Hello, fellow Fi users!
It has finally gotten on my nerves enough to create a thread, hoping to find some answers or perhaps work together to come to a solution for Project Fi's dreadfully slow carrier switching logic. I'm not sure about others, but in my town and the surrounding areas, T-Mobile has excellent service. My town is the only town in the county that does not have Sprint LTE, but I do get some 3G in certain areas. The problem is that when I lose connection with T-Mobile for a certain amount of time, the phone will switch over to Sprint to use its 3G network. This is great because this is how the phone and SIM card are supposed to function. However, the 3G service in this area is slow, spotty, and unreliable so typically as soon as I connect (usually while driving or on the move) I lose service again.
The real problem occurs when the phone is extremely reluctant to switch back to T-Mobile. Almost every day I make a 25 minute commute to work that takes me along a route where T-Mobile service drops off for a minute or two. During this gap in coverage, the phone switches to Sprint. I experience one brief moment of Sprint coverage, and then lose that as well (mountainous area). At this point, the phone should search for Sprint service for a few more seconds and then attempt to switch back to T-Mobile. Instead, it stays on Sprint and will continue to do so for the rest of my commute. I have Sprint LTE coverage at my job, but it's the return trip back home that results in my phone sometimes having no service elongated periods of time. Many times I'll look down at my phone while out to dinner after work or something and notice I have no service and haven't for some time. It's simply stuck on Sprint mode instead of switching.
This has forced me to pay for and download FiSwitch on the Play Store. I'm not too upset about this, but I feel like it'd be a bit of fun to maybe try to modify the logic in Fi's networking switching. Now, I don't know if it's possible to actually modify the logic, or where the actual logic resides. But perhaps writing a script or something in Tasker or Trigger could suffice.
The Correct Way to Handle Network Switching?
There are many different areas of coverage and every situation is unique. But I feel like there is some piece of code in there that prevents the phone from constantly switching between Tmo and Sprint. I also understand that this is extremely new, unique and is a work in progress, as Fi hasn't even been out for a year. But if others also experience this issue, perhaps we can find a way to mitigate the problem of the phone getting stuck on one carrier and not switching to another.
Luckily, I have a lot of free time at my job, so I drew up a quick flowchart to show how I'd like to handle carrier switching.
For you savvy coders out there, this would just be a series of conditional statements, which are extremely easy to write, implement and test. Assuming I can't actually modify the logic written somewhere into the phone or the Project Fi app, I'm going to have to make a script or something perhaps in tasker. I can use dialer codes to force the phone to switch to a different carrier, just like FiSwitch does. I feel like it'd be pretty easy to implement, but I'm not sure if it's even possible.
Has anyone else experienced frustration with Fi's carrier switching? I want to know if this is just an isolated case because of topography of my area (Suburban valley, slightly mountainous) or if this is an issue experienced by users elsewhere as well.
I don't appear to have your switching problems. If I loose T-Mobile, it'll switch to Sprint. If I loose Sprint, it'll switch to T-Mobile. If I'm on Sprint's 3G, it'll switch to T-Mobile as soon as possible (available).
I'm using the beta Android N, but I don't remember there being a problem with switching when I was on MM. There could have been, I just don't remember.
Fi stays on whatever carrier has a higher quality signal, and more reliable! More bars doesn't necessarily mean a better quality signal! "QUALITY"is what i want if sprint with 2 bars is stronger and faster than tmo with 4 bars than i want sprint! Whatever's better! I'm sure the fi team spent countless hours and $$$ on developing this software, code, service whatever you wanna call it
hilla_killa said:
Fi stays on whatever carrier has a higher quality signal, and more reliable! More bars doesn't necessarily mean a better quality signal! "QUALITY"is what i want if sprint with 2 bars is stronger and faster than tmo with 4 bars than i want sprint! Whatever's better! I'm sure the fi team spent countless hours and $$$ on developing this software, code, service whatever you wanna call it
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That's their claim. But the Fi support forum has many posts from people where this does not happen. Here's a typical example where the phone switches from one to another, then stays on the weak carrier.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/project-fi/ucFRJiKp4Co;context-place=forum/project-fi
I've seen others where the guy and his wife both had 6Ps and his would change to the good network at home, but hers would stay on the weak one.
