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dynamo69's profile

Teacher

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15 Messages

Monday, September 16th, 2019 9:45 PM

Terrible Connection Inside & Outside of Home

I have a Galaxy S5 phone 🙂 works great except for the terrible connection to ATT where ever I am. When at home in a residential area blocks away from a tower it felt like someone was blocking my 4G LTE usage although my phone showed I was connected with a nice connection. I recently bought another house, in the hills of Southern California and the connection is even worse. Its barely connected and everything is slow when it does work. Many times I lose connection all together. Neighbors have Verizon (or T Mobile) and do not have the problems we have. My wife has an iPhone 9 or 10 and she has the exact problem that I do. I believe its the phones, she thinks its ATT.

Im considering buying a mid range phone such as a Moto G7 Power which seems to cover a large range of 4G networks, at least in comparison to my old trusty S5. Thoughts? Thank you!

 

For reference the Moto G7 Power covers these 4G networks...

 

4G Network LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 12(700), 13(700), 14(700), 17(700), 20(800), 25(1900), 26(850), 29(700), 30(2300), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500), 41(2500), 66(1700/2100), 71(600)

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Master

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3.5K Messages

5 years ago

Yeah, the iPhone 8 has those bands, so it could be that you just live in a "weird crossover area", where AT&T just struggles with their existing tower installs.

This leaves you with three options (I'd still upgrade the phone though, either way, particularly if you decide to use WiFi calling as part of the solution), as I see it:

 

1. Use WiFi calling (again, new phone for yourself, but the 8 will support it, already), for all/most of your calls from home, which tends to work pretty well (not always fantastically, but usually plenty-good-enough).

2. Get a cell-phone booster (if you search for my name and "booster", you can see some of my recommends, and @OttoPylot also has written a fantastic article about them, some of which I provided input on).

3. Change carriers (to a known-good quantity for your location).

 

That's probably the order I'd choose too, in terms of preference, if I were in your shoes.

 

Again, let us know what you decide, and how it works out, it'd be great to see this marked as "Solved", so others can (re)use it.

 

The Pixel phones (and also the Moto phones, and a few others) are known to have pretty fantastic radio/antenna implementations, so in a "marginal coverage area", they can sometimes work pretty well, where others do not, all phones are really NOT created equal, in this regard.

The Pixel3 is an awesome phone, but it's not cheap, but the G7 should have close to the same experience, in terms of radios (the other features are not quite the same, but it's a MUCH cheaper phone), and you have to have an ATT-Branded one, if you want to use WiFi calling with it, whereas the Pixel3 will work, non-branded, for WiFi calling.

 

Hopefully I haven't "overloaded" you with info here;  I look forward to hearing the results!

Master

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3.5K Messages

5 years ago

Your S5 is missing most of the bands that AT&T uses these days, so an upgrade will (probably) make a big difference.

 

Other options (with a newer device) also include WiFi calling, assuming the device you purchase has support for it (mostly this is limited, to carrier-branded, and iOS devices).

Teacher

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15 Messages

5 years ago

PGREY, thanks for the reply. I was actually hoping to hear from you after reading some of your forum posts especially one where you mentioned band 66. I am now about 2 to 3 miles away from my nearest antenna which includes hillsides and forest. Its uneasy when I have no network at all to make a call. Thanks for your insight.

Teacher

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15 Messages

5 years ago

Also Im guessing my wife has an iphone 8... she has had the phone at least a year now. Im hoping the same for her, an upgrade would help.

EDIT: just checked model 8... has all the same bands if not more thant the moto G7 power including band 66... she also has terrible connection... sometimes no connection. We are at a loss on how to solve this issue without switching carriers.

Master

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3.5K Messages

5 years ago


@dynamo69 wrote:

PGREY, thanks for the reply. I was actually hoping to hear from you after reading some of your forum posts especially one where you mentioned band 66. I am now about 2 to 3 miles away from my nearest antenna which includes hillsides and forest. Its uneasy when I have no network at all to make a call. Thanks for your insight.


@dynamo69 Yeah, that's exactly it, plus I'm not sure if the S5 had great band 12/17 support, and newer phones tend to have MUCH better antennas, and overall radio components, in general (this is mostly true, across-the-board).

 

Anyway, glad I was able to reply here today, in that you saw my other posts, and provide the insight which I'm pretty sure (unless you live in a really odd location in S. Ca) will improve your mobile experience.

 

IF this solves your issue, I'd really appreciate it if you could mark it such (solved), so others encountering the thread will have additional resources, to solve similar issues, moving forward, thanks (plus it's always nice to hear that it worked;-])!

 

 

Teacher

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15 Messages

5 years ago

I'll accept your solution as you have given me plenty of direction to solve our issues, thanks! I was looking into these phones which are competitors to the G7...

  • Xiaomi Mi A2
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  • Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite

... mainly because of features/value. For example I could get dual camera, better CPU, better resolution, etc. It appears as if all of the typical networks are covered from what I can tell. Are these acceptable or should I steer clear of them? Appreciate all of the help! Looking forward to solving our issues once and for all.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

5 years ago

@dynamo69 - WiFi-C works great for in-home coverage on my iPhone 8 Plus and my wife's iPhone 7. As to the Xiaomi phones, I'm not familiar with them but if AT&T doesn't carry them, or they aren't meant for the domestic market, you may have issues setting up WiFi-C on the AT&T network. Hopefully @pgrey can shed more light on that.

 

 

Teacher

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15 Messages

5 years ago

Here is my dilemma... Im reading so many different sites and commentary that in order for a phone to work on ATT for 4G LTE I need bands 3,4,5... or I need bands 4, 17, or I need 12 and 30. Ive pretty much seen it all now 🙂

I dont want to spend a whole lot on a phone, under $200 if I can help it. The Moto G7 Power covers a bunch of different bands so I should be good with it and its a fairly new phone however the screen resolution sounds horrible. The other phones I listed (Xiaomi) have awesome specs compared to that G7 but dont seem to cover many bands. Reviewers on Amazon and elsewhere seem to have no problem with ATT LTE networks so Im confused which way to go.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

5 years ago

@dynamo69 - an iPhone, especially the newer models, should have no problems connecting unless you are in an "AT&T cellular hole" where only some of the bands are available.

 

Your post keeps popping up on the MicroCell page, and it appears that your issue is not MicroCell related so I'll get the other ACE's deal with this.

Master

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3.2K Messages

5 years ago

@dynamo69 wrote:

The other phones I listed (Xiaomi) have awesome specs compared to that G7 but dont seem to cover many bands

I won't weigh in on the bands since that's not my expertise. I can tell you that those phones probably won't have Wi-Fi Calling because they're not AT&T-branded phones. Unlocked non-branded phones usually don't. That means if it's a matter of coverage and not bands, then you'll be stuck without indoor service. If you had great service already, I'd say go for it, but in your case I don't think it's worth the risk.

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