T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - signal

Tyler Lietz

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I live in a town with iffy signal. excellent in cars and outside. I'm really starting to notice that when I have 4g data my cell signal is crap. I can walk into a building with 4g with barely a bar of cellular but when it drops to edge data my bars go all the way to 4 or 5 bars. Is this common?
 

ade_tobat

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Yes it is.. I believe thisbis how it works when ur on E full bars then it'll change to 4g, when ur reach 4g full bars then it'll change to 4g lte vice versa

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Almeuit

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Bars display how strong your data signal is... So weak 4g signal is low bars... Edge isn't weak in your area so goes to full.

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Tyler Lietz

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It changed in 4.1.

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They should have just made a separate bar. Its confusing because the new system doesn't really help at all with finding data in a poor signal home. I spent a hour looking last night for a spot with stable 4g. Only one spot in the house I found was able to successfully do a speed test and that was in a basement. Tried everywhere upstairs. The bar system really sucks. I needed the hotspot cause my internet went down though my ping times really suck in my whole town. My lowest ping time is 192 with 95% of them 250 or higher. No matter if I'm in an excellent Coverage spot or not
 

Peaches36

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My signal is at one bar in the house(Lake County, Illinois) .. It took me a couple of hours just to download a movie.. Making and receiving calls, and sms texting is fine. Sending mms messages and anything that uses data isn't good.. Unlimited data doesn't mean anything to me if I can't use it. :(

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jscholz22

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My signal is at one bar in the house(Lake County, Illinois) .. It took me a couple of hours just to download a movie.. Making and receiving calls, and sms texting is fine. Sending mms messages and anything that uses data isn't good.. Unlimited data doesn't mean anything to me if I can't use it. :(

Sent from Peaches on my GN2 using Tapatalk 2

What service indicator do you have? If your on edge or 2g (G) then it'll let you send text and calls but will struggle with downloading and mms.

How does the sensorly map look for your area? Do you know anyone that is getting better service with Tmobile in your area?

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Peaches36

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What service indicator do you have? If your on edge or 2g (G) then it'll let you send text and calls but will struggle with downloading and mms.

How does the sensorly map look for your area? Do you know anyone that is getting better service with Tmobile in your area?

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It says 4g and I only have one bar.. The map shows good coverage in my area.. I don't know anyone with t mobile in my area.

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jscholz22

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Typically if I have one bar of lte I can still pull 10mb download speeds still. Have you tried turning off lte and using hspa+ to see if that helps? I know it's a pain but there may be some tower upgrades going on.

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Almeuit

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It says 4g and I only have one bar.. The map shows good coverage in my area.. I don't know anyone with t mobile in my area.

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Yeah looks like a weak LTE signal. Try forcing it to HSPA only and it could perform better.

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.
 

willanaya

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I just got Tmobile today and am having same problems with signal strength too. I had a sprint note 3, used the 14 day trial period and my speeds were only getting as high as 3.5 download speed, once it got to 7.01.

Tried speedtest when I got tmobile and somewhat the same. 3.5 download but dropped to a .46 download twice. Now my connection says 4g only, no more 4g lte. Does tmobile throttle when you approach 2gb cuz I am closing in on that?

It seems I get better data signal when I place the phone against a window. Tmobile rep said I am in between two towers but still bad signal. He said I should wait 24 hours until my ported phone number takes full effect (one rep called me and it went to my boost phone despite my number already ported over)
 

Central n ohios best

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I just got Tmobile today and am having same problems with signal strength too. I had a sprint note 3, used the 14 day trial period and my speeds were only getting as high as 3.5 download speed, once it got to 7.01.

Tried speedtest when I got tmobile and somewhat the same. 3.5 download but dropped to a .46 download twice. Now my connection says 4g only, no more 4g lte. Does tmobile throttle when you approach 2gb cuz I am closing in on that?

It seems I get better data signal when I place the phone against a window. Tmobile rep said I am in between two towers but still bad signal. He said I should wait 24 hours until my ported phone number takes full effect (one rep called me and it went to my boost phone despite my number already ported over)

If u got the 70$unlimited then its no throttling but if u do got a limit then tmo doesn't throttle till after u hit the limit not before.

Sent from my T-Mobile LG Escape running 4.1.2 using Tapatalk 2 (Central n Ohio Austin IL)
 

Peaches36

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I'm wondering if I should take my phone back and go with AT&T.. I'd rather pay more for the performance that I want.. Unlimited means nothing if I can't use it.. What makes it so bad is I'm in an area with good coverage..

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mspace81

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I'm wondering if I should take my phone back and go with AT&T.. I'd rather pay more for the performance that I want.. Unlimited means nothing if I can't use it.. What makes it so bad is I'm in an area with good coverage..

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I say go with whatever service gives you the best service. There's no point making yourself frustrated and paying for something that you are not able to fully use. Try another carrier and see if it works better for you.

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