I noticed myself that even though Tmobile has good coverage at my house, when I forced my phone onto Sprint just to verify it could connect, that it stayed on Sprint even though the signal was barely there. I left it to see if it would switch, but it didn't until sometime overnight. I also once was in a parking lot while trying to see if it would switch automatically and it got down to no connection on Sprint. I rebooted and it connected to 4 bars on Tmobile.
My experience was when I was first on the service. Since then, as far as I know it works ok. My phone is always on Tmobile except in extremely rare instances where it'll switch. Which makes sense where I live in Southern California, because Sprint has always been awful, while Tmobile has added lots more towers recently. The only times it was switched on its own was on the subway (yes there is one here), and at the airport in a certain lounge. I knew from experience that there's no Tmobile signal there, except Tmobile wifi calling would work on the wifi. Last time there, it connected to Sprint on its own, though the signal was weak. But both of those times, it correctly switched back to the much better Tmobile connection on its own.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one with this issue. I'm currently working on a Tasker profile to mitigate this issue. Will take some time to test and perfect, however. I'm still new to Tasker, so there's a lot of trial and error going on here. I wish I could just write something in c++ or JavaScript and have it handle this task instead. I'd be done already lol.
Alcolawl said:
I wish I could just write something in c++ or JavaScript and have it handle this task instead. I'd be done already lol.
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Why can't you? The source code is available, isn't it? A daemon can't be written to load on boot, poll for the strongest signal (at an interval) and switch when a stronger signal is present?
Voicebox said:
I noticed myself that even though Tmobile has good coverage at my house, when I forced my phone onto Sprint just to verify it could connect, that it stayed on Sprint even though the signal was barely there.
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That's normal, if you use the dialer codes or apps to force it to a single carrier, it will stay on that carrier until you run the dialer code to re-enable auto switching.
geoff5093 said:
That's normal, if you use the dialer codes or apps to force it to a single carrier, it will stay on that carrier until you run the dialer code to re-enable auto switching.
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I forgot to add that to my post. I ran the dialer code to switch, then dialer code to set back to auto. Which is why it switched on its own sometime overnight. When I was in the parking lot, the reason I rebooted was because I wasn't even sure there was a Tmobile signal since I assumed absolutely no Sprint signal would have triggered it.
Voicebox said:
I forgot to add that to my post. I ran the dialer code to switch, then dialer code to set back to auto. Which is why it switched on its own sometime overnight. When I was in the parking lot, the reason I rebooted was because I wasn't even sure there was a Tmobile signal since I assumed absolutely no Sprint signal would have triggered it.
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Howdy -
FWIW - I believe the forced-carrier-switch-by-dialer-code "expires" over time... I am not really sure on that window, but it doesn't seem to stick after a reboot anyway, and I've heard folks say things revert to the "auto" scenario after a couple hours.
Also - FiSwitch happens to be my little tinkering/learning project... I'm not sure I can be of any help but I'd be willing to try I know there is a way to use FiSwitch via Tasker, though that may be a bit redundant if you can fire off the dialer codes without it... just thought I'd toss that out there anyway!
I'm having the same problem. Project Fi worked perfectly on my Nexus 6P but the service has been terrible since I got a Pixel XL. Fi will switch me to Sprint and leave me with no bars for hours unless I manually switch to T-Mobile and then I will get full bars. The network switching actually does work--but it seems to do so very poorly, at least on this particular phone. Fi support has been no help at all.
Btw the dialer code command does expire over time. Even when I manually switch to T-Mobile if I go out for a drive the network will switch to Sprint at some point, regardless of the strength of the Sprint signal.
