Hey,
I am on Rogers, in Canada, on the I337M. I have a ROM that allows for the selecting a variety of network modes. By default, the LTE/GSM/WCDMA setting is selected, but there is also a setting for LTE/CDMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA. Obviously, that's more networks than are available by default.
What I wonder is if selecting the 5-network option would be a good idea or a bad idea. Would more battery be drained? Would greater reception be gained in sparse areas? Does it depend upon which networks one's carrier uses? If I have no signal, would switching to the 5-network mode potentially enable a 2G signal or something? I don't understand how this works; I just know that LTE is 4G and is the fastest data band and is only partially available in my region currently. I often drop to 3G, but I don't know if that is WCDMA or GSM or what. I looked up these various standards on Wikipedia but still am not clear on everything. To compound matters, Rogers apparently uses HSPA+ as a 3G network and I often see that icon in my status bar, but what is that—WCDMA?
Any light shed on my conundrum would be appreciated.
Te3k said:
Hey,
I am on Rogers, in Canada, on the I337M. I have a ROM that allows for the selecting a variety of network modes. By default, the LTE/GSM/WCDMA setting is selected, but there is also a setting for LTE/CDMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA. Obviously, that's more networks than are available by default.
What I wonder is if selecting the 5-network option would be a good idea or a bad idea. Would more battery be drained? Would greater reception be gained in sparse areas? Does it depend upon which networks one's carrier uses? If I have no signal, would switching to the 5-network mode potentially enable a 2G signal or something? I don't understand how this works; I just know that LTE is 4G and is the fastest data band and is only partially available in my region currently. I often drop to 3G, but I don't know if that is WCDMA or GSM or what. I looked up these various standards on Wikipedia but still am not clear on everything. To compound matters, Rogers apparently uses HSPA+ as a 3G network and I often see that icon in my status bar, but what is that—WCDMA?
Any light shed on my conundrum would be appreciated.
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LTE/GSM/WCDMA simply means your phone will choose the most advancement network automatically. Let's say you are in an LTE area, with this setting you will have LTE. GSM means EDGE (2G) and WCDMA is 3G/3.5G (HSPA+). You will probably conserve battery life if you put it to GSM/WCDMA (auto). It will prefer 3G/3.5G/H+ in LTE areas. I am not familiar with Rogers but it might get you a stronger signal.
Sometimes when the LTE in my area is acting up I'll switch it over to WCDMA only, which helps.
Hope I answered your questions.
MattMJB0188 said:
LTE/GSM/WCDMA simply means your phone will choose the most advancement network automatically. Let's say you are in an LTE area, with this setting you will have LTE. GSM means EDGE (2G) and WCDMA is 3G/3.5G (HSPA+). You will probably conserve battery life if you put it to GSM/WCDMA (auto). It will prefer 3G/3.5G/H+ in LTE areas. I am not familiar with Rogers but it might get you a stronger signal.
Sometimes when the LTE in my area is acting up I'll switch it over to WCDMA only, which helps.
Hope I answered your questions.
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Thank you very much for your reply. It was helpful to learn that GSM=EDGE/2G and WCDMA=3G/3.5G (HSPA+). I understand that disabling 4G conserves battery life, and since 4G service isn't as saturated as 3G in my area, perhaps disabling 4G in certain circumstances will be beneficial as the phone will automatically jump to the saturated 3G network.
I'm still not sure about enabling CDMA and EvDo in addition to GSM/WCDMA/LTE. Would it be unnecessary to do so? Would that turn on more radios and drain more battery? Are those networks only available in certain regions, on certain carriers?
Te3k said:
Thank you very much for your reply. It was helpful to learn that GSM=EDGE/2G and WCDMA=3G/3.5G (HSPA+). I understand that disabling 4G conserves battery life, and since 4G service isn't as saturated as 3G in my area, perhaps disabling 4G in certain circumstances will be beneficial as the phone will automatically jump to the saturated 3G network.
I'm still not sure about enabling CDMA and EvDo in addition to GSM/WCDMA/LTE. Would it be unnecessary to do so? Would that turn on more radios and drain more battery? Are those networks only available in certain regions, on certain carriers?
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What rom are you running?
MattMJB0188 said:
What rom are you running?
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LiquidSmooth 2.9 on KToons' latest kernel.
Sorry to revive an old post, but I've been searching all over for this 'simple' question.
