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Trying to turn off 3G data so I can just get EDGE on my AT&T tab. Can't find any setting for it...
(the scenerio is that with Tmo DayPass, after 30MB they throttle down to 70kbps, but apparently if you turn off 3G, then you get EDGE instead (200kbps)).
I'm guess the option has been removed from the AT&T tab... as apparently its in other GSM ROMs...
Settings, wireless settings, mobile networks, network mode, gsm only.
But if you are using a T-Mobile day pass and t-mobile sim card, with an at&t tab, the best speed you can get is EDGE anyway.
This doesn't make sense -
rangercaptain said:
Settings, wireless settings, mobile networks, network mode, gsm only.
But if you are using a T-Mobile day pass and t-mobile sim card, with an at&t tab, the best speed you can get is EDGE anyway.
This doesn't make sense -
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Click to collapse
1) my AT&T tab doesn't have the settings that you cite, which others have also said is the way to turn off 3G. Specifically, Settings>WirelessAndNetwork>MobileNetworks does NOT have NetworkMode, only UsePacketData, DataRoaming, AccessPointNames and NetworkOperators. Hence my speculation that maybe AT&T took away this option to shut off 3G... is there another way to do it?
2) Tmo DayPass, after 30MB, I get throttled down to GPRS, not EDGE, and get about 30-70kbps. I would *like* to get at least EDGE, which would be about 200kbps.
I put my t-mobile sim in an at&t tab, and I have the network mode, so I don't know why your network menu is missing the mode.
Crazy suggestion - buy an at&t data plan. It's cheaper than the t-mobile day pass. $25 for 2gb. It's what I use. The sim came with the tab.
Honestly, I don't see what turning off 3g can do to improve speed.
rangercaptain said:
Honestly, I don't see what turning off 3g can do to improve speed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People report that when you turn off 3G, devices revert to EDGE. The idea is that when you exceed the Tmo softcap, Tmo throttles the 3G speed down to about 70kbps, BUT its still running 3G even though its speeds is that of GPRS. By disabling 3G, you go back to EDGE, which is 3X the GPRS speeds in throttle mode.
The AT&T plan is cheaper IFF you need data for most of a month. But at least for now, I only am playing a day at a time. Mostly I'm on WiFi, which is most every where I need it to be.
That's interesting that you see Network mode on your AT&T tab and I don't...hmmm... are we running different ROMs? My About says:
SGH-I987
Firmware 2.2
Baseband I987UCJK1
Kernel 2.6.32.9
Build FROYO.UCJK1
Yes, I am gingerbread. But I had the same menu with froyo.
I like the JK3 modem in my at&t tab, and in my experiment with the t-mobile sim, I got pretty good speed, for EDGE, anyways. At the top of the development section there is a modem stickie, for the JK3 modem. Use odin3.
You are smart to get the at&t version of the tab. You will love it with the voice and 3g/h, if you get the at&t sim. They sell one small data plan for $15 for a gig.
After digging through pages of posts about data speed issues and 2G vs. 3G vs. 4G/LTE, can someone with good expertise and knowledge summarize exactly what the phone supports and how it does it? I am seeing conflicting comments, so it is a little confusing. Also, please clarify a comment I recall seeing from at AT&T person that that the Vivid has one radio that switches between LTE and HSPA+ rather than having as separate 3G radio as earlier LTE phones did.
Or point to a good tutorial.
Thanks
I'll see if I can help!
So in order from slowest to fastest, the GSM data technologies are:
2G:
-GSM
-EDGE
3G:
-UMTS
-HSPA
-HSPA+
4G:
-LTE
Most Android phones display these as G, E, 3G, H, & H+ (don't know what stock Android displays for LTE). The Vivid, however, displays G & E, then displays 4G for 3G, H & H+, then 4GLTE for LTE. So no matter what 3G network your on, it'll show 4G (because AT&T thinks H+ counts as 4G), then when you're on an actual 4G network, it'll show 4GLTE.
As for the single radio, yes, that's true. LTE is a GSM based technology, so a single radio can handle all of the above connections. This is different from Verizon, which uses CDMA for its 2G & 3G networks, then switched to LTE for its 4G network, necessitating two different radios: one for CDMA, one for LTE. AT&T, however, has been GSM from 2G on, so one radio can handle everything. This will most likely continue to be the way it works: Verizon (and eventually Sprint) phones will require two radios for two technologies, AT&T/T-Mo phones will only require one.
