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Help 4G-LTE signal dropping occasionally

Drunder40

Well-Known Member
Jul 16, 2011
146
10
I have lived in my house in southeastern NH now for about 8.5 years and have always had Verizon as my carrier.. Our 4G signal has been a between -110dbm to 106dbm. Not great but not much fluctuation.

Within the past week or so I have noticed my signal increasing in strength to -90 to -88dbm.
Then a few minutes later it would drop back to the -110dbm to 106dbm range. A few minutes it again jumps back up to the -90 to -88dbm range. This goes on all day.

Both my wife and I have the Galaxy S5 with the latest firmware so I put them side by side and noticed that when my phone goes back down to the -110dbm to 106dbm range, hers stays at -90ish. Hers never fluctuates.

It appears Verizon has somehow bumped up the strength in our area (We are literally in the sticks) and I am now thinking there is a problem with the radios in my phone though I have been in stronger 4G areas and did not see this fluctuation.

At work I get a -99 to -101dbm range consistently.. a -2dbm fluctuation is not unusual but a -20dbm fluctuation is pretty huge. The issue at my house never happens at work.

I thought it might be Verizon implementing the new Upper 700mhz "C" block freqs and that very well may be so but the S5 does not support those freqs so maybe they are also using new freqs that the S5 supports.. Hard to say.

Anyone ever see this before? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: forgot to mention, I have restarted my phone, Did a factory reset and switched from Global to LTE/CDMA and made sure the Access Point Name was Verizon Internet.. None of that helped..

Thanks
 
Last edited:
I just brought up Network Signal Info Pro, and started watching it.
I'm seeing values in the -107 to -109 range ATM.
As my avatar indicates, the cell tower is "way out yonder" about 26 miles east of me.

I ought to walk around the house and yard, but it's too cold for that now.

I have seen it as low as -115 at times, don't recall the time span.... When I first moved here 4 years ago, there was NO Verizon signals available within 5 miles of my home... they seem to be updating things as I now get LTE most of the time.
There are times though, when 'X' is all I get.

. Network Signal Pro.jpg
 
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I just brought up Network Signal Info Pro, and started watching it.
I'm seeing values in the -107 to -109 range ATM.
As my avatar indicates, the cell tower is "way out yonder" about 26 miles east of me.

I ought to walk around the house and yard, but it's too cold for that now.

I have seen it as low as -115 at times, don't recall the time span.... When I first moved here 4 years ago, there was NO Verizon signals available within 5 miles of my home... they seem to be updating things as I now get LTE most of the time.
There are times though, when 'X' is all I get.

. View attachment 97626

Yes it appears to me also that Verizon is increasing their signal strength in my area.. I just can't explain why with my phone the signal fluctuates so radically and at such a large difference. 1 to 5dmb difference is pretty normal but 20dbm difference is pretty huge. It never did this before the signal strength increase recently.

I also use Network Signal Info Pro.. Great little tool.. I just wish it would pick up the towers in my area.. When I go to the cell map there is never any there. It should auto detect the towers and add them to a data base on the fly.. Piss poor design.
Anyway appreciate the reply..
 
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