Boosting cell signal - Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Gents and occasional lady ,
first and foremost , i understand that i work out in the sticks so far that "normal" cell service is not gonna happen. I have 3 wilson boosters and 2 of them are 3g boosters. this is a two part q and it has to deal with my NOTE 3 which is why i am pasting it here. Do not know if xda has wilson threads. regardless its not really about the wilson. Q is : wiki for note 3 , quote , "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Note_3" indicates that the phone only has 4G radio , however the dumbasses do not understand that HSPA and HSPA+ is actually 3G / 3.5G. so , i AM getting boosted signal with my 3g boosters and i removed their stupid 4g lock on the notification bar. non modded phones only show 4G or no 4G. Mine indicates ALL radio signals recieved. So , I AM getting like .5 down .2 up.
I have tuned the antennas as best I can , need more equipment though , extender cables. BUT what im wondering is , with these 3G boosters , how can i get the baud rate's up ? I already have a yagi , and its tuned via gps to gps and calculated Azimuth between and found headings for antenna attinuation and aimed then tuned , dead on yeilds crap signal 10 degrees to the south resulted in .5 down and .2 up
http://www.att.com/cellphones/samsung/galaxy-note-3.html .
4G-LTE Band 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 17
4G HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul
UMTS/HSPA+ 850/1900/2100MHz
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900MHz
if you dont know what im asking , please dont waste my time with dumb remarks , im not as good as most guys on here, im not as smart in the hardware department . But i calcualte Azimuth for a living ...

Related

TouchHD U.S Users - your Thoughts Please!

I am alarmed at the following article :
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/atandt-slowing-edge-to-force-customers-to-switch-to-3g/
I know there is still ambiguity about whether it is a hardware limitation or something that can be done in software, but if this holds true.. i may have to give up the best phone I have ever owned.
That doesn't really make sense, considering the fact that where I live, I don't get 3G coverage anyways...
I've seen no such slowing from my HD. I purchased the HD after an experiment with the US version of the Diamond last year. I had used the UK Diamond since it came out in June and then purchased the US version to get the 3G speed. I rarely saw the H or 3G indicator on my US Diamond, I received Edge service in more than 95 percent of the places I travelled during the period of my experiment. I returned the US Diamond to Best Buy and resumed using the UK version until I got my hands on the HD in late November.
The HD works fine for me without 3G. I can use Wifi when I need it.
I agree... 3G coverage is spotty at best in the States and I've had good performance with EDGE for AT&T on my HD... Admittedly I'm usually in a WIFI hotspot at work so EDGE is only for when I'm on the road but still no complaints.
taimoorhusain said:
I am alarmed at the following article :
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/atandt-slowing-edge-to-force-customers-to-switch-to-3g/
I know there is still ambiguity about whether it is a hardware limitation or something that can be done in software, but if this holds true.. i may have to give up the best phone I have ever owned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your worry is real. but it won't come true for a long time -- your phone will last till you switch to a new one.
reading the replies below your post, and the original article (which I also read a few days ago). there seems to be some misunderstanding, i will try to explain, and then address your worry. I will use simple terms, although may should foolish (ie. point 1)
- faster the frequency, the faster the battery drains, because the signal oscillates faster. 850 times a second verses 1900 times a second. for those not familiar with signal, just htink of your phone vibrating 850 times a second or 1900 times a second. the latter kills more battery.
- the higher the frequency the less penetration ability it has.
- frequency is freqency, antenna is antenna. an antenna tuned to 850 MHz frequency can transmit 850 MHz signals, simple enough? but the signal may be modulated differently hence the difference between a 2G and 3G 850 band. so you need different hardware to decode and demodulate the two signals, even though the frequency is the same.
- what AT&T's article is saying, is that. they are not going to add extra towers to broadcast 850 3G signals. rather, they are converting 850 2G towers to broadcast 3G 850 signal. This saves them tons of money, because they only need to, for illustration purposes, flip some switches to modulate a 3G signal, instead of purchasing and deploying the towers, since the existing towers are already tuned to 850 MHz.
so yes, when this "fliping switch" operation is done. phones without 850 3G band will only be able to operate on 1900 signals, hence battery drains faster and worse signal indoors.
but back to my first paragraph, judging from AT&T's past records, it would take them a year or two to finish this operation. so .. at least for me. by the time, i will be moving on to a new phone, and i will keep in mind my next phone will have 850 3G chip (or.. if you have learned from my posting, an 850 3G demodulater
Buggy i know you know alot about these types of things (reading your post in the 3g limitation thread) Would you have any thoughts of something and someone that would be able to help us get the 850 3G frequency working?
