Signal Strength dBm?

[YosM45]

Just wondering what everyone was getting for their signal strength on their Droids?

Check off your average signal on the poll, and feel free to post your location and if there is any type of fluctuation.

I'm in the Northern Virgina/D.C. area, and I fluctuate between 78 - 94. So I'm averaging in the 80's.

*To view your signal strength, press the menu button, then settings, then about phone, then status, and view your signal strength.

 

[Vitticeps]

I'm in the north Dallas, Tx area. I can see the nearest tower from my balcony so at home my signal stays pegged. Around town it can vary a little but Dallas seems to have a pretty dense network presence so it always stays 90+ for me.

 

[Guchi]

im getting 82dBm in my house

 

[YosM45]

reading dBm....

Keep in mind that the lower the number, the better.

So for example, a -50 dBm, has less signal fading form the nearest tower than a -90 dBm.

A 0 dBm, which is near impossible to achieve unless your climbing the tower, is 1 milliwatt of power. For every -3 dBm the power is being cut in half. So a -3 is a 1/2 a milliwatt, a -6 is a 1/4 of a milliwatt, a -9 is a 1/8 of a milliwatt, and so on....

A dBm in the 90's is the bare minimum to sustain decent call quality. In 100's and you dropping calls.

Our phones work on a 4 bar system, but I located Blackberry's scale so that you have an idea of the dBm to bars ratios.

1 bar ~ -102 to -120 dBm
2 Bars ~ -93 to -101 dBm
3 Bars ~ -87 to -92 dBm
4 Bars ~ -78 to -86 dBm
5 Bars ~ -40 to -77 dBm

Hope this helps.

Looking forward to seeing how signals match up on other Droids, and in different cities.

 

[HCdroid]

Inside the house -99 dmb I'm in Naples,Fl

 

[YosM45]

142 views and 15 replies to the poll.

So much for that.

 

[iceisles]

I consistently have a signal strength in the low to mid 90's. I'd like it to be higher, but honestly, the majority of my calls sound great. However, when I call other Droid users, it's downright terrible.

 

[jonbar87]

Think it depends on the area/tower more than the phone.

 

[mjs31]

Wow...way to many variables. At home I get in the low 70's but I have an extender. At work I get mid 90's in brick on and metal building.

 

[ggolly]

True signal strength is best determined by the actual number of dBm's, rather than the number of bars displayed. I think my Incredible is getting a good signal (-85 to -90 dBm) but it only displays 1 or 2 bars, which would be at least 2 or 3 bars on other phones.

Is there something wrong (conservative?) about how the Incredible calculates the number of bars to display?

 

[brando56894]

Inside the pc lab that I work in I get -100dbm, but thats cuz im in the center of the building and theres no windows. I went outside and got -83dbm. Im in New Brunswick, NJ.

 

[incredible crm]

I only get -101 at work, 1 bar to 0 bars but I still never lose service, just data sometmes.

 

[tommyz]

48 to 78 in my house.

This is in Chicago.

 

[jeepxj96]

im at work and got -62. gonna have to see what it is when i get home.

 

[staircase3]

We're using our OpenSignalMaps to gather a lot of data about the quality of cell phone networks. One thing that we will be looking at is whether certain phones seem to do better than others at getting reception.

Obviously the network is a big factor in how well you get reception as is your location, so we want to compare (for example) Droids in San Fran on Verizon with Nexus One in San Fran on Verizon. Anyway we haven't yet got round to doing this, but you can help us by downloading our app!