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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)

Teacher

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15 Messages

5 years ago

I turned on wi-fi calling last night on my phone and calls worked fine for me. Thanks! Maybe we are in one of these weird crossover areas or cellular holes. However we both experience poor reception all over Southern California with our phones. A poor connection would make sense with my old S5, but its strange this happens with her phone which is newer than mine.I may end up just buying a couple of phones and which ever one works better or my situation is the one I keep.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

5 years ago

@dynamo69 - glad to hear that WiFi-C is working for you. As to calls outside of your home, that's strange. Our daughter lives in So. Calif. and she has very few reception issues. Same for us when we visit her with our iPhones.

Master

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3.5K Messages

5 years ago

@dynamo69 The Moto G7 is a "tricky" phone, all the newer Moto models have been.  There's one variant (of about 7 I think), that has *almost* all the bands, except 29/30 (which are pretty prevalent in my area, the PNW, even if 30 is a backhaul-download-only band), I think it's the "Pure G7 Unlocked", but I'm not sure on the exact model#; if that's the phone, I can try to figure out the exact variant and re-post here.


I like OnePlus phones (the past few years anyway), they also have pretty good radios/antennas, in particular the 6T and OP7 Pro have ALL the AT&T bands, great specs overall, and strong radios, IME.  Unfortunately, AT&T has *still* not enabled WiFi calling for the OP series though, so if that's the best option, none of these are likely a good one, for your setup.

If I could have any phone, it'd be the Pixel 3XL, with it's truly awesome set of specs/radios, but the OP7 Pro is a close second, as is the 6T, and it's half the price.  Not having WiFi calling is a pain, at times, for us, but we have "good enough" coverage that our OP phones work for us, 95% of the time, or thereabouts.

 

Getting into the sub-200 range (mostly) requires a carrier model, which is what you want anyway, if you want to use WiFi calling, AND have full radio coverage (which it sounds like you need, and IMO, everyone SHOULD have, with a phone, why would you not want ALL the radios/bands a carrier uses, which often works better internationally, too), if the Pixel3 series isn't an option (which it sounds like it isn't, budget-wise).

Is that a hard-line, the sub-200?  I can poke around on the site, and see what I see, I'm not always up on the carrier-branded models, as I don't often recommend them (for a variety of reasons, travel being just one).

 

Boosters can "fix" this, too, IF there's SOME signal at your home, but they only fix it where the booster is, for those bands that the phone has, they're not going to help when you're out-about (obviously), unless you take one with you, most places.

Master

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3.5K Messages

5 years ago

@dynamo69 A used Galaxy S9 or S9+ would have all these bands, and *might* get close to the 200-ish range, depending on how "used" it is, maybe...

An LG G8 (the At&T carrier model), again, used, also *might* get close to the 200-ish range, and has all the bands (IME, LG's tend to lose value REALLY fast, so you can often find a "deal" on a used G8 or similar).

 

Both of these include the "newer" bands AT&T has been deploying (along with the entire older set), like 12/17/29/30/66, plus they have 71, which means they can roam to T-mobile, for emergencies (if that's what's available).

 

All the iOS devices from the 8 forward will also support these bands, I'm just not an iOS guy (not going to get into that here), and as you experienced, your one iPhone8 works with WiFi calling, at your home, so maybe a used iOS device.

 

There are options that will work for you, if you choose to stick with AT&T, there just aren't a huge variety, particularly a "cheap variety"... ;-]

 

 

 

Teacher

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15 Messages

5 years ago

$200-ish 🙂 I just dont want to be at $280 which becomes $300 which becomes lets just wait until next year. Maybe $230 is my ultimate limit.

 

Right now since our phones seem to have so many problems making and receiving calls we have resorted to using Telegram app for just about everything the past 6 months. It seems to work fine for making calls while on the road and at home it must be working well since we are connected to wi-fi. Im using this site gsmarena to compare various phones.

Ive heard about boosters... Is this the ATT MicroCell device? Plugs into wifi so its essentially using wifi... What difference is that in comparison to allowing wifi calling on my phone?