I am quite impressed actually at the EDGE speeds I do receive. I don't do much of YouTube and other things that require an intense of amount of data when I do use the internet. Google Maps and Live Search works just fine on EDGE. If I need to browse the internet I just use Opera Mini which works awesome on the HD I might add.
The only complaint I have about this device is that it's not 3G. If the great minds on XDA or somewhere else some how figure out to get 3G then that's even better.
I can't wait to see what new devices HTC launches this year. I hear up to 10 new devices. Heck we might even see a HTC Touch HD Pro with the necessary 3G 850/1900 frequency.
3g
I love my touch HD Edge works great 3G is a big hype
I am surprised with the edge speeds on this phone, way quicker than the Omnia, but.... Get for example an iphone 3G (not trying to make a comparison or a phone war as i am not even a fan of it just the first 3g phone that pops up) and go on to the same website and at same time and you will notice a huge difference in my opinion. The HD uses the same exact radio off of the touch diamond American version so i think it should be possible to enable it.

Determined to shine some light on 3G "850" working on X1i

First, for anyone interested in the subject here is a little list of threads I found discussing the subject:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=565000
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4579528
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=442144
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2888831
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=530699
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2843884
As you can see, there seems to be a lot of contradictory information from seemingly knowledgeable people.
My goal is to find a way to get the X1i on Rogers' 850 band they use in most places where they advertise 3G coverage. This might also be beneficial to some AT&T users as I believe they use the same bands.
I live in a suburb of Montreal. I never get anything better than EDGE and same goes when I am in class on the island of Montreal. However, when I go out once in a while and end up in downtown, in my drunken stupor I notice a little 3G symbol where the E used to be... Ha! My guess is that Rogers is using 850MHz all over the place and 1900MHz downtown. It would make more sense because '850' is better for covering vast areas that aren't so populated and '1900' is better at covering densely populated areas (downtown!).
My phone uses the Sony Ericsson supplied ROM for UK (OEM R3..) with a the 1.17 radio found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=565182 .
Here's something I discovered that triggered the spark:
-press the call button (get to the dialer)
-press menu (bottom right)
-options
-band
I am now presented with a box to chose my GSM/UMTS band:
"Auto"
"GSM(900+1800)+UMTS(2100+900)"
"GSM(1900+850)+UMTS(1900+850)"
"UMTS(2100)"
UMTS 1900 and 850?? Well well well...
Okay...still EDGE... Another phone (Samsung) supplied by Rogers has 3G right beside me.
Come on people, this really shows that the ROM is intended for a quad band phone. Plus there was a thread that I cannot find anymore with posted PDF's of the phone's chipset specs and it mentioned nothing of the phone being physically different between the X1i and X1a in terms of networking...
I really want to get the ball rolling on this because I have yet to see any solid proof that the X1i cannot do UMTS 850.
you sir, are my savior. thank you for posting and starting this thread. i myself have an X1i in the states and have been reading and reading about this for months on end with lots of conflicting information.
i can connect to HSDPA and Edge network, but never 3G. ONE TIME i saw the 3G logo for about 2 seconds, then it switched over to HSDPA...... i just can't stand the super duper slow edge network
but HSDPA is faster than 3g is it not??
Jonny4911 said:
but HSDPA is faster than 3g is it not??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct, but HSDPA doesn't cover everywhere. in some deadspots i'm only on Edge, and i always wonder if i could get 3G instead.....
@ Jonny4911 : HSDPA IS TO 3G what EDGE is to GPRS...that's a good analogy I can think of. Yes, it is faster than regular 3G.
@ asayamalaka : If you have HSDPA, you shouldn't be worrying about 3G Or maybe you meant something else? This little utility should tell you about your connection speed (just type in the address in your phone's browser) : http://www.dslreports.com/mspeed
Until the devs / savvy guys and girls chime in, it would help a lot if anyone can contribute more interesting links to this thread. I am particularly looking for the those PDF's from Qualcomm but I can't find them anymore...
edit:
asayamalaka said:
correct, but HSDPA doesn't cover everywhere. in some deadspots i'm only on Edge, and i always wonder if i could get 3G instead.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh... I see. Have you tried what's in the first post with the phone setup? See if it helps...
