Razr 4G sucks!!!

[Quicksilver7714]

Personally I think they did something directional with the tower to my south in order to service more in another area. Just a hunch. I had a similar thing happen several years ago with DSL. Had DSL for 2 months (I live in rural area), then it quit working. AT&T engineers said I was too far from the junction to get DSL, but could never explain to me why I had it for the first 2 months. Talked to someone in telecommunications and they said they probably took the bandwidth from my area to service a new sub-division (this was in the peak of the housing boom).

Cell towers are omnidirectional. That means that the signal is broadcast evenly in all directions. There is no way verizon could change the direction of the signal. It must be a problem with your phone.

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[dieselpowered]

I disagree ,i work downtown Phoenix and my 4g sucks bad on my Droid Bionic. Whats crazy is I grt better 4g outside of Phoenix, i live in Goodyear AZ. The radio sucksc in Bionic and Razr so it seems.

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I work in Downtown Phoenix as well and my 4G is rock solid on my Droid Razr Maxx?

 

[cece5702]

Can you tell me how to switch back and forth from 3g to 4g? I'm getting my Razr on Friday. :biggrin: Thanks.

My Razr 4G doesn't suck. Switching back and forth from 3G to 4G is smooth and I have never lost connectivity. Got mine 11/10/11.

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[HRod08]

Go to settings, wireless & networks, mobile networks, network mode, then you get the option to go CDMA only or CDMA/LTE.

I use LTE Switch from the market to get there faster.

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[cece5702]

Go to settings, wireless & networks, mobile networks, network mode, then you get the option to go CDMA only or CDMA/LTE.

I use LTE Switch from the market to get there faster.

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Should I change it to CDMA/LTE and it will pick up signals automatically?

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[JeffDenver]

It sucks because of the 4g signal that's it? I was really hoping this thread had some in depth reason cause I was trying to figure out what my next phone is going to be with my upcoming upgrade. I can handle the 4g Sucking LOL

Ditto...4G is way overrated IMO. It isnt a bad thing of course, but I dont get why everyone has such a boner for it. I am much more concerned about processor speed or display or whatever.

Files on smartphones are so small compared to PCs that the extra bandwidth is kinda superfluous IMO. What do you really need 25mb/s download speeds on a phone for?? heh heh

 

[jedi]

Come on all. Its not solely 4g its 3g as well. I have a 2+ year old black berry that has solid signal where the razr does not. Please explain that to me. Almost 3 years later and the technology is worse!?

When it works this is a great phone but clearly i'm frustrated with how often it actually has a data connection.
Tired of waiting for said update.



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[altspeed]

I need 25+ mbps. It makes my boyparts throb.

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[HRod08]

Should I change it to CDMA/LTE and it will pick up signals automatically?

Sent from my DROIDX




To my understanding, in CDMA/LTE it will primarily look for 4g but if its not available it will stay on 3g. At that point you would leave it on CDMA only. My guess is it would keep trying to find 4g and will drain your battery in the process.

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[HRod08]

I need 25+ mbps. It makes my boyparts throb.

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agreed!

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[JeffDenver]

I need 25+ mbps. It makes my boyparts throb.

You dont need 25mb/s for that. You can download porn just as easily at 3G speeds.

 

[FoxKat]

Cell towers are omnidirectional. That means that the signal is broadcast evenly in all directions. There is no way verizon could change the direction of the signal. It must be a problem with your phone.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Sorry to disagree but cell towers are not all omnidirectional. In fact they are more often mulitdirectional than not and some are unidirectional. It's very easy for a cellular carrier to tweak the coverage in one area or another by using either Yagi antennas for specific narrow focus directionality or shaped reflecting antennas to cover wider areas, or a combination of the two. Even Omnidirectional antenna towers don't transmit evenly in all directions. It is nearly impossible to get a true circular dispersion from an antenna since even the slightest difference in alignment of various antenna elements causes a shape change in the radiation pattern.

Next time you look at a free-standing cellular tower, take note if it has a triangle frame at the top and on each corner of the triangle it has a white tall and narrow fixture. The white fixture are directional reflection antennas and the tower is configured in a "Triad" array. Think about how triangles fit together perfectly but intersecting circles have large areas they miss when placed edge to edge so in order to completely cover an area with circles there needs to be large overlaps. The overlapping circles result in wasted signal, and results in some areas with strong coverage and other areas with weak coverage.

Here's an example of a "3 sector [or triad] cellular antenna tower" http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Base_station_mexico-city.JPG

By placing multiple intersecting Triad arrays the cellular carrier can cover more area more evenly and have less overlap with less cell sites. This reduces equipment costs, provides more seamless coverage and eliminates wasted oversaturation of signal due to overlap.

Carriers can also place directional antennas on building corners or faces to concentrate signal into an area with poor coverage from the larger cell towers. They can even place mini-cell sites into spots that have some particular interference such as signal being blocked by another building.

