Constant dropouts with Tmobile and 950XL

[Bigfireq]

I've had my 950XL from launch, and am a Windows Insider with the most recent builds and firmware. I've been an ATT Customer up until now, but just switched over to Tmobile.

Yesterday, while at my house, with only one bar, I had two 1-2 second audio dropouts over a 30 minute conversation. Today, while calling a landline, I had multiple disconnects (!) while I had 5 bars of signal, generally within the first 1-4 minutes of the call.

I rebooted the phone, but it made no difference. Anybody have any ideas? I can't imagine why I'd have to reset the phone to get it to pick up better settings, but it seems like if this were a prevalent problem other people would have reported it by now.

Any thoughts?

 

[libra89]

That's strange. I'm not sure if this can be a difference between networks in your area or something. How often has this happened? I have talked just fine with one bar with my unlocked dual sim 950 and it's never been dropped.

All I can really think of is that maybe there's something up with the network in your area? Unless there are just general issues with T-Mobile in your area, that is, at this time.

 

[PGrey]

It's funny, because I had the opposite with TMobile, when I was with them, for about a month.
My voice was dead-stable at my house, whereas AT&T wasn't very reliable (data is, band 17, but not voice) at home.

I switched back to AT&T, mostly because any rural service in WA state was almost unusable. Plus there was the domestic roaming, which instantly ate up my monthly allotment with them, I actually went through this in one leg of a weekend trip, whereas I had been able to tether with AT&T without issue, same areas, before (I was using AT&T roaming, through TMobile, almost the entire time).

If I didn't roam outside of the greater Seattle area much, I would've stayed with T-Mobile, for the fantastic service in the metro area. My data speeds were nuts too, almost 2-3 times what they are with AT&T locally.
But, if you get 30mi in almost any direction, service is almost unusable, it's too bad that T-Mobile doesn't have better rural coverage.

 

[Bigfireq]

Hmm. My data is blazing fast compared to ATT. I have a business account, so roaming's not an issue.

I dunno, it's all very mysterious to me. I have to think that it's something with my phone or with an intermittent issue, otherwise there'd be a huge outcry. I was just wondering if there was something I needed to do to make it work right (like, reset the phone and start off fresh with Tmobile). I can't think of why that would help, but I'm baffled!

 

[PGrey]

Hmm. My data is blazing fast compared to ATT. I have a business account, so roaming's not an issue.

I dunno, it's all very mysterious to me. I have to think that it's something with my phone or with an intermittent issue, otherwise there'd be a huge outcry. I was just wondering if there was something I needed to do to make it work right (like, reset the phone and start off fresh with Tmobile). I can't think of why that would help, but I'm baffled!

Correct, but go in, and disable all but Band12, and then check your data, I bet (almost) all of it's coming over that band/frequency.

Then, disable it, and re-enable the other TMobile bands, I think it's 2,4,5, and maybe a couple of others, easy enough to look up. You'll probably find 1-2 are giving you okay access, checking the dBm is handy here.

The conclusion is that if you had VoLTE, on that blazing fast band/frequency, then you'd also have more consistent voice. I have the same problem with voice and AT&T at my house, my voice is un-reliable, but my Band 17 (LTE only, so needs VoLTE to have voice on this band) is great, and has ultra-consistent speeds and almost no latency.

I'm not sure what the plans are here, for longer-term, I suspect most of the carriers that are more restrictive are just hoping the handsets which they don't current support VoLTE on will mostly "age-out" or similar. It's a dilemma for Windows phones, since currently AT&T and T-Mobile support VoLTE on one Win phone each, and don't seem to be taking steps to change this.
I did find an article that talked about the big 3 building LTE-only antenna setups now; there was a list of six sites for AT&T currently, but it definitely seems to be the trend, particularly as old 2G/GSM stuff ages out, they're not necessarily bridging to 3G-4G, since it doesn't make the most economic sense.