Database Users

3G Signal

I have been using my new o2 Exec in many different cities in the UK but not once have I been able to use 3G.
1) How would I know I am connected to 3g as I only see the GPRS symbol.
2) Has anyone used this device in 3G?

If the device is connected to a 3G signal, the network name would appear as 3G O2 - UK instead of just O2 - UK.
Also the little "G" would change to a "U"

I have a 3G signal on O2 in London a lot. A very strong signal at Waterloo and I even have one at home in Camberley (Surrey). The Vodafone 3G signal in Camberley/Farnborough is very good.

I get 3G at home (Didcot) and have also elsewhere (eg Reading, Sheffield, various parts of London). Don't get it at my workbase, but that is in a rural Oxfordshire location.
Other 3G service at home are 3 and Orange. No sign of any 3G signals from Vodafone or T-Mobile.

The only time I have even tried, West End of London and I had a U signal with Orange... just no-one else with a Video capable phone to call... :lol:

Well it must mean they have given me a GPRS SIM because at the time I was asked do I want a 3g or GPRS connection - which I found strange.
I have not had 3g reception in Leeds, Oxfordshire.

3G SIM's usually (in my country) have a BIG "3G" on them. Check. Can't believe you;ve never seen a U if you do have a SIM.

3G SIM's usually (in my country) have a BIG "3G" on them. Check. Can't believe you;ve never seen a U in the UK if you do have a SIM. I'm in darkest Africa and have UMTS almost wherever I go... (OK, for busines that is - not much need for it when watching lions)

Sorry if this is stating the obvious, but have you checked the device settings to make sure that it is not locked to GPRS?
Settings, Phone, Band tab.
I leave this set to auto most of the time unless the phone has a borderline 3G signal and keeps switching from 3G to GPRS all the time.
If you find that this is greyed out, hold down the reg 'end call' button until it 'un-grays' its self ;-)
Nigel

lousy 3g and the o2 exec

Have just upgraded to an o2 exec and want to experiment with video calling .
there is no 3g signal, it always comes up 'no signal at present' even though the signal has 3 - 4 bars on it. I'm with o2 and unhappy with the service I phone tech support and they tried to tell me to move to another part of the house ....this may have been helpful if I lived in the eiffel tower but i LIVE IN THE uk.
Im beginning to think that the whole o2 3g network is substandard
Any ideas?
4arm

Look at the little square icon next to the signal strength indicator - is it a 'G' or 'U'?
A 'G' indicates normal GPRS signal while a 'U' indicates UMTS (3g) service is available.

It's normally G and very very occassionaly turns to a u?

OK, when it shows a 'U' you can make video calls. When it's a 'G' only normal calls can be made.

G being GPRS and U being UTMS which is 3G. I think you can video call via wifi but I've not tested this yet.

I doubt whether the o2 coverage is bad, otherwise why would hutchinson three use them as a carrier for their network, seeing as they are a 3G company? The signal strength bars IIRC dont bear any relation to the 3G strength.

Tim 45 said:
I doubt whether the o2 coverage is bad, otherwise why would hutchinson three use them as a carrier for their network, seeing as they are a 3G company? The signal strength bars IIRC dont bear any relation to the 3G strength.
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LOL you have the wrong end of the stick m8, Hutch "3" 3G is a pure 3G network (the biggest in the UK) with around 80% coverage. The network is wholey owned by hutch, however if your unlucky to wander out of coverage (into that last 20 %) then it will switch to O2 2G Gprs (no video calls) just so you can at least make voice calls / emergency calls. O2's 3G network has much less coverage than "3"'s but it's ok because it can seamlessly transfer to it's own 2G network if necessary

I am of the understanding that O2's 3g network is not the best in terms of coverage (voda and 3 are afaik). Interesting what is said above about 3 and O2 both being hutchingson compaines and sharing infrasturecture - can anyone verfiy?

they are 2 very diffrent companies, 3 just have a deal with O2, they pay O2 to allow "3" customers to use O2's network when "3"s is unavailable

Ward said:
G being GPRS and U being UTMS which is 3G. I think you can video call via wifi but I've not tested this yet.
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That would be funky, but don't see how it ould be possible.
I too only get a UMTS signal in Belfast (which is supposed to be a strong 3G area) when I'm upstairs...
They need to pull the finger out if they want video calling to be the norm.

O2 3G around London is okay, not as good as T-mobile of Vodafone from my experience. Using a O2 data card I can get the higher 384kbps download speed, and it really is quick.
Video calls on O2 are part of the normal call allowance, so if can get it to work it wont be as expensive as on "3".

No i thought 3 used the O2 masts and technology, i cant remember where i heard it though.. Of course i could be very much mistaken

htc band settings on 3 network!?

