App to show strongest voice/data provider at my location? - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm looking to change my mobile provider (in the UK), but want to check the relative signal strengths of each network provider accessible from my house, to avoid choosing a provider that has poor reception when I'm at home. Can anyone recommend an app that will scan for all cell/3G signals in the area and show (a) who the provider is and (b) how strong the voice and data signals are?
I've got access to coverage maps but they seem to be notoriously inaccurate/unreliable, and also don't give specific information for an exact location (i.e. a specific premises).

itm said:
I'm looking to change my mobile provider (in the UK), but want to check the relative signal strengths of each network provider accessible from my house, to avoid choosing a provider that has poor reception when I'm at home. Can anyone recommend an app that will scan for all cell/3G signals in the area and show (a) who the provider is and (b) how strong the voice and data signals are?
I've got access to coverage maps but they seem to be notoriously inaccurate/unreliable, and also don't give specific information for an exact location (i.e. a specific premises).
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If your phone is unlocked you can go into network settings and scan for all available networks, this will at least give you an indication of who is available, however, I do not believe an app exists that can give you specifics about any network other than the one you are on.
If you look online, most of the operators are offering free PAYG sim cards, perhaps you could send off for these and try each one in your phone to see who gives best reception, they should all register on the network even if they have no credit on them, at least that's my understanding.

