I'm in Chicago (both in the city and suburbs), and my S3 always shows "3G" in the notification area.
I know AT&T has an LTE network here, so shouldn't it say 4G or LTE? Could this be a problem with my account--or even the phone?
Thanks.
somewhere in the settings should be a network selection to choose between GSM/LTE(4G) and GSM(3G) only....at least on the Verizon phones there usually is, of course it says CDMA/LTE(4G) or CDMA(3G) only
eelton said:
I'm in Chicago (both in the city and suburbs), and my S3 always shows "3G" in the notification area.
I know AT&T has an LTE network here, so shouldn't it say 4G or LTE? Could this be a problem with my account--or even the phone?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have ATT GS3 and it says 4GLTE tiny icon, if you are sure you are in LTE zone and only getting 3g , call AT&T or go to their store , sim could be old/wrong and or your account was not properly activated.
When i got my GS3 i wasnt getting any data at all , called AT&T and they sorted it out.
Run speedtest see what you getting ?
I have at&t in chicago as well. I live up in lake county and work in des plaines. I was also at navy pier a few weeks ago. Never had anything other than 4g or LTE. I literally have never seen the 3g icon on my phone
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Thanks for the replies. I'll give AT&T a call.
I did run speedtest, while the phone was displaying 3G. the download speed was 7686 and upload 5704.
Well, I called AT&T and they couldn't find any problem. After 20 minutes, they said, "There's a network outage reported in Chicago, so that must be it." I asked how long the outage has lasted, and she said 17 hours. But I've had the phone for four days, and have never seen anything but 3G.
At any rate, they said I would have to call back in a couple of days. That conveniently got the rep off the phone.
I live in a 3G area, and it says 4G on my phone. Makes me feel like they are BSing us to believe 4G is everywhere.
Only time it has been off of 4G is when I"m in an Edge area. Speaking of which, I found it interesting that while driving up I90 in Wyoming (didn't look like anything was there for miles and miles), the data speeds were great. I was so surprised. Driving the much busier highways in the midwest, it is Edge, and it sucks.
Sorry...went off topic.
eelton said:
Well, I called AT&T and they couldn't find any problem. After 20 minutes, they said, "There's a network outage reported in Chicago, so that must be it." I asked how long the outage has lasted, and she said 17 hours. But I've had the phone for four days, and have never seen anything but 3G.
At any rate, they said I would have to call back in a couple of days. That conveniently got the rep off the phone.
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Click to collapse
Your account does need to be flagged as LTE or you won't get LTE service. I'm up in Gurnee and all over Chicagoland has pretty good LTE coverage.
Also, check your APN that you're on the "PTA" and not the older APN settings. If you see anything about cingular wap, you're on the old one.
I recommend going to an AT&T store, it's harder to blow you off when you're up in their face.
I have friends in Aurora, Lombard, Lyons and I used to work downtown; I always had great LTE signal out and about as well as my home area of Gurnee/Libertyville.
Lastly, AT&T distinguishes between "4G" which is HSPA+ and "4G LTE" which is their LTE network. Unless you're running a custom ROM with different icons, you'll have an E for edge (2.5G, total ****), 3G for a 3G area that hasn't been upgraded, 4G for a 3G area that's been "backhaul upgraded" to HSPA+ and 4G with a little LTE beneath it for an LTE area.
For me, I can tell speed-wise between "4G" and "4G LTE" mostly by the upload speed. HSPA+ (4G) I never see above 1.2Mbps or so, whereas on LTE I get up to 5Mbps roughly. Sad story is the LTE network in the Chicago area is the slowest of their LTE networks that I've seen anyway. I get so jealous of people in TX and whatnot that get like 24Mbps!
Sorry for the rambling...
One weird thing...when I click on my results in speedtest, it lists the network as LTE, even though the icon always shows 3G.
So maybe it's connecting to LTE, but not showing the correct icon? Does a download speed of 7686 seem faster than 3G?
To follow up, in case this helps anyone...