This leads to one consequence, however, concerning simultaneous data & voice. No LTE network currently implements voice communications, they're purely data. Even when they do implement it, it'll be VoIP based, so it'll just be more data (This will be called VoLTE for Voice over LTE). Therefore, since this isn't implemented yet, phones must revert to the 3G network to make voice calls. On Verizon, since they're two different radios, you can continue to use LTE data while using CDMA for voice. On AT&T, they're the same radio, so dropping down to 3G drops the LTE connection. You can still use simultaneous voice & data (as you can on just about any GSM based network), but you just don't get LTE speeds.
Make sense? Let me know if that helps!
Thanks, BJG222
That's what I wanted to know. I appreciate the info.
brucegil said:
That's what I wanted to know. I appreciate the info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem! Glad I could help!
bjg222 said:
I'll see if I can help!
So in order from slowest to fastest, the GSM data technologies are:
2G:
-GSM
-EDGE
3G:
-UMTS
-HSPA
-HSPA+
4G:
-LTE
Most Android phones display these as G, E, 3G, H, & H+ (don't know what stock Android displays for LTE). The Vivid, however, displays G & E, then displays 4G for 3G, H & H+, then 4GLTE for LTE. So no matter what 3G network your on, it'll show 4G (because AT&T thinks H+ counts as 4G), then when you're on an actual 4G network, it'll show 4GLTE.
As for the single radio, yes, that's true. LTE is a GSM based technology, so a single radio can handle all of the above connections. This is different from Verizon, which uses CDMA for its 2G & 3G networks, then switched to LTE for its 4G network, necessitating two different radios: one for CDMA, one for LTE. AT&T, however, has been GSM from 2G on, so one radio can handle everything. This will most likely continue to be the way it works: Verizon (and eventually Sprint) phones will require two radios for two technologies, AT&T/T-Mo phones will only require one.
This leads to one consequence, however, concerning simultaneous data & voice. No LTE network currently implements voice communications, they're purely data. Even when they do implement it, it'll be VoIP based, so it'll just be more data (This will be called VoLTE for Voice over LTE). Therefore, since this isn't implemented yet, phones must revert to the 3G network to make voice calls. On Verizon, since they're two different radios, you can continue to use LTE data while using CDMA for voice. On AT&T, they're the same radio, so dropping down to 3G drops the LTE connection. You can still use simultaneous voice & data (as you can on just about any GSM based network), but you just don't get LTE speeds.
Make sense? Let me know if that helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow thanks, a very helpful summary of so much **** otherwise kinda complicated to figure out.. quick question, under the Network menu, my phone always says HSDPA, not any of the other options you listed above. This means..?
Here is an interesting read...Explains alot, considering I bought my White Vivid in Houston and got amazing speeds on LTE, and can barely stay locked on an LTE signal at home here in the SW burbs of Chicago.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393286,00.asp#fbid=ruQf5IEExI0
Actually, HSPA+ is also categorized as 4G.
dizzyraider said:
Actually, HSPA+ is also categorized as 4G.
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Click to collapse
Well, AT&T & T-Mobile claim this, but it's not really true. UMTS = 3G; HSPA was an upgrade to that, call it 3.5G; HSPA+ is an upgrade to HSPA that incorporates higher bandwidth behind the scenes, more of a 3.9G. LTE's actually a new protocol. Technically, by the initial ITU standards, that's not even 4G (LTE-Advanced, the next upgrade to that, is the only one that does), but they've since expanded the definition to include LTE, too.
so we don't get a different symbol for 3G...so how do we know when we are using 3G verses HSPA and HSPA+ ? (other than speed)...
sucks...
Having slight issues with my note on vodafone Uk, whenever I try to browse the internet and the 3g sign in status bar shows weboages don't load at all, when the H is showing bam they load really fast, and even when the E is showing they load but slowly, which is to be expected with edge. So why wouldn't it be loading when on 3g? Have I got some setting wrong on the phone?
HSDPA is faster than 3G.