Related
Hey guys, I just wanted to see if anyone else is having a longer waiting period with the Rogers 3G network lately or if it is just me. I've been noticing that my phone has slowed down quite a bit when browsing the internet or using an application that requires data on the 3G network. My wi-fi is fine, just the 3G. It takes between 45 secs to 1 minute to retreive the information. I had called Rogers and asked them to reset or refresh or whatever they do down there, but didn't seem to help.
Now if it is just my phone, maybe it is some application that is using up the processor or data, but I don't have that many applications running in the background other than weatherbug that constantly uses data.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks
What happens if you run a speedtest? the app by Xtremelabs is good.
no issue here. i use mine on a daily basis between pickering and mississauga, and as long as i have at least 2 bars of signal strength my magic is very fast over 3g
Thanks guys for the quick response. I think I found the problem. I had called Rogers support again and they said that it is due to my sim card being a 2G one. I need to replace it with a 3G. Hopefully that will fix the problem.
Thanks
I too have been having internet/email issues since last Thursday using my Treo 750. The symbol toggles between 3G and H and usually does nothing but comes back with an error message saying something like 'cannot find this page...'. I travel between Oakville and Concord every day with the same issues. The phone worked perfectly in Brantford last night...so I don't think it's a hardware issue. The tech support guy grabbed a treo and tried and was able to connect on EDGE....not 3G.
I tried my sim card in my sons Motorola Risr and it works perfectly....on EDGE. They tech support guy said they were having issues with 3G last Thurs/Friday, so I'm wondering if whatever they did last week is affecting some older phone models (I've had mine for 1 1/2 years now). Not sure if I can (or if I want to) configure my treo to connect via EDGE instead of 3G...
Anyone having the same problem?
Very odd indeed. I got my new sim card but still doesn't fix my problem. At least I'm not the only one experiencing the same problem. As far as I know, the 3G and H symbol are he same thing according to rogers tech guy, correct me if I am wrong. I'm going to call again today to see if I come up with anything.
Just got off the phone with Tech Support again. They are sending me a new Sim Card, but from the sounds of it, that's probably not going to fix the problem. He WAS going to do a free hardware swap until he discovered the phone is out of warranty. Then it was basically "oh gee, three year contract, one year warranty...tough luck".
Yep, the G and H are the same thing. Since mine is switching back and forth, he said the phone is hunting for a signal.
When I asked why the phone worked perfectly in another city he couldn't give me a good answer. I have to go back to Brantford tonight, so I'll get a chance to repeat the experiment.
Listen folks. It has nothing to do with your SIM card, nor your phone. The reps at rogers, I for one, ASSUME it could be the sim card, but really, most of the reps cannot differentiate an incompatible SIM with a compatible one, so they send you out a new one anyways, just to get you off the phone because they really don't know what the cause is and they have no hands on the status of the networks and network problems other than what is posted in library by the actual IT department, which do not directly communicate with the centers.
To sum it up. Rogers 3G network is garbage! and that DNS issue is not isolated to the metro area, it's here too in Newfoundland. DNS resolution is extremely slow, even with OpenDNS, which means it's their switches that are garbage and most likely being bogged down. Rogers thinks they had solved the problem by throttling the 3G bandwidth to ~3Mbit and the upstream to less than 150K, (My assumption), however, that isn't working.
From my guess is that the request is sent to Rogers networks, which cache that request then caches the pages and sends it to your device, making it appear you have a fast connection.
Anyways, sometimes I find the EDGE network a lot faster..especially in the DNS resolution area.
"It has nothing to do with your SIM card, nor your phone"
My feeling exactly. It just seems a little too coincidental that everything was just fine until they had a network "issue" late last week.
So, being a mechanical guy with very little knowledge of how a these things actually work, is there a way for me force the treo750 to use the EDGE network?
