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Signal strength question

T

TriumphLance

Android Enthusiast
I'm on boost Mobile and my cellular strength bars meter seems to be lower than my old Virgin Mobile phones. But whenever I attempt to make a call the bars jump up to full bars rather than 2 or 3 is this normal?
 
For example in the break room at work it shows I have zero bars, strong 4g though. But if I go to make a call it magically jumps up to 3 bars and the call goes through just fine. Maybe I shouldn't pay attention to the bars then?
 
That's because you probably have your 4g on and the signal for it won't be as strong. Guarantee you if you switch to 3g only you'll have a much stronger signal and you'll save battery.
 
The signal you're seeing while not talking on the phone is LTE spark signal, don't worry about it when it comes to voice because unless you're in an area that's actually supported by spark (if you're not, you're just using regular LTE) your voice is actually handled by 3g, so when you make a call it switches to a 3g signal, which is why you see it get stronger when you make a call.
 
4g is mainly internet and it knocks you down to 3G/regular cell tower usage when you are making calls.
but if the bars are low i suggest you go down to 3G to save battery life.
 
Rarewolf said:
4g is mainly internet and it knocks you down to 3G/regular cell tower usage when you are making calls.
but if the bars are low i suggest you go down to 3G to save battery life.
Click to expand...
My cellular signal definitely is stronger with 4g off. Oddly enough my battery doesn't seem affected either way its such a good battery.
 
I think this may have to do with the "Sprint Spark" that the volt is compatible with (it's the only Virgin or Boost phone that is). There is some sort of an issue when you have a Spark LTE signal that you have to fall back to CDMA when placing a call.
 
I get really good service in my living room.. But horrible signal in my basement or most places at work. My Virgin mobile 4g LTE HTC desire showed I was getting better signal in all these places. It's either the new LTE is weaker going through buildings or my phone is having signal issues. Weirdest thing though is it doesn't go down to "no service", just zero bars.
 
It's not an issue, it's just that LTE does not support voice, LTE spark however does. If you're falling back to 3g it's because you're not in a spark enabled area. If two people called each other with spark enabled phones in a spark enabled area, they would both have HD voice and it would sound a million times better and they would stay on LTE.
 
i accidentally struck gold with the 4g . if its only out on very few phones then its probably in a developmental stage right . loose ends to play with ? my 4g is at 8 -10 mbps and im almost a gb over my limet . should be super slow right now but it really moves . been a rush really . we need more devs because i think this phone has some serious potential.
 
4G lte is on a lot of phones actually and those are about the speeds you'll achieve with it, what you don't have is spark.
 
yes i do have spark . read up on it a few days ago because that little spinning star in the notification bar had me curious . turned out its a "spark" lol and my point is that im over my data limit by almost a whole gb and i should be on 2g / 3g speeds (no hi speed) yet im at 8 to 10 mbps . my tinkering did something is all im saying
 
No, it's not spark, it's just regular LTE, the "spark" is there to let you know data is moving. If you actually had spark, which is pretty limited to certain areas right now, you'd be able to tell the difference. You'd probably be getting 50 mbps+. Trust me, I have the same thing and I live in a regular LTE area but not far from a spark enabled area.
 
donjuro said:
No, it's not spark, it's just regular LTE, the "spark" is there to let you know data is moving. If you actually had spark, which is pretty limited to certain areas right now, you'd be able to tell the difference. You'd probably be getting 50 mbps+. Trust me, I have the same thing and I live in a regular LTE area but not far from a spark enabled area.
Click to expand...

http://m.androidcentral.com/lg-volt-bringing-sprints-enhanced-lte-boost-and-virgin-mobile-cheap

AND I QUOTE !! .. .. . . .

"The LG Volt is the first device to bring Sprint's Spark "enhanced LTE" service to the prepaid market."

your not very knowledgeable . what you say only sounds good and makes sense but it doesn't mean its true . running your mouth when all you have to do is Google it and the facts are literally in your face .... but nooooo . all TALK and no RESEARCH . be gone before you get someone's phone bricked
 
How is anyone's phone going to be bricked by what I'm saying? And just because you have an spark enabled phone doesn't mean you're receiving a spark signal or even spark speeds.
 
Maybe you misunderstood what I said. Yes this phone is spark enabled, yes it can receive a spark signal, but no matter whether you're in a regular LTE area or a LTE spark area that "spark" icon is going to show and spin when data is being transferred. But just because the spark icon is showing, doesn't mean that you are receiving a spark signal.
 
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