AT&T Network Tips and Tricks?!?!?

[D1andOnlyOmen]

Hey all - we recently switched over to AT&T from Verizon to take advantage of the Unlimited Data plan option since we already had DirecTV service. I've had a Nexus 6P for not quite a year now and the wife got a Galaxy S7 Active when we switched. We're in central Iowa and where our home is that we moved to a year ago, we had terrible service with Verizon (poor signal, constantly dropping calls, failed text messages, etc...). Checking with VZW and getting them to look into the issue resulted in them admitting that it was a "poor" area and that they had no timeline on network/tower improvements......but would happily SELL us home booster thing for $250. So with everything on AT&T's coverage map looking very similar across our state and the new offer from AT&T to switch, we decided to finally take the plunge after years with VZW. I'm starting to regret the decision. We still have pretty poor coverage at our home with AT&T (though it does seem a slight bit better) and the signal/data speed issues I've experienced the building I work have not really improved with AT&T vs. VZW either......... We also traveled right after we switched to visit my wife's family in another part of the state where AT&T's coverage map shows they have regular network coverage, yet neither myself nor my wife had ANY sort of service on our phones. I've talked to friend who also have AT&T that have traveled through that same area and they said they never had any sort of issues. My phone while at work seems to constantly switch between getting LTE signal vs HSPA+ (and even occasionaly the "E" extended network signal) while other co-workers with AT&T coverage seem to have LTE just phone (albeit on phones other than the Nexus 6P). I'm starting to wonder if it's more of a "phone" issue than maybe some network issues.

I've check what I can think of on the network settings on the phone under Cellular Networks and have ensured that the "Preferred network type" on our phones is set to LTE. Are there ANY other settings on the phone that I'm possibly overlooking that could be causing this issue that could be tweaked to help provide a better, more reliable experience?!?

 

[Rukbat]

1. The signal you get has very little to do with the strength of the signal they're transmitting. Too many users and the signal goes to pot.

2. Bring your phone and your wife's phone into an AT&T Device Support Center (they're located in some of the AT&T stores) and ask them to please straighten things out. It could a bad SIM, you could both have gotten stuck with bad phones, there are too many possibilities to guess at. Worst case, if the phones aren't new (like 15 days old or less) is that you get working refurbs. (Don't let people tell you how bad a refurb is - my current one is over a year old.)

Something's wrong somewhere, and the DSC can figure it out. (I had one manager give me an 800 number, tell me to call them and ask for a replacement phone, since they had none in the store. I don't think the conversation took a whole minute. Next day, refurb phone in the mail.)

 

[mike568]

Hey all - we recently switched over to AT&T from Verizon to take advantage of the Unlimited Data plan option since we already had DirecTV service. I've had a Nexus 6P for not quite a year now and the wife got a Galaxy S7 Active when we switched. We're in central Iowa and where our home is that we moved to a year ago, we had terrible service with Verizon (poor signal, constantly dropping calls, failed text messages, etc...). Checking with VZW and getting them to look into the issue resulted in them admitting that it was a "poor" area and that they had no timeline on network/tower improvements......but would happily SELL us home booster thing for $250. So with everything on AT&T's coverage map looking very similar across our state and the new offer from AT&T to switch, we decided to finally take the plunge after years with VZW. I'm starting to regret the decision. We still have pretty poor coverage at our home with AT&T (though it does seem a slight bit better) and the signal/data speed issues I've experienced the building I work have not really improved with AT&T vs. VZW either......... We also traveled right after we switched to visit my wife's family in another part of the state where AT&T's coverage map shows they have regular network coverage, yet neither myself nor my wife had ANY sort of service on our phones. I've talked to friend who also have AT&T that have traveled through that same area and they said they never had any sort of issues. My phone while at work seems to constantly switch between getting LTE signal vs HSPA+ (and even occasionaly the "E" extended network signal) while other co-workers with AT&T coverage seem to have LTE just phone (albeit on phones other than the Nexus 6P). I'm starting to wonder if it's more of a "phone" issue than maybe some network issues.

I've check what I can think of on the network settings on the phone under Cellular Networks and have ensured that the "Preferred network type" on our phones is set to LTE. Are there ANY other settings on the phone that I'm possibly overlooking that could be causing this issue that could be tweaked to help provide a better, more reliable experience?!?