Look with your eyes and not your mouth
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4373262&postcount=12
Hannigan174 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4373262&postcount=12
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hannigan is right with this link, in that you cannot force the X1i to use HSDPA/HSPA+ on the 850mhz band, because it is not in the hardware. With all of the knowledgeable people out there, if it was possible to change it by flashing/hacking/etc., then it would have been done by now. I don't believe that we'll see 850mhz HSPA+ on our X1i's.
That being said, I myself have noticed my lil' ol' X1i receiving the "H" symbol while in the boonies (far away from the downtown core). I believe this is because there have been reports that Rogers is ramping up their support for HSPA+ on the 1900mhz band, in preparation for the Olympics out west. If this is the case, then the ODD time that your phone does not find the 850mhz band (or 1900mhz is more prevalent/strong), then it will hop on that frequency and you'll be able to use HSDPA.
What I was looking for, was not a hack to enable 3G on the X1i's 850mhz band, but rather some kind of "band preference" setting where you could force phone to look for and connect to the 1900mhz band over the 850mhz band (or even disable 850mhz all together, but that might give us less reception). As far as I know (and have been hunting the net), this isn't quite possible.
I am thinking that our (well, specifically mine because of where I live), only hope is that if Rogers continues to grow their 1900mhz network which supports HSDPA, and hopefully our X1i's will choose that network over the 850mhz one. My only worry with this is that the phone might see both frequencies, and pick the 850mhz one because it has more penetration in densely packed areas, making it the primary choice for the phone (since the 1900mhz signal would probably be weaker).
Anyways, I'm speculating a bit, as well as reporting the facts that I've heard from users on this forum and others (HowardForums has a topic open as well).
Let's hopefully continue to keep this thread going as a base reference for our issue here, because getting 3G/HSDPA on our X1i's would SIGNIFICANTLY improve our usability!
@andreitu just to clear one thing up for you, the X1i is a quad band phone, however the quad band is only in reference to GSM bands and does not apply to UMTS bands. The X1i is only Tri band UMTS...
To anyone getting the HSDPA in the US with an X1i, it's because the area you are in is served by a UMTS 1900 enabled cell. (i'm in dallas and am almost always on HSDPA on AT&T)...
Also to answer another point which was raised in both in this thread and in this one here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4373262#post4373262
On AT&T you will almost neevr see just a 3G connection, since AT&T has performed an upgrade t all base stations that enables HSDPA for 3G - so that everyone gets the fast speed possible when connected to 3G...!
scar45 said:
Hannigan is right with this link
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wasn't just a link, I was quoting myself. It was a link to something I already said in another thread that covered the EXACT same thing.
Maybe I have been here too long, but I am starting to get irritated by seeing the same questions numerous times. I will at least give the thread starter some credit for showing an attempt to look at other threads first, but please do multiple google searches related to your subject before starting a thread.
This question was asked a lot when the phone was new. The 1900/850 option in Phone Settings is just a hardcoded dropdown. It does not magically enable WCDMA on 850MHz on the X1i, the hardware cannot do it.
You can receive 1900MHz signals because the X1i is tri-band 900/1800/2100 (even though the drop down does not indicate so).
In future, please, for the love of god, use search!
rwholden said:
On AT&T you will almost neevr see just a 3G connection, since AT&T has performed an upgrade t all base stations that enables HSDPA for 3G - so that everyone gets the fast speed possible when connected to 3G...!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i figured this much but wasn't 100% sure. good to know, thanks
I live in california, i also have the x1i, and i have sometimes seen the 3G for like two seconds too. From reading the threads i have noticed that in deed H is faster than 3G, and myself i get H the whole time while in my room but when i go to my friends house downtown i get a "full H reception signal" and oh man dat is even faster than my brothers HTC Fuze>
azteca85 said:
I live in california, i also have the x1i, and i have sometimes seen the 3G for like two seconds too. From reading the threads i have noticed that in deed H is faster than 3G, and myself i get H the whole time while in my room but when i go to my friends house downtown i get a "full H reception signal" and oh man dat is even faster than my brothers HTC Fuze>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh man, words can't even describe how fast full blown H is. i think i clocked it at 1mb/sec on a speedtest last week...makes my roommates iphone 3Gs look like a toy. i've always known it was faster than Edge and 3G, just wasn't sure about the 3G till now
asayamalaka said:
oh man, words can't even describe how fast full blown H is. i think i clocked it at 1mb/sec on a speedtest last week...makes my roommates iphone 3Gs look like a toy. i've always known it was faster than Edge and 3G, just wasn't sure about the 3G till now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which is ironic since the iPhone 3GS is HSPA (7.2Mbps) capable...lol. HSPA is fast though. I regularly get between 1.5Mbps and 2.2Mbps here in Raleigh, NC.

