Database Users

[Q] The moment I get to my door... NO SIGNAL

So I got the Nexus S yesterday and LOVE everything about it.
I'm unable to get any acceptable reception inside my apartment (on the lowest level of a three story complex thats surrounded by other apartments).
I live in Hermosa Beach, CA and TMO says I have good coverage here... and they're right... because once i walk outside I'm blazing... like literally once I'm outside my door... what gives??? How can I go from 3G 4 bars lit up in green to that stupid EDGE with one bar... lucky to be green... or no reception at all.
Will I be stuck with not being able to use my phone inside my apartment? I called TMO and they are sending someone out here to check the reception I guess... but I'm stuck using WiFi inside my apartment without being able to use the phone.
Anyone else experience similar issues like that? My sprint phone never did this.

look into getting a signal repeater or something

T-Mobile definitely has issues penetrating buildings, in my opinion. Both my home and one of the two work-sites I frequent are almost dead-zones on T-Mo.
I purchased one of those zBoost cell repeaters for my home, which greatly improves reception, but you need to be able to run a cable to an outside antenna for best results.
Here's an Amazon link for a starting point to different models: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=mobile&field-keywords=zboost+tmobile&x=0&y=0
That said, it's ridiculous to have to pay $250 to get your cell signal. I only did it because the one I got does both AT&T and T-Mo frequencies (not T-Mo 3G, though) and my AT&T phones can get signal inside the house, but just barely.

I too have issues in buildings not necessarily my house but businesses

This is a T-Mobile issue. Not a nexus issue. Also is not a new issue.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

cpcrazyfly said:
This is a T-Mobile issue. Not a nexus issue. Also is not a new issue.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically correct, but if the Nexus S is your first T-Mobile phone, you might not know this. It would be easy to think the NS has a poor antenna. It's a valid question to ask, in my opinion.

redhatyellow said:
So I got the Nexus S yesterday and LOVE everything about it.
I'm unable to get any acceptable reception inside my apartment (on the lowest level of a three story complex thats surrounded by other apartments).
I live in Hermosa Beach, CA and TMO says I have good coverage here... and they're right... because once i walk outside I'm blazing... like literally once I'm outside my door... what gives??? How can I go from 3G 4 bars lit up in green to that stupid EDGE with one bar... lucky to be green... or no reception at all.
Will I be stuck with not being able to use my phone inside my apartment? I called TMO and they are sending someone out here to check the reception I guess... but I'm stuck using WiFi inside my apartment without being able to use the phone.
Anyone else experience similar issues like that? My sprint phone never did this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is just a fundamental issue with the frequencies t-mobile uses for their 3g network, 1700 and 2100mHz. Those have poor building penetration vs for example lower bands like the 850mHz on ATT which penetrates buildings much stronger. It requires them to build towers closer together but that isn't always possible, its hard enough to get towers up as it is.
This is one reason I've tried to stay on ATT 3g as their 3g band performs much better in these situations, when its available.

distortedloop said:
T-Mobile definitely has issues penetrating buildings, in my opinion. Both my home and one of the two work-sites I frequent are almost dead-zones on T-Mo.
I purchased one of those zBoost cell repeaters for my home, which greatly improves reception, but you need to be able to run a cable to an outside antenna for best results.
Here's an Amazon link for a starting point to different models:
That said, it's ridiculous to have to pay $250 to get your cell signal. I only did it because the one I got does both AT&T and T-Mo frequencies (not T-Mo 3G, though) and my AT&T phones can get signal inside the house, but just barely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you think TMO will provide this for me? Have people got TMO to do this before?
And yeah, I know this isn't a NS issue... I LOVE THE NS -- MY FAV PHONE OF ALL TIME!!, but i am new to TMO and love them as well EXCEPT for inside my house !!
Has anyone ever got TMO to provide better reception inside their home?? You would think they would provide people with like wireless routers for their homes!

I had the G1, Nexus One, G2, and MT4G before the Nexus S and have to say that the Nexus S gets hands down the best reception in my apartment.
The G1 was worthless, the N1, G2, and MT4G were pretty much on par but only got reception in certain parts of the apartment which means I couldn't move very much when on the phone (unless when on wifi calling of course).
The Nexus S has reception everywhere in my apartment with superior call quality throughout. Very impressed with it so far. T-mobile still sucks inside buildings but you're better off with the Nexus S than other T-mobile devices.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

find another place lol
why you are living deep down under. afraid of nuke or something ?

