need help getting LTE on my nexus 4

Zegami · Jul 22, 2014

I guess it mostly depends on where you live but over the years I switched between att and t mobile Sims as I moved around and etc. However today I activated a att LTE Sim and I couldn't be happier!! Since I moved to this apartment I had awful service with T-Mobile. Usually half a bar or no single and I put up with it for a year. But today I got that att LTE straight talk Sim and I'm getting full bars all day everywhere I go minus few places in town!!

See this pic? Its me on phone in bed without WiFi, never thought it would happen. And see my battery level? I've been using the phone a lot more now that it gets a good signal

Btw am I getting LTE? What does the h mean? I used the nexus 4 app to flash LTE modem and enable 4g LTE... But my down speeds are 7mbps which i hear 20mbps is normal.

kate · Jul 23, 2014

Hi Zegami, I moved your thread to the Straight Talk forum since it's regarding their service and reception

H is for HSPA which is not LTE, although HSPA is faster then 3G.

Zegami · Jul 23, 2014

The letter H is really starting to piss me off... Maybe I just don't have LTE in my area.

bjacks12 · Jul 23, 2014

The Nexus 4 only has one LTE band, and it's a T-Mobile band. You're not going to get LTE on AT&T with this phone.

Zegami · Jul 23, 2014

bjacks12 said:
The Nexus 4 only has one LTE band, and it's a T-Mobile band. You're not going to get LTE on AT&T with this phone.

Is this true? I was told by several people before that the n4 doesn't have LTE but you can flash the modem and it only works with att lte.

Straight talk doesn't make a LTE t mobile card last I checked, so would I need to get a prepaid Sim from T-Mobile?

Side note: before I got this LTE Sim I had an old straight talk T-Mobile Sim and flashed the LTE modem and had what if called 4g... But down speeds were only 6mbps... With my att LTE card I'm getting H with down speeds of 9mbps... Also the signal is a lot better wherever I go.

also according to this, tmo and ATT both use band 4 for LTE.

jack I see you are also using n4 with ATT, do you prefer att over tmobile even with Hspa+? it seems to be much faster for me as well as much stronger signal. besides for my cellphone uses, 9mbps is more than enough, not to mention its only 45$ a month with no contract, and I got the phone for 299$, cant really beat it!

codesplice · Jul 23, 2014

Zegami said:
Is this true? I was told by several people before that the n4 doesn't have LTE but you can flash the modem and it only works with att lte.

*snip*

also according to this, tmo and ATT both use band 4 for LTE.

AT&T does operate on LTE Band 4 (1700 MHz) in some areas, but I'm pretty sure T-Mobile is the only network that makes widespread use of Band 4 (the band that the Nexus 4 supports). So while it can be done on AT&T, it's much more predictable on T-Mobile - pretty anywhere that T-Mobile has LTE coverage is using that 1700 MHz frequency.

Straight talk doesn't make a LTE t mobile card last I checked, so would I need to get a prepaid Sim from T-Mobile?

T-Mobile doesn't differentiate between LTE and non-LTE SIMs. Any T-Mobile SIM (or, in your case, Straight Talk SIM provisioned for T-Mobile service) should be able to connect to their LTE service.

Side note: before I got this LTE Sim I had an old straight talk T-Mobile Sim and flashed the LTE modem and had what if called 4g... But down speeds were only 6mbps... With my att LTE card I'm getting H with down speeds of 9mbps... Also the signal is a lot better wherever I go.

Did you use the Nexus 4 LTE Flasher app to flash the modem and make the required build.prop change? Changing the modem enables the phone to work on LTE, but you still have to tell it to do so (via the build.prop mod, or manually configuring it elsewhere).

Zegami · Jul 23, 2014

codesplice said:
AT&T does operate on LTE Band 4 (1700 MHz) in some areas, but I'm pretty sure T-Mobile is the only network that makes widespread use of Band 4 (the band that the Nexus 4 supports). So while it can be done on AT&T, it's much more predictable on T-Mobile - pretty anywhere that T-Mobile has LTE coverage is using that 1700 MHz frequency.

T-Mobile doesn't differentiate between LTE and non-LTE SIMs. Any T-Mobile SIM (or, in your case, Straight Talk SIM provisioned for T-Mobile service) should be able to connect to their LTE service.

Did you use the Nexus 4 LTE Flasher app to flash the modem and make the required build.prop change? Changing the modem enables the phone to work on LTE, but you still have to tell it to do so (via the build.prop mod, or manually configuring it elsewhere).

Yes, I used that exact app to flash the modem,then enabled LTE with build.pop and reboot, and basically with my tmobile card, I would have spotty service in buildings, and edge data, and out side sometimes I'd get 3g, sometimes I'd get H and sometimes I'd get 4g, but besides edge the download speed always seemed to be around 6mbps for 3g, h and 4g.

would tmobile straight talk with LTE enabled give a stronger signal compared to not having LTE enabled on the nexus 4?

also if you do a factory reset, does it reset the modem as well or does the modem stay lte flashed?

codesplice · Jul 23, 2014

Zegami said:
Yes, I used that exact app to flash the modem,then enabled LTE with build.pop and reboot, and basically with my tmobile card, I would have spotty service in buildings, and edge data, and out side sometimes I'd get 3g, sometimes I'd get H and sometimes I'd get 4g, but besides edge the download speed always seemed to be around 6mbps for 3g, h and 4g.

Sounds like a network coverage / signal strength issue to me then.

would tmobile straight talk with LTE enabled give a stronger signal compared to not having LTE enabled on the nexus 4?

