VZW: How to diagnose and debug the radio issue!

BigRedNole

Well-Known Member
You can come to my house, walk over to the Verizon Tower 500' away, connect your analyzers to my phone, and use what ever other equipment you need. There is no worry about recreating the problem because it is consistent. It is always poor at best. Your engineers can quickly determine the cause, determine if it is hardware or software, publicly acknowledge you know the issue, and offer a course of action.

1. Hardware issue: Offer free upgrade to a new phone that works
2. Software issue: Offer free upgrade to a new phone or promise a release date for the fix.

Do not leave us waiting with a return window of January 14th with a defective phone.
 

rockokma

Well-Known Member
You can come to my house, walk over to the Verizon Tower 500' away, connect your analyzers to my phone, and use what ever other equipment you need. There is no worry about recreating the problem because it is consistent. It is always poor at best. Your engineers can quickly determine the cause, determine if it is hardware or software, publicly acknowledge you know the issue, and offer a course of action.

1. Hardware issue: Offer free upgrade to a new phone that works
2. Software issue: Offer free upgrade to a new phone or promise a release date for the fix.

Do not leave us waiting with a return window of January 14th with a defective phone.

They went for option 3:

Verizon States No LTE Performance Issue with the Galaxy Nexus, Will Adjust Status Bar to Better Match Other Devices
 

Dubbin1

Android Expert
You can come to my house, walk over to the Verizon Tower 500' away, connect your analyzers to my phone, and use what ever other equipment you need. There is no worry about recreating the problem because it is consistent. It is always poor at best. Your engineers can quickly determine the cause, determine if it is hardware or software, publicly acknowledge you know the issue, and offer a course of action.

1. Hardware issue: Offer free upgrade to a new phone that works
2. Software issue: Offer free upgrade to a new phone or promise a release date for the fix.

Do not leave us waiting with a return window of January 14th with a defective phone.

I'm willing to bet that tower that is 500ft away from your house is not a Verizon tower.
 

red66charger

Android Expert
I guess my question to Verizon would be, please explain why my Galaxy Nexus switches to 3G when the "false" signal meter dips to 0 bars? Or are you going to "fix" my device switching to 3G automatically?

I'm pretty much calling BS on their diagnosis. Could be a deal killer. I love the phone otherwise.
 

BigRedNole

Well-Known Member
Thread starter
It is definitely a VZW tower. It may be shared, but it is definitely VZW. There is a second VZW tower 1-mile away (as the crow flies).
 

jkc120

Android Expert
If that is their "solution" then they can kiss me goodbye if they want to charge me to return this lemon.

They'll never admit the phone just has a crappy radio. Instead, they'll string us along until 1/16 and we can't exchange it. I hope they do the right thing but history has shown they probably will not.
 

byrds8

Well-Known Member
Even if it is a tower, being 500ft away could actually be the issue. Provided it is that close. There is a downside being too close to a tower as signals sent from it go outward before heading back toward the earth. In part of the angle downward signal would be worse being too close as opposed to being a bit further away.
 

kcs7272

Android Expert
Verizon is trying to bend us over! It most definitely is a performance issue not a display issue!

Guess we need to bombard their twitter again. I do not know how to set up hash tag but it should be #Gnexweaksignal I will try now.
 

Scur

Android Expert
Even if it is a tower, being 500ft away could actually be the issue. Provided it is that close. There is a downside being too close to a tower as signals sent from it go outward before heading back toward the earth. In part of the angle downward signal would be worse being too close as opposed to being a bit further away.

I've actually experienced this before. I was working around a tower, had full strength until I got under a half-mile, then the closer I got, the weaker the signal was.
 

civicsisedan

Android Expert
If by making the phone reading a different signal and display different bars then whatever.

The way it is now is when i walk in a building the 4g bars goto nil and im on 3g.

If the new way keeps my 4g bars to two and i actually get 4g speeds ill be happy.

My point is is it the weak bars translating to the phone to drop to 3g.

I dont really care what it says it could say 1X all day as long as i get 4g speeds.
 

jkc120

Android Expert
If by making the phone reading a different signal and display different bars then whatever.

The way it is now is when i walk in a building the 4g bars goto nil and im on 3g.

If the new way keeps my 4g bars to two and i actually get 4g speeds ill be happy.

My point is is it the weak bars translating to the phone to drop to 3g.

I dont really care what it says it could say 1X all day as long as i get 4g speeds.

If it's just the OS dropping it from 4g to 3g based on "number of bars" then the code is absurd. It has to base it on actual signal values not # of bars. Which is why I agree and call BS on this. If they just make cosmetic changes, those of us seeing a drop from 4g to 3g will simply see it go from 3 bars of 4g to 4-5 bars of 3g instead of 1-2 bars of 4g to 2-3 bars of 3g. So we'll see the same drop down and it'll be obvious they are sugar coating dog poo.
 

jkc120

Android Expert
I think everyone better know how this adjustment works before they go bombing twitter ;)

Agreed. I will give VZW the benefit of the doubt (though given their past with the bionic and charge I probably shouldn't) and hope this update fixes it. If they have not fixed it by 1/15, I will return my phone and limp along with my dinc until it's fixed. I don't want to get stuck with a nexus that has a craptastic signal, but I also don't want to get stuck with a rezound that I honestly don't like much either (if they do fix the nexus radio issues sometime after 1/15). But I will take no part in a twitter bomb campaign until they prove to be disingenuous.
 

jkc120

Android Expert
Mine works extremely well. FYI.

If you're in a strong 4g area and in a building that doesn't impose much interference then I imagine you wouldn't have a problem. But I'm in a location with -93 dBm lte which goes away entirely and then I get mediocre 3g inside. Meanwhile my wife's iPhone has full bars. :/
 

rockokma

Well-Known Member
If you're in a strong 4g area and in a building that doesn't impose much interference then I imagine you wouldn't have a problem. But I'm in a location with -93 dBm lte which goes away entirely and then I get mediocre 3g inside. Meanwhile my wife's iPhone has full bars. :/

How about call quality compared to the iphone. Are you getting dropped calls or bad connections while your wife's Iphone is not?

Are you in a 4g Zone or 4g Extended zone?
 
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