I spent another half hour on the phone with AT&T--level 1 and level 2 tech support. (The level 2 guy was much less informed than the level 1 woman.) Their bottom line was that I should exchange the phone.
However, when I use the network signal info app, it says I'm on the LTE network. So, I think I have an icon problem, not an actual network connection problem.
I think I'll just live with it, rather than exchange the phone.
Hi,
I just received an unlocked International Galaxy Note II in the US. Ordered from Handtec in the UK, and the phone appears to be the French model. I have observed what I think is a problem when trying to use the phone on T-Mobile USA.
I put my T-Mobile USA SIM card in the phone, and the phone thinks I am roaming. Uhhhh no. It's a T-Mobile USA SIM card on the T-Mobile USA network. It is NOT roaming. Now, it probably doesn't have any impact beyond the "R" notifier, and a "Roaming" page which shows up on TouchWiz, but it DOES make me feel very uneasy. I have to enable "Data use while roaming" to be able to use data while on my home network!! It's crazy!
To those who will point out, yes, I know that T-Mobile USA has their 3G currently on the AWS 1700/2100 band, which the Note II does not support. I am therefore using EDGE with this phone. (Yes the data speeds suck, but T-Mobile's refarming will make this problem go away in the next few months). Even though I am on EDGE, I am not "roaming" unless the Note II's definition of roaming is different from mine. I am still on the home network, regardless of whether I am on 2G or 3G.
Has anyone else seen a problem like this?
If I can't figure this out in the next day or two, I may return the Note II and just wait another month or so for the T-Mobile US version. (Probably that's what I should do anyway, but I figured the GT-N7100 would get more developer support).
Hope someone can help!
Thanks!
Edit: I forgot to add - I also have and unlocked international Note 1 GT-N7000 and an unlocked iPhone 4. Neither possess the T-Mobile USA 3G band, and neither of which show roaming when I'm using T-Mobile USA. So, either T-Mobile did some funky network work today which changed something, or there is something different (and possibly a bug) about how the Galaxy Note II determines if it's roaming.
Unfortunately I cannot be of any assistance to your issue, just wanted to comment however. I find it very odd that ALL Note II's don't work on every frequency. Bear with me, I'm under the impression that they are identical hardware wise, every version. So, maybe it's a simple matter of flashing a different radio.img? Not that there are any available currently, but there will be shortly. I hope (think) it will be similar to the ATT Note on Tmo. Hopefully it works out better though. We still don't know if the Tmo Note II will be HSPA+42 or not, but it will support next years Tmo LTE.
So, as of now, this is a little bit of a disappointment for Tmo customers looking for the N7100. Hope you can find a workaround for at least HSPA+21 soon :good:
ccampbell1 said:
Hi,
I just received an unlocked International Galaxy Note II in the US. Ordered from Handtec in the UK, and the phone appears to be the French model. I have observed what I think is a problem when trying to use the phone on T-Mobile USA.
I put my T-Mobile USA SIM card in the phone, and the phone thinks I am roaming. Uhhhh no. It's a T-Mobile USA SIM card on the T-Mobile USA network. It is NOT roaming. Now, it probably doesn't have any impact beyond the "R" notifier, and a "Roaming" page which shows up on TouchWiz, but it DOES make me feel very uneasy. I have to enable "Data use while roaming" to be able to use data while on my home network!! It's crazy!
To those who will point out, yes, I know that T-Mobile USA has their 3G currently on the AWS 1700/2100 band, which the Note II does not support. I am therefore using EDGE with this phone. (Yes the data speeds suck, but T-Mobile's refarming will make this problem go away in the next few months). Even though I am on EDGE, I am not "roaming" unless the Note II's definition of roaming is different from mine. I am still on the home network, regardless of whether I am on 2G or 3G.
Has anyone else seen a problem like this?
If I can't figure this out in the next day or two, I may return the Note II and just wait another month or so for the T-Mobile US version. (Probably that's what I should do anyway, but I figured the GT-N7100 would get more developer support).
Hope someone can help!
Thanks!
