Help Reception Issues? Concerned about radio signal strength?

[bearballz]

I've been suffering with the missed calls thing since late June. I called Sprint and they said the tower I usually connect to is undergoing repairs/upgrades (In Berwyn, Il. off Cermak Rd. just outside Chicago).

No ETA on when the repairs will be done though. On the bright side they did issue me a $33.00 credit on my bill.

 

[dr g]

Your not by any chance on the east coast are you?

Nope, Hawaii

 

[3vodroid]

Nope, Hawaii

Well my suggestion is out of the question then! Haha

 

[Frogbone]

After having my phone replaced about two weeks ago and getting the OTA update I am still having issues that I think I should not have.

I have been on the road staying at a hotel that provides free wifi. Before accessing the network, one needs to enter a key into the first webpage that shows up.

So, I get back from work and get on the hotel wifi. At the same time I also have about 58% signal strength from 3G.

At one point or another the internet connection times out at the hotel but I am still connected to the wifi network.
When that happens (I never know what) I have absolutely ZERO data connectivity on my phone, even though I have good 3G signal.

emails don't come in, heytell and whatsapp messages don't come in at all. Facebook doesn't connect, nor do any other apps that require a data connection. I do get text messages and phone calls however.

In order to get data back, I have to turn off wifi. At that point 3G kicks in again and I get a bunch of messages that have accumulated since I lost internet connectivity through the wifi network.

The same thing happens when I connect to any other wifi network and leave that network. The phone seems to keep looking for the wifi signal and refuses to switch to 3G when there isn't a wifi anymore.

I had NEVER experienced anything like this with my OG Evo or any other phone.

They can't expect me to constantly monitor my wifi connection and turn it off or on.

I contacted HTC about this but after several swift replies from them they escalated the issue but I haven't heard from them ever since.

This is the second phone that I got that does this and I don't think I am alone with this issue.
I tried all those settings that are posted around here but I seriously need the setting that says " Use ANY data connection available, NOT just wifi"

I'm open to try any suggestions.

-Frustrated in data twilight zone

 

[guywithbluepants]

I was wondering if anyone else is getting this. While one a call my calls drop. Also before I call I will get just a busy tone even thou I can call phone nest to me it will get busy tone. I know sprint is updating there network and I have updated my prl and profile everyday. Is anyone else getting this? This just started happening like last month. :dontknow:

 

[Turkey]

My phone has started to drop the mobile network. Even when I have full bars 50% of the time I have no Internet. I live in a 4g lte area, so I don't think it's a signal issue. My wife's galaxy s2 gets 4g just fine when they are side be side. I have tried stock and custom roms with no luck. Is there a known fix? Is this something that all 4g lte phones do right now? I will ebay this phone and buy a gs3 if that would help.

 

[marctronixx]

how do you know for certain its not related to the signal? you can still get signal quality issues even with full strength.

could be related to growing pains with the LTE network--which is still a work in progress country - wide.

Turkey,
contact sprint, give them your zip code and see if there are any signal issues in your area. Taking the phone into a corporate service center so they can test the radio is also a good idea.

if you are rooted, then you could have other issues related to the ROM. You may want to post this in the rooting section as well.

 

[Turkey]

how do you know for certain its not related to the signal? you can still get signal quality issues even with full strength.

could be related to growing pains with the LTE network--which is still a work in progress country - wide.

Turkey,
contact sprint, give them your zip code and see if there are any signal issues in your area. Taking the phone into a corporate service center so they can test the radio is also a good idea.

if you are rooted, then you could have other issues related to the ROM. You may want to post this in the rooting section as well.

I pretty sure its not a signal issue because my wife can have her gs2 inches away from mine and have her 3G and 4g working. I've done every update, have tried unrooting, stock rom, custom rom nothing works. Plus I can be sitting still and have blazing fast 4g lte, then nothing no lte no 3G, my browser tells me to connect to the Internet. If I wait ten minutes and switch back and forth between CDMA and lte in the options it will return and work great for 30 minutes.

It gets really annoying on my hour commute when I can't listen to pandora or podcast. Especially when i know its not the network since when I have the wife with me her phone works great.

 

[marctronixx]

@turkey,

Ok, I wont argue with you, but your concern deals with signal reception and overall signal strength, signal to noise ratio, etc etc.

If you feel your handset is not up to snuff, take it to a corporate store, have them test it and confirm.

I understand your concern, as I would want my 200 dollar gadget to work as it should also, but there is not much any of us can do to troubleshoot over the internet. Let Sprint smoke it over and see what they say. Again LTE is being rolled out and it is having issues with 3G as well.

 

[Turkey]

Update if anyone cares. After taking it back to the sprint store the rep told me his does the same thing. I now have a Gs3 and have experienced no problems with the 4g lte or any mobile internet. Sucks though because the evo had better call quality and was probably a better phone for my needs.

 

[bearballz]

Yeah I was downloading Pandora to my phone at home using 3G and it took 15 minutes! Was just shaking my head...(SIGH).

 

[PattiCakeUS]

Update if anyone cares. After taking it back to the sprint store the rep told me his does the same thing. I now have a Gs3 and have experienced no problems with the 4g lte or any mobile internet. Sucks though because the evo had better call quality and was probably a better phone for my needs.

