Cellular signal lower on T1 A10 than A9

Teracube One
#4

Doing some quick research I can see my Signal Strength in terms of a number in the about phone sim status (sim slot 1) section. My signal strength is hovering around -107 to -111 dBm. Google searching that I found:

  • 50 decibels to -120 decibel-milliwats (dBm).
  • 50 dBm is great signal or full bars. -120 dBm is very poor signal or a dead zone.

The low bars I am seeing correlate to these number. One would think that the OS version would have anything to do with my signal strength but I haven’t experienced this before today.

1 Like
#5

@Sharad Any thoughts or things to try on this mobile signal degradation?

What I have tried so far:

  • Restarted a few times
  • Tried manually selecting my network just to see if it would help but it just spins and spins like it’s searching for networks but never returns a list (maybe the issue is linked?)
  • Shortly after completing the upgrade, I couldn’t send texts/sms but would receive them just fine so I removed my SIM and re-inserted, that fixed my outbound texts/sms issue
#6

Hi @adamsterk - Just to confirm - was your mobile network not working at all or was it exhibiting low signal issues? In other words - is it acting boolean (on/off) OR is it sometimes on but not working as expected?

#7

It is working but I am getting very bad signal strength compared to pre-upgrade. As an example, in my home I would consistently get 3 - 5 bars. Now I am getting 0 - 3 bars and 3 bars is a very seldom blip, most of the time it’s 0 - 1.

#8

As mentioned earlier in this thread, the signal bars themselves are just visual representations. Its a different matter though if you feel like the actual signal is also worse and you are seeing slower speeds/dropped calls more frequently than before. Any thoughts?

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#9

So when I look at the signal in advanced settings, in terms of dBm I am in that -107 to -111 range which my understanding is very crappy and I never felt like it was crappy signal before. I am usually on wifi at home so I don’t have a great sense have how fast or slow it is. I would probably get a better sense when I am out and about so I can keep that in mind as I am away from the house.

With that said I feel like this is a very dramatic dip. Going from usually being in the 4 to 5 bar range to usually in the 0 to 1 bar range (at my house as a barometer). I guess I find that to be a very dramatic change in how bars are scored as a visualization. I also don’t have a sense of dBm before the upgrade so hard for me to back that up with any data. Interested if anyone else is having a similar issue and maybe people aren’t worried about it because the is no degradation in the speed/connectivity.

More than anything I was fishing for, you could try x, y, and z to see if that helps at all.

[Certified update] Android 10 for Teracube One!
#10

I’ll ask the Devs to take a look if there is a change that can affect this.

#11

Thanks, appreciate it.

#12

On Cricket, my bars are way lower now, but speeds and connectivity are unchanged from Android 9.

#13

I just took a look at the Sim status pop-up, and my my signal strength is hovering around -105 dbm and -108 dbm. However, I can see that the signal strength icon looks almost full (no bars on android 10, I suppose).

I haven’t looked at the dbm’s before, so I can’t really say if there’s been a change from android 9, but the low signal strength (I. e. -108) and the icon representation seem a bit out of sync. Just a hunch, though.

#14

@algorithminflux

… I can see that the signal strength icon looks almost full (no bars on android 10, I suppose).

Sounds like the same issue I am noticing but you are saying it looks full because the look and feel changed from 9 to 10. Ultimately it is representing a week signal strength. Correct me if I am misinterpreting.

#15

After rereading my message, I admit it didn’t make sense. :joy:

To clarify, the signal icon displays an almost-full signal (strong signal), however the dbm in the settings says around -108, indicating a weak signal.

Hope that clarifies what I was trying to say. :stuck_out_tongue:

#16

Gotcha so we are having opposite experiences. If I show -108 I am getting 1 bar and you are seeing close to a full bar in a similar range. Interesting. What carrier do you have?

#17

I’d rather not say as carriers are location-specific, sorry about that.

However, I just noticed that the signal icon goes down drastically at -114 dbm, so it still scales at a relative level. So mysterious! :joy:

#18

I was out an about yesterday afternoon and was experiencing slowness and lack of connectivity while my phone showing 0 bars. I was in a location that I would expect a good connection and don’t remember having issues in that area last year (neighborhood pool so I haven’t been since last summer). I work from home so I am not out and about much but this certainly has me concerned that my signal quality isn’t just and optics thing but more of a degradation of signal quality. I will keep monitoring.

#19

Keep in mind that many providers are switching over from older cells/towers to 4G/LTE only. In my area, this has lead to losing some coverage/signal in some locations and gaining it in others. I’m hopeful that by the time this migration is done it’ll be better across the board (what should happen, in theory at least), but it has certainly been rough in the meanwhile.

#20

My outgoing texts randomly stopped sending again last night. I would get texts in just fine but nothing would send out. Once again the only fix was to remove the sim and restart. For grins I tried putting it in sim slot 2 instead of 1 to see if this helps with my signal strength issue. Unfortunately, the signal strength issue still persists.

1 Like
#21

Anecdotally, I’ve always had weaker cell strength on AT&T on my teracube one versus my wife’s iPhone, which we notice especially during power outages where she can access cell data and often I can’t load web pages.

Since upgrading to Android 10, my weak cell signal now dropped to no cell signal (also showing a triangle with an x) and I can no longer complete phonecalls, even within range of my home wifi. Seeing these reports, in combination with the fact that as an AT&T customer I may be forced to find a new phone anyways, now sooner than later now that I cannot use the device as a phone. I’m contemplating trying to take it back to previous version, but with the other imminent concern I’m getting back into the market. I am totally open to suggestions and will be lurking in this thread for any updates.

Edit: This screenshot was with wifi turned off and everything stock, and mainly to document what shows up in wifi analyzer, hoping it may help the devs. Thank you!

Screenshot_20210613-204110~2
Screenshot_20210613-204110~21080×1312 74.5 KB

#22

Hi all - Devs are checking this issue as a high priority. Will report back soon.

3 Likes
#23

Hi my wife and I have had more than a few missed text messages. I suspect it’s android 10 auto shutting down apps to save battery. I discovered as this phone uses duraspeed. To allow apps to run in the background need to go to Settings then duraspeed then select the apps you want to run in the background. I am testing Messenger and my sms app by allowing them to run in background.

I have also missed a few phonecalls when my phone is on wifi my cell strength is zero and am wondering if that is also a cause for the text messages and phone calls?

I am hoping the duraspeed will fix my sms issue but don’t think that will solve the zero cell signal while on wifi.

Thank you for your time.

Ps if you have an app that needs to run in the background battery is not where to go even if that the solution provided by the app as it was by mine. duraspeed is where you need to go.