Breaking Band: Tri-band LTE / eCSFB issues thread

[conquereddroiduser]

So here's another one to chalk up on the broken list. I don't believe there is a way to fix it either.

 

Someone PM'd me about a LG G2 not working on voice outgoing or incoming. Yet older devices work fine. They are using an Airave and pickup a weak LTE signal at times. Even if they are using wifi the devices still scan for LTE. I see this myself when I am in my back bedroom now. I sometimes see a -118 or -120 LTE signal on my Note2. Now think how CFSB works. It uses the LTE signal to tunnel the 1x paging. That LTE site doesn't know to hand the call off to your airave. It tries to hand it off to the local site which fails due to signal issues. Effectively rendering voice useless on your device.

 

Anyone else seeing this? If I pick up a N5 soon I might run into this issue myself. My local site won't get 1x800 due to ground mounted RRUs so it won't get fixed anytime soon. Wow... I would have to break out my repeater to halfway fix this issue.

Well that's less than ideal...

 

This may be a long shot, but would switching to cdma only mode via the dialer menu potentially get it to connect to the air rave? It would be annoying to have to do it every time, but janky is better than unreliable.

 

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4

[digiblur]

Well that's less than ideal...

 

This may be a long shot, but would switching to cdma only mode via the dialer menu potentially get it to connect to the air rave? It would be annoying to have to do it every time, but janky is better than unreliable.

 

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4

Yes, either that or blocking the very fringe LTE signal. Active would work well but illegal

[squigey]

So here's another one to chalk up on the broken list. I don't believe there is a way to fix it either.

 

Someone PM'd me about a LG G2 not working on voice outgoing or incoming. Yet older devices work fine. They are using an Airave and pickup a weak LTE signal at times. Even if they are using wifi the devices still scan for LTE. I see this myself when I am in my back bedroom now. I sometimes see a -118 or -120 LTE signal on my Note2. Now think how CFSB works. It uses the LTE signal to tunnel the 1x paging. That LTE site doesn't know to hand the call off to your airave. It tries to hand it off to the local site which fails due to signal issues. Effectively rendering voice useless on your device.

 

Anyone else seeing this? If I pick up a N5 soon I might run into this issue myself. My local site won't get 1x800 due to ground mounted RRUs so it won't get fixed anytime soon. Wow... I would have to break out my repeater to halfway fix this issue.

I noticed this on my wife's Nexus the other day. When dialing out, it didn't use the Airave. Her phone happened to be connected to LTE at the time. I didn't think about why until now, when you mentioned the CSFB issue.

 

I tested my G2 right after that and it used the Airave, while connected to LTE. I'm thinking now that it might have dropped it before dialing, since my phone doesn't hang on to the signal as well inside the house.

[S4GRU]

Nice. The Geek article that rips ours off gets cited by Fierce Wireless. Thanks Tim for pointing that out in the FW comments.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

[illest_ios]

so im pretty sure the apple phones dont have SVLTE. but someone correct me if im wrong. anyways just curious, if thats the case why are these phone not having issues with connecting to LTE like the triband phones are?

 

thanks

[digiblur]

so im pretty sure the apple phones dont have SVLTE. but someone correct me if im wrong. anyways just curious, if thats the case why are these phone not having issues with connecting to LTE like the triband phones are?

 

thanks

It doesn't have the benefits of CFSB either. Pros and cons to the feature.

[illest_ios]

It doesn't have the benefits of CFSB either. Pros and cons to the feature.

 

Oh ok. Thanks for moving it I didn't know where to post this. But thanks digiblur

[mozamcrew]

so im pretty sure the apple phones dont have SVLTE. but someone correct me if im wrong. anyways just curious, if thats the case why are these phone not having issues with connecting to LTE like the triband phones are?

 

thanks

 

If you look at post #367 on this thread, AJ explains why. Bascially, the CDMA version of the iPhone drops back to CDMA manually every few seconds to make sure it doesn't have any incoming calls/texts (only for fractions of a second though, so you don't notice), rather than relying on CSFB/eCSFB telling the phone to drop back.

 

Did I get that right AJ?

