low priority if I got a N910T to use on AT&T?
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Yes that is correct. If you ran a speedtest with N910T and N910A (AT&T version) side by side on AT&T's network, you will notice around 5mbps - 20mbps difference between the two. As far as I know, AT&T is the only carrier in the US that utilizes this practice.
Can we change it to get the full Band access? I believe there was no any hardware limit on it, Most is on the software settings.
I'm currently on x829 USA variant of the Le Max 2. I've noticed that for me switching to H+ gives way faster data speeds. I'm in USA on Metro PCS. I'm using t.mobile apns. Just thought I would let some people know, depending on your area H+ may bring faster data speeds. I've noticed this on all Roms. I guess it depends on your location and where the cell towers are located and traffic congestion. What are your thoughts?
Bottom is LTE with great upload speeds. Top is H+ with better download speeds. Basically when I switch to H+ I can stream Instagram videos no problem without loading. It totally depends on the area your in as well I know.
H+ is 3G HSPA+, it is much slower than 4G LTE.
my area the (t-mobile) LTE network speed is over 100mpbs all the time ....
allrockedout said:
I'm currently on x829 USA variant of the Le Max 2. I've noticed that for me switching to H+ gives way faster data speeds. I'm in USA on Metro PCS. I'm using t.mobile apns. Just thought I would let some people know, depending on your area H+ may bring faster data speeds. I've noticed this on all Roms. I guess it depends on your location and where the cell towers are located and traffic congestion. What are your thoughts?
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It just mean your area LTE is bad.
cgigate said:
H+ is 3G HSPA+, it is much slower than 4G LTE.
my area the (t-mobile) LTE network speed is over 100mpbs all the time ....
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?!?! This sounds insane! What's the trick? Do you bribe T-Mobile in your area with cookies?!
Max speed of H+ is 63 Mbps. LTE is much faster but it depends on your area coverage.