I have had AT&T/Cingular Wireless for over 10 years the last 4 years in my name. I noticed that in parts of the building I get 3 bars of LTE and others 4 bars of 4G. Sometimes all carriers signal has a hard time reaching all of the building. Have you compared your AT&T phone to a coworkers in the same spot at the same time? Enjoy your unlimited data. Don't forget you can stream some of your Directv channels on your phone with your Directv login info. I have the orginal unlimited data and take of it alot. This morning I am now free to leave AT&T with no ETF or Device Payment since my contract ended.

 

[fotyc]

OMG you could be me. I had Verizon for a long time but switched to AT&T because they had better coverage all the places I went, including home and work. Five years down the road - I have a one year old LG G4 and can hardly get any coverage either at home or work. It's fine when I'm out on the main roads driving around the towers but to have my phone no longer work at home or work is very distressing.

I took the phone to the AT&T device center, they ran diagnostics and everything seemed fine, they switched out my SIM card, it's no better. This was AFTER an hour on the phone with an AT&T technician.

Is it time to go back to the store and cause a fuss, or is it just that AT&T's network is no longer any good where I am? I'm in the Baltimore area, south and west quadrants. Is another carrier now better provisioned here? This is so upsetting because I love the phone but can't do anything with it for most all of my days and evenings - at home I can run it on wifi but that doesn't get my phone calls, and at work I can't run it on anything although there is an AT&T tower on our building because our agency Blackberries are AT&T devices. Help!

 

[fotyc]

I just ran a Speedtest with the 4G indicator showing on my phone while standing at my window. This is what I got. Which is typical of what I get when I get anything at all here. What should I do?? Why have lots of data if I have to use my Comcast router all the time?

 

[Jcblack3310]

I just ran a Speedtest with the 4G indicator showing on my phone while standing at my window. This is what I got. Which is typical of what I get when I get anything at all here. What should I do?? Why have lots of data if I have to use my Comcast router all the time?

View attachment 232262

Why wouldn't you use wifi? It's in your home, use it so you don't use all the bandwidth on that tower for others. Wifi is way faster most of the time.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[fotyc]

Why wouldn't you use wifi? It's in your home

It is - but I tend to leave the wifi for my daughter who streams a lot of YouTube and Hulu, and use the mobile data myself. Xfinity isn't enforcing a cap right now, but they leave open the possibility that they might.

 

[D1andOnlyOmen]

I've mostly resigned myself to the fact that it's just largely the office building that is interfering with my service while at work at least. I still need to track down if I'm having an issue with my specific phone on the HSPA+ network when it switches to that due to poor LTE signal. While the HSPA+ signal usually appears strong (mostly full bars and a signal strength in the -70-80 range.....I assume that's ok anyway), if I try to run a speed test, rather than just getting significantly slower speeds that you would expect on the older technology, it FAILS to send/receive any data at all. I've been to the AT&T store twice now, they say everything they can see "looks" ok according to what they know and could test. They even hooked the phone up to some tablet and software diagnostic deal and that came back OK.......of course that was specific to LTE (I believe) and was in the store in an area where I otherwise haven't really noticed any issues. The second trip yesterday they did swap out my SIM card to see if that makes a difference........things seem about the same to me. Still no data transmission on HSPA+ when inside the building. I'm going to force it over to that network when I leave later today to see if it works outside of this building to rule that out as an issue. IF that still fails.........am I to assume that I may have a previously undetected issue with my phone hardware?!?! I'm hoping that since I didn't get this phone until October/November that it would still be under warranty.

Any additional thoughts/suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

 

[Almeuit]

Why wouldn't you use wifi? It's in your home, use it so you don't use all the bandwidth on that tower for others. Wifi is way faster most of the time.

Posted via the Android Central App

I wouldn't count a video stream or some browsing to take up all the bandwidth on the tower. If so AT&T needs to fix that tower.

 

[Almeuit]

It is - but I tend to leave the wifi for my daughter who streams a lot of YouTube and Hulu, and use the mobile data myself. Xfinity isn't enforcing a cap right now, but they leave open the possibility that they might.

The "4G" is HSPA not LTE .. That is why it isn't the fastest. It looks like you just have a weaker signal in your home.

 

[fotyc]

I finally complained on Facebook and ended up talking to a member of AT&T's 'social media team' and after some back and forth they agreed to send me a warranty replacement. I'm already tons better, so the phone's antenna was a bit degraded. LG Backup did a bit of the work and then lots and lots of reinstalling apps but I'm back to something like normal. When the status bar says I should have connectivity, I actually have it.