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[Q] identical phones but problem with 4g

So my girlfriend and I both bought samsung epics. They are both stock 2.1 no mods have been done to them. However her phone picks up a 4g signal mine does not. The phones are side by side. Any ideas what the problem could be?

An update, my uncle brought his htc evo over and turned on 4g and it worked for him as well. So out of 3 4g phones mine is the only one that won't connect.

zombiematt said:
So my girlfriend and I both bought samsung epics. They are both stock 2.1 no mods have been done to them. However her phone picks up a 4g signal mine does not. The phones are side by side. Any ideas what the problem could be?
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On your phone, go into Settings > About Phone > System Updates and update your PRL and profile so that your phone will know to pick up on the new towers.
The PRL is the Preferred Roaming List. It tells your phone where the towers are. Maybe your phone doesn't have the latest PRL

i called sprint customer service and talked to them about the problem. my representative spoke poor english and told me that 4g is not in my area. even though the 3 other phones in my house at the time were on 4g. they also told me that the "official release" of 4g in my area will be 11-28-10.
i also tried the prl and profile updates. and that didnt work either. so i guess my next day off ill go into a sprint store and see what they can do. I love my phone though, its plenty fast and apps and gps and calls work great. i just feel that since i have to pay the $10 extra for premium data , i should have access to it.

I had the same issue with my phone, 4G just wouldn't turn on completely. It would be stuck in the "turning on" mode until I'd do a battery pull. Either way, they'll hard reset your phone at the store, see if that fixes it (it shouldn't) and then replace it for you.

Signal problems with Verizon LTE

My brother and I both got S4s almost 2 weeks ago. He upgraded from an S3. Me from a Rezound. He also has a work phone that is a Verizon Note 2.
We were out at our parents' house over the weekend. Our dad has a RAZR Maxx and a 4G Verizon MiFi for his house. All 5 of these phones/devices are on Verizon.
Both of Dad's devices and my brother's Note 2 were maintaining a steady 4G LTE connection. The Note 2 only showed about 2 bars, but it held it steady and never dropped back to 3G at any time while we were there.
But, both my and my brother's S4s would not hold 4G. We played around with network settings. Changed them from CDMA/LTE to Global, and then back. They would both occasionally switch to 4G for a minute or so, then always switch back to 3G.
I called Verizon tech support and they walked us through things including turning off the phones, pulling the SIMs and letting him push a new PRL to us. Nothing helped, so he told us to go get new SIMs. I did that yesterday and went back out to my dad's and it's still the same. My dad's phone and his MiFi maintain a steady 4G LTE signal and my S4 mostly just stays on 3G.
I also noticed that I went to the movies yesterday and when I was in the theater lobby, which is right in the middle of town, where there is strong 4G signal, my phone had dropped back to 3G there, too.
I'm still within my 14 day return period and I am seriously thinking of returning the S4 and getting a Note 2.
Does anybody have any better suggestions?

I found a thread on the AC forums where a guy reported the same issue I'm having. He took the SIM out of his Rezound, cut it down, plugged it in, and he said that fixed his 4G reception problem.
I'm going to VZW after work and trying a 3rd SIM. This time, one of the old style, that doesn't support NFC.

I went to Verizon after work yesterday and got a new non-NFC SIM. Then went back to my dad's house. The SIM does not appear to make any difference. My phone still wanted to switch to 3G and stay there.
But, I did figure out one encouraging thing. I used Battery Monitor Widget to get into the Testing screen. There, I was able to change the phone from "CDMA/LTE (Auto PRL)" to "LTE Only".
After doing that, the phone went into 4G mode and stayed there, and actually worked fine. I turned on my hotspot and connected to it with my tablet and surfed for a while, with no issues.
This tells me that the phone's LTE reception is pretty much just as good as the Note 2 and other devices I mentioned before. It's just a software issue that is switching it to 3G mode when it doesn't need to.

Stuck in 1x mode?

Hello everyone.
I just got my phone back from Samsung after it wouldn't power on, then had trouble getting it to stay connected long enough to activate. So, I brought it in to town, hooked in to wifi, and had no issues. Got the phone activated, waited for a while, updated the PRL and Profile, and waited around to see if it would start working for me. Unfortunately, it was still not working very well. Put on the 1x/3g mod to see if it was actually getting 3g. Found that it was not... Finally, I contacted sprint to see if they could help on tech support. He said he would contact the network people...
I was like, hmm... at different location now, checked at the sprint store, updated one of their phones PRLs, and it seemed to start running slowly too... so I downgraded my PRL to see if that would help, it did not. Finally, I put on the 00001 PRL really quickly to see if I could get 3g... seems it didn't leave sprint or the 1x.
So, put it back to the original... was wondering if anyone has some advice?
Thanks much.
UPDATE: So, the radio has been flickering on and off for data reception, went up to Green Bay today and it went into 4g, then 3g, then nothing for a while, then back again...
Right now it is on 4g again.
Is there any way to check if the radios may have something not working? I would say maybe it is just network upgrades, (really, really hoping this is the case), but then I would think that Sprint would have said something when I contacted them about there being upgrades....
Thanks.

