Poor reception on my new Note 9.

[edison2012]

Just purchased a new unlocked Note 9 and chose T-Mobile as my carrier. I find I'm only getting one or two bars and frequently it falls back to WIFI calling at my house. The T-Mobile reception map says I'm in a fair area (middle of Toledo?). I've performed a factory reset twice with no better reception. Any thoughts before I return it?
I've read that a new sim card may help. My first Samsung device since the Charge (swore I'd never buy another).

 

[jimd1050]

Just purchased a new unlocked Note 9 and chose T-Mobile as my carrier. I find I'm only getting one or two bars and frequently it falls back to WIFI calling at my house. The T-Mobile reception map says I'm in a fair area (middle of Toledo?). I've performed a factory reset twice with no better reception. Any thoughts before I return it?
I've read that a new sim card may help. My first Samsung device since the Charge (swore I'd never buy another).

What did you have previously, who did you have previously and what was the signal strength like at your home, for comparison purposes? I've had Blackberry, Motorola, a Nexus and now 6 Samsung Note's (a 4, 2 - 5's, a 7, an8 and my current 9) and my signal strengths have always been similar with Verizon for many years and now with AT&T for several years. And my Note 9 is as good if not better than the Note 8 was so ?

 

[edison2012]

What did you have previously, who did you have previously and what was the signal strength like at your home, for comparison purposes? I've had Blackberry, Motorola, a Nexus and now 6 Samsung Note's (a 4, 2 - 5's, a 7, an8 and my current 9) and my signal strengths have always been similar with Verizon for many years and now with AT&T for several years. And my Note 9 is as good if not better than the Note 8 was so ?

For years I was in the Motorola world on Verizon. Solid four bars over several models. The past year I carried a Pixel 2XL. Good reception, but not quite as good as Moto. I realize this is comparing apples to oranges. Different phones, different carriers. I thought T-Mobile would be comparable. I wanted to get the overseas coverage offered by T-Mobile. I just wanted to check to see if there was something I might be missing, or if I just a bum phone.

 

[jimd1050]

For years I was in the Motorola world on Verizon. Solid four bars over several models. The past year I carried a Pixel 2XL. Good reception, but not quite as good as Moto. I realize this is comparing apples to oranges. Different phones, different carriers. I thought T-Mobile would be comparable. I wanted to get the overseas coverage offered by T-Mobile. I just wanted to check to see if there was something I might be missing, or if I just a bum phone.

Check T-Mobile's Coverage Map for your area before you blame the phone - they're not great around my area and I'm only 35 miles south of Boston!!!

 

[L0n3N1nja]

Personally I think your issue is the switch to T-Mobile.

 

[edison2012]

Sigh! You may be correct.

 

[anon(10509503)]

TMobile is very much like Sprint when it comes to service area and reception. I am on T-Mobile and love it but that's because I'm in a good service area. I always tell people if you're going to come to tmobile always check the coverage maps prior to switching. Some of the rural areas around me literally the only service you can have is Verizon if you want decent service.

 

[edison2012]

TMobile is very much like Sprint when it comes to service area and reception. I am on T-Mobile and love it but that's because I'm in a good service area. I always tell people if you're going to come to tmobile always check the coverage maps prior to switching. Some of the rural areas around me literally the only service you can have is Verizon if you want decent service.

I was just surprised. I slipped the sim card from my wife's Moto X4 on Verizon. Immediately got a solid 3 bars on Verizon. Will head back to T-Mobile to try a new T-Mobile sim card. If that doesn't work the Note is going back for exchange.

 

[pizza_pablo]

I was just surprised. I slipped the sim card from my wife's Moto X4 on Verizon. Immediately got a solid 3 bars on Verizon. Will head back to T-Mobile to try a new T-Mobile sim card. If that doesn't work the Note is going back for exchange.

You put a Verizon SIM card into your Note 9 and got good reception in the same spot as you got poor reception on your Note 9 with a tmobile SIM card?
That doesn't sound like the Note 9 is at fault.

 

[edison2012]

You put a Verizon SIM card into your Note 9 and got good reception in the same spot as you got poor reception on your Note 9 with a tmobile SIM card?
That doesn't sound like the Note 9 is at fault.

You are probably correct. If a new sim card doesn't work, I'll probably switch the service over to my existing Verizon plan. The T-Mobile overseas service just looked so attractive. Still, one bar at my home doesn't make it.
Thanks for the responses.