Edit: I forgot to add - I also have and unlocked international Note 1 GT-N7000 and an unlocked iPhone 4. Neither possess the T-Mobile USA 3G band, and neither of which show roaming when I'm using T-Mobile USA. So, either T-Mobile did some funky network work today which changed something, or there is something different (and possibly a bug) about how the Galaxy Note II determines if it's roaming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That happened to me as well using my International Galaxy S3, I dug into it for about a month and trust me, it's something with the phone detecting that it can't connect to the HSPA+ bands it supports, and when it "defaults" down to EDGE it considers it "Roaming". Stop digging for answers, I was at it for weeks, this is the reason.
You wont get charged for roaming or anything though, so use EDGE until T-Mobile's refarming finally happens; I waited for 2 months and nothing, so I jumped ship and got Straight Talk. I use over 15 GB of data a month, no throttling, $45 bucks. :good:
Hope this helps, because NO ONE gave me a straight answer, Dont even bother calling T-Mobile, they're of absolutely no help. I flashed all sorts of custom ROMs, Kernels, Network Tools, Diagnostics, etc. trying to figure it out. It's just the way these Samsung phones (GT-I9300 and N7100 by the looks of it) work when their 3G/HSPA+ bands are not supported.
Cheers!
farfromovin said:
Unfortunately I cannot be of any assistance to your issue, just wanted to comment however. I find it very odd that ALL Note II's don't work on every frequency. Bear with me, I'm under the impression that they are identical hardware wise, every version. So, maybe it's a simple matter of flashing a different radio.img? Not that there are any available currently, but there will be shortly. I hope (think) it will be similar to the ATT Note on Tmo. Hopefully it works out better though. We still don't know if the Tmo Note II will be HSPA+42 or not, but it will support next years Tmo LTE.
So, as of now, this is a little bit of a disappointment for Tmo customers looking for the N7100. Hope you can find a workaround for at least HSPA+21 soon :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
farfromovin,
I agree it's a complete pain why one model can't work worldwide - or even between carriers in one country, the US!! I'm not sure that all the revisions are the exact same hardware though. Certainly the different revisions will support different LTE bands from one another, different 3G bands (ie T-Mobile USA) and even different technologies (VZW, Sprint, US Cellular CDMA). Whether there is one uber radio chip that's the same in all versions, with different bits enabled here and there, I don't know. I would doubt that a chip currently exists to support all GSM, UMTS, LTE and CDMA bands in the one, but you never know.
I really cannot wait (getting super sick of it) until T-Mobile's 1900MHz refarming, and finally all UMTS/HSPA phones will work on pretty much any UMTS/HSPA network worldwide. But just as we finally get 3G harmony, LTE comes along with a zillion different bands, and we're back to where we were at the start of GSM, and the start of UMTS - all over again.
As far as getting the GT-N7100 to work on T-Mobile AWS bands - unless the radio supports that band somewhere, and can be enabled by some hacky flashing, I don't think there's much chance. I followed a thread for a while which was trying to do that for the original GT-N7000 and it ended up nowhere unfortunately.
I'd be very, very surprised if the T-Mobile US official Note II did not support DC-HSPA +42. Given how TMO pushes that, I don't think they'd sell a phone without it these days. I'm kind of surprised the GT-N7100 doesn't have it, to be honest, but I guess it's not yet that widespread, and most carriers will bypass it to go to LTE.
Cheers!
Ars-Hexis said:
That happened to me as well using my International Galaxy S3, I dug into it for about a month and trust me, it's something with the phone detecting that it can't connect to the HSPA+ bands it supports, and when it "defaults" down to EDGE it considers it "Roaming". Stop digging for answers, I was at it for weeks, this is the reason.
You wont get charged for roaming or anything though, so use EDGE until T-Mobile's refarming finally happens; I waited for 2 months and nothing, so I jumped ship and got Straight Talk. I use over 15 GB of data a month, no throttling, $45 bucks. :good:
Hope this helps, because NO ONE gave me a straight answer, Dont even bother calling T-Mobile, they're of absolutely no help. I flashed all sorts of custom ROMs, Kernels, Network Tools, Diagnostics, etc. trying to figure it out. It's just the way these Samsung phones (GT-I9300 and N7100 by the looks of it) work when their 3G/HSPA+ bands are not supported.
