The_Chemist

I tried setting the LTE timing as well and didn't help me. I'm almost wondering if a factory reset is in order.

If you can wait, don't factory reset.  My G2 is out for GPS service.  I wiped the phone before I sent it in.  When I get it back I am going to do a fresh install of everything.  I can let you know if the problem still exists, if you can wait that long. 

Shentel is quick to fix problems. I noticed last week that one sector of the tower that I connect to at work wasn't broadcasting 800 in either voice or B26. The other 2 sectors were functioning normally. I was going to call but I noticed the next day it was back to normal.

I have called in other issues and they are usually fixed in a day. I know in today's society, "tomorrow" usually isn't quick enough but I'm sure it won't be long until it's functioning again.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 10.0 2014 edition

That's very true. Historically when I've had ssues with this same tower, they were fixed within a few hours of me reporting the problem. This time it's a little different. This "low signal" phenomenon has been going on for over a week until I reported it. When I called Sprint, they had no other reports of trouble and couldn't find anything wrong with the tower. That's kind of scary.

 

I'm hoping that Shentel didn't realign the radio heads and this is what I'm stuck with. I've checked signal with both Tri Band devices and my single band workhorse Samsung GN3. That's why I posted here in hopes to get other user's thoughts on signal level. I guess there's just not enough people on this thread in my area.

Has anyone in the Harrisburg area had problems with band 25 signal strength from the tower behind the Harrisburg UPS Hub?

 

I have barely been able to hold LTE at my house and my work location. I connect to different arrays on that tower depending if I am at work or home. At home on he second level of the house I have been receiving a signal strength of about -117 dBm. I used to get that kind of number deep in my basement. The norm for the second level in he house was around -90 dBm to -100 dBm.

 

Using Signal Check Pro, I have noticed that I am also hashing between 4 different cell sites on Band 25 LTE.

 

I guess because the signal strenght from the tower behind UPS is down, my phone tries to connect to other towers.

 

I called and reported this to Sprint. They have no other reports of trouble, but put in a service ticket.

 

I am about 0.5 nautical miles from this tower and have always received a great signal.

I'm experiencing the same issue. After the update my phone almost acts like its afraid of LTE. Even seems to connect to 800 CDMA less as well. I've tried updating my profile and the LTE scan timer trick to no avail. [emoji27][emoji24]

I deactivated my G2 on December 31, 2013 because I hated it so much (crappy sound quality, poor RF and a GPS that didn't work). I have been using my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 which I love. I recently activated the G2 again to check out the band 26 performance in the areas surrounding Harrisburg. I must say that after all the updates, LG did a very good job fixing the sound quality and RF performance. I sent the phone back to LG to get the GPS repaired (we'll see how this goes)...

 

It's a shame that in the latest update the switching back to LTE after being in a 3G area was broken. I guess we'll have to wait for another update to fix this now.

 

I wonder if this issue happened to all the G2's or just a few of us were affected?

I had noticed that the zvd radio would keep me on 3G when it looses a LTE signal.  I'd an airplane toggle and not think much of it.

Add me to the list as well.  I have to airplane toggle to regain LTE, no matter how long I wait or how strong a LTE signal area I've moved into. 

 

Just sent the G2 back to LG today for a GPS that never works.  Hopefully they can find the issue, fix it and return it in a reasonable time. 

I was out with my girlfriend today doing some signal sniffing.  We went to her place of employment on Hale avenue in Harrisburg and could barely get an LTE signal.  Looking at the engineering screen we were on band 25 with a signal level of -116 dBm to - 123 dBm at which point we fell back to 1x800 - no eHRPD at all.  I would have thought that band 26 would have kicked in at the low level reception of band 25 but it did not.  This makes me think that band 26 is not active or being broadcast at all yet in this part of Harrisburg.  I'm kind of surprised at this.  Shentel has a NV tower right up behind the old Bishop McDevitt High School.  Less than 0.5 miles form Hale Ave. 

 

We then drove over to Derry Street right behind WalMart and Sam's Club.  We switched over to Band 26 in this area.  I do believe another S4GRU member posted in this thread of receiving band 26 on Grayson Road which runs parallel to Derry St. in this same area.  We held band 26 the entire way over to PenHar drive, at which point returned to band 25. 

 

I was under the impression that Shentel had blanketed Harrisburg in 800 MHz LTE, but this is not so after our sniffing expedition.  Only certain areas are covered.  I'll be able to check further once I receive my new Samsung Galaxy Mega (an ebay purchase at a very good price). 