Never mind, I got a hold of a guy at Rogers who seemed to know his stuff. He told me to get the latest OS from Palm and then how to go in and set it up for EDGE. We'll see how that works.
lotacus said:
Listen folks. It has nothing to do with your SIM card, nor your phone. The reps at rogers, I for one, ASSUME it could be the sim card, but really, most of the reps cannot differentiate an incompatible SIM with a compatible one, so they send you out a new one anyways, just to get you off the phone because they really don't know what the cause is and they have no hands on the status of the networks and network problems other than what is posted in library by the actual IT department, which do not directly communicate with the centers.
To sum it up. Rogers 3G network is garbage! and that DNS issue is not isolated to the metro area, it's here too in Newfoundland. DNS resolution is extremely slow, even with OpenDNS, which means it's their switches that are garbage and most likely being bogged down. Rogers thinks they had solved the problem by throttling the 3G bandwidth to ~3Mbit and the upstream to less than 150K, (My assumption), however, that isn't working.
From my guess is that the request is sent to Rogers networks, which cache that request then caches the pages and sends it to your device, making it appear you have a fast connection.
Anyways, sometimes I find the EDGE network a lot faster..especially in the DNS resolution area.
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I love ripping on Rogers for being crap, they are, but the network is downtown Toronto is far from crap. And it is not throttled. I have had repeated speedtests reach 3900kb/s with the average around 3100kb/s. Thats not too bad considering the crap they put up with in the states on AT&T.
bcrook said:
I love ripping on Rogers for being crap, they are, but the network is downtown Toronto is far from crap. And it is not throttled. I have had repeated speedtests reach 3900kb/s with the average around 3100kb/s. Thats not too bad considering the crap they put up with in the states on AT&T.
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True, compared to the 3G in the U.S I would agree that Rogers has an edge, 3G here in Newfoundland is still in it's infancy, well still is everywhere. We just got 3G last winter I believe.
what newfoundland has 3G?
now hell really has frozen over (ha)
Im from dildo bay
Any way to accomplish this?
I need this BAD too! Reception at work is god awfull. Please help! SOS
What does your user name mean? Natural light or natty boh light?
Please someone make an app to turn on/off roaming; I'm willing to pay money for it (and I'm sure a lot of people are willing to do so too).......
LOL if it were this easy.......
Roaming is of no use to me but I always like to look in to issues that people are having. I grep'd what code we have available to us for our phones and the only two options I came across were:
ro.com.android.dataroaming = true
xml: name="sync_while_roaming">false
So all I can tell you is that I can control whether it roams or not (which can also be easily changed in our settings menu) but not to force it to roam. I googled if it was possible in android at all and couldn't find any results.
Do you know what towers are around you or what towers we can roam on? I wonder if it would be possible to hack in a verizon rom dump from eris and force it to roam on their towers. However that won't allow you to come back to Sprint. And Sprint has been known to cancel contracts of people who roam too much.
has anyone tried to update the PRL to a verizon PRL?? I tried it, but i'm not sure how successful it was, as both Sprint and Verizon signals are strong in my area.. Put the PRL on the SD card and use ##PRL# to update it..
flipzmode said:
Roaming is of no use to me but I always like to look in to issues that people are having. I grep'd what code we have available to us for our phones and the only two options I came across were:
ro.com.android.dataroaming = true
xml: name="sync_while_roaming">false
So all I can tell you is that I can control whether it roams or not (which can also be easily changed in our settings menu) but not to force it to roam. I googled if it was possible in android at all and couldn't find any results.
Do you know what towers are around you or what towers we can roam on? I wonder if it would be possible to hack in a verizon rom dump from eris and force it to roam on their towers. However that won't allow you to come back to Sprint. And Sprint has been known to cancel contracts of people who roam too much.
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Click to collapse
The towers around me are Verizon towers. Yeah, I undestand that (Sprint has been known to cancel contracts of people who roam too much) and I don't want to Roam all the time, just here at work. The phone is mostly on roaming while at work but is is continually searching for a Sprint tower and that drains the battery so fast! The only workaround for me is to set the phone to airplane mode until about the last three hours of work but then even when the phone is turned on it constantly tries to switch to a very weak sprint signal and I keep losing connection just about every 2 or 3 minutes, so using the phone in work is practically useless for me right now
@mroneeyedboh: Natural Light. My ode to cheap beer.