3G (3rd Generation of Telecommunication Standards) is a standard of cellular connectivity which allows for speeds of up to 384 Kb/s downstream and 64 Kb/s upstream. 3G HSDPA is a 3G enhancement. HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) is a new mobile data protocol and is sometimes referred to as a 3.5G. Theoretically, HSDPA speeds can reach 3.6 Mbps downstream and 348 Kbps upstream. But the purpose of putting both on a smartphones is to make sure that your phone get internet access even when the other one is not available or have no access
possibly an issue with vodafone, have you contacted them to see if there are any issues?
as for the above post, totally irrelevant and hsdpa wil lgo alot faster than 3.6
Richy99 said:
possibly an issue with vodafone, have you contacted them to see if there are any issues?
as for the above post, totally irrelevant and hsdpa wil lgo alot faster than 3.6
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Click to collapse
Yeah they seems to think my sim card needed resetting, but hasn't made a difference, still does it. Hopefully someone has the same issues with a work around searched the net for hours, with not effect. The other weird thing is if its stuck on 3g and not loading I usually disable data on power button menu then er enable and H usually comes back and it works again, even if I turn it to GSM only in network setting, so Edge is only possible it works fine also just takes ages to load any pages which is annoying!
how long you had the sim card? it might be a provisioning issue with it
You think? Well I've had it a few years now like, 3 I think.
Vodafone SIM card works fine in my Note (SIM free from Germany).
I'd suggest try your SIM card with a different phone and try a different SIM card in your Note if possible to see if the fault is with your SIM card or Note.
P.S. Are you using any custom ROM? Could be a problem there.
No I'm on stock rom kka, yeah sure its something today with network or sim card, just rang them to get a new similar. Hopefully that will sort it out.
.
Fixed my issue, turns out it was happening a lot with people who have the galaxy s2, needed to enter code *#301279#, and release 5 hspa only, then disable fast dormancy mode on the phone, now I'm getting fast 3g everywhere :-D
It does say 3g and not just g?
if youre in the uk and only getting edge or gprs it may not be the phones fault.
I had a similar issue, we all assume we can get full 3G everywhere, not necessarily.
To solve this you need to buy the Vodafone sure signal box, it basically plugs into your home broadband router and then transmits full 3g around your house to whatever numbers you register on the box, including dongles.
The whole family can use it as you can register 32 numbers into it.
Cost about £50 new, i have a BNIB never been used or taken out of the box new one here, up for sale as it happens for £25.
Anyone interested should PM me....
Or you could just use wifi as you are at home anyway.
As I said sorted the issue it had something to do with the phone locking into search for hspa, and not reverting back to 3g when there wasn't any hspa signal. Apparently its a problem Samsung are working on. But the little fix of only scanning for 3g works for now, and I did a bandwidth test on hepatitis, and 3g, and 3g was actually faster. So not bothered.
Great find bud u should start another thread explaining the steps in a guide cause this is great info for Vodafone UK users
Sent from the HD2's closest replacement, the Samsung Galaxy Note
Does the Lumia 920's LTE work for T-Mobile?
T mobile
I got my 920 unlocked and used it since May 9th (the official unlock date) on T-mobile. It was running level 1314.
The good: LTE worked great. I'm in DC, an LTE area. It's also a re-farmed 1900 4G area. At work the 1900 isn't totally re-farmed yet so I did see some Edge there. There is no AWS band for UMTS, only LTE, hence the need to be in a re-farmed area to fall back on 4G. Of course I used the Nokia Access Point app and just selected T-Mobile LTE to get it running. MMS and everything worked perfectly, EXCEPT mobile hotspot.
The bad: Mobile hotspot doesn't work. If you get it going you break the MMS. Lots of threads here about it - I'm sure someone will sort it out eventually.
The REALLY BAD: If I did any kind of update from the market, such as an app and then powered the phone off, it would get caught in a reboot cycle permanently. I had to remove the T-Mobile SIM and replace it with my old ATT SIM to get it to boot up. Once fully up, I could turn it off, put the T-Mobile SIM back in, power it on, and all was good. But that was going to be too much drama for me. There were two updates just in the days I had it and it did it both times. So I'm just going give up.
rahul.kapoor said:
I got my 920 unlocked and used it since May 9th (the official unlock date) on T-mobile. It was running level 1314.
The good: LTE worked great. I'm in DC, an LTE area. It's also a re-farmed 1900 4G area. At work the 1900 isn't totally re-farmed yet so I did see some Edge there. There is no AWS band for UMTS, only LTE, hence the need to be in a re-farmed area to fall back on 4G. Of course I used the Nokia Access Point app and just selected T-Mobile LTE to get it running. MMS and everything worked perfectly, EXCEPT mobile hotspot.
The bad: Mobile hotspot doesn't work. If you get it going you break the MMS. Lots of threads here about it - I'm sure someone will sort it out eventually.
