Signal DBM increase substantially when receiving a call?

[teatimecrumpet]

Hi,

I just picked up an LG Tribute for Virgin Mobile (Sprint Network) and my cell phone signal has been bouncing between 0 bars to 3 bars. My dbm has been on average "-101 dBm 40 asu". This is when I'm indoors. Outdoors I get full bars.

I'd say it was just Virgin/Sprint but on my previous phone, HTC EVO 3D--also Virgin, I would get full bars all the time anywhere.

Anyway, does anyone know if this is normal for reception to get better when receiving? Do you think the phone is damaged and I should get a new one?

Thanks

 

[UJ95x]

Welcome to AC
The LG Tribute has LTE, but when receiving calls will drop to CDMA which usually has stronger signal. It's not a defect, so you're fine

 

[teatimecrumpet]

Thanks UJ for the quick response!

Pardon my dumb questions and maybe I didn't clarify. So the bars represent Voice/Text? If it shows 0 bars and I get a call and it jumps up it's because it's switching from LTE to CDMA? And if it does show 0 bars I can still get texts and phone calls?

Thanks!

 

[UJ95x]

Thanks UJ for the quick response!

Pardon my dumb questions and maybe I didn't clarify. So the bars represent Voice/Text? If it shows 0 bars and I get a call and it jumps up it's because it's switching from LTE to CDMA? And if it does show 0 bars I can still get texts and phone calls?

Thanks!

LTE is only for Internet, since the LG Tribute does not have Voice Over LTE. So it drops to CDMA for the call, but will go back to LTE when you hang up. If you have 0 bars, you should still be able to receive calls and send texts, it may just take a bit longer to send

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimLP 5.0.2

 

[ColbyJvonBrown]

Thanks UJ for the quick response!

Pardon my dumb questions and maybe I didn't clarify. So the bars represent Voice/Text? If it shows 0 bars and I get a call and it jumps up it's because it's switching from LTE to CDMA? And if it does show 0 bars I can still get texts and phone calls?

Thanks!

Yes the bars represent Voice/Text/Data. So you can just use 3G if it gets the better reception in your house. But you'll have to switch to CDMA Only. But yes you can have zero bars on 4G LTE and it will drain your battery fairly quickly, so the better suggestion is 3G if you can deal with the speed which works for me, and 3G consumes less data.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[UJ95x]

Yes the bars represent Voice/Text/Data. So you can just use 3G if it gets the better reception in your house. But you'll have to switch to CDMA Only. But yes you can have zero bars on 4G LTE and it will drain your battery fairly quickly, so the better suggestion is 3G if you can deal with the speed which works for me, and 3G consumes less data.

Posted via the Android Central App

3G does not consume less data. LTE is just a lot faster, so you may be more inclined to use more data

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimLP 5.0.2