Signal strength versus signal display

[JulesKessler]

I have a net work extender at home. My droid shows consistently one or two bars signal strength, but jumps to 4 or 5 bars when I make a call. Sometimes, no bars. Verizon can't explain it. Anybody?

 

[jpcalhoun]

I have a net work extender at home. My droid shows consistently one or two bars signal strength, but jumps to 4 or 5 bars when I make a call. Sometimes, no bars. Verizon can't explain it. Anybody?

Yeah, I experience the same thing except I don't have an extender. As I understand it, the bars on the phone are not really "signal strength" indicators per say. As explained to me, they indicate the "quality" of the data connection between your phone and the Verizon tower you are logged into. It has more to do with how effectively "data" can be transfered over the connection you have. In theory you could have 4 bars with a lot of static/noise and not have a good "data" connection. It makes sense to me...I think:question:

 

[JulesKessler]

So the end of this is corporate sent me to the Verizon store to get the sim card replaced in the new replacement Droid Razr. Called corporate today, and they looked up the serial # on the sim card...guess what, the store did not replace it. The card had already been deemed defective and the rep at their store still did not get it right. New card sent out from corporate today. hopefully, the end of signal problem.

 

[YellowJacket]

Years ago when I was on Sprint, they gave me an Airave which is similar in function to Verizons range extender. I too was a bit surprised to find that it did nothing to my signal bars. It did, however, work and work well. I went from not being able to make or receive calls in my house at all to having full coverage. A couple years later, sprint replaced it with one capable of data as well, with the same result. No effect on signal bars but a dramatic effect on call and data quality.

Some things that I learned. Since it is not a fully functioning cell tower, it will have no effect on how many bars you see in your signal meter. It may take a day or two to start working. You should call verizon to make sure it was provisioned correctly. It is dependent on your ISP account bandwidth so if you are streaming movies or downloading a lot of stuff one connection or the other may suffer. The more bandwidth, the better the call quality. Some femtocells require you to go into the settings and key in the phone numbers in the system that you want to have access. That keeps others in densely populated areas from dragging your internet connection to a crawl.

Hope that sheds some light on it for you.

David