One area I frequent has a weak Sprint signal, and a "decent" Verizon signal. It would take "excessive" roaming, for 3 consecutive months for Sprint to flag you for abuse. So you have some breathing room. I remember my G1 had an option to manually select the network available. However, I'm not entirely sure that having a network option isn't just a customary feature of a GSM device, and not Android specifically, since its obviously compatible world wide.
I have the same exact situation at work where I get no signal on sprint but it tries to find it draining the battery and preventing it from using the very good verizon signal. I had to force it to EVDO only just to be able to check my gmail and confirm my XDA forum registration since webmail is blocked at work. This the kind of thing I bought this phone for to always have access to my email. Switching to EVDO Only mode is really cumbersome and annoying, and still gives a bad although slightly better signal. If I forget to switch it back to allow 1x Data, I can't use SMS and when I call sprint it hangs up immediately unless I switch it back on. I would use very minimal time data and voice roaming compared to my outside of building data and voice use as I'm sure is the case for most people with bad sprint coverage inside buildings.
Greefus said:
I have the same exact situation at work where I get no signal on sprint but it tries to find it draining the battery and preventing it from using the very good verizon signal. I had to force it to EVDO only just to be able to check my gmail and confirm my XDA forum registration since webmail is blocked at work. This the kind of thing I bought this phone for to always have access to my email. Switching to EVDO Only mode is really cumbersome and annoying, and still gives a bad although slightly better signal. If I forget to switch it back to allow 1x Data, I can't use SMS and when I call sprint it hangs up immediately unless I switch it back on. I would use very minimal time data and voice roaming compared to my outside of building data and voice use as I'm sure is the case for most people with bad sprint coverage inside buildings.
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There is a widget in the market to switch 3g on and off. can't remember the name.
Anyone who's more knowledgeable than me, can please tell me if by changing anything in the ## menus, (like ##diag# or ##data#), can we force the phone to roam? (I'm asking because I just got the MSL number out of my device and now can change any of those settings).
TIA.
daveli said:
Anyone who's more knowledgeable than me, can please tell me if by changing anything in the ## menus, (like ##diag# or ##data#), can we force the phone to roam? (I'm asking because I just got the MSL number out of my device and now can change any of those settings).
TIA.
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Click to collapse
Sorry, can't help you. I interested in this thread, so I'm bumping it.
This sounds like something the CDMA radio manages. I'm not familiar with the lower level processes and configurations on Android, but this might be part of a closed source process. I don't know if Android is supposed to have such a thing?
You could try setting the Home SID/NID to the SID/NID of the tower where you work, and then set the phone to Sprint Only. This in theory should force the phone to stay on the roaming tower, but I'm not sure if this will override the PRL. Probably not.
Subscribing... I would give anything for this. I got this shiny new hero and can't use it at my house. It was so awesome that I kept it. A friend can sit next to me on verizon and get almost a full signal.
I have tried the GV + Sipsorcery + sipdroid thing to make and receive calls over wifi but it is so unreliable. If I could just switch to use the roaming verizon tower by my house I could justify keeping this thing.
I am new to android development, but not new to development, linux, or java. So I will probably investigate this more.
flexgrip said:
Subscribing... I would give anything for this. I got this shiny new hero and can't use it at my house. It was so awesome that I kept it. A friend can sit next to me on verizon and get almost a full signal.
I have tried the GV + Sipsorcery + sipdroid thing to make and receive calls over wifi but it is so unreliable. If I could just switch to use the roaming verizon tower by my house I could justify keeping this thing.
I am new to android development, but not new to development, linux, or java. So I will probably investigate this more.
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Click to collapse
Anyone looking into what someone else found? That he was able to force roam the Hero?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=616405
I am hopefull
Apart from force roaming does anyone know of an app that would let you manually select your towers (or a built in way to do it).