Also, I live in Los Angeles and we've been having lots of rain here... will that affect reception at all?
And what about femtocell technology? Does TMO use it??

redhatyellow said:
Also, I live in Los Angeles and we've been having lots of rain here... will that affect reception at all?
And what about femtocell technology? Does TMO use it??
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Im about an hour away from you and the rain is horrible but i havent had any issues...
and I dont think they do

LOL! I cannot stop laughing reading this comment
ll_l_x_l_ll said:
find another place lol
why you are living deep down under. afraid of nuke or something ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Rain seems to be affecting my T mobile service, I'm in the valley and areas I normally get 3g on have been edge or no service since the rain storms began.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Hopefully someone will port the tmobile wifi app to the nexus s. I may return mine and wait for it because I don't want to keep switching phones at home because one has the ability for wifi calling and the other doesnt.
Also I have tried sip calling to no avail on both nexuses.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Rain is known to sometimes cause interference with reception; I notice this as well in NYC. I have noticed that the Nexus S is pretty good at keeping the signal alive, certainly better than my N1 or Vibrant.
To improve your reception, set the phone to airplane mode and then turn it off a few seconds later to get the closest towers. Also call 611 and ask them to reset your phone on the network from their end. Surprisingly, this sometimes does help. As someone said previously, the higher the band (2100 mhz for Tmo 3G), the worse penetration is unfortunately. I think Tmo stopped selling their repeaters earlier this year or last year (hotspot @ home).

I tweeted on Sunday my dissatisfaction with T-Mobile service. I was 75' outside one of their own stores in an area marked as 3G on their maps, couldn't get data at all inside another store, couldn't get better than EDGE outside in the parking lot.
Their reply was to try a new SIM. The SIM I have is from my N1 original, it's not even a year old. Anyone think it's worth the effort swapping? Do SIMS actually "wear out" that fast?
I suspect that's one of those "we don't really have an answer or fix, but give the customer something to try so we look proactive" kind of answers. LOL

have you tried setting up SIP + GVoice over Wifi?
This doesn't resolve the tmobile issue, but at least you can make and receive calls on wifi without eating up your minutes...
It's not ideal, but it works.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877879

My friend had this problem with his ATT phones. He contacted them, *****ed, and they set up one of those repeaters in his apartment. He's the only one that could log into it and set up a filter to use only phones he registers. Maybe you can talk to Tmobile about this, though I'm not sure if they're eager to give everyone these things (or if Tmobile even gives them).

Radio Bands

Just got 2 s4's and signal strength lower in house than my htc one s
i checked default bands and set to lte/gsm
changed to lte/gsm/cdma preferred and better dl speeds
is there a best setting
i obviously need to do more testing in other locations, just curious

It all depends on where you are and what equipment is on the towers you happen to be around at any given time. Also, like you just found out, some devices will get better reception than others. It's just something that you have to play around with on your own to see what works best for you.
I'm with Sprint, which in my area completely SUCKS. I hate Sprint and am seriously considering paying the etf to switch to AT&T (which in my area gets LTE almost everywhere). What I'm getting at is when I'm around my home I turn 4G off. When I get a couple of miles out I'll turn it back on if I need to, then when getting around our downtown area when going to work I'll turn it back off.

well i put it back to default. will recheck coverage maps. tmo was bad here too, in valley. but, i think they were improving cells getting ready for lte here. that was when my signal got better. before that it was bad also.
really need to check work and the real bad areas I had were tmo's coverage was real bad even on map.