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Phone Setttings Network

I am looking for a way to update the "Phone Settings Network" dialog on my new Advantage 7501 to include the features I have on my HP ipAQ 6945. On my iPAQ have options to do a Manual Network Selection where it will find all the available networks in range, not just the AT&T ones. Why is this important to me? Well I live in an area where the nearest Cingular/AT&T tower is over 15 miles away, however I am in what they call a "Partner" coverage area where I can connect to a Cellular One tower that is about 4 miles away. This way I can get 4 bars signal inside my home where if I can try to connect to the AT&T net using typical cell phones, I get 2 bars to none. Since both these devices are made by HTC there must be a way I can move the needed code off my iPAQ to the Advantage. The iPAQ with this manual net selection is the only phone I can use at home. I was hoping the Advantage would include a similar capability.
Can anyone point me the right direction?
daveheine said:
I am looking for a way to update the "Phone Settings Network" dialog on my new Advantage 7501 to include the features I have on my HP ipAQ 6945. On my iPAQ have options to do a Manual Network Selection where it will find all the available networks in range, not just the AT&T ones. Why is this important to me? Well I live in an area where the nearest Cingular/AT&T tower is over 15 miles away, however I am in what they call a "Partner" coverage area where I can connect to a Cellular One tower that is about 4 miles away. This way I can get 4 bars signal inside my home where if I can try to connect to the AT&T net using typical cell phones, I get 2 bars to none. Since both these devices are made by HTC there must be a way I can move the needed code off my iPAQ to the Advantage. The iPAQ with this manual net selection is the only phone I can use at home. I was hoping the Advantage would include a similar capability.
Can anyone point me the right direction?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to Start/setting/personal/phone, and go to the network tab. There you can manually select your preferred service provider.
Is this what you are looking for?
No, the display shows Current Network: AT&T and only a "Find Network" box. There is no option to look for anything else but AT&T. Maybe this is limitation arising from the AT&T SIM card I am using.
My iPAQ screen gives me a Network Selection box with "Automatic" and "Manual" options. If I select "Manual" and "Find Network" I get a list of all available cell towers within range, and then can pick one. Where I am I see "Cingular" and "Cell One DCS". I pick the Cellular One tower as it is a partner site and there are no roaming charges even thought the little roaming symbol ( a pyramid) shows up at the top.
I'll try switching SIM cards and see if that makes a difference. Well changing SIM cards made no difference except that it lists "Cingular" instead of "AT&T"
The Network Selection box with auto and manual options is there on my 7501 too. I didn't think that would be affected by your sim card.
Hey, just a thought -- did you switch to true VGA, and is the box just not showing up because of that?
I tried a Hard Reset and still do not get a network selection option. It may be due one of the CAB files that is run during the device setup that changes the US version. I'll try calling HTC Support.
Called HTC and was told that the AT&T SIM locks out the option to do a Network Selection. He tried a T-Mobile SIM in his Advantage and it came up with the Network Selection option. He "hinited" that I would have to do a CID unlock perhaps to get around AT&T's SIM restrictions, but couldn't tell me to do it would as it void the warranty.
I tried the HTC Network Wizard (Google for it) and it only allows you to set up your phone for a couple of possible providers.
We both agreed that I probably have files on my iPAQ 6945 that if I could identify them and transfer them to my Advantage I might get around this restriction.
He said he would contact AT&T and see if they have any way to get around this. What happens if you travel outside the US and try to use the phone on another network (huge roaming charges!!!) in an emergency?
I don't quite have the courage to try the CID unlocker on my brand new Advantage yet. Has anyone done this?
daveheine said:
Called HTC and was told that the AT&T SIM locks out the option to do a Network Selection. He tried a T-Mobile SIM in his Advantage and it came up with the Network Selection option. warranty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ATT sims do LOCK that option. All other att phones like 8525, 8125, blackjack, etc are missing that option too.
daveheine said:
He "hinited" that I would have to do a CID unlock perhaps to get around AT&T's SIM restrictions, but couldn't tell me to do it would as it void the warrabty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression that CiD unlock would fix that too but that's not true.
It's just that Some (Unofficial) Roms ignore that but most of official roms like yours dont.
daveheine said:
I tried the HTC Network Wizard (Google for it) and it only allows you to set up your phone for a couple of possible providers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Network wizard will not affect that option.
daveheine said:
We both agreed that I probably have files on my iPAQ 6945 that if I could identify them and transfer them to my Advantage I might get around this restriction.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dont know what u mean.
daveheine said:
He said he would contact AT&T and see if they have any way to get around this. What happens if you travel outside the US and try to use the phone on another network (huge roaming charges!!!) in an emergency?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Att doesn't have this restriction on all the networks. This restriction is based on the country codes. Att has restriction on US, canada, and mexico.
So if you are not in those countries you will have that option available to you.
daveheine said:
I don't quite have the courage to try the CID unlocker on my brand new Advantage yet. Has anyone done this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont because it wont help.
To be quite honest with you I dont know how you could do it on your previous phone because Att blocks that option on the network side. Even if you did change your network succesfuly on the phone, it'd still be rejected by the network.
The only thing that I can think of is that your Ipaq couldn't find a good ATT signal and connected to a patner's tower instead.
And your Advantage either gets a better gsm signal or gets a decent umts signal and connects to cingular 3g.
Try forcing the phone to operate only on the gsm network from under the band tab see if that makes a difference.
and also what is your zip code?
You can enable "Find Network" by changing the following registry key.
HKLM\Security\Phone\ManualDisable=0
That will display the network selection option and you wont void your warranty or anything like that.
It just goes away after a soft reset.
Check this thread here for more info on that.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=284201&highlight=manual+network+selection
Thanks for your response. The registry edit did indeed turn on the Network Selection. Going to Manual selection it finds "Cell One DCS" just like my iPAQ does, but when I select it I get the message "Cannot register on selected network. Choose another network, or disconnect your data connection and try again."
I have been connecting for over a year with my iPAQ to "Cell One DCS" with NO roaming charges. I guess AT&T doesn't want me to use the partner network. My ZIP is 76692 and I am located near the bridge over Lake Whitney.
There is obvious a difference in the software on the iPAQ and Advantage that is causing this to happen. I just checked the latest AT&T coverage maps and see they don't show a Partner coverage anymore.
I have installed an outside yagi antenna and signal repeater at my home so I do get a signal sometimes, but not a reliable signal.
We travel a lot so I still find AT&T coverage to be good in most places, and my iPAQ still works here now.
That's strange.
I got an ipaq 6915 from cingular and with cingular sims it pretty much does the same thing and disables network selection.
Do you have a custom rom on your 6945?
When you boot it up do you get the cingular logo?
Plus at your zip code it seems like you are far away from any cingular towers.
The only thing that I can think of is that your ipaq just doesn't find a good cingular signal, and connects to a different network.
When you do a network search on your ipaq does it actually detect Cingular as an available network? When you connect to cingular from your ipaq how many bars do you get?
I've always thought there nothing special about my 6945, but I guess there is! When I do a Network Selection on it I see both the Cingular tower AND the Cellular One tower signals. I have tried this in other locations and see several different networks (e.g., T-Mobile, and five digit numbers).
I've tried both my old Cingular SIM and a new AT&T SIM, and they both work the same in my iPaq 6945. Interesting!!! But neither will allow me to select the Cellular One tower on my new Advantage.
You are probably right about country codes for on recent cruise with stops in Grand Cayman and Cozumel the Advantage would show networks other than Cingular.
I am sorry I didn't reply earlier, but I was visiting family in Virginia this weekend. It was neat to see an "H" connection appear while sitting in DFW. Only get "E" connections out in the sticks where I live.
Dave
Oh, I should have mentioned that the 6945 is an unlocked phone from HP and is not customized for Cingular. As far as signal strength I have a cell repeater installed in my home so I get anywhere from no bars to 4 bars on that Cingular tower that is at least 15 miles away. My Cellular One is consistently 4 bars. I live in a steel framed home with a metal roof. Before I got the repeater I was using a booster amp and plugging an external antenna into my iPAQ and RAZR V3 to get a usable signal. This kept me tethered in my computer room (ugh!). When I got the 6945 and found I could manually select the Cellular One tower I then had a phone I could use throughout my home.
Several years ago I started with a simple Nokia phone before Cingular had a tower in the area, and always connected "Cingular Extend" which I now know was the near by Cellular One tower. As soon as Cingular put up their tower I have been unable to connect with the Nokia, Razr V3, and new Motorola V577.
Some of my neighbors have terminated their Cingular service because of this lack of connected to the so call "Partner" coverage.