When users report an area that has poor reception the carrier sends out a scout who analyzes the signal strength in the area with precise equipment. Then that information is uploaded to the carrier's computers and a very sophisticated algorithm determines whether the problem area can be addressed with an increase in output from one or more existing directional antennas, or possible increases in some and decreases in others. If it can be handled from the computers without having to send out a site crew they will. Otherwise, it may require new antennas, or a repositioning of one or more existing antennas. Where the problem is too large to address with existing towers, or where they are expanding coverage, new cell sites are mandated by the carrier and then they go through the application and approval process to have a new site installed.

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[LoneWolfArcher]

Sorry to disagree but cell towers are not all omnidirectional. In fact they are more often mulitdirectional than not and some are unidirectional. It's very easy for a cellular carrier to tweak the coverage in one area or another by using either Yagi antennas for specific narrow focus directionality or shaped reflecting antennas to cover wider areas, or a combination of the two. Even Omnidirectional antenna towers don't transmit evenly in all directions. It is nearly impossible to get a true circular dispersion from an antenna since even the slightest difference in alignment of various antenna elements causes a shape change in the radiation pattern.

Next time you look at a free-standing cellular tower, take note if it has a triangle frame at the top and on each corner of the triangle it has a white tall and narrow fixture. The white fixture are directional reflection antennas and the tower is configured in a "Triad" array. Think about how triangles fit together perfectly but intersecting circles have large areas they miss when placed edge to edge so in order to completely cover an area with circles there needs to be large overlaps. The overlapping circles result in wasted signal, and results in some areas with strong coverage and other areas with weak coverage.

By placing multiple intersecting Triad arrays the cellular carrier can cover more area more evenly and have less overlap with less cell sites. This reduces equipment costs, provides more seamless coverage and eliminates wasted oversaturation of signal due to overlap.

Carriers can also place directional antennas on building corners or faces to concentrate signal into an area with poor coverage from the larger cell towers. They can even place mini-cell sites into spots that have some particular interference such as signal being blocked by another building.

When users report an area that has poor reception the carrier sends out a scout who analyzes the signal strength in the area with precise equipment. Then that information is uploaded to the carrier's computers and a very sophisticated algorithm determines whether the problem area can be addressed with an increase in output from one or more existing directional antennas, or possible increases in some and decreases in others. If it can be handled from the computers without having to send out a site crew they will. Otherwise, it may require new antennas, or a repositioning of one or more existing antennas. Where the problem is too large to address with existing towers, or where they are expanding coverage, new cell sites are mandated by the carrier and then they go through the application and approval process to have a new site installed.

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In my case they simply sent out some yahoo with a 4G phone. LOL

But I knew directional cell coverage was possible. I got the replacement refurb yesterday. After putting in my SIM and firing up, 3G only. So it isn't our phones. Something has changed with the network in the last month and Verizon refuses to own up to it. GRRRRR

 

[FoxKat]

In my case they simply sent out some yahoo with a 4G phone. LOL

But I knew directional cell coverage was possible. I got the replacement refurb yesterday. After putting in my SIM and firing up, 3G only. So it isn't our phones. Something has changed with the network in the last month and Verizon refuses to own up to it. GRRRRR

Yes that's true I've seen my cellular service get worse at times in the past but it's gotten better again a short time later. That's the problem with trying to adjust coverage in 1 area, often times it leads 2 worse coverage in other areas. The big issue is coverage can be affected by so many different factors, such as buildings, bridges, and terrain. Sometimes a signal a certain area is receiving is actually being reflected off of another large object such as a building face, and just a slight twaek of the antenna from which it was reflecting can cause an entire area to lose coverage.

Just think of how easy it is to change the reception on am or fm radio by simply reorienting the radio or antenna slightly in the same place. It's certainly not an accurate science as some may think. I remember reading about an antenna that was dubbed the most efficient antenna design for cellular service. It actually looks like somebody took a paper clip and just bent it in several different directions arbitrarily.



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[Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprx]

I'll add my question here instead of starting a new thread even though I'm not finding specifics when I search.

I currently have a Droid X and the 3G is slow, reading about 300-400Kbps on speedtest.net app at best, and often drops into 1X probably half the time with downloads of just 70-80Kbps. This is because of my work location in the ground floor/basement of a 90+ year old 5 story building, even though I'm in an urban area with 4G and 3G coverage. I do have a window, but unless I go outside I cannot get decent speeds on 3G. Not many people work in this area and no one has a 4G phone to even test the speed unfortunately.

I can upgrade to the RAZR and continue my unlimited data per VZW, but I don't want to waste $200-$300 if 4G won't work at all or be reasonably fast given my constraints. Is there anyone in a similar situation that gets good 4G speeds with the RAZR after having terrible 3G speeds on the previous phone given building/basement interference issues?

Thanks