Hi.
I have an HTC Touch HD on the UK 3 Network.
It works fine with texts and calls n 3g but whenever I need data for an app etc it ignores a great 3g signal and tries to connect on HSDPA instead.
now this might not seem like a problem but it often switches from full 3G bars to one bar on HSDPA to check my email. this can take 5 to 10 seconds when it could have just done it on 3G.
what gives? am i using the right settings?
start/settings/phone/band
Network Type "Auto"
GSM/UMTS band "Auto"
when i was on Vodafone it would stay on the best choice ie HSDPA instead of all this swapping about.
I hope this is the right place to ask. not a major problem just a frustration.
thanks
don

In common with many (all?) of the five networks, 3UK has recently switched their handsets from staying on HDSPA to "only" 3g, but automatically changing to HSDPA when data traffic occurs.
HSDPA demands extra bandwidth to the cell. There might be a second or so delay while the handset re-negotiates the extra protocol, but it's done to give extra capacity on the cell, allowing more space for 3G voice calls, while ensuting your data speeds aren't affected by push-email or similar low-bandwidth devices using an always-on HSDPA protocol.
In short, it's completly normal and pretty standard nowadays. Keep your phone on Auto/3G, you can't force it to HSDPA only.

Signal problem theory/research

Hello, i live in a relatively small town where my service provider has very poor 4G signal. but pretty good 3G signal. With the Axon 7 i have a lot of signal problems that i didnt have with any of my previous phones, where outdoor signal is pretty bad and indoor signal is almost unusable. It also connects almost exclusively to 4G, and in contrast all of my previous phones connected almost exclusively to 3G. Over the last weekend i traveled to a major city where my service provider has very strong 4G signal, and the signal problem was almost non existant. I even had signal in places where other people with the same service provider did not. So my theory is the following, assuming that the hardware (antenna) used for 4G and 3G is the same, it may not be a hardware problem, but a problem with the software having a hard time knowing which band/signal it should connect to. It seems that in my case it prioritizes 4G signal and the cost of a VERY unstable cellphone service. This is also assosiated with the fact that when it connects to 3G (incredibly rare), the phone goes inmediately from 1/2 bars to 4/5 bars. I also changed the SIM configuration to leave LTE out, but either for a visual bug or a software bug, it keeps connecting only to 4G. So could this be the problem that me and a lot of people in low 4G signal zones are having? Is there anyway i can force the phone to connect exclusivly to the 3G signal to test if that is indeed the problem?
Regards!

Nehuen said:
Hello, i live in a relatively small town where my service provider has very poor 4G signal. but pretty good 3G signal. With the Axon 7 i have a lot of signal problems that i didnt have with any of my previous phones, where outdoor signal is pretty bad and indoor signal is almost unusable. It also connects almost exclusively to 4G, and in contrast all of my previous phones connected almost exclusively to 3G. Over the last weekend i traveled to a major city where my service provider has very strong 4G signal, and the signal problem was almost non existant. I even had signal in places where other people with the same service provider did not. So my theory is the following, assuming that the hardware (antenna) used for 4G and 3G is the same, it may not be a hardware problem, but a problem with the software having a hard time knowing which band/signal it should connect to. It seems that in my case it prioritizes 4G signal and the cost of a VERY unstable cellphone service. This is also assosiated with the fact that when it connects to 3G (incredibly rare), the phone goes inmediately from 1/2 bars to 4/5 bars. I also changed the SIM configuration to leave LTE out, but either for a visual bug or a software bug, it keeps connecting only to 4G. So could this be the problem that me and a lot of people in low 4G signal zones are having? Is there anyway i can force the phone to connect exclusivly to the 3G signal to test if that is indeed the problem?
Regards!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without knowing which model Axon 7 you are using, where you are using it, and who your provider is, there is little anyone can do to help you. All I can say is that it helped me A LOT to go into settings and turn off
VoLTE.

tabletalker7 said:
Without knowing which model Axon 7 you are using, where you are using it, and who your provider is, there is little anyone can do to help you. All I can say is that it helped me A LOT to go into settings and turn off
VoLTE.
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U model last update, using it from Argentina, and the provider is Claro. I have LTE disabled in SIM confg as i already said and VoLTE turn of as well but the phone keeps connecting to 4G no matter what i do, even if i configure it to only GSM
I don't think its a matter of position or provider (version could be if different software is provided), but a general issue with the phone and band/signal interpretation coupled with the apparent innability to go off 4G
Refards!