What is the difference in LTE/GSM auto and LTE/GSM/CDMA auto? Only APN in use is the T-Mobile LTE APN.
**KEEP IN MIND that while on LTE/GSM and not in an LTE area, I get HSPA and HSPA+ no problem on T-Mobile**
Just wish I could SUCCESSFULLY get 1 of those modes to stick on stock 4.2.2 ROM even with the build.prop edits.
Any way of turning off 4g and enabling 3g while on GSM unlocked?
dragonhart6505 said:
Any way of turning off 4g and enabling 3g while on GSM unlocked?
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Click to collapse
Changing to GSM/UMTS should turn off 4G LTE and read 3g/2g services from the SIM and APNs. For me, to enable 4g as well as GSM, I have to use *#*#INFO#*#* and select LTE/UMTS/GSM from the menu, otherwise setting UMTS/GSM from the standard mobile network menu puts it in GSM Auto (PRL) mode, which is just HSPA+, UMTS, EDGE, and GPRS frequencies. (3.5G, 3G, 2.5G, and 2G respectively). I have my Razr M setup with a Straight Talk AT&T sim for GSM and PagePlus on CDMA, service toggle works flawlessly after setting it up.
But yeah, if you go into the mobile network settings and change it to GSM/UMTS mode and set the proper APNs, you should get 3G without issue and the LTE radio should be off (since it only supports Verizon's LTE band anyway)
Skreelink said:
Changing to GSM/UMTS should turn off 4G LTE and read 3g/2g services from the SIM and APNs. For me, to enable 4g as well as GSM, I have to use *#*#INFO#*#* and select LTE/UMTS/GSM from the menu, otherwise setting UMTS/GSM from the standard mobile network menu puts it in GSM Auto (PRL) mode, which is just HSPA+, UMTS, EDGE, and GPRS frequencies. (3.5G, 3G, 2.5G, and 2G respectively). I have my Razr M setup with a Straight Talk AT&T sim for GSM and PagePlus on CDMA, service toggle works flawlessly after setting it up.
But yeah, if you go into the mobile network settings and change it to GSM/UMTS mode and set the proper APNs, you should get 3G without issue and the LTE radio should be off (since it only supports Verizon's LTE band anyway)
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Dandy, but those options aren't available on my current ROM eclipse v5b3.
dragonhart6505 said:
Dandy, but those options aren't available on my current ROM eclipse v5b3.
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Click to collapse
I've not used that rom, but you should still have access to the secret menu, Open the dialer and type *#*#INFO#*#* (*#*#4636#*#*) > Phone information > Scroll down and select GSM auto (PRL) it's the same thing, GSM/UMTS only based on the SIM.
Skreelink said:
I've not used that rom, but you should still have access to the secret menu, Open the dialer and type *#*#INFO#*#* (*#*#4636#*#*) > Phone information > Scroll down and select GSM auto (PRL) it's the same thing, GSM/UMTS only based on the SIM.
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WCDMA Preferred would actually be a better choice and is the default choice on normal GSM phones, GSM auto (PRL) uses either 2g or 3g and just chooses whichever has stronger signal, WCDMA Preferred will make it use 3g as long as there is 3g signal and only drop to 2g if it has to.
msnuser111 said:
WCDMA Preferred would actually be a better choice and is the default choice on normal GSM phones, GSM auto (PRL) uses either 2g or 3g and just chooses whichever has stronger signal, WCDMA Preferred will make it use 3g as long as there is 3g signal and only drop to 2g if it has to.
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Yeah, but in my experience with using verizon global phones on gsm, trying to set this always changes itself back to gsm auto making WCDMA Preferred a moot option.
Skreelink said:
Yeah, but in my experience with using verizon global phones on gsm, trying to set this always changes itself back to gsm auto making WCDMA Preferred a moot option.
