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Why does Phone connect to a tower further away

Feech
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WiWavelength Member Level: LTE Advanced

WiWavelength

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Does anyone know why a phone chooses one tower over another?

 

A handset is programmed to idle on/connect to the site with the most favorable signal level, and that may not be the closest site. Additionally, the handset is programmed to seek the highest protocol revision (e.g. LTE > EV-DO) that it supports. For example, the closest site may not yet have LTE deployed, but the LTE signal from a more distant site is usable. Finally, keep in mind that CDMA1X, EV-DO, and LTE signals are all tracked independently, so a handset can idle on/connect to different sites for the different airlinks all simultaneously.

 

AJ

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Feech Member Level: 4G WiMax

Feech

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Thats good info thanks. I actually visted one of the sites a mile from my job that is due to be a NV upgrade. Its only a mile away but lord know based on my covereage at my job I have never connected there. Do you know any other Apps like Opensignal that I can use to compare?

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boomerbubba Member Level: eHRPD

boomerbubba

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Thats good info thanks. I actually visted one of the sites a mile from my job that is due to be a NV upgrade. Its only a mile away but lord know based on my covereage at my job I have never connected there. Do you know any other Apps like Opensignal that I can use to compare?

 

Try CDMA Field Test. Open SIgnal's tower locations are inaccurate guesswork based on crowdsourcing.

 

One caveat: The tower coordinates captured by CDMA Field Test and similar apps will be the lat/lon broadcast by the sector base stations and captured by the Android device. But there seem to be two distinct situations: On some towers, all sector base stations will squawk the actual coordinates of the tower; on others, each sector will squawk different coordinates that are offest some distance away from the tower.

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themuffinman Member Level: LTE Advanced

themuffinman

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A handset is programmed to idle on/connect to the site with the most favorable signal level, and that may not be the closest site. Additionally, the handset is programmed to seek the highest protocol revision (e.g. LTE > EV-DO) that it supports. For example, the closest site may not yet have LTE deployed, but the LTE signal from a more distant site is usable. Finally, keep in mind that CDMA1X, EV-DO, and LTE signals are all tracked independently, so a handset can idle on/connect to different sites for the different airlinks all simultaneously.

 

AJ

 

I was thinking this while I was at home depot this morning. So its possible for a device to get an lte signal from one tower but voice on another at the same time?

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Feech Member Level: 4G WiMax

Feech

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I was thinking this while I was at home depot this morning. So its possible for a device to get an lte signal from one tower but voice on another at the same time?

 

And be using both signals. Meaning I'm on a call and refreshing Twitter at the same time

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WiWavelength Member Level: LTE Advanced

WiWavelength

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So its possible for a device to get an lte signal from one tower but voice on another at the same time?

 

Absolutely. Different sectors on the same site or even different sites altogether. And this has long been true of CDMA1X and EV-DO, too.

 

AJ

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themuffinman Member Level: LTE Advanced

themuffinman

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And be using both signals. Meaning I'm on a call and refreshing Twitter at the same time

 

Voice and data simultaneously is a given, that I already know.

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themuffinman Member Level: LTE Advanced

themuffinman

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Absolutely. And this has long been true of CDMA1X and EV-DO, too.

 

AJ

 

Oh ok, thanks.

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