Help Forgive my ignorance, will an OTA improve the signal strength?

[letters]

Would an OTA update fix this problem? And I'm not necessarily talking the one that was mentioned here today. I can live with the battery issue until the extended battery comes out. I love this phone and don't want to send it back but I really might have no other choice. What are the chances that some update will improve the issue or is it a hardware issue that might never get resolved?

Also, anyone know how long you have with a phone till you can not port your number? I've been using the phone with a new number and still have my ATT Bold active. I don't want to port my number till I am sure I will be keeping the Incredible.

 

[WizeGuyDezignz]

The signal strength on the Inc is fine and on par with the Moto Droid. HTC's "bars" aren't accurate to the actual signal strength it's getting. Go to menu>about phone>network and look at the signal strength. That's the reality.

 

[5thElement]

There is nothing wrong with the signal strength.....just look at your phones db numbers. I get the same signal as my Eris. You are probably looking at the green bars which mean nothing.

 

[letters]

No, I'm doing it right.

I compared my numbers in debug mode with my coworkers Eris right next to mine.

Hers = -70
Mine = -100

I did the *228 and it didn't help. I'm not the only one.

 

[5thElement]

No issues here. I get the same signal as my Eris.

 

[WizeGuyDezignz]

Mine is at -78. Sometimes goes to about -73.

 

[ChewyTKE609]

What constitutes a "good" signal strength? How low can it get before you don't get service? I'm getting around -95 right now at home.

 

[SamMax]

What constitutes a "good" signal strength? How low can it get before you don't get service? I'm getting around -95 right now at home.

-95 db is a really poor signal that's about what I have been averaging.

 

[wonderbread]

I'm getting -70, i've seen it around -83 too. NKT mentioned somewhere the ranges of good signal. I know -70 is good.

 

[SamMax]

delete

 

[KillaKam]

so the lower the dbm number then that better it is then correct? like -100 is horrible (nothing) but -1 is like the best?

I'm getting between -94 to -74 at my house in one spot

 

[johnperkins21]

so the lower the dbm number then that better it is then correct? like -100 is horrible (nothing) but -1 is like the best?

I'm getting between -94 to -74 at my house in one spot

-50dbm is pretty much the best (though it's highly unlikely you'd get that good of a signal), it doesn't go down to -1dbm. Generally a range between -60dbm and -80dbm is good. You'll likely start having issues above -95dbm.

 

[seVer]

also, since you just recently activated the phone, the PRL would be updated. Doing it every other day isn't going to make any difference, since the PRL is really only updated every few months... unless something major happens (Alltel much?!)

 

[svwilbur]

Did you do a *228 option 2 to program your phone on verivon for your local towers in the area around your home or office? That may help.

 

[zemerick]

There are other factors than strength. If there is no noise for example, you could have a worse signal strength and it'd still work fine. I am around -90 to -100 inside my apt and never have a problem.

Can OTA affect signal strength? In theory yes. I wouldn't expect one to ever change it though.

As for battery problem: Are you sure there is one? IE: I was getting down to 10 percent on my phone after about 3-5 hours yesterday....but it wasn't anywhere near that low, the phone just hadn't calibrated yet. ( NTM: I hadn't stopped all the stuff I'm not using yet like Talk. ) So far today I'm at 6 hours light to medium use with 90 percent remaining as my phone appears to be close to properly calibrated. ( Still going to run it to dead again, then charge back up. ) and yes, this is the stock 1300 mah battery, with sync running for everything except weather and about half that time with a live wallpaper.

 

[HTCIncredible]

right now my singal strength is showing -79dBm? is that good or bad?

 

[HTCIncredible]

also my 3G icon is NEVER on is that a problem?

 

[HTCIncredible]

mine seems to stay between 78 and 89. at which point do i worry?

 

[rushmore]

All radios are not equal, so there is a chance the Inc's radio is weaker than the Droid's. My tests it was, based on download and Youtube performance in weaker areas where I live.

As far as bar and dB readings, the Inc is on crack- real bad. One time you may look and the dB is -64 and shows 2 bars, the next the dB is -89 and shows 4 bars, which is the opposite you would expect. The next time it may show more logical results.

The bars on Inc do not correlate to any convention. The are bunk.

 

[HTCIncredible]

What about my 3G icon never being on??? But for like a second if any at all randomly?

 

[htc-thc]

My signal strength at home (where i work too) has ranged between -70 and -85 since the day I got it. I started checking this because my bars were 1-2 and occasionally 3 at home, and these forums pointed out where to check signal strenth.

So after the OTA update a few days ago my signal strenth seems about the same (right now its -72) but the bars that show up are now almost always 3 (just looked down and saw 4 bars and -70 as I typed this) and sometimes 4 and sometimes 2.

So the OTA update must have done something to correlate the bars to signal strength better. Before the OTA I rarely saw 3s and never saw 4 bars, now its the norm... with the similar signal strengths.

 

[Hand76]

The signal strength on the Inc is fine and on par with the Moto Droid.

Not from what I have seen. I have 2 co workers both with Moto Droids that seem to be able to load web pages at work (in a big building) faster than me all the time.

Same with the iphone users in the same office.

At home my signal is fine.

 

[Mischka7]

-80 here in San Francisco financial district.

 

[neggie]

i was at best buy to rtn by INC becuase of this. the guy i know let me take home a Moto Droid for 1hr to check it out..results where as follow in my house
the droid had 3-4 bars and around 90-98db
the INC had 0-1 bars and around 89-98db
Out side the house is
Moto--79-85db with 4 bars
INC 75-86db with 1-3 bars

so i kept my INC call quality is Ok not the best but its good though

 

[jlb0305]

interesting... I thought Droids had better signal than incredibles.

I just held my incredible next to my brother in laws droid... in our office I held the incredible with the full palm (not pincher) grip as did my BIL with the Droid. His droid had -90 to -92... the Incredible... -86 to -87