Possible ways to boost 3g speeds?

Just wanted to start a quick lil thread about possible ways to boost 3g speeds.... Other then moving, lol...
I live right outside the la metro area and my 3g speeds are deplorable, downright suck, its not like I life in the boonies either, I live in a highly concentrated area with 2 sister towns of over 300k people and always have a 3g symbol on my phone... But for the most part I can't ever get speeds over 300KBS DL/UL and that's on a good day....
I'm currently running eugene's vibrant6 2.1 rom that is supposed to boost data connectivity, and for me it doesn't, along with the lag fix which seems to only effect the normal tasks and application uses of course not the actual speed at wich they operate on the 3g network.
I was reading in a thread about the possibility of using the 850 3g band of att's listed on the phones debug menu but it doesn't seem to actually work although there's a possibility we can use att's 1900 band along with our own t-mobile 1700 and 2100 bands and am certainly interested to see if we can always connect to those 1900 towers for sure short of
unlocking our phones and slipping in an att sim card...
I am by no means an expert on the subject but figure this could be a good paver for every one to compile their mods, fixes, hacks for this very subject making it very easy to find this sort of info.
Pooped from my Samsung Vibrant using XDA app...
Dont mind the skidmarks...
Bump for the day, place holder for list of possible resolutions
Pooped from my Samsung Vibrant using XDA app...
Dont mind the skidmarks...
Location, location, location. If the tower is in the neighborhood of doctors and lawyers, full speed. A tower on the other side of the tracks might not get the best pipe.
attached is a pic of my normal at home speed and a test I ran where a known brand new tmobile tower was built(the better of the 2) using xtremelabs app.... oddest thing is for some reason both tests say they were ran on the edge network when I most certainly had 3g symbols visible at time of test???

HSPA+ Changes?

Hi Guys I have a question why Does a device that has a 42mbps chip HSPA+ like tmobile galaxy s2 offers you faster speed from the network than the 21mbps device, I mean if you were to make a speedtest in the same location with the same phones and why does the galaxy s2 has like 14~20 Mbps whereas the 21mbps device has 6~10 Mbps, If the device can handle 21Mbps why is it slower?
Yes I did a test in my house on my mytouch 4g slide I got 1-3mbps while my friend got 10mbps+ on his sg2
Sent from my DoubleShot Lite using Tapatalk
hspa plus simply means dual connection hspa. It equivalent to having two radios in your phone, ir having two phones, simply put. 2x the connection equals 2x the speed, on networks tha support it. T-Mo doesn't have LTE yet so this is as close as they get, for now.
.
Thread moved. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.
Failure to comply with forum rules will result in an infraction and/or ban depending on severity of rule break.
icenight89 said:
hspa plus simply means dual connection hspa. It equivalent to having two radios in your phone, ir having two phones, simply put. 2x the connection equals 2x the speed, on networks tha support it. T-Mo doesn't have LTE yet so this is as close as they get, for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't entirely true. Dual Connection is just one version of HSPA+. So first and foremost the full speed is never available. There are a variety of reasons, the biggest if frequency allocation, for the full speed you need a lot more spectrum. There are also channel effects meaning your surroundings may be adversely affecting your performance. So now comparing two phones one with HSPA and HSPA+, the HSPA+ phone is raw faster because it starts out with much more potential so cutting it by 50% you are still above HSPA.
In any given location, devices with DC-HSPA+ radios will always be around twice as fast as an ordinary HSPA+ radio because the former uses two channels. That's why you see higher speeds on the SGS2 vs. other devices without a DC-HSPA+ radio, unless the SGS2 can only connect on one channel.