Potentially. AT&T tends to use lower frequencies for data, and lower frequencies penetrate buildings better than T-Mobile's higher frequencies. With the exception, of course, of the Band 4 LTE, which is fixed at 1700 MHz. So an 850 MHz 3G/H signal may work better for you than the 1700 MHz LTE one.

also if you do a factory reset, does it reset the modem as well or does the modem stay lte flashed?

Factory reset only wipes /data; it won't reflash the modem. Flashing a factory image, on the other hand, would replace the modem.

jhawkkw · Jul 23, 2014

To my knowledge, VERY few markets implement band 4 LTE for AT&T. The only market I know for sure is Kansas City, and I think there's one in North Carolina though I can't remember which one. Also most Canadian carriers use Band 4 for LTE, so if you ever went north of the border you could LTE there.

Zegami · Jul 23, 2014

well guys the god of androids must be on my side cus i just remembered my tmo card doesnt expire til tomorrow

so i popped it in and you guys wont believe the results!!

here is my tmobile sim card sitting in my room just like my original post, notice how i got 4g, but barely even 1 bar (compare it to the pic in my first post in this thread)....and heres the speedtest it ran, its about half as fast as my ATT H network, but the ping is WAY lower, which i dont understand

and here is my ATT H speed run i did yesterday (it says 4g cus of my current tmo sim, but the results are from the ATT sim)

im now going to downtown where i have the strongest signal, ill do a speed test and post it

btw does anyone know, does the nexus 5 get LTE on both tmo and ATT? not that im planning on upgrading, i love my n4 and have no reason to get rid of it

though i did drop it and the back glass is shattered, but i can just get a case to cover it up right? btw did i get lucky? cus if the camera part shattered that would mean i couldnt really take pics anymore right? im an amazing photographer with just my n4 lol, people cant believe some of the shots i take with this phone.

on another side note, I LOVE the nexus 4 flasher app <3 makes me so happy

another thing I LOVE about my n4, i have not yet had to adjust any APN settings, as soon as i pop in a sim it automatically configures itself

god it doesnt get any better than this!!! lol sry im nerding hard over android today.

codesplice · Jul 23, 2014

Zegami said:
well guys the god of androids must be on my side cus i just remembered my tmo card doesnt expire til tomorrow so i popped it in and you guys wont believe the results!!

here is my tmobile sim card sitting in my room just like my original post, notice how i got 4g, but barely even 1 bar (compare it to the pic in my first post in this thread)....and heres the speedtest it ran, its about half as fast as my ATT H network, but the ping is WAY lower, which i dont understand

and here is my ATT H speed run i did yesterday (it says 4g cus of my current tmo sim, but the results are from the ATT sim)

im now going to downtown where i have the strongest signal, ill do a speed test and post it

Yeah, those results are similar to what I get without a good signal. Low ping (because LTE), but not-so-great speeds (because weak signal, packet loss, etc). Curious to see how it does downtown!

btw does anyone know, does the nexus 5 get LTE on both tmo and ATT?

Yep. Nexus 5 is fully operable (with LTE) on AT&T, T-Mobile, and even Sprint!

Zegami · Jul 23, 2014

you guys wont believe it!!

heres my downtown results! whats interesting though, is even though i get lower down speeds than ATT H in my home, browsing web still feels snappier.

I think I am going to stick to ATT for now though, I rather have the stronger signal at a slightly lower speed considering its comparing full bars at home to 1 bar.

downtown: it just amazes me to think that just a few years ago i thought 14mpbs was blazing fast for home internet. all this through st with unlimited talk+text and 3gb data for 45$ a month and no contract, amazes me everytime i think about it... CANT BEAT IT

jhawkkw · Jul 23, 2014

The snappier feeling is due to significantly reduced latency. LTE grants less latency than HSPA which is why it feels quicker.

bjacks12 · Jul 24, 2014

That's weird, I didn't think the older ST T-mo sims got LTE. I do know that they quietly started offering it on the new sims like AT&T did.

As far as how I like ST AT&T on my Nexus 4. Not much. I used to, when I lived in St. George, UT. Other than crappy ping, I had decent signal strength and DL speeds. Now that I've moved to Vegas, I can't get crap for download speeds and my data gets 'restricted' anytime I leave the city. Straight Talk's customer service has treated me like garbage whenever I've called in. I'm thinking of switching over to T-Mobile's Simple Choice plan now that they offer unlimited music streaming at 4G speeds. I may flash the LTE modem if I do that. The only problem I've been having is signing up for that 7 day test drive. They won't ship anywhere other than your billing address. Nobody is home to sign for stuff during the day, so I like to have my stuff mailed to my office. No bueno.

vincentallen2 · Jul 25, 2014

I've recently switched to AT&T Straight Talk 3 days ago (coming from the T-Mobile $30 plan using a Nexus 4). Its been a noticeably great difference between the two. Im getting LTE both at home (LA Habra, CA) and at work (Compton, CA). Granted, LTE isn't as solid as it was on T-Mobile, but that's understandable due to AT&T not broadly expanding band 4. At work, I'm always surrounded by metal, steel, and brick walls. T-Mobile building penetration was basically nonexistent, but with AT&T, I'm getting HSPA and HSPA+.

I really been impressed with AT&T. So much so, that I'll be using their MVNO for now on until T-Mobile's building penetration is better.

P.S. yes I did do the LTE mod, but the app didn't really help me. I went to XDA and used files from their Hybrid Modem thread.

need help getting LTE on my nexus 4

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