I don't want to force roaming actually, I just want to switch to the verizon tower near my house so I can use my phone at home. I don't want to do it anywhere else. Just once instance.
I had a junk nokia a long time ago and it even had an app that let you manually select your tower and gave me all the serial/id info about it. What is the next closest think on android for this?
flexgrip said:
I don't want to force roaming actually, I just want to switch to the verizon tower near my house so I can use my phone at home. I don't want to do it anywhere else. Just once instance.
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Click to collapse
That is, by definition, force roaming.
Oh, you're right, but what I meant was that I don't want to be anywhere and kick myself off the sprint towers onto any other tower using an app or setting. I just meant in one location I would like to switch to a defined tower. There is a big difference between an app that lets you select your network towers and another that forces your phone off of sprint onto any roaming tower. But thanks for a helpful post.
As far as the CDMA hero goes, is there anything helpful in the radio updates that might lead to controlling the network selection? I am wrapping some projects up this week and I do not care to dig through the source to see if a quick app is possible.
I'm pretty sure you should NOT mess with the radio...
flexgrip said:
Subscribing... I would give anything for this. I got this shiny new hero and can't use it at my house. It was so awesome that I kept it. A friend can sit next to me on verizon and get almost a full signal.
I have tried the GV + Sipsorcery + sipdroid thing to make and receive calls over wifi but it is so unreliable. If I could just switch to use the roaming verizon tower by my house I could justify keeping this thing.
I am new to android development, but not new to development, linux, or java. So I will probably investigate this more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or, you could call customer care, and tell them that you get no service at home, and require an AIRAVE. They sent me one free, and waived the 4.99 month charge. Just explain to them, you need your phone, you have small kids or whatever, you need service in your home.
AIRAVE is the best thing ever. I went from no service in my house, to 5 bars at all times, who cares if its only 1X, I can still make and receive calls, and have WiFi for my data needs.
First off, I have NOT made ANY attempt to use the phone as a WiFi hotspot, and I do NOT live in a 4G area, so don't tell me that's my problem and send me on my way
About 11am PDT today my phone started giving me Error Code 67 (Data Call Failure) whenever I try to access the internet or data services from my office (my office has an 850 MHz repeater so I roam in the office). When I am outside or not in my office and the phone picks up a Sprint signal, everything is fine. As soon as I come back inside and my phone switches to roaming, Error Code 67. I've had two calls with Sprint so far...They're updating the provisioning servers or some such thing at the moment and are going to call me back when that's completed.
Has anyone else experienced this today or recently and if so did you find a resolution? I can't easily take the phone back to where I bought it and have them fiddle with it in person as that's 100 mi away.
Thanks!
I've had the same issue too. See it mostly when traveling and the signal strength changes. Not to much when I'm in one spot.
It's quite annoying. I turn the display off and on hoping to pick the signal back up. Makes me think it is a Sprint network problem especially since I've now confirmed someone else has the problem too.
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Well, they've got me fixed up again. Also while I was on the phone the gentleman helping me out received an interoffice message stating a server responsible for doing profile updates (Device Configuration message) on the EVO had gone down, so they're failing right now.
I have been getting it as well. I thought it was the roaming hack but I don't believe that is the case. Think it's just something on Sprints network.
I have gotten it too on both of my EVO's....I guess it's not just me
engagedtosmile said:
I have been getting it as well. I thought it was the roaming hack but I don't believe that is the case. Think it's just something on Sprints network.
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Yeah I read through that whole thread and it seems a fair amount of people have had this happen today. And as I wrote in that thread some service at Sprint related to sending out new PRLs and profiles to our phones went down as well.
I had the same problem yesterday my 3g suddenly went out with the 67 error but 4g still worked. I called sprint and they reset something on their end and after programming itself it w.ent away and my 3g data speed saw a nice speedbump
I've had this issue a few times with my Evo. Every time it has happened to me, I've had little or no signal.
What I think is happening is that the phone begins to authenticate itself with the data servers but then I lose reception, which causes the authentication to fail, hence the error message.