Yes I think the new Radio is the difference too, is there anyway to get the DC HSPA+ chip and solder it to the phone's motherboard?, removing the old hspa chip. I see boosts when overclocking to 1.6ghz the Galaxy S 4G from 1.0 like 3~5 Mbps Boost, I think the voltage of the antenna increases thus making further contact with the tower, But at the end of the day LTE is the fastest because is just a different technology, But Tmobile HSPA+ is just way cheaper.
The DC-HSPA+ radio is part of the system-on-a-chip used in the T-Mobile SGS2. There's no way to modify it from a hardware perspective to work on a different device.

is Verizon really this horrible...

I just switched from Galaxy S3 on ATT to Droid Turbo on Verizon.
Signal outside was fine (on par with ATT), but today I went to work, I work in office area that is located in the middle of one story warehouse/production line environment., with ATT I was getting 4G LTE with 3 to 5 bars, now with Verizon i'm getting 3G with 1-2 bars, but when you try to do anything, nothing works, from time to time it even switches to something called 1x. what the hell is 1x?
whats the point of droid turbo large battery when its draining fast because poor thing can't get signal.
People always assume that because Verizon is the biggest that it covers every square inch of the United States. This of course, is not true. There are going to be areas where you have crappy signal or no signal at all. There are quite a few places in California where I have no signal but someone with AT&T does. It's just the way it is. I would check with Verizon and make sure you're covered in that area. If you're not. You might want to consider going back to AT&T
Many things factor into signal, as well. Different carriers use different frequencies and wavelengths, and different things impact the reception of those frequencies differently. I worked in a building where Sprint signal was 100% all the time, but Verizon was crap. They had film on the windows (the help block sun and keep AC costs down) that didn't play well with VZW. When the company started moving to VZW for their company provided phones, it became a real issue (personal phones didn't really matter to them), and the film was changed.
Stucco/cement buildings aren't great for phone reception of any kind, but for all you know, there could have been an AT&T tower very near you, and the VZW tower is simply further away. Going inside the building further impedes that signal, so you get less of it on VZW.
To answer your other question, 1X is 2G service, and the slowest speed that Verizon has. 1X/2G, 3G and 4G LTE. It (usually) means that it is the best signal available and your phone is using it for a constant connection, vs. spotty 3G/4G. Again, this can be based on frequencies and bands within the VZW spectrum, and shouldn't really be compared to another phone on another carrier.
zathus said:
People always assume that because Verizon is the biggest that it covers every square inch of the United States. This of course, is not true. There are going to be areas where you have crappy signal or no signal at all. There are quite a few places in California where I have no signal but someone with AT&T does. It's just the way it is. I would check with Verizon and make sure you're covered in that area. If you're not. You might want to consider going back to AT&T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Verizon has by far the best and most uniform coverage nationwide, but no US carrier is excellent, and every carrier has their strong spots and their weak spots, necessitating - unfortunately - choosing a carrier based on your location.
It sounds like where you work is a Verizon weak spot, and an AT&T strong spot.
Essentially, if you were to choose a random spot - any spot - within the U.S., and do this a hundred to a thousand times, Verizon would - on average - perform better than anyone else, but in any given spot, Verizon could suck, and someone else could be better.
Not sure how it is these days, but back in the day of iPhone exclusivity on AT&T, AT&T was pretty much unusable in all of New York City.
I switched from AT&T to Verizon 2-3 years ago (giving up my unlimited data in the process) because here in Boston I was simply getting too many dropped calls on AT&T. Verizon was a clear improvement, but still not perfect.
generally around here in the greater Boston area the consensus is:
Verizon > AT&T >> TMobile > Sprint > those other nobodies.
nekrosoft13 said:
I just switched from Galaxy S3 on ATT to Droid Turbo on Verizon.
Signal outside was fine (on par with ATT), but today I went to work, I work in office area that is located in the middle of one story warehouse/production line environment., with ATT I was getting 4G LTE with 3 to 5 bars, now with Verizon i'm getting 3G with 1-2 bars, but when you try to do anything, nothing works, from time to time it even switches to something called 1x. what the hell is 1x?
whats the point of droid turbo large battery when its draining fast because poor thing can't get signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your title is a little mis-leading.
