johnlgalt

I just had a thought, and it is based on this post:

Do not take OTA if you want to keep root - Android Forums thread

I wonder if people who're experiencing data drops are, for the most part, in areas without 4G but about to receive 4G, or in areas where 4G is a recent addition to the VZW service area, or if they are in the original 4G services area rollout back in 2009 / 2010.

Please mark the appropriate selection only if you are experiencing frequent data drops, and please also tell me if you're experiencing data drops only after phone calls or randomly, or due to multiple reasons (all of which are reproducible).

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Last edited by johnlgalt; November 30th, 2011 at 01:36 PM.

johnlgalt

I voted mine - as I mentioned in the linked thread, the VZW local rep today told me that my area is slated for 4G this spring....

Jerm13

I never had terribly frequent drops- maybe 3-5 a week. I upgraded myself to 5.7.893 and that has dropped it to 1, maybe 2 a week.

Thom Little

When I went it to look at the Razr (on "Razr day") the owner showed me the Razr. I mentioned data drops to him in our 3G area. He said they were probably "working on the upgrade".

We were supposed to get 4G at the beginning of the year. He told me it was probably going to be sooner.

I left LTE enabled.

Still don't have 4G. The drops occured randomly over 7-10 days and then stopped.

... Thom

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New Rising

I live in Chicago so there's been 4g here since last year and I rarely ever have any data drops, never been much of a concern for me. Like I've said before, I've had troubles switching to 3g but I haven't had that problem in awhile.

amageus

When's the next 4G rollout? I know when they were upgrading some areas (not mine) for 4G I was experiencing drops.

jestexman

All 3g in my area... Rep did say that we would get 4g in Feb.. Then the guys working on the VZW tower that i can see from my window at work said 4g in this area?? in a few years maybe.. So i don't know. I tend to believe the guys working on the towers. Oh and since i upgraded myself to 5.7.893 i almost never drop and lose data anymore. When i drop data its because im in a low area and i should drop the data. After i come out of the low area it comes back. Unlike before it would drop data sitting in my office (remember i can see the tower from my window)

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Jestexman
Disclaimer: Because of flaming and so on.
If this has already been posted i guess either i have not used the search button or i just did not see it. Either way move on the the next post.

bezerk19

I live in San Antonio, TX and we had 4G since 2010 I think, before the Thunderbolt was sold (to be more specific, there weren't any 4G phones at the time 4G LTE started rolling into San Antonio). That being said, the problems people are experiencing aren't as common here in San Antonio, (especially after I got a "new", actually refurbished unit), at least for me that is.

However, I will mention that during the Thanksgiving holiday I took a trip to El Paso, TX, which recently received 4G LTE, and I can tell you in this network coverage I started experiencing the problems everyone is common with, dropping signals, phone locking up, not easily transitioning between 3G and 4G, 4G icon is white instead of blue (thus not having internet). Yeah it was a mess. So I honestly think at this point its a network issues (along with its fair share of Bionic problems), but I'm glad I'm back home and since then haven't experienced those problems.

Hopefully that can help clear some things up for you all.

johnlgalt

Thanks, guys, I appreciate everyone thus far not only responding but elaborating. I'm going to post a link at the Moto forums for people to come read this thread - in a thread titled, no less, is the data connection a motorola or verizon issue for lte on bionic?

I think this will be an eye opener for all the people bitching and complaining about it being a Motorola issue....

At the very least, I think it is both Motorola's b/c of the new, relatively untested LTE chip as well as VZW performing network tests and whatnot without actually letting us know what they are dong. But, mostly, I think it is VZW's fault.

johnlgalt

I heard February as well.

bezerk19

Just to make sure, those of you who "upgraded" to 5.7.893 and claim the problem is fixed or "reduced", I'm assuming you are rooted, right? Based on the fact that Verizon's customer support is clueless, they keep telling me they have no idea if and when and update will be pushed out.

johnlgalt

Well, yes, I'm rooted, and I've been running 5.7.893 for a long time now - since I made my upgrade post last month at least.

That's one reason why I found it odd that I had these 2 (so far) drops all of a sudden.

Last edited by johnlgalt; November 30th, 2011 at 08:42 PM. Reason: ∆ 9 --> (

jestexman

I am not rooted... Still running 5.7.893..

WA_Bob

I'm just north of the Houston, TX area that received 4G in 2010 with the initial roll-out so most of my time is in 3G land. I've had 3G and 4G data drops, but they seem to be consistent with each other - i.e. both go down and come up at the same time. This has been while I used a Thunderbolt and while I've had my Bionic (both rooted) and might last part of a day but usually not more than that.

I will say that the reason I'm on a Bionic now is because the network might drop me and then come back up again, but the 3 Thunderbolts I went through crashed hard eventually and had to be replaced after a certain number of times when this happened. My Bionic deals with the drops much better!