Take it to a store and ask them to test the radios. They could be faulty.

Mines been acting the exact same way...altho mine has not had problems before needing to be sent to Samsung.
2 weeks ago it just started not going into 4g as much as it used to...and RANDOMLY totally dropping any data connection 10x a day. Literally no 3g/4g for 2+ minutes at a time..no amount of airplaine mode/restarts fixes it......its like im back to the SgS2 days.. ****im sick of Sprint/samsung

Snazarian said:
Mines been acting the exact same way...altho mine has not had problems before needing to be sent to Samsung.
2 weeks ago it just started not going into 4g as much as it used to...and RANDOMLY totally dropping any data connection 10x a day. Literally no 3g/4g for 2+ minutes at a time..no amount of airplaine mode/restarts fixes it......its like im back to the SgS2 days.. ****im sick of Sprint/samsung
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It's sprints fault, not samsung. I have the same data drop problems, especially around NYC/NJ. I've had the same issue on my previous S3. My GF has no such issues on her S4 or her previous S3, but she has AT&T. Chances are Sprint is doing something with the network in your area currently.

Try this
1 - update profile
2 - update prl
3 - open the dialer and enter ##72786#
Your phone will reboot and go thru the activation process
If that does not help, call sprint and find out if there are any network vision enhancements in progress for your area. Unfortunately when Sprint does their updates it gets REALLY BAD until they are done
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app

Bad signal reception

I am desperately in need for some help with my phone.
The issue i have been having is bad cell reception. I used to have reception nearly everywhere and now, not so much. I know there is a problem because i used to have no bars to maybe max of 2 bars in church. And yes its not much, but at least it was something. A few months ago, idk what happened, but i noticed that i had no bars at all. And then a few other places where i go on regular basis started to show no signal at all.
My phone was rooted for a long time prior to that and i cant think of anything that i could have done to create this problem. So since i noticed it, i have tried numerous things to fix it. I have done full reset of my phone, i did activation reset. Tried different roms, updated URL, profile a few times. Nothing helped. Then i have decided to take it back to Sprint store thinking maybe they can help, but i would have to return it back to stock rom, so i did that, still didn't work. Same crappy cell reception, even tmobile on SGS4 works better side by side.
I even tried fully updating my phone since its what sprint representative will do anyways in their attempt to fix the problem and still no effect.
I am going to take this phone to sprint store in a few days, but i was really hoping someone here could help me out.

Its probably sprint "upgrading" the towers in your area. Especially since you said it began a few months back. Trust me it sucks for a few months but it will get better. You have to ride it out. And T-Mobile runs on a different network GSM so its not a good comparison.
What you could do and get another sprint phone and go to the same places and compare signal strength.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

I don't think so. My dad has lg optimus g from sprint and when icompare them side but side like right now he has 5 to full 6 bars while i got zero.
The downs can't be that big even though he has different phone.

I too have the same problem. My daughter has a S3 with full bars and 4G. I have no bars and 3G. What gives.

So after waiting in the sprint store for two hours the tech guy told me that he does not have equipment to check if its my phone's fault, but when he looked up data usage of my phone at some specific towers near by, he did see that my phone had more drops then the marketed value. Which means that my phone has a on average worse cell reception then it should. But then again, he can not confirm it for sure because they dont have the appropriate equipment. Which is retarded, i went to a corporate store.
The best option he could do is replace the phone for 75$ (since i dont have sprint warranty). So now i am thinking about calling samsung to see if they will replace it fr free. The only downside of that is that i wont have a phone for a week or even more.

So I checked the PRL file on my daughters phone and installed in the same PRL file on my phone. No changes. I grabbed my son's S4 and he too has a crappy signal level. It must be the hardware.
:crying:

Yea this sucks. My friend has S3 t-mobile (i believe), and in his basement he gets 3 bars 4G while i got no service.

Inconsistent 3G & LTE performance, defective unit?

Don't get me wrong, I love this phone despite the bugs. Software bugs.
However I've a serious issue regarding the 3G/LTE module. 3G/LTE performances are not consistent at all.
Sometimes it goes well (chatting, sending pictures, even testing the speed with a speed test) but other times the connection "hangs" and I'm not able to do anything for seconds or minutes (download pictures from whatsapp, sending text with telegram or open web pages). After that time, the connection seems to work again. When this Is happening, phone is at full signal.
Please note that I never had these issues with all my previous phones (Nexux 5, Nexus 5X, OnePlus 3T) with the same SIM card and under the same conditions (places, time of the day). I've performed all the updates available (software version 4.5.4) and cleaned the cache many times using the recovery.
I'm asking your help: is there some debug feature I can activate in order to see what is happening and understand the problem? Many thanks.