 

[mhunter6378]

You are probably correct. If a new sim card doesn't work, I'll probably switch the service over to my existing Verizon plan. The T-Mobile overseas service just looked so attractive. Still, one bar at my home doesn't make it.
Thanks for the responses.

You could look into a signal booster or cell spot through T Mobile and see if that helps while at home if you’re otherwise satisfied with their service.

 

[edison2012]

You could look into a signal booster or cell spot through T Mobile and see if that helps while at home if you’re otherwise satisfied with their service.

I'll check with the carrier in the morning. This is a new phone I've only had about a week so I can't comment on the service. Didn't expect reception problems as I'm in the center of my midsized city and not out in the hinterlands somewhere.

 

[Russel Shouse]

i had to leave tmobile years back, they had great service where i lived and then one day nothing. i had to set my phine in a certain spot n the house to even get phone calls. they finally admitted a tower went down and had no plans to fix it yet so they let me out of my contract. i switched to Verizon, and got great service.

not trying to sell you Verizon, but sometimes you gotta go with the area you live in. In the area i lived in, verizon and att were fine, but tmobile, sprint and uscelluar were too spotty to be reliable.

good luck to you!

 

[mustang7757]

Just purchased a new unlocked Note 9 and chose T-Mobile as my carrier. I find I'm only getting one or two bars and frequently it falls back to WIFI calling at my house. The T-Mobile reception map says I'm in a fair area (middle of Toledo?). I've performed a factory reset twice with no better reception. Any thoughts before I return it?
I've read that a new sim card may help. My first Samsung device since the Charge (swore I'd never buy another).

Just my 2 cents
Since you switch between sim cards make sure APN is highlighted in settings in network connection.
Also it's good to reboot the phone if it doesn't prompt u to after changing different carrier Sims and one last thing to try is reset network settings in settings. Hope it works

 

[pizza_pablo]

You are probably correct. If a new sim card doesn't work, I'll probably switch the service over to my existing Verizon plan. The T-Mobile overseas service just looked so attractive. Still, one bar at my home doesn't make it.
Thanks for the responses.

Depending on where you go abroad and how often, you maybe able to get a temporary roaming plan added to your existing plan.
A friend went to Africa and added it to his AT&T plan.
Verizon has a small fee to use your current plan in Canada for a day. I think it's $5 and something like $15 for three days to a month.

 

[stackberry369]

Why not see if you can get their Network extender that you plug in the socket?

 

[edison2012]

Depending on where you go abroad and how often, you maybe able to get a temporary roaming plan added to your existing plan.
A friend went to Africa and added it to his AT&T plan.
Verizon has a small fee to use your current plan in Canada for a day. I think it's $5 and something like $15 for three days to a month.

I have a plan that kicks in when I'm roaming overseas. It costs $10 per day.

 

[Trees]

For international travel and at home, the following may help.

My wife's Note 9 is a Verizon variant and we have Verizon as our provider. We've visited the UK several times this year and upon arrival purchased "pay as you go" SIM cards from 3. No issues at all and had solid 4G/LTE coverage in areas where it was available. Phone calls and SMS worked to other landlines/mobiles in the UK, although we primarily used Hangouts for messaging. We purchased plans with 12G data, and ahead of time downloaded Google Offline Maps for the regions we were visiting, so zero worries about running out of data.

May not be quite as affordable as the T-Mobile international option or regular plan costs, but on the positive side we have solid (albeit not the most affordable) service at home (large US city, and my wife primarily works at home, so WiFi is always there minus when Spectrum decides to have unplanned outages). For years we have discussed going with T-Mobile, or more recently maybe Google Fi; but since on average we may go outside of the US once a year (this year was an exception) reliable and broad coverage at home and around the US eventually wins out.

Now that Google Fi supports a broader range of phones, that is on our "list", and if either of us were to travel internationally more frequently, then Google Fi would likely be our choice.

 

[edison2012]

Why not see if you can get their Network extender that you plug in the socket?

I just learned about the extender last night. Seems like that shouldn't be necessary in a well established urban environment, but it seems like a viable option. I guess my concern now is if service is so spotty here at my home, what can I expect as I travel around the country.

 

[guitar_65riff]

Also, check the case you may be using.
I found one particular case interfered with reception. It had a metal piece top and bottom. I had to take the case of completely for gps!