[illest_ios]

Well that makes sense... Yeah sorry I just haven't had a lot of time to check out some of the most recent threads but thanks tho!

[conquereddroiduser]

Yes, either that or blocking the very fringe LTE signal. Active would work well but illegal

I'm pleased to report that disabling LTE gets the g2 on the airrave with no problems. Its a bit cumbersome, but my bro can manage it. Thanks for the help!

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

 

 

[digiblur]

I'm pleased to report that disabling LTE gets the g2 on the airrave with no problems. Its a bit cumbersome, but my bro can manage it. Thanks for the help!

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for confirming my theory...  unfortunately. 

 

Gotta go..it's check out time at the Holiday Inn Express.

[Fraydog]

If you look at post #367 on this thread, AJ explains why. Bascially, the CDMA version of the iPhone drops back to CDMA manually every few seconds to make sure it doesn't have any incoming calls/texts (only for fractions of a second though, so you don't notice), rather than relying on CSFB/eCSFB telling the phone to drop back.

 

Did I get that right AJ?

The iPhone has a 3RX 1TX antenna design where the iPhone listens to the CDMA control channel while mostly staying connected to LTE, I do suspect CSFB support is also baked in, I just don't know if Apple is using it on any CDMA networks. I know for certain it is like this for Sprint, for Verizon, I am trying to figure that out.

 

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/articles/blog/volte-ims-and-the-future-of-telecommunications/?cs=49770&page=2

 

As of that link in 2012, VZW didn't support CSFB. Now that could have changed in the time period between then and now. But I take it VZW would have to update software on their LTE network in one fell swoop.

 

Also, I've finally found where the iPhone's workaround for no CSFB on Sprint/Verizon was documented, Anandtech's review of the iPhone 5.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-review/18

[lilg740]

Nice. The Geek article that rips ours off gets cited by Fierce Wireless. Thanks Tim for pointing that out in the FW comments. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I actually received this Monday and just now saw it. Maybe i should check my work email more often.

 

Jeremy,

I wanted to take a moment to personally apologize for toe spreadsheet appearing in one of my articles with a watermark. I was not the one who applied the watermark, and as soon as I found it that it was there I asked that it be removed.

The spreadsheet was sent to me as a Google Docs link, and as a result I had no idea it had been posted on S4GRU. I assumed that the source was the person who sent it to me, and that was a mistake on my part.

I sincerely apologize for this behavior, and will be sure to correct the article to include you as a source as soon as you give me a place to point a link. 

 

[WiWavelength]

Also, I've finally found where the iPhone's workaround for no CSFB on Sprint/Verizon was documented, Anandtech's review of the iPhone 5.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-review/18

 

Good find.  Brian is an authoritative source we can trust.  I certainly read his review over a year ago, but the ramifications of the iPhone CDMA1X/LTE hybrid workaround did not strike me at the time.  On the Android side, we had quickly become accustomed to dual radio handsets that supported SVLTE or even SVDO, and e/CSFB seemed only a 3GPP W-CDMA concern.

 

Now, circumstances have changed.  Single radio with e/CSFB is taking over the Android side.  But I am pleased my supposition that CDMA2000 variants in the iPhone 5-5S series do not use e/CSFB and instead still follow the CDMA1X slot cycle proved correct.  Per Occam's razor, that was the most simple, plausible explanation, since the Sprint LTE network did not fully support e/CSFB last year when iPhone 5 was released.

 

AJ

[caspar347]

Well, I'm pleased to report that the Charlotte market has working LTE now. And boy, can the Nexus 5 hold a signal further than the EVO LTE.

 

I'm holding a -102 RSRP signal from a tower 2 towers over, as I am surrounded by non-LTE ones.

[Jackietreehorn]

Well, I'm pleased to report that the Charlotte market has working LTE now. And boy, can the Nexus 5 hold a signal further than the EVO LTE.

 

I'm holding a -102 RSRP signal from a tower 2 towers over, as I am surrounded by non-LTE ones.

 

Any Sponsor who's been paying attention to the Charlotte/Raleigh area maps...how quickly did this happen in Charlotte?  Looking, I see a lot of 3G/4G towers there, whereas in Raleigh it's almost all just 4G (which is how the Minneapolis/St. Paul area looks).  Just curious as to how fast this could feasibly, if Charlotte slowly came online, if it happened over the span of two weeks, overnight, ?

