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Help Lose network frequently.

No, this one.
 

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APN screen is different here, this wasn't accessed through settings. I tried saving the APN drafted above, but it didn't stay. Don't know if it's because it was a bunch of crap or if it wouldn't save a legit APN entry anyway....
 

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OK people.....

It's been 24 hours since activating my Nexus 5. Not ONE disconnect. Now, with this, I have a theory. This may be a long post, it's very relevant, and hopefully somebody can confirm that this may be the problem. And since my AF app is acting up, and my Nexus for some reason won't bring up copy/paste, I'm going to add more and more to this post. Nothing beats typing up a huge post and losing it all due to AF app saying no permission to post here :)

So, here goes:
 
I dropped my ZMax and activated a brand new Microsoft Lumia. I was STILL getting bounced off of the network with the same good signal, and LTE showing. Toggle airplane mode, it comes back. OK something's up here... Now for some thoughts.

Three of my previous handsets: The Lumia, ZMax Pro and the LG Stylo, all support LTE band 12 and all have VoLTE (HD calling). I have had the SAME issues with all three of them.

-Another phone in that mix that I used in between the Stylo and ZMax, is the Moto E (2nd gen). That, is also LTE 12 compatible. However, right after I activated it on MetroPCS, I got a god-awful and bloody persistent Motorola OTA update, so I let it through just to shut it up. Come to find, it was an OEM OTA patch to disable band 12, because at the time T-Mobile was putting up a HUGE stink about non-TMO customers roaming into their territory and using LTE 12. Lots of carriers and manufacturers were forced to push patches for this. (There is an article on this somewhere, I'll link it up later)

Now, the Nexus 5 does NOT support band 12. With that mentioned, and my Moto E with band 12 disabled, have been the only two recent phones that have not given me any disconnect issues whatsoever. So perhaps T-Mobile and their FU-- you, stay off of our channel 12 position may be at play here.... or prioritized usage for some metro customers with LTE 12 compatible phones maybe?

I've seen people saying their LTE is so much faster on their ZMax, it's probably because we're running on band 12. Major crackdown on tethering? Prioritizing customers? This has to be the reason...

In theory, if I set my phone to avoid LTE and just keep to 4G, this should solve it. But you lose the speed and HD calling. Now the mystery is why some of us are being selected for the restrictions....

Thoughts?

-EDIT:

Sorry for the long posts. I've been ripping my hair out looking into why this is happening.. I've been a faithful customer for years, and have always had the best plan ($60 unlimited), and I don't abuse the network. No tethering, no obscene data consumption. It irritates me to no end :(
 
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Spec2nirvash said:
I said 'may' be. Not sure yet, we'll see how Nexus does. But, I may soon be humbled, and I accept it either way. I apologize for being a jerk to everyone.

Believe me, I don't want to trash the phone, I really do like it. My cross hairs are aimed at Metro now, last call I made earlier to switch yet another phone over wasn't pleasant.

With that I'm holding off shipping my ZMax out. If Metro would support instant SIM swap, I'd be able to use my wife's SIM to check the ZMax. Hate having to call them every time to swap. Plus, if I let my wife test for a day, I know I wouldn't get it back.

~spec :)
Click to expand...
You weren't being a jerk. Sometimes it's hard to accept the truth, and sometimes people feel they have the "answer" and are set on it. But usually with tech if there is a overall consensus on an issue, that almost always means that's the problem. Even if you feel you have an answer that no one else has. Btw, dude Lucia? Microsoft? Gross, dude, gross lol. That's like having a choice of Lobster(Android), or gilfilta fish (Microsoft) lol. You must always choose the lobster otherwise you're just doing yourself a disservice. It's best to be patient with new smartphones. They almost always have issues, that generally get fixed sooner or later.
 