 

In our expedition, we encountered a nice phenomenon though.  In the area of Rudy Road and 28th street we picked up a band 41 carrier.  It was unusable, but nonetheless, my Lg G2 engineering screen showed my device connected to band 41.  I didn't think that Shentel had any Band 41 running in the Harrisburg area yet, but they must be testing. 

 

Well, for now that's all I have to report on Shentel adding 800 MHz LTE to the Harrisburg area. 

My max been sitting on my desk for a few months now but when I was using it I didn't have any issues with call quality, I could easily hear the other person clearly.  After I finished using I gave it to my girl to use for a while and when talking to her I could hear her just fine.  No complaints from me or her when it came to call performance.

Thanks!

For me personally the max and the m8 perform about the same when it comes to lte connectivity, which is a good thing.

How is the sound quality in the earpiece during a call on the One Max?  I read one review that said it really didn't get adequately loud enough.   Also, how does it sound to the party on the other end?  Thanks!

Ok, I just looked at the LTE Engineering screen. I see it shows upload and download frequencies...

Just monitor your LTE Engineering screen channels or get SignalCheck Pro. You can then tell when you're on a PCS LTE carrier other than PCS G Block.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I do have Signal Check Pro, but I'm not exactly sure what data I'm looking for to  differentiate one carrier from another. 

Maybe Shentel has not added a second Band 25 LTE carrier in the Harrisburg area?

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

That's a really good point!  Wish I had a spectrum analyzer!

The deal with that is that more people with more smartphones are using more data for more hours, for more things. Hopefully the addition of 800 LTE will take some of the load off of the 1900 LTE and then in the future, the 2.5 LTE should really take more of the load off the 1900 LTE. 

That makes sense.  I can't believe how rapidly the speeds diminished though....  800 LTE is up and running here now, but at this point band 25 performance has not  improved again yet.  At this point I don't check speeds any longer.  As long as I have LTE that's ok. 

If you peruse through the G3 users thread, you'll get a lot or positive feedback on the handset.

 

The G3's RF reception is great and some say on-par with the N5 (I've never used an N5 for comparison). I can tell you that the G3 is better than the iPhone 's for B25 and B26 reception and they're really good performers.

 

Call quality is phenomenal. The speaker is clear and loud with no distortion - easily besting the iPhone's (once again great in this dept as well). But what really blows my mind is HD Voice quality. It sounds way better on the G3 than the iPhone 5c.

 

All around, the G3 is an excellent handset and for my money, the best on the market currently.

 

Sent from my LG G3 using Tapatalk

Hey, Thanks for all the input.  I was looking at purchasing a G3, but after my G2 experience, was a little hesitant  My main concerns were great LTE reception and sound quality. 

Not true, at least not with my G3. I can see perfectly fine in direct sunlight. Its actually brighter than my iPhone 5 screen. I use this phone outside every single day.

 

Sent from my LG G3 using Tapatalk

That's interesting.  Many reviewers have portrayed the screen as unusable in sunlight.  One that comes to mind is Lisa from Mobile Tech Review.  I'd believe a first hand user like yourself over the reviewers though. 

 

Would you be willing to share your thoughts on LTE reception on your G3 along with in-call sound quality and speaker quality?  I'd really be interested.

I had this problem at my work location for a while, but it has improved.  At the time, I wondered about the cause.  Was it simply more users with LTE-capable phones and a backhaul issue?  Was it a tower problem?  Was it the down-tilt changed?  Hard to be sure, and the improvement has been very gradual, but there has been improvement.  Today, instead of .04 Mbps download speed, I am getting .63 Mbps at -108 dBm, which is not all that strong.  A year ago, I was getting 26.34 Mbps down at this same location.  Most places, speed is much better than .63 Mbps, though.  One weird thing about my office is that, according to the NV progress maps, there are multiple upgraded towers around me, all within a very short distance.  I do have very good voice service with 1X 800, since there is one tower with 800 close by.

I'm in the Harrisburg Shentel market. Speed is down here compared to when I left Verizon to join Sprint last November. I used to get 28 Mbps down at my work location. Now I'm lucky to get 10 Mbps down even with a -84 dBm RSRP signal level. I'm not sure what the deal is with that. 800 MHz LTE is up and running here now. One of these days soon I'm going to re- activate my LG G2 and check out speed and signal level on band 26.

