H815 problems connecting to 4G/LTE or at all

[computersoc]

Hi all. I previously had a Samsung Galaxy S4 with AT&T. I still have the phone but bought this LG G4 H815 off of Never MSRP (ebay). I took the SIM from my SG4 and put it in my LG G4. I have some weirdness happening. Overall, it works, but the data rate isn't working correctly.

1. SG4 shows the following data symbols that I've ever seen: 2G (Edge or G maybe?), 3G, 4G, 4G LTE
2. This phone shows the following data symbols that I've seen so far: G, H, 4G

I live in Rochester, NY and the LG G4 shows 4G. When I go to Settings, General, About phone, Network, I see that I'm connected to "LTE" and my speeds reflect that of LTE (~50mbps) like it did on my SG4 when I had the 4G LTE symbol up top. Now, in some areas where there should be "4G LTE" like on my SG4, I am only getting "H" and the speeds are usually 1mbps. When I see the H and I go to About phone, I see it doesn't say LTE but "HSPAP". I see it says "HSPA" sometimes and I can pull 4 mbps or so.

I was even getting "G" when I should have been getting LTE. Something's not right. I was even seeing Canadian carriers show up, and again, I'm in Rochester, NY. I went a little farther south from the lake and didn't get the Canadian issue. Either way, I see "H" way too much, when I should be getting 4G or 4G LTE. What do I need to do, or did ATT launch band 29 or whatever band this phone doesn't have where I live?

If I go to available networks and manually select any of the ATT networks, it doesn't make a difference, even though I see GSM, WCDMA, and LTE listed. If I would select those manually on my SG4, I would get 2G, 4G, and 4G LTE, respectively. Now I get G, H, and 4G. Even if I see LTE and I was in the areas I mentioned earlier with it showing "H", manually selecting LTE didn't do anything. I still stayed connected to "H" and got 1 mbps or so. See the picture. You'll see up top I connected to "H" but it shows GSM, WCDMA, and LTE.

The other picture shows the Canadian networks showing up. Not sure what those ATT MicroCells are. If I scrolled down past the Canadian ones, the regular ATT ones showed up too.

Finally, some areas that I normally would have 4G LTE on my SG4, I would get no service at all. It was when I was having those Canadian carriers show up (but ATT still showed up). I was getting one bar of H at best from ATT. Most of the time nothing.

I also never got any "Welcome abroad!" texts meaning I connected to a foreign network.

PS. Never MSRP was supposed to send a US version wall charger but never included it. They included a car charger and a "Travel Adapter" which I cannot plug a USB cord into. I'm emailing back and forth with them now but they're broken English and don't seem to be of much help.

 

[Rukbat]

4G is 4G or 4G LTE, depending on what the carrier is using. (AT&T is probably universally LTE by now.)

H is 3G.

G is 2G, or Edge - using the voice network for data (which crawls).

From your description, either the radio is bad or the antenna connection isn't very good. In either case, since it's a new phone, I'd try to get a replacement or refund.

 

[computersoc]

Gotta pay a 25% restocking fee since I bought it new on ebay.

I've read that H and 3G are two different things. I haven't seen 3G in probably 3 years around me, and I travel daily for work, whether it's urban, suburban, or rural. I rarely even see standard 4G anymore on ATT. It's all 4G LTE.

Weird how it works fine in the city I live in (same bars as my SG4), but when I venture out a few miles, where there is still 4G LTE, I get the problems. It's rare for me to lose the signal, but my biggest problem seems to be that it picks the "H" network, which is very slow, and it should be picking the LTE network. As I mentioned, it will connect to H, and still show LTE as an option, and when I select LTE manually, it stays connected to H.

 

[Almeuit]

4G on the international model is LTE.

 

[computersoc]

I know, I mentioned it shows up as LTE if I go to Settings, General, About phone, Network. My biggest issue is having "H" show up a lot when it shouldn't. I guess I could go to that area with my SG4, run a band analyzer and see what's up? Maybe ATT started using a different band? I doubt it though. Those are more suburban areas that it happens like that. I'd think my ATT branded SG4 would have less bands than this LG G4 since the SG4 is over two years old?

Also, if I'm picking up Canadian towers all the way from here, I'm not so sure it's an antenna issue.

 

[computersoc]

I am at work right now. In the parking lot, I get 4 bars 4G LTE with my GALAXY S4. Inside, due to building construction, I get 2 or 3 bars of 4G.

Now, on my LG G4, I get 2 or 3 bars of H when inside the building. Could the phone just be misidentifying standard 4G? In network settings, it shows HSPA. I'd have to check tomorrow to see what my Galaxy shows.

 

[Shepx13]

25% restocking fee? Wtf? That's ridiculous

 

[computersoc]

I called ATT and they said everything is fine on their end. I notice the name of the mobile network type going from HSPA to HSPAP when I was inside the building at work. Not sure the difference between those.

 

[digitalicecream]

Isn't that just because international modesl read LTE as 4G thought? You should be getting LTE speeds even though it says 4G. is that the problem? Are you not getting LTE speeds when it says 4G? I think I remember something about US carriers tweaking the signal bars to make it look like we had better signal strength than we actually have some time back.