Cheers!
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Click to collapse
Hey Ars-Hexis,
Thanks so much for the reply. I googled about the same issue on the i9300 as you mentioned - and sure enough a couple of threads on androidcentral, and tmobile support - and all with pretty much a bunch of people going "what?" I think you're right, and this is either some crazy change which Samsung has made to the "S3" generation of phones, or it's an unintended bug which was introduced. I contacted Samsung support on twitter but I'm sure they'll tell me to go away since this is an international model and not sold or supported in the US.
I would love to have this properly reported to Samsung though because it is NOT correct behaviour, and I'm sure it does not meet the 3GPP standard behaviour. These phones' definition of "roaming" is frankly wrong. It's possible they know about the bug but don't care about it too much, because it only affects the minority of importers or travelers, and then only on the very few networks which use AWS band for 3G.
The phone and data works fine of course, so it's really a cosmetic annoyance. However, if I was actually outside TMO's network without knowing it (maybe camping on to some network on the Canadian border or something) then I'd never know if I was actually roaming or not. So the phone's roaming indicator, by being permanently false, is useless in the times when I'm actually roaming. Since this is not a likely scenario for me to be on the Canadian border and roaming onto an AWS-only network any time soon, I'll not worry too much about it.
Yes, I'm really sick waiting on this refarming. It's a huge undertaking of course, so I understand why. I do have a Straight Talk AT&T SIM which I got for my Galaxy Note 1, however I don't use it often for several reasons: haven't ported my number to it, am wary about data throttling or cut-off, and I find the data hit or miss on Straight Talk anyway. I heard stories about people being warned or cut off after 100MB in any day, but if you're saying 15GB and no throttling, it may be something I want to put to the test!
Thanks a lot for your reply! It's nice to know I'm not crazy!
Cheers!
ccampbell1 said:
Hey Ars-Hexis,
Thanks so much for the reply. I googled about the same issue on the i9300 as you mentioned - and sure enough a couple of threads on androidcentral, and tmobile support - and all with pretty much a bunch of people going "what?" I think you're right, and this is either some crazy change which Samsung has made to the "S3" generation of phones, or it's an unintended bug which was introduced. I contacted Samsung support on twitter but I'm sure they'll tell me to go away since this is an international model and not sold or supported in the US.
I would love to have this properly reported to Samsung though because it is NOT correct behaviour, and I'm sure it does not meet the 3GPP standard behaviour. These phones' definition of "roaming" is frankly wrong. It's possible they know about the bug but don't care about it too much, because it only affects the minority of importers or travelers, and then only on the very few networks which use AWS band for 3G.
The phone and data works fine of course, so it's really a cosmetic annoyance. However, if I was actually outside TMO's network without knowing it (maybe camping on to some network on the Canadian border or something) then I'd never know if I was actually roaming or not. So the phone's roaming indicator, by being permanently false, is useless in the times when I'm actually roaming. Since this is not a likely scenario for me to be on the Canadian border and roaming onto an AWS-only network any time soon, I'll not worry too much about it.
Yes, I'm really sick waiting on this refarming. It's a huge undertaking of course, so I understand why. I do have a Straight Talk AT&T SIM which I got for my Galaxy Note 1, however I don't use it often for several reasons: haven't ported my number to it, am wary about data throttling or cut-off, and I find the data hit or miss on Straight Talk anyway. I heard stories about people being warned or cut off after 100MB in any day, but if you're saying 15GB and no throttling, it may be something I want to put to the test!
Thanks a lot for your reply! It's nice to know I'm not crazy!
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there! Sorry I hadn't answered in such a long time. We'll actually I've found that the S3 (sold it) and the Note 2 (own it) some how cannot be tracked for data usage correctly by straight talk. It's quite interesting... I ported my number over from T-Mobile, so if you have an S3 with a T-mobile prepaid sim... I think you have nothing to lose! I'm in Dallas and regularly get around 3-4Mbits/S during high usage hours and 6-7Mbits/S after 7 pm when network usage goes down.
