no data throughput on 4G with 3-5 bars?

[fotyc]

I have a 6-week-old LG G4 and I love it, except when I'm at work and can't get LTE service. When I turn on the phone in the office, sometimes it doesn't even get 4G at first, then it'll find the 4G service and shoot up to 3-5 bars but usually can't find LTE.

What confuses me is that when it doesn't say 'LTE' I can't get any throughput on anything - Chrome, Facebook, Instagram, Google Play store. 4G is faster than my 3G phone was, so it's not just that I'm spoiled - nothing comes through! I get 'no data returned' on Chrome about every third page, and I get blank screens in Facebook and blank images in Instagram, and a totally blank screen in Google Play.

I should add that this happened frequently on my Galaxy S4 too but it seems worse with this phone somehow, which is weird because it's smooth and speedy when I have LTE.

Why is this?? 4G should be faster than dialup, and should deliver data to my phone. Why does the phone seem to turn into a nothing the minute I lose LTE??

 

[psf57]

Who is your carrier? Tmobile, Verizon, etc.

 

[fotyc]

Sigh... it used to say in the sidebar what my device and carrier were, I guess it's gone now. AT&T. I went out at lunch and had LTE everywhere, came inside and it went back to just 4G and no data throughput. Why would it have no throughput on 4G?? I think my question is that, at least as much as what my carrier could or should do about it.

 

[psf57]

Do you have both standard and LTE checked in your data? With your work place has anything change, electronics or building wise?

Did you try doing a speed test when it's on 4G?

 

[fotyc]

Do you have both standard and LTE checked in your data? With your work place has anything change, electronics or building wise? Did you try doing a speed test when it's on 4G?

Yes both are checked. I don't think anything has changed - it's the federal government so change is glacial... I didn't try a speed test because it seems like it would need data to work... just now trying, Ookla speedtest cannot find a server; "network communication issues" with five bars of 4G. FCC speed test cannot locate a target with 5 bars of 4G - active metrics "no data found", cell tower ID and location code are given, signal strength is -89dBm, bearer is HSPA, network operator is ATT.

 

[psf57]

wow, that is totally weird. Seems something is blocking it. Where I live, they only have HSPA and I run between - 67 dBm and -89 dBm. Can't think of why that is happening. If you're close to an AT&T corporate store I'd be heading there. Unless they are working on towers? That's my only other guess. Good luck. If you do find out what's going on please post.

 

[fotyc]

I just talked to someone at AT&T - tried what they always try, to refresh my phone in the network (I guess that's their version of a factory reset), then he did a more detailed search and found out there is a degraded tower in this area and because I have the device I have, it affects me more than it would some other devices. I don't know the technical reason for that, or even if that is really what's causing my problem, when he calls me back and tells me that the tower is fixed I will post back to report what if any affect that has on my service....

 

[psf57]

Ahh, okay. When I first signed up with AT&T they had a tower in this area that was BAD. One little storm it would be out for days. Finally fixed after several scenarios of no coverage. But, then I didn't have any bars or data at all. I am wondering it the tower they are working on is data only? Hopefully they'll get it fixed up soon.

 

[johnts]

Do you have both standard and LTE checked in your data? With your work place has anything change, electronics or building wise?

Did you try doing a speed test when it's on 4G?

Where is the setting in Data you mentioned for LTE and standard? I don't see it. I'm on VZ.

 

[psf57]

I don't think Verizon has the setting. They omitted it from their phones.

 

[digdah]

Make sure mobile data is turned on.

 

[fotyc]

Um... yeah. It's on. The phone wouldn't work properly in other locations if I'd turned off mobile data.

The thing I don't get really has to do with the technology of the G4 I guess. Why would I get no data throughput with 4 bars of 4G? The guy on the phone said that the degradation of the tower would affect my phone more than some others "because you have an HD phone" but I'm not sure exactly what that means or has to do with this. Does the G4 only work on LTE?

 

[psf57]

In my area, AT&T only has 4G. Which works great. But I have both standard and LTE on, that way when I go to another location I can either have one or the other (depending on location). With data and wifi off, I still can make phone calls and send plain texts (not mms) with no problems.

Also, I know some towers are Data only and others have Voice/Data. It depends what type tower he is talking about with the degradation.