[lilg740]

Any Sponsor who's been paying attention to the Charlotte/Raleigh area maps...how quickly did this happen in Charlotte?  Looking, I see a lot of 3G/4G towers there, whereas in Raleigh it's almost all just 4G (which is how the Minneapolis/St. Paul area looks).  Just curious as to how fast this could feasibly, if Charlotte slowly came online, if it happened over the span of two weeks, overnight, ?

Charlotte had a whole bunch of 3G acceptances in one day last week.

[caspar347]

Any Sponsor who's been paying attention to the Charlotte/Raleigh area maps...how quickly did this happen in Charlotte?  Looking, I see a lot of 3G/4G towers there, whereas in Raleigh it's almost all just 4G (which is how the Minneapolis/St. Paul area looks).  Just curious as to how fast this could feasibly, if Charlotte slowly came online, if it happened over the span of two weeks, overnight, ?

 

It was quite odd. Until about a week ago, pretty much all of our towers were purple and then overnight nearly all of those were accepted as 3G/4G. That was a week ago, but since the master control center (or whatever its called) needed a software upgrade for eCSFB devices to work on LTE, I couldn't connect. I believe the eCSFB software upgrade happened last night, as I connected to LTE this morning.

 

(And if this violates any of the rules, moderators please edit this. I tried to be as informative but as "compliant" as possible.)

 

Edit: lilg beat me to it lol

[isajym]

Can anyone in the Seattle area tell me which band they have picked up LTE on?

[savageman13]

We are not officially launched yet in AZ, but I live near the tower on Germann and Dobson (in Chandler), and I was having issues until the last 2 days.  My Nexus 5 would usually connect to LTE for a second then drop back to eHRPD.  LTE stays connected now, and I received calls and the LTE drops and reconnects when the call ends.  Hopefully they upgraded what they needed to in AZ.

[S4GRU]

It was quite odd. Until about a week ago, pretty much all of our towers were purple and then overnight nearly all of those were accepted as 3G/4G. That was a week ago, but since the master control center (or whatever its called) needed a software upgrade for eCSFB devices to work on LTE, I couldn't connect. I believe the eCSFB software upgrade happened last night, as I connected to LTE this morning.

 

(And if this violates any of the rules, moderators please edit this. I tried to be as informative but as "compliant" as possible.)

 

Edit: lilg beat me to it lol

This post is fine. Thanks!

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[squigey]

We are not officially launched yet in AZ, but I live near the tower on Germann and Dobson (in Chandler), and I was having issues until the last 2 days.  My Nexus 5 would usually connect to LTE for a second then drop back to eHRPD.  LTE stays connected now, and I received calls and the LTE drops and reconnects when the call ends.  Hopefully they upgraded what they needed to in AZ.

The site that was just accepted by my work is functioning like this...at least so far. LTE connects for a second then it drops down to eHRPD. I tested yesterday with a single band device and had no problems connecting. I'll probably re-activate my GS3 on Monday, just so I can map it on Sensorly.

 

It's interesting that CSFB is affecting this site, since I've been to all the rest in the area and had no issues connecting. 

[lilg740]

This is the first half of my daily drive. I then connect to a site in Pontoon Beach, IL which apparently is not CSFB compatible(drops to 1x) then after that another new 4G site in Wood River, IL that does the same. LTE returns when i get of the highway into Bethalto. This 1st half of my drive on the One would be half 3g and half 4g. 

[phynal]

I've been having a weird issue where my N5's incoming calls come up "Unknown" even when they are people in my contacts. It's not people calling with private numbers as it can happen sometimes from the same number that does not come up "Unknown". Anyone else having an issue? Is this maybe related to the handoff to 3G?

[lilg740]

I've been having a weird issue where my N5's incoming calls come up "Unknown" even when they are people in my contacts. It's not people calling with private numbers as it can happen sometimes from the same number that does not come up "Unknown". Anyone else having an issue? Is this maybe related to the handoff to 3G?

Are they calling from an Airrave?