There have been 2 occasions over the past 2 months where I'm throttled for like an hour and suddenly it gets uncapped on its own (?!?!?) lol. Last month I used about 25 GB... It's insane. Btw, if you if get throttled for real (happened to me once), you can just call them and say your "Internets is slow" (act technologically challenged) and they'll reset it.
Ah 1 last thing: I got the at&T ST sim card when I switched.
Cheers!
Sent from my GT-N7100 using XDA Premium HD app
I just got my International Note 2 today, and I am using it on the T-Mobile network also. I am seeing that I am roaming but my data is off and I am just using wifi. I have turned off my phone and back on again and its still showing. But after reading this whole thread I am getting that is a bug or something along those lines is that correct? Thanks.
I really need to know
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
roaming
I am on prepaid tmobile and I have Roaming sign only in areas where I used to loose signal with my old phone . Basically when I go in Garage underground my signal starts getting weaker and weaker and then roaming kiks in and signal is up all the way . T-mobile does not charges for local roaming . If you use USA tmobile and you are in usa you are fine . My texts and voice are still the same rate for me . When I had Chinese rom it was showing all the time , now I flashed German t-mobile and R shows only sometime , but it does not bother me .
Hope this helps .
I too have a Note II (GT-N7100) I purchased in Thailand in December. I use it on the T-Mobile network and have the same issues with the "R" symbol. I am located in Tampa Bay area, Florida.
T-Mobile was indicating to me in January that this was an issue in weaker signal areas for their data network as they prepare to refarm it. Don't know if this explanation is entirely accurate, but I find in my local area that the R symbol goes away in certain areas and it behaves "normally". This includes the area where my T-Mobile office is located. It seems to be somewhat of a patchwork network, and for some reasons certain areas cause it to go into the Roaming mode.
I was just on a trip with stops in Los Amgeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia and noted the same behavior in some of those cities: Getting normal signal indications in some places, and Roaming in others.
Hey All,
I've placed a Tmobile sim in my Att unlocked GS3. Ive seen many posts stating that the Att version wont get 4g on tmobile but 4g works fine for me; regularly I can get 5 to 10mb downloads. My issue though is that Im sometimes dropping from 4g to 2g/Edge then back to 4g. Should my phone be dropping to 3g instead ? Im quite shocked when it happens since I usually had strong 4g not far away at all.
Is the general consensus to to simply get a Tmobile device instead of bringing something from at&t? I really dont want to root the phone or flash roms at this point since Im just testing out the service.
goon3r said:
Hey All,
I've placed a Tmobile sim in my Att unlocked GS3. Ive seen many posts stating that the Att version wont get 4g on tmobile but 4g works fine for me; regularly I can get 5 to 10mb downloads. My issue though is that Im sometimes dropping from 4g to 2g/Edge then back to 4g. Should my phone be dropping to 3g instead ? Im quite shocked when it happens since I usually had strong 4g not far away at all.
Is the general consensus to to simply get a Tmobile device instead of bringing something from at&t? I really dont want to root the phone or flash roms at this point since Im just testing out the service.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are in a refarmed market from the sound of it. The reason you go from 4g to EDGE is because the refarmed spectrum is most likely not through your entire coverage area.
T-Mobile uses the 1700 band, which at&t does not support, as their primary 4G deployment. This is why it is always recommended to get a T-Mobile S3.
That said, there is a firmware image for at&t's GS3 that unlocks T-Mobiles AWS band not just for 4G but for LTE as well. It is in the at&t forum - you will have to read the entire thread to get the relevant files and information on how to do it. Note that this CAN brick your phone permanently so only attempt it if you are willing to take that chance and you are familiar with download mode and ODIN.
The upside of using that hack is that the T-Mobile S3 doesn't support LTE at all.