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WCDMA Preferred actually activates the 4g HSPA+ and GSM Auto only connects me to Edge: 2 making both of these options moot :-/
dragonhart6505 said:
WCDMA Preferred actually activates the 4g HSPA+ and GSM Auto only connects me to Edge: 2 making both of these options moot :-/
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Uhm... HSPA+ is actually 3.5G.. It's based on the UMTS 3G standard and is technically the same thing/catagory. "4G" is a marketing gimmick by AT&T and T-Mobile, they even had apple push an update on the iPhone when they started marketing it as 4g to change 3g to 4g on the phone. Although they did NOTHING to the capabilities of the phone. The phone does not differentiate between 3G UMTS and 3.5G HSPA+ as far as WCDMA/3G connections go, 4G should be referred to only on LTE, but carriers like their money. Remember AT&T used to tout the 'fastest 3g network' now they claim 'the largest 4g network' It's the SAME NETWORK, they just upped the number. T-Mobile actually offers a 42Mbps dual band HSPA+ network, whereas AT&T only has a 21Mbps HSPA+ network, both of them advertise as '4g' but they also have 4gLTE networks.
So in ALL technicality; their "4g" HSPA+ networks are ACTUALLY 3G networks... There is no way to force the phone to use only UMTS as it's the basis for HSPA being the 'same' network type. The only real 4G is LTE, which without a verizon SIM card, is disabled when not using an "LTE/CDMA" option.
Skreelink said:
Uhm... HSPA+ is actually 3.5G.. It's based on the UMTS 3G standard and is technically the same thing/catagory. "4G" is a marketing gimmick by AT&T and T-Mobile, they even had apple push an update on the iPhone when they started marketing it as 4g to change 3g to 4g on the phone. Although they did NOTHING to the capabilities of the phone. The phone does not differentiate between 3G UMTS and 3.5G HSPA+ as far as WCDMA/3G connections go, 4G should be referred to only on LTE, but carriers like their money. Remember AT&T used to tout the 'fastest 3g network' now they claim 'the largest 4g network' It's the SAME NETWORK, they just upped the number. T-Mobile actually offers a 42Mbps dual band HSPA+ network, whereas AT&T only has a 21Mbps HSPA+ network, both of them advertise as '4g' but they also have 4gLTE networks.
So in ALL technicality; their "4g" HSPA+ networks are ACTUALLY 3G networks... There is no way to force the phone to use only UMTS as it's the basis for HSPA being the 'same' network type. The only real 4G is LTE, which without a verizon SIM card, is disabled when not using an "LTE/CDMA" option.
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We need more clarification like yours on the interwebs ^_^ thank you. Either way, my issue appears to be throttle and neither option allows me to get above 8 kbs download speeds.
Still a shame they need to be so crude about their marketing. And I tried so hard not to be a sucker!
Skreelink said:
Uhm... HSPA+ is actually 3.5G.. It's based on the UMTS 3G standard and is technically the same thing/catagory. "4G" is a marketing gimmick by AT&T and T-Mobile, they even had apple push an update on the iPhone when they started marketing it as 4g to change 3g to 4g on the phone. Although they did NOTHING to the capabilities of the phone. The phone does not differentiate between 3G UMTS and 3.5G HSPA+ as far as WCDMA/3G connections go, 4G should be referred to only on LTE, but carriers like their money. Remember AT&T used to tout the 'fastest 3g network' now they claim 'the largest 4g network' It's the SAME NETWORK, they just upped the number. T-Mobile actually offers a 42Mbps dual band HSPA+ network, whereas AT&T only has a 21Mbps HSPA+ network, both of them advertise as '4g' but they also have 4gLTE networks.
So in ALL technicality; their "4g" HSPA+ networks are ACTUALLY 3G networks... There is no way to force the phone to use only UMTS as it's the basis for HSPA being the 'same' network type. The only real 4G is LTE, which without a verizon SIM card, is disabled when not using an "LTE/CDMA" option.
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Click to collapse
Minor correction: AOSP and maybe stock (not sure...) do indicate HSPA+ in the status bar by changing it from 3g to H+
Also, technically LTE isn't 4g either, but it's the closest to 4g you can get.
IIRC it's ~50mbps ideal and ITU 4g standard is like 100. H+ is like 30 or 40. Of course, my numbers may be way off... It's something like that though
Also, there's no GSM/LTE option? Could've sworn there was one...
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 4
sloosecannon said:
Minor correction: AOSP and maybe stock (not sure...) do indicate HSPA+ in the status bar by changing it from 3g to H+
Also, technically LTE isn't 4g either, but it's the closest to 4g you can get.
IIRC it's ~50mbps ideal and ITU 4g standard is like 100. H+ is like 30 or 40. Of course, my numbers may be way off... It's something like that though
Also, there's no GSM/LTE option? Could've sworn there was one...