Where is this setting? I'm getting no signal indoors unlike my previous phone which got near-full signal. Weird thing is that I kind of remember getting a better signal when I first got the phone. Seems to have gotten worse.

yeahmann said:
Where is this setting? I'm getting no signal indoors unlike my previous phone which got near-full signal. Weird thing is that I kind of remember getting a better signal when I first got the phone. Seems to have gotten worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*#*#4636#*#*
Tao on Device Info
scroll down to Set Preferred Network
let us know what works best for you

rugmankc said:
Just got 2 s4's and signal strength lower in house than my htc one s
i checked default bands and set to lte/gsm
changed to lte/gsm/cdma preferred and better dl speeds
is there a best setting
i obviously need to do more testing in other locations, just curious
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Setting it to that is NOT improving anything...... do you even know what CDMA is? This phone does not have any CDMA bands.... CDMA is what sprint, Verizon, and us cellular run on setting it yk that won't improve anything...
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium

hyelton said:
Setting it to that is NOT improving anything...... do you even know what CDMA is? This phone does not have any CDMA bands.... CDMA is what sprint, Verizon, and us cellular run on setting it yk that won't improve anything...
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Yes, I know what cdma is and who has it--
Just saying when changing bands it improved quite a bit, could be many reasons. Also, I am comparing signal strength in same spot with tmo and att. Two different carriers. I am sure they can have different readings in same area. So, until I test the areas were I really need the better coverage and att map says it should be there in those areas, I won't know if it the radio or not. The only reason I swithched was to get better coverage in my business appt areas. Where I live and am currently testing att shows solid 4g.
Actually today no real difference, I seem to do a little better at first. But, it is defaulting back to lte/gsm. So, will just give it some time and see how other areas do. Was just curious if anyone had tried other bands. I may do great where I need it.
Thanks,
Mod can close this thread--

I actually have to force WCDMA only in one area constantly get between no service and service if I don't.

hyelton said:
I actually have to force WCDMA only in one area constantly get between no service and service if I don't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it can make a diff. But, shouldn't have to do it. I will report how i do in other areas of Dayton over the next few days. Haven't left house today. Yard work.
I hope as lte rolls out here, things will improve like tmo did.

Doesn't make a difference. I have to swap phones or something. Signal is so weak, it's unusable. Most of the time I'm getting no signal at all. I haven't had full bars yet anywhere!

That doesn't sound good. Today I went to store we shop at about 20 miles away in Springboro. I could not make calls from inside with tmo. Also, could not with att. It was just a tad better toward front of store. Tried a couple other highway locations and speedtests were always lower than tmo. Son's phone the same. This week I will appts north and see how it compares. I can't believe att is not outperforming tmo here. I know one day is no test. But, their maps show much wider coverage than tmo.
I will call them and have them reconnect me. Also, check apn's. Can't find a good apn list yet. But, also can't edit them. When I go to check networks, it just says default setting and doesn't list att or anyone. Never saw that before.
I think it is what it is since both phones run the same on the network--
Hurry up lte

Educate me if I am wrong. But, my slower than tmo speeds may be due to lack of 21mb network on att in Dayton.
tmo had that here, i don't think att does EDIT: Acording to sales rep we do--just never see it on phone--more research needed
i only get hspa 11 or 15. assume that is 11mb and 15mb
so, until i get lte am stuck with these speeds, which are 3g, NOT 4g att
Actually, looking at map and reading their Legend, I should get HSPA+ here. Haven't seen it. It is not listed on gsmarena phone specs
May try a different sim and not sure what my exact apn's should be here. Anyone have them?
Any Dayton S4 users here???

At&t reception, I still feel it's better than other phones?

Just spend the day at the lake yesterday, on a dock...Usually I'm lucky to get any reception at any place in that area, but I was able to walk up on the hill and get LTE where no other phone has ever gotten it, even just a few weeks ago and again 2 months ago.
I see a lot of people saying the reception isn't good, but I feel it's better than any other phone I've had to date? Regardless of what the signal bars show or the db shows, I can get signal where I never have before.
Just sayin'

[accidentally posted the reply, removing]

tele_jas said:
Just spend the day at the lake yesterday, on a dock...Usually I'm lucky to get any reception at any place in that area, but I was able to walk up on the hill and get LTE where no other phone has ever gotten it, even just a few weeks ago and again 2 months ago.
I see a lot of people saying the reception isn't good, but I feel it's better than any other phone I've had to date? Regardless of what the signal bars show or the db shows, I can get signal where I never have before.
Just sayin'
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Click to collapse
I think the Wi-Fi and cellular reception problems are in the european model - I had great reception with B20 software and the B27 update made it even better

tabletalker7 said:
I think the Wi-Fi and cellular reception problems are in the european model - I had great reception with B20 software and the B27 update made it even better
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This is a good point. It might be helpful if people would include which specific region model they are using. My reception is definitely on par with my Note 3 on AT&T in the USA (USA model).

celticchrys said:
This is a good point. It might be helpful if people would include which specific region model they are using. My reception is definitely on par with my Note 3 on AT&T in the USA (USA model).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Axon 7 blows away my Zenfone 2.