Spec2nirvash said:
Don't judge me lol.... They're not that bad. If there were a better selection of apps I'd have stuck with it ;)

Best part of spending $30 on that Lumia: It gave me confirmation that my ZMax wasn't the problem after all.
Click to expand...
The ZMAX PRO is a great phone! The minor issues that we are having are being patched. Android Nougat 7.0 is in the works. The screen is great, crisp, clear, and sharp. The snapdragon 617-405 gpu soc is actually a bit of a beast. Fingerprint sensor is very good. The back camera takes great pictures. The front camera is also really good. And I can confirm that the version of Android on this phone is in fact 64-bit. That's great for multitasking, gaming, i/o performance, and overall speed. And this phone is pretty damn speedy. I cannot, and will no longer use anything with lower specs. It'll just piss me off, lol. The phones build is very sturdy, and really attractive too. I look at it and just think; damn this phone is sexy. Curved glass, copper accents, nice navy blue soft touch back, easily grippable. Oh and one more thing... It only cost me $122 after tax, and upgrade fee. There is no better deal on the planet period. Imagine what we could do if we get root access, and kernel access. I'm very, very happy with this phone, it is clear that it was well thought out. And speaking to ZTE, I found out they have a whole quite sizable R&D team dedicated to this phone, and it's eventual successor.
 
Spec2nirvash said:
Update-

So, yesterday afternoon I switched my service over to the Lumia I bought. I used a BYO SIM I bought not long ago, which never gave me any problems. So far, I've had to toggle airplane mode twice, due to same problem I was having with my ZMax.

I'm very hesitant to blame the phones now. I'm gonna switch to my Nexus today and see if the problem persists. It has to be the MetroPCS end of my service... three phones in a row doing the same thing on my line, yet my other three lines have no disconnect issues at all.

My ZMax may not be the problem at all, I'll report back later.

~spec
Click to expand...

I'm glad you're narrowing down the issues and I'm glad it's not the phone! I live in Las Vegas and I have not yet had a single disconnect. But, I don't think there is band 12 here? So, you may be correct in your assumption that something is up regarding band 12 and some kind of prioritization?

If you can somehow force the phone onto the TMO network (instead of MetroPCS) you can check to see if it's an issue with Metro phones being prioritized below Tmo phones. You had posted an image of a menu on the ZMAX that allowed you to select the Tmo network.

There may just be a lot of usage of band 12_in your area and it's causing some issues for you?
 
ZMAX4EVER said:
I'm glad you're narrowing down the issues and I'm glad it's not the phone! I live in Las Vegas and I have not yet had a single disconnect. But, I don't think there is band 12 here? So, you may be correct in your assumption that something is up regarding band 12 and some kind of prioritization?

If you can somehow force the phone onto the TMO network (instead of MetroPCS) you can check to see if it's an issue with Metro phones being prioritized below Tmo phones. You had posted an image of a menu on the ZMAX that allowed you to select the Tmo network.

There may just be a lot of usage of band 12_in your area and it's causing some issues for you?
Click to expand...

5318008 said:
Hmm. You know what, you may be onto something with the prioritization thing. I've been on TMobile's $30 ("WalMart") plan for years now, and with my last phone I'd get that sometimes, where I had signal but no data was going through and I'd have to wait a while or toggle stuff a few times to get data back. If they were prioritizing me (because I'm on the cheap plan) then everything would make a lot more sense. That was my ATT Note 2 that I unlocked for other GSM networks, I replaced it with the ZMP, and I haven't had it happen often with this phone w/ my old TMobile SIM but I've definitely had it happen a few times. Maybe TMobile prioritizes against cheaper plans whether you're on Metro or TMobile. It would really help explain the issue.
Click to expand...

See my message above from the previous page - I'm on TMobile with my Zmax Pro and I don't get stalled out very often but it does happen occasionally. I have a lower tier plan so they might be doing prioritization against anyone with cheap plans.
 
5318008 said:
See my message above from the previous page - I'm on TMobile with my Zmax Pro and I don't get stalled out very often but it does happen occasionally. I have a lower tier plan so they might be doing prioritization against anyone with cheap plans.
Click to expand...

The de-prioritization must be across the boards with MetroPCS and all of the rate plans. If T-Mobile customers need the data, Metro customers get squeezed.

I mentioned above that I have always paid for the $60 unlimited plan, and I constantly get bounced into a de-prioritized queue. Not trying to poke anybody or point fingers, but being a longtime customer that uses 10GB a month average, and having to yield to some people tethering ten times plus that amount of data per month is bullshit.

I really don't care what you guys do with your data, I'm mad at MetroPCS for squeezing MY service for the data hogs.
 
BlankBox said:
So I'm pretty sure the problem is with LTE. I turned off LTE and I haven't had a disconnect for 3 days
Click to expand...

horsecharles said:
And another disconnect... icon still says 4g/lte.
To quote Bruce Willis: Yippee Kah Yeh, M. F.
Click to expand...
I still have not replaced phone.
On October 5th, riding the subway, I noticed that with LTE On, phone briefly switched to 2G. This gave me the idea to do lte Off, and phone NOW switched to 4G... AND to 3/2G when necessary.
In fact, this also works to reconnect, instead of Airplane off/on, when LTE On conks out.