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 4
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The stock rom shows H+ and next gen lte is 300mbps capable, current is ~100mbps. I have seen someone hit 45mbps on a droid 4. Course you won't see anywhere near ideal max. Hspa+ is 21Mbps dual band hspa is 42Mbps. As I recall they are working on a 1Gbit lte, but that will be a long way out. There is an lte/gsm option, but since the M doesn't support lte bands besides verizon, kinda useless. Lte sim will be lte/cdma verizon.
While on cdma my phone shows 3g for evdo and H+ for hspap. (I have pageplus and att sim straight talk on my M).
Skreelink said:
The stock rom shows H+ and next gen lte is 300mbps capable, current is ~100mbps. I have seen someone hit 45mbps on a droid 4. Course you won't see anywhere near ideal max. Hspa+ is 21Mbps dual band hspa is 42Mbps. As I recall they are working on a 1Gbit lte, but that will be a long way out. There is an lte/gsm option, but since the M doesn't support lte bands besides verizon, kinda useless. Lte sim will be lte/cdma verizon.
While on cdma my phone shows 3g for evdo and H+ for hspap. (I have pageplus and att sim straight talk on my M).
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Gotcha.
1gbit? So you can burn up a 10 GB data plan in 40 seconds! YAY! I WANT ONE!
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 4
At work the 4g LTE signal for ATT is very poor in the building, but we have 4g repeaters for ATT to fix this issue. Unfortunately, phones are stubborn and like to stay on 4g LTE despite having 1 bar of signal vs full signal with 4g. I had this same issue on my iphone 5 but was able to easily force off LTE while i was at work and have a steady, reliable data connection. My Note 4 seems to have the same affinity to wanting to be on 1 bar of LTE, but I cannot figure out a way to toggle / force LTE off and just use 4g. Anyone have any ideas? Anyone know of an application I can use to resolve this issue?
Thanks
try settings...more networks...mobile networks....network mode....It should be in there..I have the sprint model so I don't know for sure...but that is where mine is....hope this helps
djboo4you said:
try settings...more networks...mobile networks....network mode....It should be in there..I have the sprint model so I don't know for sure...but that is where mine is....hope this helps
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Unfortunately, there is no option for Network mode on the ATT version. I wonder if this has to do with voLTE....
I did find a backway to the network mode via *#*#4636#*#* but I am unsure of what I should be setting to "disable" lte while I'm in the building at work.
I think I've sorted this out now. If I change LTE/GSM AUTO to WCDMA preferred it seems to immediately switch and hold onto 4G. I do have to change it back. Maybe I will write something so I can quick toggle this since nothing on the app store seems to work.
hi,
If you are rooted ? You can use an xpose module called Intelli3G
I use it on my phone ,works 100% and switches smoothly/fast between eg 4G..3G automatic
eg if my data is of its on 3G as soon as i switch data on /wifi it changes to 4 G
For interest sake ,here is a link to market ,you can read desciption what it does ?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.voidvapps.intelli3g&hl=en
good luck
Hi all,
On 11/14 build for Sprint Galaxy S 4.
Is there a way to add a quick toggle for LTE / 4G? The ROM doesn't seem to switch to LTE when I know there is LTE. Generally on other ROMs when this happens, I just toggle LTE off and back on and it locks in the LTE right away. Alternatively, I would go to APNs menu and switch between 3G and 4G APNs.
There's Preferred network type but I generally leave that to LTE.
How the heck do you disable LTE and force the phone to go on 4G? I need to be able to do this when the signal is weak so I can get some data connectivity. I looked in the settings and couldn't find any toggle (see attachment).
Not sure if it matters, but I have a "pure Google" Unlocked Pixel 4 that I got from BB and using on AT&T.
"LTE" is a synonym of "4G".
The phone can be forced to use 3G or 2G in the mobile network settings, but there is no "4G / LTE only" setting. I would like to have that too - my area is fully 4G covered, but sometimes the phone chooses one of the few remaining 3G stations if that one is just a bit stronger than 4G.
Oh,AT&T haha.
AT&T devices always make fake network type icons to display.
You can type *#*#4636#*#* on dialer to turn on engineering mode. The network information is usually accurate in engineering mode.
REF:https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/at-t-5ge-icon-continue-to-show-up-after-advertising-watchdog-order/