One thing I'll add, regardless of which phone I used I always have a more consistent signal than friends using other carriers (big ones or pre-paid). Even when they've been in the same place as me. I'll take the occasional data drop over their experiences any day!

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lykofos

I chose the option "I'm primarily in a 3G only area but I do travel to a 4G area" but there's a little more to my situation.

I'm in a fringe 4G area. My computer desk is literally 4ft wide. If I set my phone on the left side of the desk, I get consistent 4G, if I set it on the right side of the desk, I get fairly consistent 3G. If I move the Bionic back and forth from one side of the desk to the other, data signal drops completely eventually and I have to do an airplane mode toggle.

I get solid 3G signal in about 70% of the house, 4G signal in approx 30%. If I drive up the road about 3-5 miles, I get consistent 4G and no drops. 4G was originally rolled out in this area in Dec 2010.

johnlgalt

Lol that's about as fringe as you can get, narrowing it down to a 4 ft strip on your desktop

Thanks for sharing, both your coverage *and* how the switching between the two repeatedly eventually causes your connection to die altogether.

breadnatty08

I believe DC was in the initial LTE rollout but not positive.
I get the drops occasionally, maybe 2-3 times a week. Either an airplane toggle or reboot fixes it (a pain, but oh well). Just switched to the latest Liberty ROM, haven't seen a huge difference. Haven't updated my baseband either. Hoping my upcoming Nexus doesn't have this problem.

johnlgalt

I'm hoping it won't also - but it would be interesting to see what frequency of dropped connections are occurring on other VZW-based smartphones right now.

I never thought of that - hmmm.

bryan.allen

Atlanta area. Drops data daily whether lte is enabled or not. On my second unit and its actually worse now. Everyone I hang up a long phone call, I have no data and it won't come back until I do the airport switch. Ive spoken to countless r er PS from verizon and they all blame moto for the slow update rollout. I talked with a moto rep yesterday and he said to expect the update around new years. I also asked if he knew anything about ICS for the bionic....he said the people on the forums know more than he does about that...lame

Thom Little

No ... honest.

... Thom

johnlgalt

Thom's right - a lot of the forum members both there and here have inside ears that the CSRs don't. It's why these sites typically get pre-release info before the CSRs know about the info.

lykofos

Lol, tell me about it! I'll have to try to make a video of it, it's funny and sad at the same time.

johnlgalt

Bumping his back to the main page.

Also, All of the respondees thus far:

Have any of you replaced your SIM card yet in an effort to fix your drop connections? If not, are any of you willing to try that to see if it alleviates your problem(s)?

lykofos

Haven't replaced the SIM yet, but not sure if it'll help in my case, b/c like i said, my data loss happens quite predictably only during the 3G to 4G hand-off. If i put it in CDMA only mode, rarely do i get data loss, and in a strong 4G area with LTE on, i rarely get data loss.

However, the Verizon store is only 5 min away. Think it's worth a try or not in my case?

johnlgalt

Heck yeah - if this works for you I'll make a new poll asking ppl to get their SIMs replaced and gauge whether the overall effect is an improvement or not.

And if it turns out that the majority of people are definitely having improvements, then I'm going to start pointing a finger at the shipping companies - I'm betting that at least one of them is using some sort of X-ray or other scanner technology that might, in fact, be hosing these cards.....

lykofos

Ok, just left the Verizon store with a new SIM installed. I'll try my "desk test"once i get home later tonight and report back.

Being rooted totally slipped my mind, the Verizon guy installing the new SIM got a confused look on his face when he saw the bootup eye blue instead of red. Then "bionic bootstrap has been granted superuser access" briefly flashed at the bottom of the screen. Lol. He didn't say anything to me about it though.

Thom Little

When you get your SIM replaced ... watch them do it ... see how they handle it ... I am coming to a conclusionn (maybe wrong) that a lot of these problems are self inflicted.

... Thom

Last edited by Thom Little; December 3rd, 2011 at 07:29 PM.

lykofos

Ya, I noticed that. I actually got the same Verizon associate yesterday for the SIM card replacement that I had when I bought my Bionic on release day. It's probable that my original SIM might have been mishandled that day since it was a zoo in the store. Only 5 other people in the Verizon store yesterday. I was watching him during the process yesterday and I'd say he wasn't handling the card extra careful but wasn't throwing it around either. And it actually took him two tries to properly seat the SIM card b/c he didn't line it up totally straight the first time.

Busy day today, but I'll write up my full report / feedback on the new SIM card later. Based on my preliminary use so far, it *appears* to be working better thus far.

dguy

I get data drops in an area that is 3G only and at least 50 miles from the closest 4G area. I also get data drops if I'm in a 4G area. While I didn't "change" sim cards to ensure that my sim card wasn't defective, the sim card I am using is the same one I was using in my Thunderbolt which had no connection issues at all so I'm sure the sim card isn't an issue.