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

5 years ago


@dynamo69 wrote:


Ive heard about boosters... Is this the ATT MicroCell device? Plugs into wifi so its essentially using wifi... What difference is that in comparison to allowing wifi calling on my phone?


@dynamo69 - the MicroCell is not a cellular booster. It is a femtocell and broadcasts a 3G signal that your phone locks onto. It then transmits that connection, via your internet connection to the AT&T Mobility Servers. It has nothing to do with WiFi. That being said, sales of the MicroCell were discontinued at the end of 2017 because the MicroCell has reached its EOL. The service is still active and will continue to be so until AT&T transitions away from their 3G network. To get a good primer on cellular boosters, read my Cellular Booster Guide (link is in my sig line).

 

WiFi-C uses your WiFi connection to reach the AT&T Mobility Servers, so in a sense it's similar to the MicroCell but has less issues and call quality/reliability is much better. However, it is dependent on the quality of your in-home WiFi. It's also similar to the MicroCell in that you need to have a post paid AT&T cellular account.

Teacher

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15 Messages

5 years ago

Looking at some refurbished models right now... some good deals out there. Google Pixel 2 already looks better than the Moto G7. Im a linux user myself so not a big fan of Apple products in general and android works well with the main distros of linux. Thanks much for all the help! WOW!

Master

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3.5K Messages

5 years ago


@dynamo69 wrote:

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.


I would 100% steer clear of these.  

They're not going to have the bands/frequencies you want/need, updates are going to be a nightmare (if you EVER get them), particularly given the toxic environment we have right now, in terms of trade with CH.

It may *seem* like a better deal, but one of those other phones is going to be a FAR better "experience", if you actually want to be able to "use" the phone.  

Having a nifty, fully-featured phone is nice (I love my OP7 Pro, despite AT&T not allowing WiFiC), but if you can't actually connect and use your service, well, then it's mostly just a "fully-featured mini-tablet", IMO/IME.

Master

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3.5K Messages

5 years ago


@dynamo69 wrote:

Looking at some refurbished models right now... some good deals out there. Google Pixel 2 already looks better than the Moto G7. Im a linux user myself so not a big fan of Apple products in general and android works well with the main distros of linux. Thanks much for all the help! WOW!


Yep, the Pixel2 is a great option. We're along the same lines, all Windows/Linux/Unix for me too, or almost all (I started my programming back on the Apple II, cough,cough, I'm not exactly "young" here;-]), and I'm pretty anti-iOS, for me, and for anyone that's going to ask me to help (friends/relatives) with their devices.

I get that their solid phones, but they're so closed-loop, and proprietary, that it drives me absolutely NUTS. 

If they work for you, for whatever reason, that's fine, they just don't work for me, and probably NEVER will, philosophically, if for no other reason.

 

A used Pixel 2 should work great here, and you can get back to using your regular voice line, instead of the one-off VOIP solution, which has it's "perks", IMHO...

Master

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3.5K Messages

5 years ago


@OttoPylot wrote:

@dynamo69 - glad to hear that WiFi-C is working for you. As to calls outside of your home, that's strange. Our daughter lives in So. Calif. and she has very few reception issues. Same for us when we visit her with our iPhones.


Yeah, @OttoPylot same deal, when I visit S. Cal, typically once or twice a year, mostly.
I will say this though, the "data congestion" has been "hit/miss", when I've flown into John Wayne (Orange County) a couple of times, in 2017/2018.

 

I've always been able to get connected, that's not an issue.  But, when I go to pull up a map, to navigate to our destination in a rental-car, it's a lot of "waiting, waiting, waiting, ..." for the map to load, and for it to actually "find" my destination.  
I've noticed too, if I have to scroll around, or zoom in/out, again it's "waiting, waiting, ...".  Not exactly ideal, if you're trying to navigate somewhere, say on a busy freeway, in S. Cal...

The last time I saw this was 06/18, so maybe things are better now, but boy it sure seemed like the peak-congestion down there was pretty bad.

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