I have been a Sprint user for 12 years. I recently switched to AT&T about a month ago onto a GS3. My previous device was an EVO 4G on which I learned the Android platform. I have my GS3 rooted and am using CM10 stable release.
I have done my searching on this forum and others and I'm having trouble finding some info. Here are some of the issues I'm trying to "translate" over from my CDMA knowledge into the GSM realm.
On Sprint, we had PRLs, which gave the phone a list of towers to use. Different PRLs would affect the reception of the phone and new ones, as they were released, would usually improve reception. When new towers and network information are added to a GSM network, how does the phone get updated to know the new network information?
I am very new to using APNs. It is my assumption that these are comparable to PRL on the CDMA networks? My stock APN used default,supl,mms as the APN type. I am currently using default,admin,fota,mms,supl,hipri,internet. Are there any additions I should make to that or anything I should be removing from that? Stock protocol was IPv4, and I have since added v6 along with it.
On my Sprint phone, the radio baseband was included in OTA updates and were downloadable to try different versions. Different versions would affect service in different ways. I have gathered that the baseband term is more often "modem" than "radio". I am currently on I747UCDLK3. Is this what I should be on to be up to date, or is there an updated baseband that I could be looking for? Also, on my Evo, this was independent of the ROM and had to be flashed as a separete upgrade. I have not found much on this topic.
At my house, at the outskirts of civilization, my girlfriend's iPhone currently gets a constant 2 bars of service. I realize that 2 bars, on that device can be misleading as they correspond parabolically to the actual signal. However, even with her iPhone 3 (previous device, as she has a 4S now) she could, about 90% of the time, be able to transmit and receive both calls and texts. I switched to AT&T because it was the only network I've seen that could get service in our area. Even my $30 Straight Talk phone using ATT network could get service there, as well as data coverage (although slow and patchy). I was surprised to find out that my GS3 gets terrible reception there. Maybe once every 15 minutes, I'll see that I have two signal bars and will be able to send and receive a text. But that happens to immediately switch to zero coverage with what seems to be no outside factors. It's as if there is an ATT cloud over the house, and I get service as it floats by. I was expecting at least a reliable bar or two, being that the technology in my phone is at least a half year newer than the 4S, and that the technology was built around these specific spectrums of signal.
This brings me to ask... are there any settings I can toggle to try to pick something up a little better? My girlfriend's 4S gets consistent signal, so I know the nearby cell is penetrating the house. I'm just wondering what tweaks I could possibly do for my phone, which uses the same spectrum, to recognize the same signal that another device is recognizing.
I think I've blabbered enough for now. I do have a host of questions I have that I haven't been able to answer by forum searches. Perhaps I will get to them soon.
You are a great group of people here and I'm looking forward to an educational relationship
--Snitty
I have done my searching on this forum and others and I'm having trouble finding some info. Here are some of the issues I'm trying to "translate" over from my CDMA knowledge into the GSM realm.
On Sprint, we had PRLs, which gave the phone a list of towers to use. Different PRLs would affect the reception of the phone and new ones, as they were released, would usually improve reception. When new towers and network information are added to a GSM network, how does the phone get updated to know the new network information?
I am very new to using APNs. It is my assumption that these are comparable to PRL on the CDMA networks? My stock APN used default,supl,mms as the APN type. I am currently using default,admin,fota,mms,supl,hipri,internet. Are there any additions I should make to that or anything I should be removing from that? Stock protocol was IPv4, and I have since added v6 along with it.
On my Sprint phone, the radio baseband was included in OTA updates and were downloadable to try different versions. Different versions would affect service in different ways. I have gathered that the baseband term is more often "modem" than "radio". I am currently on I747UCDLK3. Is this what I should be on to be up to date, or is there an updated baseband that I could be looking for? Also, on my Evo, this was independent of the ROM and had to be flashed as a separete upgrade. I have not found much on this topic.
At my house, at the outskirts of civilization, my girlfriend's iPhone currently gets a constant 2 bars of service. I realize that 2 bars, on that device can be misleading as they correspond parabolically to the actual signal. However, even with her iPhone 3 (previous device, as she has a 4S now) she could, about 90% of the time, be able to transmit and receive both calls and texts. I switched to AT&T because it was the only network I've seen that could get service in our area. Even my $30 Straight Talk phone using ATT network could get service there, as well as data coverage (although slow and patchy). I was surprised to find out that my GS3 gets terrible reception there. Maybe once every 15 minutes, I'll see that I have two signal bars and will be able to send and receive a text. But that happens to immediately switch to zero coverage with what seems to be no outside factors. It's as if there is an ATT cloud over the house, and I get service as it floats by. I was expecting at least a reliable bar or two, being that the technology in my phone is at least a half year newer than the 4S, and that the technology was built around these specific spectrums of signal.
This brings me to ask... are there any settings I can toggle to try to pick something up a little better? My girlfriend's 4S gets consistent signal, so I know the nearby cell is penetrating the house. I'm just wondering what tweaks I could possibly do for my phone, which uses the same spectrum, to recognize the same signal that another device is recognizing.
I think I've blabbered enough for now. I do have a host of questions I have that I haven't been able to answer by forum searches. Perhaps I will get to them soon.
You are a great group of people here and I'm looking forward to an educational relationship
--Snitty