Based on my experiences with the Thunderbolt and the Bionic I can only say I very firmly believe the issue is not on Verizon's end because in 3G or 4G, the Thunderbolt never had issues approaching the magnitude of the Bionic's in regard to connectivity.

Last edited by dguy; December 4th, 2011 at 11:19 AM.

lykofos

I'm quite astonished with the results I've got so far. I figured it was a problem with the Bionic's radio and not the SIM card. But much to my surprise, in my individual case, after a 1.5 days of testing there is a marked improvement with the new SIM...I'm hoping it lasts. I have not had to use the "reset connections" app, airplane mode toggle, or reboot to restore signal since getting the new SIM. Prior to that, I was hitting the reset connections app at least 7+ times a day to restore data signal.

First thing I did when I got home was my 4G fringe zone "desk test" which is explained in an above post (gotta love odd signal reception zones). So, normally the phone shows 4G on the far left side of desk but only gets 3G when placed on the far right side of the desk.

The usual sequence when I move it once from one side of the desk to the other is usually:
4G icon => no data icon => 3G icon after a few seconds

If I repeat this procedure multiple times (the magic number is usually 2 or 3 times) transitioning between 4G and 3G the sequence is:
4G icon => no data icon present => dead connection and have to use airplane mode toggle to restore data

With the new SIM installed, the sequence has become:
4G icon => 3G icon and vice versa.

The intermediary step of no data showing at all is no longer present. I moved the phone back and forth 10+ times for testing purposes and it was able to transition back and forth between 4G and 3G with no total data signal loss like before.

I also took the phone down into the basement gameroom where I get sketchy to no signal at all. After having no signal on the phone, it was able to go back to 4G/3G within about 30 seconds of walking back upstairs. With the old SIM, after being in a no signal zone and re-entering a signal zone, I'd have to use airplane toggle or reboot phone before it would pick up signal again. The only thing I've changed on the phone is the SIM, haven't changed any settings or installed/removed any new apps. The writing on the wall so far seems to point to my specific data loss issues coming from a faulty original SIM card. So, I suppose it's at least worth a try for others to see if this works for them too.

Thom Little

Changing the SIM card might be a good experiment for you to try.

... Thom

New Rising

I think I'm gonna go to verizon this week and try out a new SIM card, see if it changes anything. I went to a friends this past saturday and must've been on the fringe of 4g, i kept dropping data and had no bars. I tried to switch to 3g but it wasn't happening, I couldn't get a connection. Finally i just rebooted the phone and was able to get 3g.

dguy

What's the reasoning in that? My sim card was quite new but had a history of working perfectly prior to the Bionic, it's not defective. It's not the same as getting your first sim with the Bionic and not knowing if the sim card is working right or not.

Thom Little

I'm not a SIM expert and whatever you choose to do is up to you at your own risk.

Maybe it's a CYA statement from Verizon but you might want to checkout ... https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/70990/~/droid-bionic---sim-card-swapping. Interesting that they note you might have a problem getting the OTA if you are using a SIM that did not come with the Bionic.

If you Google it you will see that other people have done exactly what you did and are not having a problem. (The OTA issue is yet to be tested of course.)

If I was having random problems I think I might give the SIM swap a try as an experiment. A number of people have documented that after repacling their SIM card their random problems went away.

I think the data drops are a combination of problems. Some on the Verizon side and some on the Bionic side. Replacing the SIM card on the Bionic side has been shown to correct some of them ... irrespective of the perceived purity of the SIM card being replaced.

The problems on the Verizon side seem to go on for 1-2 weeks and then stop. If you are in multiple areas you may hit that 1-2 weeks making it seem longer. My assumption is that they are "working on the network" to upgrade to 4G.

The corrective action for problems on the Verizon side is ... wait.

Good luck with whatever you decide ... let us know how it turned out.

... Thom

Last edited by Thom Little; December 5th, 2011 at 01:00 PM.

smfoley1

when you are saying 3G 4G data drops are you saying that neither 3 or 4 is working? I have had 3G at my office all day and now all of a sudden Ive got nothing. Full bars but no 3G or 4G...very frustrating when your downloading something and it stops working. Is that what you are experiencing? Ive tried the airplane mode toggle and the power down. still no 3G or 4G

Lucidot

I live in a mostly 4G area but sometimes go through little 3G areas when either going to or from work.

I had data drops, but not very frequently. Maybe 1 or 2 a week. I decided to update to 5.7.893 (un-rooted) and when I did that all hell broke loose.

I had data drops very frequently. Probably 10 a day or more.