Changing provider problem programmatically (WM6.1)

(Argh unable fix the topic typo... sorry)
I have some specific problem i am unable to resolve.
My phone network provider is currently still building a network (base stations) so its signal is not reachable everywhere. This is the reason they have a "roaming" contract with some other provider that has 100% coverage for my country.
The difference between them is in price of UMTS (my provider is like 2 times cheaper). I have set the priority of phone network within windows mobile 6.1 but when the connection is lost for my provider it switches to the "roaming" but never switches back when the network of my provider is available.
Does someone knows how could i resolve this issue? I have coding expirience (16 years of c/c++ of windows development) but i dont know where to start.
Can someone point me to some apis/whatever that would enable me to track who the current provider is and check what are the available providers and finally how to change provider to my original one. Basically i want to write a service that would track the current provider and if changed from my provider scan for its network periodically and change it back when needed although there are some more questions that i am at this time unable to answer (battery consumption etc, i hope the scanning for providers is a passive operation as i dont want to glow in the dark etc.).
Thank you for reading and even more for answering

How do you block certain cell networks?

Hey guys,
I live pretty close to the border with China and in a tall building. every so often, I notice that I am roaming on a chinese cell tower when I am at home!
This is an immense pita so I went into settings and under network preferences, I made sure the offending network was unchecked and moved all the way to the bottom of the networks list.
It still connects to the roaming network. Am I using this wrong? I used to have a similar issue with my P3600i and eventually switched to manual networks as it was the only thing I could get to work.
Is there a way I can tell the phone to never connect to xxxxx network?
Thanks
S

Mobile Signal Strength

Hello Seniors,
Wanted to know that is there any application which will show the signal strength (in some number) of all the network provider in my area.
Say, I have a Vodafone sim and in my area there are 5-6 different operators. So is there any way where I can check that in my house, out of all the mobile providers whose signal is the strongest?
So I am looking for a tool which will check the strength of all and then I can come to some conclusion.
Again, there is no network signal map which is available in my area, so need to depend on some app or some software etc.
Looking forward for your guidance.
Regards,
Anoop.
There is an app called as Network Info II on the playstore. It gives you the strength of the signal for the sim that is currently registered thru the phone on the network.
It wont give for other available networks..
May be somebody else can suggest some other app..
Sent from my Galaxy S4

Signal levels on other networks?

I live in the UK (GSM) and have poor signal where I live. GSM phones can camp on to other operator's networks when the registered network is unavailable. There is also a 'scanning mode' to try and register on available networks (intended for manually connecting to a roaming partner).
So, has anyone come across an app that can report the signal level on ANY GSM network (even not the operator you are with or one of their roaming partners). I don;t mind if I have to disconnect from my normal operator when I run a test to get the other signal levels.
This would be good when trying to select what operator to move to (one with a better signal)

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