Nexus 4 Radio Degradation

baileycmatt

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Aug 30, 2012
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So here's a question for you all. For the past several months I've worked in a government building in Washington, DC where I get next to no reception on my Nexus 4 with T-Mobile (the signal goes back and forth between No Service and 0-1 bars of edge). It really seems to me like this is causing the phone's radio to degrade to where I get poorer service even when I'm in a strong signal area.

This makes a little intuitive sense to me. We know the strain of constantly looking for a signal runs down the battery, so the radio is doing something, and whether that's causing it to heat up and wear out or something else, I'm seeing noticeably reduced performance. My data speeds are considerably slower than they were in March/April (possibly attributable to increased load on T-Mo's network in DC, but I'd be surprised if it were to this extent); and more importantly, the phone loses signal much more easily and takes FOREVER to regain it. When I go outside my building (a very strong service area in downtown DC) it routinely takes several minutes to find the network, and then another couple minutes after that to go from gray to blue as it finds Google services. Rebooting or cycling airplane mode sometimes helps this, but I think having a phone that doesn't work for 5 minutes after you leave a no-service zone is not really that useful.

Any thoughts on this? I can't put the phone on airplane mode during the day because I do receive calls and texts that I have to be notified of (even if it's on a delay). I've started setting it to use 2g networks only while at work, but it's too early to see if that's helping. Thanks in advance.
 

Citizen Coyote

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Jul 9, 2011
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Two thoughts...

1. Install the Network Signal Info app from the Play Store. It will give you oodles of information on signal strength, tower used, speeds, etc. You can use this to make notes on how your radio is actually performing at a given location, rather than relying on the bars and time to connect.

2. Reset your APN back to default (making note of any custom settings you've input beforehand), Settings -> More (under Wireless &Networks) -> Mobile networks -> Access Point Names -> Menu -> Reset to default. See if your performance changes at all (use the app), then put your custom settings (if any) back in and check again.
 

baileycmatt

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Aug 30, 2012
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Thanks for the great reply. I have played with my APN settings (original and recommended) to no avail.

The recommendation about the network signal app is great and will help me determine if I'm really getting lower data speeds than I should, or if I think the signal is better than it really is (when I'm in a good signal area). Ultimately though I've still got the problem of it being unresponsive for a LONG time after I move into a service area, which is annoying when I go outside to make a call and have to restart it first.

But enough of my complaining, thanks for the advice.
 

Fearless Freep

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Sep 20, 2012
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I was in the same boat. I work in DC, had the T-Mobile prepaid and had virtually no coverage in-building.

It's not the N4. I just switched to Aio wireless prepaid (AT&T) and my signal strength has been outstanding, even inside the building. In my interior office where I had 0-1 bars I am now getting consistent 4-5 bars. There is no substitute for the network I'm afraid.
 

CoMoNexus

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Mar 1, 2013
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One possibility is all of the tinkering that TMO is doing as it rolls out LTE. In some markets, that includes refarming spectrum, which can cause the problems you describe.

Another possibility is cell breathing, where a cell site's coverage area shrinks as it loads up with simultaneous users. That's not supposed to occur with LTE -- although there's some debate that it does -- but it can occur with 3G and HSPA, which is what the N4 uses except when the user roots it to work with LTE. I haven't looked at TMO's customer figures over the past few quarters, but if their "uncarrier" strategy is paying off, then it's possible that you're competing with a lot more people for the same network resources.
 

Bob Coxner

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Oct 16, 2010
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I was in the same boat. I work in DC, had the T-Mobile prepaid and had virtually no coverage in-building.

It's not the N4. I just switched to Aio wireless prepaid (AT&T) and my signal strength has been outstanding, even inside the building. In my interior office where I had 0-1 bars I am now getting consistent 4-5 bars. There is no substitute for the network I'm afraid.

TMo frequencies don't penetrate walls very well. AT&T and Verizon frequencies do. That's regardless of what phone you use.

Basically, the lower the frequency the better penetration. TMo uses 1700, 1900 and 2100. AT&T and Verizon mostly use 850.