I _think_ I've had this happen on my Hero too.
yeah, (don't quote me on this, i may be wrong) i think error 67 is in regards to no data hookup, and if your phone is set to not get data during roaming, or to dilly dally about it (maybe roam guard?) (check settings > wireless and networks > mobile networks), it'll give you that error
I too had this issue for a while today. It was annoying the crap out of me.
same thing happened to me today, for some reason i wasn't able to get anything but a weak roaming signal at work all day. i called sprint, they wiped my phone and i still wasn't able to do the profile/prl update. i was able to do it once i left the building, of course i had to start with a blank slate on the phone. i'm hoping that after the updates i get a better signal in the building, otherwise i can't keep the phone and will have to return it for a (gag) iphone. after 3 days with a vastly superior OS that would be a tough thing to do.
Mine is def. not the Roam settings... That's the first thing I do is turn off Roam guard, call guard, special roam ring...etc. due to me having almost no signal at work.
I had this issue when I changed to the Alltel PRL. I rebooted, then ran the PRL update. It took a while to do, but once it got the Sprint PRL everything was fine.
-Midnigh7-
I had the same issue yesterday around the same time as the OP. Seems that maybe Sprint was having issues. Anyway, phone is back working and roaming today and even roaming 3G in the DC metro which is Verizon and was never Alltel AFAIK, so that's cool. Actually, some stations have Sprint in them, but others are Verizon and I had 3G Roaming in them today, so I was pleasently surprised, hope it sticks.
Hey guys,
I'm here because my Mom recently switched to Tmobile and while things do work, she is having an issue with dropped calls. The APNs are set correctly, she has data service, I've set the "network mode" to LTE/GSM so it shouldn't be trying to connect to the CDMA network. What could be causing this? She's about ready to buy a new phone, but I know there has to be a solution to this. The phone works, and granted it's her phone not mine so I can't say for sure exactly what's going on when it happens but she claims it happens ALL the time (7 dropped calls in a single conversation with someone) and I can't imagine why it would/should happen at all. What's the solution here? I'd like to keep her on stock firmware if possible, but if necessary I can either root and/or flash cyanogenmod.
If it were my phone I'd first root, try that, see how it goes, then try CM, see if that does it... but she's not going to put up with that back and forth and repeated wipes. She's just going to get annoyed and buy a new phone despite the one she has being just fine. It MUST be somewhere in the software. I'm not sure if it's trying to switch to CDMA before realizing it can't, or if maybe it has something to do with VoLTE trying to kick in and connect to Verizon.
I'm pretty proficient with this stuff (been modding my Nexus' for years) so I can follow directions pretty easily, but I do need a pointer in the right direction because I can't figure out what's going on with this custom Verizon crap... Thanks!
Probably a non-issue, but is her cell signal strength really low?
We recently did the same thing - moved Verizon S5 to T-Mobile, but my wife has had no dropped calls. Her signal actually is better on TMO than VZW (hence the switch). Our TMO rep set the APN and network mode like you mentioned, so that shouldn't be your issue.
Verizon VoLTE shouldn't be a problem either since you have a TMO SIM, its not even connection to the CDMA towers.
Can anyone suggest the best way to test cell signal on the S7 Edge? My wife and I both have the same phone, but hers consistently seems to report more bars in the same location. I've had calls drop quite often on the first dial and then they stay connected the second time I call. I'm looking to test both phones and see if it's all in my head or if there really is an issue with my device. Any help would be appreciated on an app to use or other way to test the two phones. Thanks.
did you try phone info fromthe play store.
under monitor it will tell your signal strength. I believe through its service menu you also preform a signal test.
Yeah, but those numbers don't mean anything to me. Other than saying moderate for level, it doesn't say much.
Edit: My wife is not home right now, so maybe I'll install this on both phones and see if there is a difference in the same location;. Just wondering what options are out there for testing.
when you look i phone info under signal strength the number tells how good your calling capability is,
It is measured in dBm.
average should be should be around -101 dBm for full bars depending on your provider.
compare it with your wife's signal strength.