My axon 7 beat the pants off my Nexus 6p when I tried using speedtest.net. Both wifi and lte were significantly faster. Also using the US model. B27 seems to have improved things even further. No complains at all!

I'm using A2017U in europe, LTE band 3. My previous phone was Xperia Z and comparing Axon 7 to it, cell and wifi reception is better in any way of using (2.4 and 5ghz, 3G and LTE). So no problem with wifi and cell reception on mine A2017U. Very satisfied.

Ditto
celticchrys said:
This is a good point. It might be helpful if people would include which specific region model they are using. My reception is definitely on par with my Note 3 on AT&T in the USA (USA model).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto on both points. I also previously used the Note3 and I get a super signal with the Axon 7, even in places where the Note was hit/miss. Love the phone.

Troll thread. It's obvious that a sizeable minority of owner have reception problems and telling people that 'I'm alright Jack' is unhelpful at best and smug and weird at worst.
Idea for another thread:
Lots of smartphone owners complain of easily cracked screens. I threw mine under a bus and it's fine.

tele_jas said:
Just spend the day at the lake yesterday, on a dock...Usually I'm lucky to get any reception at any place in that area, but I was able to walk up on the hill and get LTE where no other phone has ever gotten it, even just a few weeks ago and again 2 months ago.
I see a lot of people saying the reception isn't good, but I feel it's better than any other phone I've had to date? Regardless of what the signal bars show or the db shows, I can get signal where I never have before.
Just sayin'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't agree, not as good as my Moto X or my Idol 3 on band 17 LTE or HSPA 850mhz. It's the lower bands it has an issue with.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

I have good reception for LTE in most places. WiFi is very good. However, when it comes to radio signal for LTE this is the worst phone of all that I have ever owned. I do not get involved in all sorts of tests but according to the Signal strength mine is usually about -5 higher than all the others. It is acceptable in most places as I live in a large city with good reception on AT&T. However, as I related on the ZTE forum I was at an assembly the other day and I was the only person with an Axon 7 in the whole place. Every other person had either an iPhone (most popular) or some other Android like a Samsung Galaxy. In the outer hallway I had a good signal, but when I went into the main auditorium all I got was a flashing red notification light letting me know that I had ZERO signal, while my wife's Moto X Pure and my daughters shattered iPhone 6 both had very good reception. The Moto is on T-Mobile and the iPhone is on Verizon. I do not think the carrier had anything to do with this issue. Clearly there is a problem with the Axon 7 when it comes the LTE signal strength. I am beginning to think it may be hardware related somehow and unable to be repaired with a software update ...unless they boost the signal strength through software which will also take a toll on battery longevity. Maybe they have the antennas positioned poorly inside the phone?? So I am trying to patiently wait to see what ZTE accomplished with their next update. But if they cannot fix the LTE signal strength then I will have no choice but to move on to another phone. Even though most of the time I am using WiFi, having a phone that cannot communicate in low signal areas when every other phone can, is not acceptable.

On TMO I'm getting a 2x stronger signal than my S7 Edge. Quite impressed. The Wi-Fi signal is much stronger also. I can stream music in my shed from the Wi-Fi ap in the house. The S7E couldn't even detect the signal.

What TMobile Band are you using and how is signal strength

I am one of the folks seeing terrible signal issues with my phone. It drop service in areas where no other TMobile phone has. I have an open ticket with essential and have not heard back.
Some folks seem to have no issues with TMobile and the phone. I am wondering if it is related to what TMobile bands they are using.
I am using band 4.
Are folks that are not having signal issues on different bands? I know it is a long shot but would be curious to know if those that don't have problems are on different frequencies.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

How do you check which band you're on?
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

Download the LTE Discovery app from the Play Store. You will see your connected LTE band in the top left box. You can download it from here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.simplyadvanced.ltediscovery
Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app

I'm on band 12. My TMobile LTE+ data connection throughput sucks.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

knome said:
I'm on band 12. My TMobile LTE+ data connection throughput sucks.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What phone are you coming from and how did it compare. I was really hoping that those on the lower mhz frequencies would be doing better than those on the higher frequencies.
This was based on the fact that folks on Verizon and ATT seem to have less signal issues and they generally use the lower frequencies where TMobile still has a ton of Band 4 higher frequency coverage.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

This phone doesn't work for $#1t on T-Mobile. I tried to cancel before they sent, they ignored me, and now trying to get anyone to respond to return the damn thing. They've been ignoring requests to communicate. I hate this company. Worse experience than buying a no name Chinese phone.