Of course!  Or, if I can't stand the Note 3 screen in sunlight any longer, I might go for something else.  Mostly, it depends on the screen.  It has to be really close to 5.5" and high resolution, along with better sunlight visibility in the car.  I also need a microsd card slot.  I love the Note 3, and it's the best performing phone I've ever had, but not being tri-band and not having the best visibility in the sun are two strikes against it.

 

I've looked at the reviews of the LG G3, but it's getting bad marks for the screen quality, so....

 

P.S.  What's your current daily driver?

I read and saw many LG G3 reviews. That is definitely not a phone you want if sunlight visibility is a must.

 

I also own a Note 3. I didn't think the visibility in sunlight was too bad. The screen is supposed to be able to produce 600 nits brightness out in the sun when using auto brightness.

Band 26 in Hershey PA.

 

My GF and I were out to dinner at "What If Cafe". We were in the basement level. She had LTE on her S4T while my GN3 fell back to 3G. I checked her LTE engineering screen and sure enough her S4T was connected to LTE on band 26.

 

Looks like Shentel now has the Harrisburg area blanketed in 800 LTE!

 

Way to go Shentel! Yea Sprint!

I know that if I call someone outside the Shentel market it sounds like crap but calling both people are inside the Shentel market sounds pretty good. It's the same if I'm outside calling in.

My GF has a Samsung Galaxy S4T and I'm currently using my Samsung Galaxy Note 3,(both HD voice compatible), but I haven't really noticed outstanding voice quality when talking to her on Sprint. The earpiece sound on my GN3, is absolutely outstanding, so I would think that I should have noticed a difference if HD voice was active in the Harrisburg area. My GF's S4T isn't the best at outgoing sound quality though...

I agree on the speaker/earpiece being awful on the G2. And the LTE radio isn't anything special however the B26 connectivity is much improved. If I went into any kind of structure that wasn't directly next to a tower previously I'd get no LTE. Now, unless I'm deep in a building it holds onto LTE very well. Might want to give it a shot.

Thank you very much for the input. That's really encouraging! I'm glad to see Shentel is providing us with such great service.

 

I'll have to give it a shot just to test the waters. But the G2 won't be my permanent Tri Band device.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post! Most appreciated!

You hate the G2? I'll take it! Haha.

 

I know this is not the thread for this, but.... My G2 is not a very good performer. The RF performance is somewhat deaf, the GPS sensitivity is poor and worst of all I hate the sound quality in the earpiece, not to mention the speaker. My Samsung GN3, really outperforms the G2 by leaps and bounds.

Agreed on B26 finally being rolled out in Harrisburg. My house in Lower Paxton has it and now my work off of Progress Ave. has it as well. I'd say the coverage is similar to 1x1900 for sure. Much improved in building coverage compared to B25.

Have you checked any signal levels while on band 26 vs what you used to get on band 25? I live in Swatara Township and am wondering whether or not it is worth it for me to re-activate my LG G2 (a phone I totally hate). If the in-building performance is really significantly better I would try it, otherwise I'll just wait until the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is released on Sprint before I switch back to a Tri Band device.

 

Thanks for any input!

Band 26 live in Harrisburg on Grayson road

Thanks for the heads-up! I'll have to re-activate my LG G2 and check things out.

It appears as if there is an eCSFB issue in the Hetshey Hummelstown area of PA. My GF has a Samsung S4T device. Whenever she is using data and I call her, I get the ringing sound on my end but her phone doesn't fall back to 3G and ring. She only knows that I called after she receives a missed call notification.

 

If the phone isn't using data at the time of a call, it will fall back to 3G and receive the call. I'm going to have to gather towet information and contact Sprint about this.

 

The towers in this area are Shentel. You would think after 7 months of Tri Band being deployed by Sprint that they could get this right by now.

Never mind on the above post, I gave up and just put root and a custom recovery on it.

 

Quick question: How come my SignalCheckPro doesn't show the LTE Band like I've seen on a few screenshots here?

Signal Check Pro can only pull whatever data is available from the device itself. It all depends on the electronic architecture of your device. My LG G2 does provide the band information in SCP. My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 does not. Possibly rooting has something to do with it.

Could this be related http://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/03/sprint-to-host-press-event-june-23-claims-this-is-happy-connecting/

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Very interesting.... We'll have to see what unfolds.