sperho
Android Enthusiast
This post was in another Verizon SGN thread:
I had experiences over the holidays that mirror this experience.
I live in the Tri-Cities, TN (Kingsport/Johnson City/Bristol) area and have very good 4G and 3G coverage. I've had the Verizon SGN since 12/16 and I have experienced none of the 4G/3G/noG connectivity problems that many have posted about on these and other forums until I traveled by car with my phone and my wife's OG Droid this weekend. I noticed that in the Nashville, TN area, I could not connect with data reliably at all. Droid showing 3-4 bars of solid 3G connection. I had ok to good bars in CDMA only mode, but routinely 5 to 15 dBm weaker strength than the Droid, but I could make voice calls just fine. I called customer support (while my wife drove
) and they said that there were not outages in the area at that time. After a battery pull and a CDMA/LTE connection toggle I was able to get the Nexus to latch onto 4G and 3G for a little while, but after about 5 minutes: no data again. Frustrating to say the least. This experiment lasted about 60 miles until I felt the urge to throw the phone out the window. I put it away instead.
Next up, Evansville, IN. Same experience as Nashville. Ugly, ugly, ugly data connectivity (i.e. rarely could get a data connection), while bathed in good 4G and 3G coverage (data would sometimes connect - so I know that it was there). OG Droid: no data problems whatsoever. So, I put the phone away again.
Tonight, back in the Tri-Cities, TN area: no data problems whatsoever (again)!!
While I'm happy that I don't seem to have problems where I live, I do travel a lot and I expect a top shelf smartphone to have top shelf performance. This is not the case for me. I can only find solace that given my good connectivity at home, that the phone hardware is fine, but the baseband firmware or the towers in some areas are less than standardized/optimized/or whatever-ized than in others. I can only hope that a firmware update to the SGN fixes this (and soon!).
I now know the pain that many have experienced and are experiencing. I feel for you. If I were in one of those areas that had similar connectivity problems, this phone would be going back until the kinks get worked out, if they get worked out. It may go back anyway if the 4.03 update doesn't come soon and it takes care of the problem - I need a solid data connection when I travel. Furthermore, given that I'm paying for a data plan and have shelled out the cash for a phone that should be capable of being a device that should meet my needs, I find this to be very disconcerting. Despite not having the best battery life in the world (not unexpected when using the screen a lot and an LTE connection), I do like this phone. C'mon El Goog, Samsung, and/or Verizon: fix this! (Thanks in advance.)
I hadn't experienced total loss of signal until today. Went to visit family today like we do every year. The last two years we've went there, me and my wife (who had/have Moto Droids) have never had signal issues or data loss. Well when I got there today I had bars, but no 1X/3G/4G next to them. Checked the wifes Droid and it's got 3 bars with 3G. No amount of toggling airplane mode, mobile data, data roaming (which we weren't roaming), restarting or even leaving the SIM card out for a moment before booting made a difference whatsoever. Meanwhile, everyone else there with Verizon smartphones (iPhones, Droid X, Droid), had solid 3G connections. I was frustrated to say the least. I even called *611 to see if a Vision tech could help me out or at least explain it. I told them everything I tried and that's pretty much everything they were going to tell me to do. Gave them my area code and they said I was in a weak area, but couldn't explain why every other phone has data signal and mine doesn't.
Wifes phone was on CDMA EVDO Rev. A and my Nexus said eHRPD:13. I've never seen a smart phone have strong signal (was in the 80s for dBm), but not at least have a 1x or some type of data signal. I could call and text fine. So WTF.. explain that..
I had experiences over the holidays that mirror this experience.
I live in the Tri-Cities, TN (Kingsport/Johnson City/Bristol) area and have very good 4G and 3G coverage. I've had the Verizon SGN since 12/16 and I have experienced none of the 4G/3G/noG connectivity problems that many have posted about on these and other forums until I traveled by car with my phone and my wife's OG Droid this weekend. I noticed that in the Nashville, TN area, I could not connect with data reliably at all. Droid showing 3-4 bars of solid 3G connection. I had ok to good bars in CDMA only mode, but routinely 5 to 15 dBm weaker strength than the Droid, but I could make voice calls just fine. I called customer support (while my wife drove
) and they said that there were not outages in the area at that time. After a battery pull and a CDMA/LTE connection toggle I was able to get the Nexus to latch onto 4G and 3G for a little while, but after about 5 minutes: no data again. Frustrating to say the least. This experiment lasted about 60 miles until I felt the urge to throw the phone out the window. I put it away instead.Next up, Evansville, IN. Same experience as Nashville. Ugly, ugly, ugly data connectivity (i.e. rarely could get a data connection), while bathed in good 4G and 3G coverage (data would sometimes connect - so I know that it was there). OG Droid: no data problems whatsoever. So, I put the phone away again.
Tonight, back in the Tri-Cities, TN area: no data problems whatsoever (again)!!
While I'm happy that I don't seem to have problems where I live, I do travel a lot and I expect a top shelf smartphone to have top shelf performance. This is not the case for me. I can only find solace that given my good connectivity at home, that the phone hardware is fine, but the baseband firmware or the towers in some areas are less than standardized/optimized/or whatever-ized than in others. I can only hope that a firmware update to the SGN fixes this (and soon!).
I now know the pain that many have experienced and are experiencing. I feel for you. If I were in one of those areas that had similar connectivity problems, this phone would be going back until the kinks get worked out, if they get worked out. It may go back anyway if the 4.03 update doesn't come soon and it takes care of the problem - I need a solid data connection when I travel. Furthermore, given that I'm paying for a data plan and have shelled out the cash for a phone that should be capable of being a device that should meet my needs, I find this to be very disconcerting. Despite not having the best battery life in the world (not unexpected when using the screen a lot and an LTE connection), I do like this phone. C'mon El Goog, Samsung, and/or Verizon: fix this! (Thanks in advance.)