I asked in another post how to get back to stock and John was nice enough to point me in the right direction. I used the R3l3AS3Root method and flashed back to stock (no root) and I have not had a single data drop yet. I did that Monday 11/28.

I still see the switches between 3 & 4G but no data drops.

n2oVVTLi

I got the Bionic in September. I had the data issues right out of the box and held out for an update. I'm on my second unit and sim card. I still experience the same issue. I doubt a sim card change would solve anything. I was told from Motorola tech support yesterday that the tentative November update to fix these issues is now "only" 60 to 90 days away... I just got off the phone with Verizon and they're sending me out a Razr to try out today. I love the Bionic when it's working right, but willing to try something new in hopes of relieving these data headaches.

Thom Little

Are thes all happening at the same location or are you moving to diferent locations?

If you are in a 3G/4G area did you try turning 4G off?

Did they give you a new SIM card or did they move the old one feom one phone ot another? (Get a new one.)

... Thom

n2oVVTLi

I work in a 4g area and live in a 3g area. Even at home, I experience the data issues. I'm actually without data right now at work. I have toggled the CDMA only, airplane mode, and the power with no fix. It's weird that none of this stuff works until I'm doing it for tech support while on the phone at Verizon.

I have a new sim card that was switched with my phone after having it a few days.

When it comes down to it, I've just been doing temporary fixes to get the data back, but never maintaining it. I think this update is what's needed to fix the problems. Too bad I'm not going going to hold out for the update in 2-3 months because I took a liking to the Bionic.

I called Verizon and they took money off of my bill (roughly half) and they're sending me a Razr to try for a little bit.

Thom Little

If it was me I would try a new SIM card.

Another thing that just recently surfaced ... you could try Set CDMA auto (PRL) ... then power off/power on.

Very little is known right now. One user said it cleared the problme in a 3G-only area.

... Thom

Last edited by Thom Little; December 7th, 2011 at 02:30 PM.

Deanie

I couldn't answer the poll. I literally live on the fringe of recently new 4G, and work in this 4G area. I believe 4G was in this area before I got my Bionic. Sometimes I have 3G, sometimes 4G at home. My data drops all the time. Yesterday I had to pull the battery twice, and I missed calls and texts because of the drop. When this happens the phone freezes and I get a totally unresponsive black screen. This is the only thing bad about my phone. Fix this, and I'm a happy camper.

Thom Little

Try checking out ... (link) ... that is the accumation of a lot of trial-and-error investigation by a lot of people.

It may help.

... Thom

salo

In my area we have only 3G and my data lose is constant. I will have data connections for mere seconds only. I have tried all remedies discussed here with no results. Now I think I have found a solution and maybe you guys can try. When you get the 3G signal working reset your screen time out to "never time out". My 3G signal has been constant now for 10 minutes without a data lose. Good luck, and post results .

Thom Little

How long has this been going on?

I'm in a 3G only area and it is very stable. There were two different times (each about two weeks long) where data was totally unreliable. There was no way to predict when it would be available.

This started without warning one day and two weeks later stopped.

I assume there were two instances where they were working on the tower near me.

If you go to a different location away from your tower ... does the problem persist?

Asking for information at the Verizon store was a total waste of time. It usually ended up me reporting what was going on to them.

... Thom

Satires

I think it was 2010. Even with a solid 4g connection, sometimes it will drop to 3g for a minute while browsing the web, but it comes right back to 4g within a minute. It doesn't happen often enough to cause an inconvenience (Knock on wood).

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If for any reason you wish NOT to upgrade to ics or jb (When it comes out, see this thread. http://androidforums.com/bionic-all-things-root/637553-guide-how-block-upgrades-updates-motorola-bionic.html

sgschwend

I noticed in the next Moto release there is a bug fix coming for this area of concern.

I find that my worse data network day is consistently on Sunday. The phone shows the 3G network in white.

johnlgalt

Yeah, I'm already on the leaked version - I can't say one way or another, b/c my data has been rock solid since 2nd or 3rd of April....

rogueally

Anyone still having issues with data drops....my phone is 3 weeks old it was great the first 2 weeks but the data drops are ridiculous. it was intermittent at first but now happens at least 3 times a day for the past week. very inconvenient.

Thom Little

Are other people in your are having the same problem? (Don't ask at the Verizon store they are always the last to know.)

I am in a 3G only area and have gone through two periods that each lasted two weeks. Working fine and then data would drop. After two weeks it went back to normal.

My conclusion is they were working on the tower that serviced my location.

... Thom

OutOfPhase

I live in the Tampa bay area and use to have rock solid 4g but lately it has been switching between 3g, 4g and no data. I just received a "like new" replacement with new sim card for a totally unrelated issue but it seems to be even worse. As soon as Verizon receives the one I sent back I will be calling to deal with this.

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