HSPA internet drops out. LTE is fine.

[tonyr6]

I have a issue where if my Nexus 5 phone connects me to HSPA which says H on the screen the internet works but then it keeps dropping out even though I have a full 4 bars. Streaming music it will drop out however when I am connected to LTE even though the signal is weaker 1 to 2 bars I can stream music with no dropouts.

The issue is that I get 1 to 2 bars LTE in my house but when I go outside it sometimes switches over to HSPA which says H and then I have heck of a time getting back to LTE. Even when I go to downtown Brooklyn it will still say H then when I go indoors it switches over to LTE which is then reliable. The worst was when I was streaming music on LTE then I got a phone call and after I hung up it stayed on H and the stream keep dropping out forcing me to listen to stored local podcast. After then it switched back to LTE when it felt like and I had no problems streaming music after.

 

[B. Diddy]

HSPA download speeds may be significantly slower than LTE, so even though the cell signal indicator is stronger, it doesn't mean your speeds are better. When you're getting the dropout, try running Speedtest and see what your speeds are. They might be under 1 Mbps, which is not fast enough to keep up with high quality music streaming.

 

[tonyr6]

I just want it to connect back to LTE even though it is weaker the speeds are more consistent.

 

[B. Diddy]

That depends more on the network.

 

[tonyr6]

128k AAC streams can't handle under 1mb. They must be dialup speeds then.

 

[B. Diddy]

I've seen HSPA speeds on T-Mobile under 1 Mbps, so it's certainly possible.

 

[tonyr6]

I also notice in my room that my LTE speeds are 1 mbps or less but when I go into the living room I can get 10 mpbs to 15 mbps down and the signal strength is the same one to two bars. I don't understand that? I called T-Mobile and they reset on there end to try to connect me to a different tower but it does not matter. Also I found a app that does the same thing to reconnect me. Does not matter.

 

[tonyr6]

Okay this is weird. T-Mobile must have added a new LTE antenna. Outside my house on the block I use to only get 1 to 2 bars but now I can get 3 to 4 bars but in my house the signal is the same of course?

My house is a brownstone built in the late 1800s if it makes a difference.

 

[B. Diddy]

It's hard to answer that. T-Mobile relies on bands that typically doesn't penetrate buildings as well as Verizon and AT&T, so the specific building materials and the architecture of your house might be significant factors.

 

[tonyr6]

When I go to the doctors they have 3 to 4 bars LTE and inside I can achieve the same signal well usually 2 to 3 bars in the waiting room but I go to his office it is weaker.

 

[B. Diddy]

Right--signal can decrease significantly the deeper you go into a building. The waiting room is presumably closer to the outside wall.

 

[crawlspeed]

I don't have a link to it right now, but you should try googling about adjusting the network settings in the developer mode area. I am pretty sure there was a section on my Nexus 4 that I could choose which kind of signal to connect to, and tell it to give certain signals low or no priority. Maybe you can tell it to only connect using LTE.

 

[tonyr6]

My block now only gets 1 to 2 bars outside again I guess they are still working on the antennas. However upstairs in my room with 1 bar I am now able to achieve a speed test of 10 mbps down. Before when it was stronger on the block I was lucky to get faster than 1 mbps. I guess those bars are useless as I seen less bars get a more reliable constant speed then one with more especially on that HSPA service.

However in my mothers middle floor it will drop LTE down to HSPA. I have not tried no speedtests down there yet but I will. Just the speedtest app is a major battery hog everytime I run it my battery instantly goes down 1-2%. I tend to run it only when plugged in because of this.

 

[lets_go_android]

Have u tried a new SIM? I had possibly a similar issue, I believe. My H would show 4/4 bars, but I still got no data (when I opened Google Play, it said no connection). LTE worked fine. Went to tmo store, described the issue, and the guy replaced my SIM. Now, I have not returned to the same spot where the orig problem occurred, and I get decent LTE almost all the time, so I'm not 100% sure that fixed it but I think it may have. There were a couple of times where I was on H (HSPA+) and was accessing getting data from a web site fine. May not really be the same problem, but it's probably worth a shot.

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