Way to See 4G Signal Strength?

[Unobtanium]

One of our facilities is in (or near) a city slated for 4G this Thursday (July 21). I've looked at VZW's "detail" about where the 4G will be available in the area, and I can't say for sure if the place is near one of the 4G towers or not.

Anyway, we have a need there for getting some computers off our existing DSL circuits and onto a separate high-speed connection. We already are a heavy Verizon mobile air card user, so this would not be "new." We would use USB 4G devices, and if necessary, external antennas.

I'm visiting the facility on Friday.

So: (1) Is there any way I can use my ThunderBolt to evaluate the 4G signal inside and immediately
outside the building?

(2) Is anybody making 4G signal boosters yet?

 

[GNUsNotUnix]

To answer your first question, Elixer(app from Market) has a widget which will show you your signal strength as a percentage. The widget type is called Mobile signal strength.

 

[bjboucher]

There've been threads about this in the past, I don't think there is anything to show our data signal strength that anyone has found. The bars you see are more for calling and texting and don't really correlate to your data signal strength.

 

[cadzilla74]

Unaware of any signal strength meter for LTE at this time. OOKLA's SpeedTest will give accurate LTE latency, upload and download numbers. We have Verizon extenders here at work and LTE is rock solid in buildings at our facility that are F5 tornado-proof. People on AT&T or Sprint, not so lucky indoors with ANY signal. Sorry, I do not know exactly what hardware our WAN Engineers have in place to do the signal boosting.

 

[Unobtanium]

I downloaded Elixir, and looking at the signal info, I am pretty sure it's the voice signal. I know the bars are voice, not 3G/4G.

I use the speed test app often, so I will see what my notification bar says on Friday, and go from there. On the speed tests, if I am in a fringe area showing 4G, it will drop to 3G once I start the test, if the 4G signal is not solid.

If it is on the fringe we spend enough money with VZW every month that I should be able to get some corporate help with extenders.

 

[Unobtanium]

Question answered. Solid 4G with 18+ up outside, and 13+ up in the server closet. As we move forward, it would still be nice to see an app or other way to differentiate signal strength among the various types ( voice / EvDO / LTE).

 

[FrankXS]

Question answered. Solid 4G with 18+ up outside, and 13+ up in the server closet. As we move forward, it would still be nice to see an app or other way to differentiate signal strength among the various types ( voice / EvDO / LTE).

I'm certain that the 4G signal characteristics are very complex. In fact, the most important thing might not even be signal strength, it might be percent of modulation and/or timing criteria. IOW, with or without a signal strength measurement ( if "strength" is even measurable, considering the RF technology) the performance of a 4G data path may rely on different attributes.

UMTS Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology Introduction​

Check out Testing starting on page 23.

http://www.3g4g.co.uk/Lte/LTE_WP_0703_RandS.pdf

The Oscilloscope screen indicates that the "signal" occupies from ~-30 dBm to ~-60dBm inclusive - a 30 dBm "wide" signal.

-Frank