Keep in mind that software plays a part, please check that base band version and csc is the same.
Different base bands and csc means that signal strength can vary.
These should be identical as these two items communicate with your phone provider re reception and transmission.
Phones are both stock. Same provider and same software version. I'm pretty sure I've got reception issues because of the dropped calls. Like I said, she's not home right now to test, but in looking at bars previously, she always seems to have more bars in the same location as me. My phone in our condo here is always around -111 to -120 (LTE). That is right on the cusp of bad from what I can tell. Not sure where to go from here. Really don't want to do a factory reset, but I've read it can help clear up problems like this. Not sure how. Might be a lemon, as I've only had the device since February.
i suggest you call your provider and ask them to reset your phone on their system.
It might cause a difference because of flushing out of any information that may have been related to issues on your account.
Cosmic Blue said:
i suggest you call your provider and ask them to reset your phone on their system.
It might cause a difference because of flushing out of any information that may have been related to issues on your account.
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Hmmmm...not sure what this is or what it would do. Never heard of such a thing.
Just got another dropped call. Signal was about -114. I placed a call. While it was connecting, the signal went to about -130 and then to -102 and then dropped. On a second attempt, the signal went to -97 and it connected fine.
Normally when you call your provider to report a problem with your phone.
One of the things they do is to reset your account in case there is an issue in your file as well as doing other tests.
It is similar to you cleaning the cache on your phone from time to time as bits and piece of old files then to slow down your phone.
Try to swap the SIM cards and check what happens.
So this is an older thread, but the issue had been ongoing. Lots of things tried. New sim. Called Rogers (my provider here in Canada) and had them reset mobile connection settings on their end. Tried resetting on my end. Seemed to get better and then back to being an issue again.
Lately it had gotten worse. When I would drive home and park in our parking garage, I would immediately go into roaming mode and was no longer connected to the Rogers network. I was then connected to Rogers-EXT because I had enabled data roaming on my device, from a previous call to Rogers, it was their suggestion to try and keep connectivity, as it is included in my package. The phone would stay roaming as I rode the elevator and into my condo and then usually connect to WiFi and then eventually reconnect to the main Rogers network. Meanwhile this never happened on my wife's S7 Edge, going the same route from her vehicle. Same device, exact same settings, same software version, same updates, etc. Her's never entered roaming mode or got disconnected from the main Rogers network.
Lately, when mine had been entering roaming mode and after I entered my condo, it would stay connected to Rogers-EXT. No matter what I did, a reboot, turn roaming on and off, etc. I had to physically remove myself from the LTE network and then reconnect and register with the network, and then I would connect to the main Rogers network and stop roaming. This was all getting damn frustrating, especially since the same thing was not happening to my wife's phone.
One setting I had not read much about and had not tried was VoLTE. I went into settings and turned this off. I immediately started getting a bit better readings on signal strength as well as no roaming issues any longer at all. I could park, ride the elevator and get into my condo and stay connected to the main Rogers network without issue, exactly like my wife's phone. Funny thing is, VoLTE is ON, on my wife's phone.
I really have no idea why her's works and mine doesn't, other than a hardware issue on my device. I thought about sending my phone in, as I'm still under warranty until the end of December, but right now, everything is working as expected and I haven't heard call quality suffer at all, with the calls I've made so far. I really didn't want to have to wipe my device and send it in and deal with a loaner if I didn't have to. I only plan on keep the device until about August of next year anyway.
If anyone out there knows of why this was happening to my device and not hers or if you have any other suggestions as to how to fix this and re-enable VoLTE (although I don't think it's really that important), please let me know. Again, it sure seems like a hardware (antenna) issue to me.
Aaaaaaaaand nevermind. Worked fine for about 3 days and today it was roaming again after coming up from the parking garage. Ugh. Wish I knew for sure this was a hardware issue. Such a pain to send your phone in, use a loaner, set your phone all up again when you get it back.