What carrier do you have?
ATT had to load my phone into there system. I'm in Seattle, WA USA
After they did that LTE has been perfect!
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Nick James said:
What carrier do you have?
ATT had to load my phone into there system. I'm in Seattle, WA USA
After they did that LTE has been perfect!
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
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Since I'm on ATT and I might get a OP5 I gotta ask how you went about this. Because I can see me telling customer service this and them not having the slightest clue what I'm talking about.

atistang said:
Since I'm on ATT and I might get a OP5 I gotta ask how you went about this. Because I can see me telling customer service this and them not having the slightest clue what I'm talking about.
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Basically you'd call in and ask to register your phone. It's not actually necessary but they do this anyway when you ask for a replacement sim. All they do is get your IMEI off your phone and add it to your account. Though with the 3 it already showed up during use. I don't think it matters much at all. Haven't had an issue with the 5 in Wisconsin, Minnesota or Nevada. I've simply plugged in the sim to this phone and went on my way since day 1.

atistang said:
Since I'm on ATT and I might get a OP5 I gotta ask how you went about this. Because I can see me telling customer service this and them not having the slightest clue what I'm talking about.
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Click to collapse
Just to give you the big picture, I'll include everything that happened when I got my OP5 in terms of registering the phone on AT&T's network...
I got the OP5 and I came from a OPO, so I needed a new nano SIM card. I went to AT&T and they gave me a new sim but they were not able to get LTE signal at all. I was impatient and really didn't want to wait around so the rep and myself came up with excuses on why it wasn't working so I could get out of there. HSPA+ was the best I could get and it was about ~5Mbps up/down and I was happy with that for now.
I got home and decided to call in. Usual phone tree hell with AT&T began but I eventually got a level 2 Android technician. I will note the default values within the phone tree took me to iPhone support. Anyhow, the level two technician verified that my phone was not getting LTE. Furthermore, the device was not registered in the system at all. He gave me two options (which from the sounds of things, he wasn't supposed to do) 1.) I could just deal with the HSPA+ connection and it could take up to 5 days to fully load the phone but my phone would work perfect in terms of service/coverage/data rates (HSPA+) or 2.) He could load a Samsung S7 mock profile to my phone and it would more than likely work fine but don't hold him accountable for it. He said if it were him, he'd go for the S7 mock profile so I went with it.
Immediately I got an LTE signal and he had me reboot my phone. I've zero issues as he figured would happen and everything has been perfect. I got a confirmation text message from AT&T saying my phone will be loaded by July 6th and originally the technician told me around July 14th.
Anyhow, that was just my experience and a good experience at that. Of course, popping a sim out and back into a new phone would be ideal but a non-contracted AT&T device has to get loaded at some point and time I guess, right?
Cheers!

Nick James said:
Just to give you the big picture, I'll include everything that happened when I got my OP5 in terms of registering the phone on AT&T's network...
I got the OP5 and I came from a OPO, so I needed a new nano SIM card. I went to AT&T and they gave me a new sim but they were not able to get LTE signal at all. I was impatient and really didn't want to wait around so the rep and myself came up with excuses on why it wasn't working so I could get out of there. HSPA+ was the best I could get and it was about ~5Mbps up/down and I was happy with that for now.
I got home and decided to call in. Usual phone tree hell with AT&T began but I eventually got a level 2 Android technician. I will note the default values within the phone tree took me to iPhone support. Anyhow, the level two technician verified that my phone was not getting LTE. Furthermore, the device was not registered in the system at all. He gave me two options (which from the sounds of things, he wasn't supposed to do) 1.) I could just deal with the HSPA+ connection and it could take up to 5 days to fully load the phone but my phone would work perfect in terms of service/coverage/data rates (HSPA+) or 2.) He could load a Samsung S7 mock profile to my phone and it would more than likely work fine but don't hold him accountable for it. He said if it were him, he'd go for the S7 mock profile so I went with it.
Immediately I got an LTE signal and he had me reboot my phone. I've zero issues as he figured would happen and everything has been perfect. I got a confirmation text message from AT&T saying my phone will be loaded by July 6th and originally the technician told me around July 14th.
Anyhow, that was just my experience and a good experience at that. Of course, popping a sim out and back into a new phone would be ideal but a non-contracted AT&T device has to get loaded at some point and time I guess, right?
Cheers!
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Click to collapse
Did you try rebooting the phone before calling? That is what happened with my Moto X Pure and no one knew what to do at the store. The manager came out and rebooted it and it got LTE and worked fine after that.

atistang said:
Did you try rebooting the phone before calling? That is what happened with my Moto X Pure and no one knew what to do at the store. The manager came out and rebooted it and it got LTE and worked fine after that.
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Click to collapse
You mean, did I remember to turn it off and back on again? Yes, we tried that. Haha
It wasn't until the AT&T tech adding the profile to the network that it works. It was instant too.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using XDA-Developers Legacy app