phone reception......

dmbfan42

Active member
Sep 21, 2010
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Sorry if this has been posted before too much back reading...

phone reception on the fascinate is there any way to improve it? i have 2 other phone from different providers and they get better phone reception then my phone so 'im using my working for most of my calls out?

I have already done the *228 and updated my roaming i have even done the re activate my phone and then updated my phone roaming ans still only get minimal 2 bars at best. i live by several major cities and almost the same thing i think in Milwaukee i get 3 bars and same in Chicago.

So any ANY thing to help would be wonderful!!

Thanks
 
I have had the same problem since forever. I only get four bars in urban areas for some reason. Glad I'm not alone!
 
Instead of looking at how many bars you have go menu=>settings=>about phone=>status, and look at the signal strength. Anything above -90 dBm is poor reception, below -90 is normal range and good reception, below -80 is great reception. You may only have 2 signal bars, but if you are at -84 dBm when you have 2 bars, then the bars are not accurately reflecting your signal strength.
 
Just worth mentioning, a series of thoughts that I have had..

The Fascinate has one of the lowest SAR levels. Cell phone radiation levels - CNET Reviews

The Fascinate has had problems with it's Radio's in the past. In fact, the recent onslought of problems were so numerous Verizon was just flat out replacing the Fascinate (CHARGE, DX2, DIC2) for it's customers due to missing calls, missed texts, or media messages prior to releasing ED05 update, which was meant to fix those problems. I.e. radio issues.

This is reaching but,

My GPS has always sucked on this phone. While it will lock my location pretty quickly, the Navigation feature is terrible. It searches for the GPS signal longer than it takes for me to figure out where I am going on my own. To my knowledge, the GPS unit is a separate piece of hardware from the cell phone radio, but if not, than that too can be chalked up to the garbage radio .


In light of these observations, I concluded that the fascinate is made with a weak radio, hardware wise.

Now while signal strength has a large part to do with the signal in your area, if you look at it in the context of your Fascinate which has a weak radio..you see why your signal strength is weak. I guarantee the phones with higher SAR levels don't have the same signal problems.. giving you a reason to switch phones, or just be satisfied that your brain isn't eating too much RF everytime you make a call.

But then again, I very well could be just thinking about this too much..
 
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mine phone sits at a -92 to -100 so i think there is something wrong with my phone :mad:

If I understand this thread correctly there would only be something wrong with your phone if you had that reading and your phone is showing "full bars" or something close to it. Mine is at -98 with only two bars, but coverage at my house sucks anyway so I use wifi.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
 
I don't think he ever said 'full bars', he said he averages two bars... Three when hes in the big city.

Fwiw, I average -90 / -100 in midtown Manhattan. If I have full bars I can usually look up and see a cell tower nearby.

I went into a VZW store and took the manager around the store and compared the signals with the other phones there... The Fascinate signal was off by about 30%

It's time for vzw to just fess up and admit the Fascinate is a lemon. It's a severely flawed phone and anyone that calls them out on it should be given an upgrade no questions asked.
 
what I'm talking about it is the phone reception sucks....and of course looking into other phones or providers. i just hate it when I'm in a well covered area and talking on the phone and it drops (no bars) while i can pick up my work phone (different provider and full bars) and crystal clear with no drop calls. oh well maybe my next phone will be better
 
These phones are hit or miss. Mine works fine with all the updates done. Cant say i have any real problems that would make me need to return it yet. But i live in an area with many towers nearby and I know thats not the case for everyone.
 
I tend not to take how many bars I have seriously. Sure, I usually only have 1 or 2 bars in my house, but it has never effected the usability of the phone. I still get a solid 3G connection if I turn off wifi and call quality has never been an issue. For all I care, it can say it has 1 bar all the time as long as everything still works.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
 
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