My phone is working perfectly on T-Mobile band 4, I have no problems with either data or signal. Phone calls, internet, display, everything is perfect. This phone is one of the best experiences I have so far this year, and believe me I got several phones during this year. One plus 3T, one plus 5, Huawei 9 Pro, Xiaomi Mi Mix, galaxy S8 Plus, HTC U11 international version, pixel XL, Huawei P10 plus, I have my note 8 still in the package because this phone is so good. And this phone is in my top 4 so far.
Sent from my PH-1 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

I'm on band 12 and have a slightly better connection than with my old HTC 10. And overall it's been a tiny bit better for me everywhere.

Lucky people on band 12, I'm rarely on that band. Always always on band 4 on Tmo even though the Cali bay area is supposed to be blanketed in band 12...

I'm in the Foothills area of North Carolina and almost always using Band 4. I have had terrible service with this phone similar to you. No other phone I have has struggled to connect to the cell towers like this one does. It either loses signal completely or the signal is so weak the phone doesn't work. This is happening in areas where my iPhone 7 Plus, Axon 7, and Pixel XL work fine. I've had to resort to WiFi calling for it to be reliable. I started a support ticket last week and after trading emails with them and waiting an average of 30 hours for each response after 3 days I got fed up and I filed a complaint with the BBB. The very next day I received an email stating they had "initiated your return request" claiming I will receive a package within 5-7 business days. They are exchanging it for a new one. We'll see. That was Friday 09/08/17 and so far I have not seen any kind of a shipping notice. I may not get one however so I'll just have to wait the number of days and see what happens. The email said I will receive a package from their partners at Asurion so they may not send tracking info. Essential the company is very hard to deal with. I was never able to talk to someone over the phone. When I called I basically was told by a voice message to send in an email "for faster service". Boy that's a joke. I'm hoping I will receive a new phone and not just a box and label to send the original one back in.
Anyway, my signal strength varies from 3 bars to no bars in the areas where other phones have 3-4 bars with reliable service.Using a signal strength app it reports an average of -10 dBm weaker signal than all those other phones.

I just got my phone today and it's working beautifully on TMO Band 2. Not having any issues at all!
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

foopy said:
I'm in the Foothills area of North Carolina and almost always using Band 4. I have had terrible service with this phone similar to you. No other phone I have has struggled to connect to the cell towers like this one does. It either loses signal completely or the signal is so weak the phone doesn't work. This is happening in areas where my iPhone 7 Plus, Axon 7, and Pixel XL work fine. I've had to resort to WiFi calling for it to be reliable. I started a support ticket last week and after trading emails with them and waiting an average of 30 hours for each response after 3 days I got fed up and I filed a complaint with the BBB. The very next day I received an email stating they had "initiated your return request" claiming I will receive a package within 5-7 business days. They are exchanging it for a new one. We'll see. That was Friday 09/08/17 and so far I have not seen any kind of a shipping notice. I may not get one however so I'll just have to wait the number of days and see what happens. The email said I will receive a package from their partners at Asurion so they may not send tracking info. Essential the company is very hard to deal with. I was never able to talk to someone over the phone. When I called I basically was told by a voice message to send in an email "for faster service". Boy that's a joke. I'm hoping I will receive a new phone and not just a box and label to send the original one back in.
Anyway, my signal strength varies from 3 bars to no bars in the areas where other phones have 3-4 bars with reliable service.Using a signal strength app it reports an average of -10 dBm weaker signal than all those other phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in Raleigh NC and have mostly band 4 and connection issues. I still have not heard back from Essential service on a replacement.
It almost seems as if they are trying to wait me out for the return period and not respond.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

In West L.A. and currently on Band 2 and getting about 50Mbs down.

I know his might sound bad,but I had the same connection issues and tried to reach out to support with no luck. Ended up selling the device for more than I paid on a reputable site which I won’t name..... within about ten minutes also?