IN OTHER WORDS, issue is fixed with LTE Off, HOWEVER, not only are top speeds lower, but WORSE - LATENCY IS VERY HIGH AT TIMES.
Ping is very high, at times it seems at some sites, like connection is off- be patient - site will load very quickly after initial stall...
 
horsecharles said:
I still have not replaced phone.
On October 5th, riding the subway, I noticed that with LTE On, phone briefly switched to 2G. This gave me the idea to do lte Off, and phone NOW switched to 4G... AND to 3/2G when necessary.
In fact, this also works to reconnect, instead of Airplane off/on, when LTE On conks out.

IN OTHER WORDS, issue is fixed with LTE Off, HOWEVER, not only are top speeds lower, but WORSE - LATENCY IS VERY HIGH AT TIMES.
Ping is very high, at times it seems at some sites, like connection is off- be patient - site will load very quickly after initial stall...
Click to expand...

So this may confirm my theory on LTE 12 throttling. My current phone doesn't support band 12; I haven't had to do a network reset for weeks. My LTE speed is about 20 mb/s average, band 12 LTE on my ZMax Pro was almost 50 mb/s...

Sounds like @horsecharles is another victim of de-prioritization. Your phone is not defective. You're being intermittently shut down to relieve traffic for T-Mobile data suckers.
 
horsecharles said:
I still have not replaced phone.
On October 5th, riding the subway, I noticed that with LTE On, phone briefly switched to 2G. This gave me the idea to do lte Off, and phone NOW switched to 4G... AND to 3/2G when necessary.
In fact, this also works to reconnect, instead of Airplane off/on, when LTE On conks out.

IN OTHER WORDS, issue is fixed with LTE Off, HOWEVER, not only are top speeds lower, but WORSE - LATENCY IS VERY HIGH AT TIMES.
Ping is very high, at times it seems at some sites, like connection is off- be patient - site will load very quickly after initial stall...
Click to expand...
I tried the LTE Off a week ago and it worked great for about a day. But then it stalled on me a few times. So I went back to LTE on. Just waiting for that damn root to happen and I'm sure that we will get fixed.
 
Spec2nirvash said:
So this may confirm my theory on LTE 12 throttling. My current phone doesn't support band 12; I haven't had to do a network reset for weeks. My LTE speed is about 20 mb/s average, band 12 LTE on my ZMax Pro was almost 50 mb/s...

Sounds like @horsecharles is another victim of de-prioritization. Your phone is not defective. You're being intermittently shut down to relieve traffic for T-Mobile data suckers.
Click to expand...
Thing is, this didn't occur on Stylo- but maybe it's a (coincidental w/ zmax release) recent change.
Maybe the zmax band aggregation is in play.
I'll try temporarily switching sim to Stylo just to check.
 
yknujssab said:
I tried the LTE Off a week ago and it worked great for about a day. But then it stalled on me a few times. So I went back to LTE on. Just waiting for that damn root to happen and I'm sure that we will get fixed.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear this. I take it you mean Not Connect... I stall a bit reaching some sites(initially), but always get connected.
 
horsecharles said:
Sorry to hear this. I take it you mean Not Connect... I stall a bit reaching some sites(initially), but always get connected.
Click to expand...
Yes, no connection. The weird thing is when it happens on LTE on, the up arrow above the 4G LTE logo doesn't light up. When I had it on LTE off, the down arrow didn't light up. Not sure what that's about.
 
yknujssab said:
Yes, no connection. The weird thing is when it happens on LTE on, the up arrow above the 4G LTE logo doesn't light up. When I had it on LTE off, the down arrow didn't light up. Not sure what that's about.
Click to expand...
Jinx. Just got the very first(3 perfect weeks) @ Off, while browsing these forums.
Both arrows lit BUT frozen solid / no flicker.
 
I'm off tonight to Virginia(from NY) for a few days - Amtrak round trip.
This is the main reason why I've held off returning phone- just to see what transpires on this planned trip- besides the 90 day promo price thingie.
If anyone wants me to try something specific let me know.
I'll report back before finally switching it.
 
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