4g Authentication

[SmilinBob]

I know the Bionic has had issues from the start with 4g authentication, and it seems to be hit or miss depending on the phone. Mine has always been flawless until just recently, at which time it started to give me the dreaded "ghostbusters" red circle on the radio with no bars. It would occasionally connect on 4g but would disconnect over and over and was very unreliable, more often than not it would not even fall back to 3g and just give me the dead radio icon. If I change it to 3g using LTEOnOff app it works flawlessly. My wife has a Bionic also, same exact everything, and she does not have these issues. I am rooted on 4.1.2 but have flashed other roms into safestrap with no success curing the 4g problem. Just wondering if anyone ever discovered a sure-fire cure to get the 4g working again.

 

[srkmagnus]

I know the Bionic has had issues from the start with 4g authentication, and it seems to be hit or miss depending on the phone. Mine has always been flawless until just recently, at which time it started to give me the dreaded "ghostbusters" red circle on the radio with no bars. It would occasionally connect on 4g but would disconnect over and over and was very unreliable, more often than not it would not even fall back to 3g and just give me the dead radio icon. If I change it to 3g using LTEOnOff app it works flawlessly. My wife has a Bionic also, same exact everything, and she does not have these issues. I am rooted on 4.1.2 but have flashed other roms into safestrap with no success curing the 4g problem. Just wondering if anyone ever discovered a sure-fire cure to get the 4g working again.

If you are in a 4G coverage area try toggling Airplane Mode and see if 4G reconnects. If it does, then it's an issue with the device software and/or carrier. This would likely require a software update from the carrier/manufacturer.

 

[SmilinBob]

Thanks for the reply. I've done the airplane mode "trick," turned the radio on and off and set various modes with LTEOnOff, taken the battery and sim out, and I've even done a reset with the installation of a new custom ROM. Nothing has worked. We are in Houston and the coverage is strong. My wife's bionic gets nearly full bars on 4g at all times, while mine (side by side with hers) refuses to authenticate most of the time. I've researched this online extensively and the only thing I've seen that may work is a new SIM, but even then there are those saying it does not work for them. Was just wondering if anyone had found out the actual residual cause for this 4g issue (been ongoing for years on Verizon network) and if there was a reliable cure. I found a few sites stating it is an authentication issue, and that it affects certain models of phones more than others.

 

[Mooncatt]

Mine has connected to 4G with no problem since ICS and now JB. I was under the impression that this was no longer an issue across the board and wondering if it may be a hardware issue on yours where something physically broke.

 

[SmilinBob]

Yeah, I thought about it being broke but sometimes it does connect, just not for long. It is so unreliable I just leave it on 3g, but I've had days where it would connect flawlessly all day, then the next day completely borked. So maybe you are right, time for a new phone. I may go get a new SIM just for kicks - do I have to do a full factory reset if I activate a new SIM in the phone?

 

[SmilinBob]

https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/797373

People are still having 4g problems on the Bionic after the JB update. At least I am glad I'm not crazy, but still no solutions. Interestingly there seem to be some similarities with users having problems:

1) Most look to be grandfathered on unlimited
2) Most are using older 4g phones

Conspiracy theory would suggest that this is a deliberate attempt by Verizon to get people to ditch their perfectly good 4g phones for new devices and in the process lose their unlimited data. I know, I'm just being paranoid. But seriously, my phone works fine after a hard factory reset and 4g is good to go - then 10 minutes or so later it loses radio then goes to 3g. Still waiting to see if anyone else has managed to cure this - maybe an update to a later JB, maybe 4.2.2 or 4.3? Except then I think HDMI is history which means no lapdock. Drats. :'(

Edit: Changed the SIM out at my local Verizon store, no dice. Guys there said the phone was borked, so I guess Mooncatt was right. Guess I'll be living with 3g for awhile.