I've tried the phone all over LA and being on band 12 Tmobile, I've basically noticed that the phone really flies when the signal is good, but when the cell signal is slightly sub-optimal, the data throughput goes into the toilet. I don't know if the antennas just suck, if I'm holding it wrong, or if the design just hinders the performance, but compared to my pixel XL, the slower speed is extremely noticeable.
I have a guess as to why the antennas struggle though, they might just be too small or obstructed for anything but strong/clear signals because even though the back is ceramic, signals are not able to go through it. At the essential launch event in LA. they showed how the ceramic was laminated over a solid titanium backing on the frame. There aint no antennas under there
All I know is, this made the phone unusable for me, which sucked because I loved the design.

I finally got my replacement phone and the reception is no better. I have never had an issue with reception except for this phone. The essential phone is the first phone that can not hang onto a signal in my house.
I agree with the above this is an antenna issue and no software can fix it. The phone is unusable unless you have perfect signal.
Sent from my LON-L29 using Tapatalk

Yeah I gave up on using Tmo on this phone. Swapped it back to my Verizon sim and the service works well enough.

I live in Philadelphia northern suburbs and the PH-1 phone either hop on Band 12 (700 MHz) or Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz or AWS). When my phone is on Band 12, the speed test is in no more than 25 Mbps down/8 Mbps up at best. On Band 4, I get anywhere from 40-90 Mbps down/15-45 Mbps up. I thought that it was odd when I first got the Essential PH-1 phone but then I checked against "old" HTC 10, HTC A9 and Axon 7 mini. They all behaved the same, the signal strength was about the same and the same features, like VoLTE, HD Voice, etc. worked the same. The place where I work is a black hole for any mobile signal due to how the building is constructed so I have been relying on Wi-Fi Calling with all of my phones, including PH-1, for many years now. At home, the T-Mobile tower is about 500 ft. away but most of the time it is on Band 12 in my area so BW is no too high.
I read somewhere that in general T-Mobile only owns a small, 5x5 MHz chunk of bandwidth on Band 12 in most places in the US and probably cannot do 10x10, 15x15 or 20x20 MHz aggregations on Band 12. That is why T-Mobile went aggressively after Band 71 (600 MHz) and is doing Band 2 (1900 MHz or PCS) refarming and adding Band 66 (1700/2100 MHz or AWS-3) support. A lot of issues that I am experiencing with signal strength may be attributed to the T-Mobile tinkering with towers or doing some weird crap with their network. Simply not having enough bandwidth (i.e. 5x5 MHz vs. 15x15 MHz) could be a big factor. Here is the link to check how much bandwidth T-Mobile has in your corner of the US - http://www.spectrumgateway.com/t-mobile-spectrum-holdings. Pop your zip code in and you'll exactly what you have to play with.
Another factor that I can think of that separates this phone from the others is that it has 6 magnets crammed too close to other components and how they may affect an RF signal reception no one knows?

Hmm if it's all the Tmobile network shortcomings and them experimenting with weird configurations, I would assume that would affect my Pixel XL reception... but the pixel XL usually has 2x to 10x the speed of my PH-1. Maybe it's the magnets, or the titanium laminated ceramic back doesn't allow for enough antenna to be exposed to get a good signal when reception is not optimal...

How do you change lte bands on essential phone?

Verizon Signal Strength/reliability

Hey all,
I've seen a few posts regarding signal problems on TMO and Sprint, but not much on Verizon.
How is your guys' experience on VZW?

Works good for me on Verizon. I don't live in a big city, but I never lose service and I get over 100mbs dowload speeds in certain areas over LTE.

Been using mine on Verizon for a week now and no issues so far. It works everywhere any other device i have used works.

PH-1 reception in my house in mid-peninsula SF Bay Area is non-existent. Meanwhile the Galaxy 7, Galaxy 5, iPhone 5, and iPhone 7 all get decent enough signal here. No matter how good the phone otherwise, that's a deal killer.
Update: the phone continues to frustrate. Reception sucks even in the heart of towns here where other phones are just fine. Basically, the phone is useless except as a pretty iPod that takes cool 360 pictures. What a shame.

What's a good app to test download speeds?

