I've had my GNex for about a month and a half now. I'm on Virgin Canada. It's my first Android phone and my second smart phone. (went from an old Blackberry Curve 8330) My area is known for having poor reception but just enough to make/receive calls and texts fairly reliably. Since I'm new to Android, I jumped in head first without doing much homework, I just assumed that a flagship ICS device would have a similar radio to older phones, boy was I ever wrong.
When I'm at home, my phone reports anywhere between 25-75% of the uptime with no signal. It varies from day-to-day. I can simply never make/receive calls reliably with it; however, texting is usually okay, tho it complains about not being able to send texts from time to time. Luckily, call forwarding is included with my plan so whenever someone tries to call me it goes straight to the land line here, plus I can make calls using Skype using my wi-fi. When I'm out, I rarely get a signal above -113 dBm unless I'm in certain areas or in a city. I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with my radio because I get around -70 dBm at work and my 3G is faster than their wi-fi.
I want to keep the phone and I can handle the bad signal at home as I have call forwarding and skype to fall back onto, also I've been considering purchasing a signal booster. So here are my questions:
Is there any way to boost the radio performance on the phone? I've read a bit about different basebands and custom roms over on XDA, and I'm a bit overwhelmed. Despite being new to Android, I'm quite technically inclined and want to learn more. Could installing a custom 4.03 rom or yakju google build then a different baseband increase the power of the radio?
Also, I've been looking at the yx545 signal booster. It looks promising but the only concern I have it that it supports 800/1900mhz but my carrier told me they operate on 850/1900mhz. Would I still benefit from installing it in my home?
It's no fun when I'm in a public place and I hear other people's phones going off whereas mine has 0 bars and -115 dBm. I've done a lot of asking around including where I bought my phone and my carrier, they claim it's because my area is still transitioning between 2G and 3G. I tried the use only 2G networks option, my carrier told me they do not support it. That was a huge letdown as my checking the use only 2G networks option increased my signal strength considerably, yet I was unable to use my phone at all with it checked. Also, the carriers here (Telus, Bell, Rogers) want very much to install new towers but the local government will not allow it.
Any help or advice would be appreciated. I'm going to keep my GNex regardless as I'll be moving to a city at some point this year anyway. Thanks in advance
When I'm at home, my phone reports anywhere between 25-75% of the uptime with no signal. It varies from day-to-day. I can simply never make/receive calls reliably with it; however, texting is usually okay, tho it complains about not being able to send texts from time to time. Luckily, call forwarding is included with my plan so whenever someone tries to call me it goes straight to the land line here, plus I can make calls using Skype using my wi-fi. When I'm out, I rarely get a signal above -113 dBm unless I'm in certain areas or in a city. I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with my radio because I get around -70 dBm at work and my 3G is faster than their wi-fi.
I want to keep the phone and I can handle the bad signal at home as I have call forwarding and skype to fall back onto, also I've been considering purchasing a signal booster. So here are my questions:
Is there any way to boost the radio performance on the phone? I've read a bit about different basebands and custom roms over on XDA, and I'm a bit overwhelmed. Despite being new to Android, I'm quite technically inclined and want to learn more. Could installing a custom 4.03 rom or yakju google build then a different baseband increase the power of the radio?
Also, I've been looking at the yx545 signal booster. It looks promising but the only concern I have it that it supports 800/1900mhz but my carrier told me they operate on 850/1900mhz. Would I still benefit from installing it in my home?
It's no fun when I'm in a public place and I hear other people's phones going off whereas mine has 0 bars and -115 dBm. I've done a lot of asking around including where I bought my phone and my carrier, they claim it's because my area is still transitioning between 2G and 3G. I tried the use only 2G networks option, my carrier told me they do not support it. That was a huge letdown as my checking the use only 2G networks option increased my signal strength considerably, yet I was unable to use my phone at all with it checked. Also, the carriers here (Telus, Bell, Rogers) want very much to install new towers but the local government will not allow it.
Any help or advice would be appreciated. I'm going to keep my GNex regardless as I'll be moving to a city at some point this year anyway. Thanks in advance
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