S10 intl roaming problems -- bad LTE connection + battery drain/overheating

[Josh B DC]

Hello,

I have a T-Mobile (United States) purchased S10. From the beginning, it’s had occasional problems connecting to LTE domestically – usually, however, I can get it to connect by switching on/off airplane mode.

When traveling internationally, I purchase a T-Mobile international data pass that has always worked well with previous phones. With my S10, however, the phone exhibits the following behavior when traveling internationally:

-- It takes a very long time (10+ minutes) to establish an initial LTE connection. When it does establish an LTE connection, data comes in sporadically (i.e., I’ll get just a few emails then nothing). For example, When I go to websites, nothing will load or it will say “internet not available (even though the 4G connection is lit).

-- The phone then begins heating up and the battery starts to rapidly drain power, probably reducing 1% every one or two minutes.

-- The phone usually indicates strong signal (4-5 bars) and says “4G” – at the same time the little up/down arrows are both lit up, suggesting to me that it’s trying to transmit/receive (perhaps this is related to the rapid battery loss and heating?).

This problem has happened to me in multiple regions, including most recently Tokyo and Delhi. Although the data does sporadically work, the rapid battery consumption combined with the unreliable connections has made the phone unusual while traveling internationally.

Here is what I’ve tried already: restarting phone, manually reconnecting to different networks, wiping the cache partition. I haven’t done a factory reset yet but may consider that if I can’t resolve this otherwise.

I’d welcome any and all thoughts!

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Rukbat]

The weaker the signal, the more transmitter power the phone uses (if it's weak coming into the phone, it's going to be weak coming into the tower). High power transmit causes heating.

Check the phone's frequencies (https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s10-9536.php) against the coverage of the carrier you're using in those places and the coverage that carrier has at the spot you';re in. You're probably using a carrier with a very weak signal where you are. (If that's the case, about all you can do is find a carrier with a strong signal where you are and buy a PAYG (prepaid) card from them while you're there.)

The number of bars means nothing, unless you're comparing the same phone, the same carrier and the same tower. It's not like each bar represents 10dbm or something, it's relative to that particular phone. LTE Discovery can show you your signal strength (and the band being used).