Samsung Galaxy S8 phone wore out?

What's your setup?
Do you have internet access on your home computer?
The more information you can provide the better we can help

shedevil7953 said:

Hi, I have a Galaxy S8 that I purchased in Sept. 2017 so not quite 4 years old. I don't want to replace because then I'll lose my my data plan to unlimited. I now have 45MB which works better for me than an unlimited plan for downloads, etc., work items. I tried the unlimited plan a few years ago and discovered it might work fine for a phone but not laptop for work downloads and went back to old plan a couple of days later. Now with Covid controlling everything plus e-schooling, the data plan is tapped out on tethering for wifi. It kills my data plan. I live in country and cannot get high speed internet as it doesn't go as far as where I live. My internet signal has been running 'poor' for the last several months and getting worse as losing signal. Does this mean I need to replace phone or can battery be replaced by phone store? Not consumer replaceable.

What about a wifi booster; I've been looking at them online? Thanks!

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FYI WiFi boosters or WiFi extenders are really for increasing the range of an existing WiFi AP or WiFi network. But if you got no broadband at home, and therefore no WiFi AP, I don't think a WiFi extender will help you.

Suggest you contact your carrier, and see about getting a more generous data plan from them, or maybe you need to change carrier? If you are really out in the boonies, satellite internet maybe another thing to consider?

You don't say what country you are in or what carrier you are using. In most of the world you could buy a phone offline rather than through the carrier and just swap the SIM, so no need to change your plan. Of course you don't get the handset cost subsidised, so it depends on whether you have the money and what is more important to you. And there are a few carriers who are more seriously control-freaky and actually will require you register the phone with them (which then gives them more control), but with most carriers in most of the world changing phone need not mean a change of plan (I've not bought a phone on a plan this century, as an example).

However, signal degrading is not a sign of the battery fading. The battery aging just means that the phone will shut down sooner, sometimes well before the battery meter reads zero, but while there's enough charge to run the phone the reception will be the same as ever. So if your signal is genuinely getting worse the most likely cause is a change in the network itself. Hence the first thing to do is contact your carrier and report the problem to them as a possible network fault. If it is actually a handset fault it's unlikely that changing the battery will help, but if you can test with a different handset on the same network before buying a new phone I'd suggest doing so, because you don't want to waste money on a new phone only to find that it's because of a change your carrier made to their network.

So you're getting cable TV?
Who's your cable company?
You should be getting internet automatically with your cable TV.
And you should have wifi also at home.

shedevil7953 said:

I appreciate all your comments and help. Not to be a whiner, but I'm 67 and a multi-stroke survivor. Just enough tech savvy to be dangerous! My husband died last year so I'm down to a single social security income. No extra money. I am in the country away from the closest junction box for internet service, for any provider. I've been with AT&T for nearly 30 years and they have been good to me. I have reported this problem several times and they keep saying no cell service down. I suspect they've assigned me to a different tower than I used to be on according to their cell maps. I had satellite service until 2013 when I discovered I could tether or use a mobile wifi router but I have to really watch my data plan. Therefore, I cannot stream to watch Netflix, etc. but must keep cable TV.

I got a new SIM card for my router about a week ago and doesn't help when I changed it out. I can't think of anything else to tell you.....Thanks!

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You say you've got cable TV? If you've got that, then you should be able to get cable internet broadband? Because AFAIK it comes from exactly the same junction boxes and coaxes as the cable TV service.

Who's your cable TV provider?

https://www.satellite-reviews.net/dish-network/dishnet-internet
So if you have dishnet, as you are stating, for cable TV, you already have internet also. You should have a wifi connection at your home, turn wifi on your cell phone and connect. No cell data needed.

shedevil7953 said:

I'm not sure what you're asking? I have AT&T cell service and Dishnet for cable service. AT&T doesn't come out as far as I live for their DirectTV bundle.

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So you have this service? https://www.dish.com/

FYI that's satellite TV and NOT cable TV, as in you receive TV from a satellite dish fixed to your house. Ok, yeh, they may not provide an internet service, unlike a cable TV provider can.