Just because the sprint store rep is having the same problem doesn't mean that's normal behavior. I'm no expert on these things but it seems like it has to be either a signal issue or a network issue in your area, since this isn't happening to everyone that tells me it's not the phone - generally speaking. Or maybe it was THAT phone but it's definitely not all of them.

 

[Turkey]

I don't know, but everyone saying its a network issue is wrong. The new gs3 never loses the 3G or 4g signal, and my wife's sg2 is the same. It might have been a bad batch of evos, but I have seen two now in person that drop the mobile network for minutes at a time. Funny thing is when my Internet was down his was up.

 

[Mr. Ed]

I don't know, but everyone saying its a network issue is wrong. The new gs3 never loses the 3G or 4g signal, and my wife's sg2 is the same. It might have been a bad batch of evos, but I have seen two now in person that drop the mobile network for minutes at a time. Funny thing is when my Internet was down his was up.

In my area it has been confirmed as a network issue. I can't say that there are "bad evo's" but I am pretty sure we have replaced one or two

I am going to do some more testing side by side next week...but so far I have compared my own evo lte side by side with our two gs3's and my own lg viper and none connect in trouble areas

the gs3 is a great phone. we already have a skyrocket and note on att so I had to pick something else haha

 

[papichulo916]

My phone isn't connecting to either 3g or 4g here where I live...4g it's fine if i don't get connected since I know they're barely starting to roll out, but why isn't my 3g working? I'm in the sacramento area.

 

[EarlyMon]

Try a 10 second hold-down on the power button, equivalent to a battery pull - could just be a stuck bit in memory, that would fix it.

No guarantees, worth a try, won't lose any data.

 

[papichulo916]

Try a 10 second hold-down on the power button, equivalent to a battery pull - could just be a stuck bit in memory, that would fix it.

No guarantees, worth a try, won't lose any data.

that must've been it, it's working now, thanks.

 

[dr g]

What I am finding is the phone does not transition between network types like it should. More to come

Could that explain why I have almost no luck with roaming? Voice and texting goes dead when the little triangle shows.

 

[jerrym100]

Hope I am not hijacking a thread here but this is related. I am having issues with reception and I want to call Sprint customer service. Can they tell if I am rooted if the phone says "tampered" after my root. I am not unlocked or s-off or custom ROM'd (yet...).

 

[EarlyMon]

No, they can't detect that.

If you think that you may have a bad phone, have a Sprint corporate store with a repair center perform an RF test on your phone first.

 

[jerrym100]

Ok. I have been following this thread and I will try that. Thought I would call customer service and see if they could just do a new initialization or restart (or whatever) or go to a store for an RF test. I know they can't test 4G yet but I am roaming off and on and have text msgs kicked back here at home where my OG Evo never had a problem. In fact, I still have it and it gets great reception but my LTEvo isn't.

I have OpenSignalMaps but it apparently freezes up and I can't understand the units and terminology it uses anyway (rssi and asu and CID??). I get 3 to 4 bars at the top but the overview doesn't show any signal strength at all. I don't know if I have an app problem or a radio problem.

 

[Rxpert83]

Call and make sure towers in your area aren't under maintenance as well..

I had problems with terrible speeds and texts not sending/receiving late and they all disappeared after my move.

 

[srojrs]

I too had been having the 3G connection issues that are the same as the other's who posted here. After two very long tedious calls to Sprint CS; and after doing all of the stuff they have you do (up to and short of a factory reset) and ending up not being abel to get ANY signal with a Mobile Network status of "Disconnected" for two days, I went to my local Sprint Store that has a repair center. They tried a bunch of stuff; did a factory reset, the tech in the repair center back room hooked it up to whatever they hook it up to, and the CS person came out and ordered me a new phone. It'll be at my house in two days. I tried to get what was wrong with my phone out of the guy but he would only say that it was being replaced.

I sort of felt all along it was the phone; the Sprint support people on the phone were all over the "it's the towers" deal but I was just not buying it. I live in a Columbus, OH suburb very close to the Sprint store I visited. One of the first things I asked is if there were a lot of people coming in complaining about 3G signal issues. A big "nope" to that. It's got to be something wrong with the radio in the phone. Anyway, my fingers are crossed that the replacement, which I was told would be a new, not refurbished one, works as expected.

 

[ironbrewer]

My area is only 3g.

When I have been doing open signal tests, my phone has constantly been getting faster upload speeds than download speeds. Last night my tests were pretty normal for my phone.

upload at 1.4 mbps

download at 0.34 mbps

This seems really weird to me.

Does this indicate a problem. I wish the speeds were reversed.

 

[jerrym100]

Went to the Sprint Store this morning and ended up talking to the store manager since the tech guy was busy with another customer. He verified my phone worked ok just standing there and it actually got a great 4G signal and was VERY responsive.

He said some others had complained from 'up north' where I live (about 5 miles north of the store - Cypress (Houston), TX). He said they were installing LTE in the towers up there working their way south. I said why would my 3G performance suffer if they are installing LTE?? He said they are doing hardware and software mods to install LTE, make some software changes to 3G, and remove the Nextel stuff all at the same time. So that's why a tower could be out of commission for a while. For me that while has been about 3 weeks since I got my new phone.

I was thinking I might find that damn tower near me and stop by sometime when a truck was parked there and go talk to the guy. Might do that...