Sent from my SGH-T999
Thanks for the clarification and info about the hack. Assuming I get a Tmobile device, should I expect to see a 3g icon instead or would it still say 4g?
goon3r said:
Thanks for the clarification and info about the hack. Assuming I get a Tmobile device, should I expect to see a 3g icon instead or would it still say 4g?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It'll say 4g.. A 4g icon really means 3g/h+ and a 4g lte icon means lte
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Thanks!
Here is the link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1771021&page=25 Start reading from post #246
Hey guys! I'm trying to get my Verizon S4 working for my wife on T-Mobile! She got the LG G3 last night and because she's so tiny, it's like a tablet to her!
Anyways, the Verizon S4 is rooted and is still on original MDK firmware. With that said, I'm not too sure exactly which steps in your guide apply to our situation...not having safe strap and all.
With changing the APN settings to match up to my phone (LG G3 on T-Mobile), and inserting a T-Mobile 4G sim card, I'm able to get calls and SMS working over WiFi on the S4...that's it though. No mobile data seems to be coming through. Her mobile signal icon in the status bar keeps switching back n forth from E to H for some reason...but no LTE or 4G icon.
Anyways, is this something anyone thinks they could help with? Or do ya think we're screwed? My sweet wife would be eternally grateful if someone could help to make this happen!!
EDIT: haha, my signature will be changed if I'm able to get this working for her!
Aren't you missing something here? Verizon is CDMA, TMo is GSM. I don't see how you can get cell coverage to work unless the phone has dual antennas.
enmatt said:
Aren't you missing something here? Verizon is CDMA, TMo is GSM. I don't see how you can get cell coverage to work unless the phone has dual antennas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many newer CDMA devices with LTE support have gsm radios as well, that includes sprint and Verizon..
To OP, you may have better luck searching the Verizon forums if nobody replies here
I'm using a Toro Nexus that was recently given to me by a coworker and it works great everywhere except where I live and work. It simply refuses to connect to LTE within NYC, where it stays on 3G. As soon as I get outside of the city it has great LTE connectivity which allows me to make use of my unlimited data plan.
I started out stock, then flashed to 4.4, 5.1 and even tried the latest experimental ROMs without any change. Verizon did whatever testing they do on their end and said that, because of the buildings in NYC, the phone is incapable of receiving LTE. That sounded like a crock of crap to me so, using a few of my remaining grey cells, I put my sim card into my wife's Galaxy Note 3 and, voila! no more LTE.
So I'm getting ready to make an angry call to Verizon when I think, why not try the wife's sim in my Toro. Result: 3G only. Pop it back into the Note: LTE.
Dang! Can anyone offer some insight as to what is going on?
Thanks for any help.
91mustang said:
I'm using a Toro Nexus that was recently given to me by a coworker and it works great everywhere except where I live and work. It simply refuses to connect to LTE within NYC, where it stays on 3G. As soon as I get outside of the city it has great LTE connectivity which allows me to make use of my unlimited data plan.
I started out stock, then flashed to 4.4, 5.1 and even tried the latest experimental ROMs without any change. Verizon did whatever testing they do on their end and said that, because of the buildings in NYC, the phone is incapable of receiving LTE. That sounded like a crock of crap to me so, using a few of my remaining grey cells, I put my sim card into my wife's Galaxy Note 3 and, voila! no more LTE.
So I'm getting ready to make an angry call to Verizon when I think, why not try the wife's sim in my Toro. Result: 3G only. Pop it back into the Note: LTE.
Dang! Can anyone offer some insight as to what is going on?
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you go to Settings, what is the signal strength reported?
I have a ex-VZW GNex (toro) that I have moved to Tracfone; I have every reason to believe that Tracfone uses (mostly) T-Mobile towers in my area, and I have ALWAYS had signal-strength issues via T-M towers. (Tracfone has towers assigned to it on a zip-code basis, and it's not always T-Mobile; in some zip codes, Tracfone uses VZW towers.) It could well BE tower-siting issues plaguing VZW in the Apple - which is, amazingly, smack dab in VZW's turf.
I wish there was a way to determine exactly WHICH tower that a phone aims at while on the move - so you can find "bum towers".