I live in upstate NY. Literally in a gorge.i get the same or better service than my HTC 10 and the WiFi is way better. Don't need WiFi calling anymore.

I'm also in upstate NY. I get extremely fast speeds on wifi but lte seems pretty slow. What network settings are you all using??

mpetruzz said:
I'm also in upstate NY. I get extremely fast speeds on wifi but lte seems pretty slow. What network settings are you all using??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Global, enhanced lte, nothing special

aer0zer0 said:
Global, enhanced lte, nothing special
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I'm not seeing that setting. Can you take a screenshot??

mpetruzz said:
I'm not seeing that setting. Can you take a screenshot??
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Just took this. Remember, there isn't any carrier aggregation. That can make it worse.

aer0zer0 said:
Just took this. Remember, there isn't any carrier aggregation. That can make it worse.
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Screwed up screenshots

Ref: Verizon
I'm getting LTE+ carrier aggregation in the Hickory, NC area. I've seen download speeds as high as 28 Mbps, although I've only been on Verizon 2 days now and I've only ran a few speed tests.
I recently ported my number to Verizon from T-Mobile because I was one of those who was experiencing connectivity issues with T-Mo. For me this phone works much better on Verizon than T-Mo. The phone I have now is a replacement. The first one constantly dropped cellular connections and with it I never saw LTE+ on T-Mo not even once. With the new replacement phone it showed up at times closer to Hickory but Verizon seems to have it everywhere around here.

foopy said:
I'm getting LTE+ carrier aggregation in the Hickory, NC area. I've seen download speeds as high as 28 Mbps, although I've only been on Verizon 2 days now and I've only ran a few speed tests.
I recently ported my number to Verizon from T-Mobile because I was one of those who was experiencing connectivity issues with T-Mo. For me this phone works much better on Verizon than T-Mo. The phone I have now is a replacement. The first one constantly dropped cellular connections and with it I never saw LTE+ on T-Mo not even once. With the new replacement phone it showed up at times closer to Hickory but Verizon seems to have it everywhere around here.
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That's funny actually, right after I took that, I went to lte discovery app, and saw that I was on band 4 & 13 . It's not " supposed " to work...lol

I'm using Xfinity which is Verizon and works fine on the SF Bay Area but since I'm using Xfinity and not Verizon proper, I don't see the option for enhanced LTE...

I got this on Verizon on the way into work this morning.

nrage23 said:
I got this on Verizon on the way into work this morning.
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That's good. We don't have those kind of speeds around here. 28-34 is normal for Verizon lte here.

My download speeds are only averaging 7 mbps on lte on Verizon in NY.
Which bands are you all using?? I left mine on the default and not sure if that'd make a difference.
I tried a few others with not much difference

This is my 3rd replacement. The first one didn't activate, the second overheated and now the 3rd seems to be working well. What I noticed on the 3rd one after reading the forums is the ceramic I'd alittle grippier than the last one which was smooth like glass. The 2nd one was smooth like glass. Before I did the replacement I also weighed it by hand because I read somewhere the new replacements have alittle more weight to it and it did. It was noticeable.
As far as signal. It seems to be on par with my m9. I was surprised I got 117mbps in my town which is in Shentel territory for Sprint but so far everything works great
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

mpetruzz said:
My download speeds are only averaging 7 mbps on lte on Verizon in NY.
Which bands are you all using?? I left mine on the default and not sure if that'd make a difference.
I tried a few others with not much difference
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I bounce between band 13 and band 4 in cortland

Hit and Miss
Mine has been iffy since I "officially" added it to my Verizon account (I initially just pulled the SIM from my Pixel, and plopped it in my Essential - Worked like a champ, then I replaced my Pixel with my Essential with customer service, over the phone, and after reboot, it has been hit or miss (it was 3G from the time I hung up with Verizon, until I finished driving from Vegas to SLC). I messed with the carrier settings, and it was LTE+ for a day, then back to no signal the next morning.
Some days 3G is the best I can get, others LTE+ works fine, and some days, 1X or no signal. I've tried changing the settings from Global, to LTE, to LTE/WCDMA to what ever else looked okay). Today, it's been LTE+ most of the day.
justinblaine23 said:
Hey all,
I've seen a few posts regarding signal problems on TMO and Sprint, but not much on Verizon.
How is your guys' experience on VZW?
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