In any given location, any particular carrier may have more or less signal coverage than any of the other carriers. Sounds like you just happen to work in a place where AT&T coverage is better. That doesn't mean that Verizon's coverage is "horrible", because NO carrier can state that they work everywhere.
If it's that bad, you may want to consider returning the phone and switching back.
while I understand what all of you are saying.
but this is not one of those cases.
I stepped outside the back of the building, I stepped out the front of the building and I get 4-5 bars 4G LTE with 25-35Mbps transfer speed, sounds perfect...
I go back In the building I get 3G with 1-2 bars that don't work, or some 1x bull****.
Its not the "area" its the building, and this seems to fit with what some people (engineers/including people that are experts in RF and other radio frequencies) been telling me, CDMA has trouble travelling through thick walls.
ATT GSM didn't have that problem.
nekrosoft13 said:
while I understand what all of you are saying.
but this is not one of those cases.
I stepped outside the back of the building, I stepped out the front of the building and I get 4-5 bars 4G LTE with 25-35Mbps transfer speed, sounds perfect...
I go back In the building I get 3G with 1-2 bars that don't work, or some 1x bull****.
Its not the "area" its the building, and this seems to fit with what some people (engineers/including people that are experts in RF and other radio frequencies) been telling me, CDMA has trouble travelling through thick walls.
ATT GSM didn't have that problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But you're not losing your CDMA signal, you're losing your LTE signal. It's just the tower, or the frequency Verizon has there. Maybe Verizon has high frequency at your location and therefore it can't penetrate the building. Use LTE discovery to find out which band you have.
current connection eHRPD/1x
is not even listing any LTE frequencies....
****ing verizon bull****....
on the signal tab, now its showing connecting...... 10 second later, connected, 5 seconds later connecting... great service!
nekrosoft13 said:
while I understand what all of you are saying.
but this is not one of those cases.
I stepped outside the back of the building, I stepped out the front of the building and I get 4-5 bars 4G LTE with 25-35Mbps transfer speed, sounds perfect...
I go back In the building I get 3G with 1-2 bars that don't work, or some 1x bull****.
Its not the "area" its the building, and this seems to fit with what some people (engineers/including people that are experts in RF and other radio frequencies) been telling me, CDMA has trouble travelling through thick walls.
ATT GSM didn't have that problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3g is CDMA. 4G which you say you lose is GSM
Jweimn said:
3g is CDMA. 4G which you say you lose is GSM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite, 4G is LTE. LTE is more similar to GSM than it is to CDMA, but it is not GSM.
Verizon uses 700, 850, 1700, and 2100MHz for LTE. ATT uses 700, 850, 1700, 1900, and 2100MHz for LTE. In the case of both carriers, there are generally not more than 1 or 2 of those frequencies in any given area and they are not always the same ones for both carries. Some areas have the lower frequencies which allows the signal to pass through buildings more easily, other areas have the higher frequencies which allows the signal to be bounced off of buildings which results in poorer building penetration, but can result in increased signal outside due to the signal being bounced off of surrounding surfaces. In your case you are almost definitely in a low frequency ATT and high frequency Verizon area. It is also possible that your work has a signal booster for ATT, but not for Verizon and that may be why you see dramatically better ATT signal there. No carrier is best everywhere, but Verizon is best in more places than any other US carrier. If you live/work in an area that ATT is better you should probably just go back to them.
Sent from my XT1254 using XDA Free mobile app
Verizon used to be better for me. I notice a pattern now where upon arrival to my house my signal goes from 3 to 5 bars of LTE to two or 1 or drops to 3g. Not only at my current residence but my last one as well. Like throttled down at home. I live in a flat city that should not have dead zones.
I live in a city with full coverage from all the carriers, but Verizon is the only carrier that keeps me connected from Philly to AC and back.
cstone1991 said:
Not quite, 4G is LTE. LTE is more similar to GSM than it is to CDMA, but it is not GSM.
Verizon uses 700, 850, 1700, and 2100MHz for LTE. ATT uses 700, 850, 1700, 1900, and 2100MHz for LTE. In the case of both carriers, there are generally not more than 1 or 2 of those frequencies in any given area and they are not always the same ones for both carries. Some areas have the lower frequencies which allows the signal to pass through buildings more easily, other areas have the higher frequencies which allows the signal to be bounced off of buildings which results in poorer building penetration, but can result in increased signal outside due to the signal being bounced off of surrounding surfaces. In your case you are almost definitely in a low frequency ATT and high frequency Verizon area. It is also possible that your work has a signal booster for ATT, but not for Verizon and that may be why you see dramatically better ATT signal there. No carrier is best everywhere, but Verizon is best in more places than any other US carrier. If you live/work in an area that ATT is better you should probably just go back to them.