The REALLY BAD: If I did any kind of update from the market, such as an app and then powered the phone off, it would get caught in a reboot cycle permanently. I had to remove the T-Mobile SIM and replace it with my old ATT SIM to get it to boot up. Once fully up, I could turn it off, put the T-Mobile SIM back in, power it on, and all was good. But that was going to be too much drama for me. There were two updates just in the days I had it and it did it both times. So I'm just going give up.
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Click to collapse
Are you saying that you get LTE on unlocked AT&T Lumia 920 - on T-Mobile network? I thought AT&T and T-Mobile have different LTE bands.
I saw a few screenshots of people's Moto X's from sprint with a bunch of options under Network Mode. I have the XT1053 (TMO unlocked, on ATT network) and the only options I see are "Auto" and "2G."
I browsed around and found that there's an LTE OnOff app, but I'm just wondering if there's a way I can get those options for 3G on my device's Network Mode option list?
The reason why I even care is because for some reason at my workplace, I can't seem to get any data through LTE. My signal will display 3 bars of LTE, but it absolutely does not work. While it will turn off LTE and just say 4G since it's on auto, I find that a majority of my day, it WON'T switch. It stays on 4G LTE 99% of the time and does not function at all. When I walk outside the building, LTE works perfectly fine. Would I be right to assume that the auto mode is literally on borderline between switching, so it never establishes a stable connection?
I guess it brings me to the question, is the Auto mode inefficient / will I have to live with manually turning off LTE every time I get to work? :/
noc215 said:
I saw a few screenshots of people's Moto X's from sprint with a bunch of options under Network Mode. I have the XT1053 (TMO unlocked, on ATT network) and the only options I see are "Auto" and "2G."
I browsed around and found that there's an LTE OnOff app, but I'm just wondering if there's a way I can get those options for 3G on my device's Network Mode option list?
The reason why I even care is because for some reason at my workplace, I can't seem to get any data through LTE. My signal will display 3 bars of LTE, but it absolutely does not work. While it will turn off LTE and just say 4G since it's on auto, I find that a majority of my day, it WON'T switch. It stays on 4G LTE 99% of the time and does not function at all. When I walk outside the building, LTE works perfectly fine. Would I be right to assume that the auto mode is literally on borderline between switching, so it never establishes a stable connection?
I guess it brings me to the question, is the Auto mode inefficient / will I have to live with manually turning off LTE every time I get to work? :/
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Click to collapse
3 bars of LTE is an excellent signal. With 1 bar of signal I can still get 15mbps down from my provider. If your phone is detecting such a strong received signal it won't be switching back to HSPA on its own. For some reason the building you're in may block the phones transmitted signal more then it blocks the signal from the cell site. I am guessing you're on band 4 LTE which has quite the frequency difference between uplink and downlink. Your only option(assuming the phone or cell site isn't defective) is to manually switch to WCDMA with a third party app such as the "LTE setting" app in the Play store. Or unlock your bootloader and flash firmware from another provider that has more options. I know the Rogers Canada firmware has an LTE on/off option, it also has a 2G only option. Sadly Rogers has not yet approved the release of 4.4 (kitkat).
Steve-x said:
3 bars of LTE is an excellent signal. With 1 bar of signal I can still get 15mbps down from my provider. If your phone is detecting such a strong received signal it won't be switching back to HSPA on its own. For some reason the building you're in may block the phones transmitted signal more then it blocks the signal from the cell site. I am guessing you're on band 4 LTE which has quite the frequency difference between uplink and downlink. Your only option(assuming the phone or cell site isn't defective) is to manually switch to WCDMA with a third party app such as the "LTE setting" app in the Play store. Or unlock your bootloader and flash firmware from another provider that has more options. I know the Rogers Canada firmware has an LTE on/off option, it also has a 2G only option. Sadly Rogers has not yet approved the release of 4.4 (kitkat).
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Click to collapse
That makes a lot more sense to me now. So basically the "Auto" mode only considers my reception and not transmittance strength, so it never saw a need to switch me off LTE. I am almost sure it is not my phone because I started experiencing a signal loss issue with my S3 a few days ago. I doubt it's the cell site because as soon as I step out of the building, LTE works with no problems.
I did ended up using LTE OnOff to force CDMA and I can actually do stuff now. I went and did a speedtest ...
Ping: 114 ms
Down: 4.06 Mbps
Up: 0.77 Mbps
I guess with the lack of options, I have yet another reason to roll up the sleeves and get my hands dirty. Haven't touched ABD since I had a samsung captivate!
Thank you