Nehuen said:
U model last update, using it from Argentina, and the provider is Claro. I have LTE disabled in SIM confg as i already said and VoLTE turn of as well but the phone keeps connecting to 4G no matter what i do, even if i configure it to only GSM
I don't think its a matter of position or provider (version could be if different software is provided), but a general issue with the phone and band/signal interpretation coupled with the apparent innability to go off 4G
Refards!
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ok when it connects to LTE it says "4G LTE". The 4G that you are getting is probably HSPA or something. And we had someone on here a few months back using Claro in Argentina and they had to seek answers from their Claro

tabletalker7 said:
ok when it connects to LTE it says "4G LTE". The 4G that you are getting is probably HSPA or something. And we had someone on here a few months back using Claro in Argentina and they had to seek answers from their Claro
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Click to collapse
If "4G LTE" is 4G and "4G" is HSPA, when only a "G" appears, what band am i connecting too? Its still pretty weird that im having major signal issues in my town, but when i go to a big city my signal is even better than other phones, it seems inconsistent with the whole "bad hardware" theory. I talked to Claro and it seemed like from their end it was a non issue, can you point me to the thread to see if he got it fixed somehow?
Regards!

Nehuen said:
If "4G LTE" is 4G and "4G" is HSPA, when only a "G" appears, what band am i connecting too? Its still pretty weird that im having major signal issues in my town, but when i go to a big city my signal is even better than other phones, it seems inconsistent with the whole "bad hardware" theory. I talked to Claro and it seemed like from their end it was a non issue, can you point me to the thread to see if he got it fixed somehow?
Regards!
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Click to collapse
/Trolling a bit/
I'm always LMAO when I hear US people talking about that 4G scam (which is H+ for real btw)
G is for 2G
E is for 2G+
3G is 3G
H is 3G+
H+ is 3G++ (an intermediary protocol up to 42MBps)
4G is LTE (up to 150Mbps in the EU most of the time)
4G+ is LTE-A (which is available in most of the EU, SK & JP) - up to 600Mbps, 200MBps in most tests
I've not heard of an app that could modify the way the phone "clings" to 4G LTE, since that might likely be the modem firmware doing it on its own.

RedWave31 said:
/Trolling a bit/
I'm always LMAO when I hear US people talking about that 4G scam (which is H+ for real btw)
G is for 2G
E is for 2G+
3G is 3G
H is 3G+
H+ is 3G++ (an intermediary protocol up to 42MBps)
4G is LTE (up to 150Mbps in the EU most of the time)
4G+ is LTE-A (which is available in most of the EU, SK & JP) - up to 600Mbps, 200MBps in most tests
I've not heard of an app that could modify the way the phone "clings" to 4G LTE, since that might likely be the modem firmware doing it on its own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then this is even weirder, because is G is not 3G, but 2G it means that the phone NEVER connects to the major band that all of my previous phones and Claro users connect to. Is there anyway to force to only connect to 3G?
Regards!

i have the G european model, in my town i have bad lte signal 1/2bar, when with my previously xiaomi mi4c was got 4/5 bars (maximum). In the big town i have got in the most of cases 4/5 bars. I think the "signal problems" are relatives of a lack of somehow software. i told this because i've read with the china model with the last updates an improvement of the signal reception of the phone.

Nehuen said:
Then this is even weirder, because is G is not 3G, but 2G it means that the phone NEVER connects to the major band that all of my previous phones and Claro users connect to. Is there anyway to force to only connect to 3G?
Regards!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can however force a specific protocol indeed, but you will lack the ability to autoswitch networks. Just download 4G LTE Switch (here) which is a glorified secret code dialer. Just click on prefered network and change at your convenience (4G LTE only, WCDMA only - H+ - and so on). Remember that if you force 4G LTE in an area in which you have no coverage, you won't have internet, and no 2G/3G fallback (so no texts, no calls)

I don't know if this is the same problem, but my wife has an iPhone 6+ and I have an A2017U on B29 stock root. We both use the same network (Movistar Mexico) and while her iPhone often registers LTE, my A7 often registers 4G or even E in the same place. The A7 is receiving the same bands but appears to be "choosing" or locking into the slower protocols more often.
EDIT: NEVER MIND… an xposed module was messing with my network settings. Fixed it. Now I get LTE right away.

nuserame said:
EDIT: NEVER MIND… an xposed module was messing with my network settings. Fixed it. Now I get LTE right away.
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Which module?

What if flash any Custom OS?Would it give better signal ?

Calling not working in LTE

So I use my sim on roaming and I have been facing this problem that my calls only work when I set mobile network to WCDMA or lower which hence reduces my data speed coz it's 3g. What to do?

4G (LTE) services is a data-only service, and does not support voice (unless it is voice converted to 4G data or VoLTE), hence whenever you're dialling or receiving a call network drops from 4G to 3G. Happens to me all the time on roaming, sometimes even on home network with poor VoLTE connectivity. Nothing to worry about.