Sent from my XT1254 using XDA Free mobile app
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its funny that you mention signal boosters, actually its opposite, my work has no boosters for ATT and has couple for Verizon.... the problem is that they boosters they have bought go thought internet connection, the internet connection is a standard T1 line shared by about 500-700 workers some with workstations and smartphones on wifi and some with both.
When I was outside work, I was on LTE band 4.
inside work I have 3G with one-two bars that every 20+ minutes disconnect and drop to 1x, the sucky thing is that even when those 1-2 bars are present data doesn't work.
and WiFi is so saturated and its useless too....
Before someone says that the trouble is caused by Verizon boosters, before the boosters were put in place, there was zero Verizon signal inside the building, again outside was fine.
nekrosoft13 said:
... from time to time it even switches to something called 1x. what the hell is 1x?
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So this is what it's come to.... :'( In some remote way this makes me feel old.
nekrosoft13 said:
I just switched from Galaxy S3 on ATT to Droid Turbo on Verizon.
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I'm not going to rehash all of what has been said, but there are two items you need to keep in mind.
First, you should check to see if you are in an XLTE area. XLTE makes use of the AWS spectrum and will do a better job of penetrating buildings.
Second, and most important .... If you have both a regular Verizon signal AND a Verizon Network Extender signal, the radios are designed to latch onto the Network Extender assuming that it will provide the best cell reception. The network extender is designed to make sure PHONE CALLS get through, and nothing more. The first and second generation Network Extenders provided only 1x data, while the latest generation Network Extenders provide 3G. There are no 4G LTE Network Extenders. As long as you are latching onto a network extender, you will NOT have good data. Period. You'll have great phone calls though. The "bars" reflect DATA coverage, not voice coverage. Phone calls will be fine even with zero bars. Data will be slow no matter what.
Again, the network extenders are meant to make certain people can make and receive PHONE CALLS (it is a cell phone after all) and not data.
Also, band 4 is the highest frequency that VZW uses for LTE and therefore the worst at penetrating buildings.
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cstone1991 said:
Also, band 4 is the highest frequency that VZW uses for LTE and therefore the worst at penetrating buildings.
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so basically Verizon sucks In the area where my work is. why would they use a band that is worse at penetrating buildings since this is mostly industrial park with warehouse like buildings and buildings with thick concrete walls.
nekrosoft13 said:
so basically Verizon sucks In the area where my work is. why would they use a band that is worse at penetrating buildings since this is mostly industrial park with warehouse like buildings and buildings with thick concrete walls.
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Basically yeah. The boosters that your work uses aren't helping either when it comes to data, they actually probably make the problem even worse as another person pointed out. The carriers own licenses for different bands or spectrums in different areas. They can only use the ones that they own in the areas that they own them. There are many reasons why a carrier may purchase higher frequencies in some areas, but the main one is that they just have to buy what is available and that's probably what happened in that area. In some scenarios the higher frequencies do perform better, building penetration just isn't one of the things that they do well.
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cstone1991 said:
Basically yeah. The boosters that your work uses aren't helping either when it comes to data, they actually probably make the problem even worse as another person pointed out. The carriers own licenses for different bands or spectrums in different areas. They can only use the ones that they own in the areas that they own them. There are many reasons why a carrier may purchase higher frequencies in some areas, but the main one is that they just have to buy what is available and that's probably what happened in that area. In some scenarios the higher frequencies do perform better, building penetration just isn't one of the things that they do well.
Sent from my XT1254 using XDA Free mobile app
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I thought that VZW had band 13 everywhere they have LTE. I thought they just started adding Band 4, so if you connect to Band 4 then 13 is present. Otherwise, all the old VZW phones would not get LTE at all.
there are other people in the office that have verizon and same ****ty service.
we are looking into purchasing this for work, http://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/wilson-ag-pro-4g-70db-amplifier-kit-461104/
just not sure how this will play with current 3G repeaters that are in the building.

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