650 and AT&T - Sporadic Signal Issues

[humpdawg]

I'm trying to decide if my phone is defective or if other people are running into the same issues. I got the two sim (ordered direct from Microsoft US) unlocked version on at&t. I'm wondering if I am having issues because of the missing band 17 or other key at&t bands or if it's the phone. What I'm seeing with the phone is that most of the time it shows 1-3 bars on 4g. Sometimes 4 but when I wake it up it shows 1. Other at&t phones are getting 5 bars in the same spots in my house and never show no service like the 650 does. The signal seems to really jump around. I will place a test call when I have 1 bar and it then goes to 4 or 5. It's very odd. It also shows no service sometimes. I thought it was my touch so I got a case for it and the same issue happens. The data shows 4G most of the time. It will show LTE when I'm near a major part in the city. I run speed tests and all I can get is 5m down. Most of the time when I leave wifi the phone has issues switching over to the cell data. Airplane mode and back off seems to work. For a test I placed the same sim card into my Nexus 6P and it's got full bars, no issues, service is rock solid. As another test I also put a tmobile sim card in to the second slot to compare. It showed the same various signal results and even shows no signal more. Could the unlocked 650 be missing some bands that are used in my area or do I need to get a replacement or is it the current OS build (it's up to date). I really love the phone it's just really buggy with the signal. I have performed a hard reset on the phone and the same. Just wondering what others are seeing on a dual sim with at&t.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I'm trying to decide if my phone is defective or if other people are running into the same issues. I got the two sim (ordered direct from Microsoft US) unlocked version on at&t. I'm wondering if I am having issues because of the missing band 17 or other key at&t bands or if it's the phone. What I'm seeing with the phone is that most of the time it shows 1-3 bars on 4g. Sometimes 4 but when I wake it up it shows 1. Other at&t phones are getting 5 bars in the same spots in my house and never show no service like the 650 does. The signal seems to really jump around. I will place a test call when I have 1 bar and it then goes to 4 or 5. It's very odd. It also shows no service sometimes. I thought it was my touch so I got a case for it and the same issue happens. The data shows 4G most of the time. It will show LTE when I'm near a major part in the city. I run speed tests and all I can get is 5m down. Most of the time when I leave wifi the phone has issues switching over to the cell data. Airplane mode and back off seems to work. For a test I placed the same sim card into my Nexus 6P and it's got full bars, no issues, service is rock solid. As another test I also put a tmobile sim card in to the second slot to compare. It showed the same various signal results and even shows no signal more. Could the unlocked 650 be missing some bands that are used in my area or do I need to get a replacement or is it the current OS build (it's up to date). I really love the phone it's just really buggy with the signal. I have performed a hard reset on the phone and the same. Just wondering what others are seeing on a dual sim with at&t.

from your tests, I have to say that the phone could be the problem. If the same SIM can work properly on other phones, then the SIM isn't at fault

 

[libra89]

I think it could be the phone and your area. The phones seems not to have many of the bands supported in your area, so you'll have to decide if you really want to deal with that or not.

I had a similar experience with the 735 on T-Mobile. Other phones I have, they were fine at work, but that phone was horrible. LTE at home, and edge at work, regardless of if I am outside or not. H+ in various places I visited. In short, I learned the hard way that the phone doesn't support AWS (band 4) very well in my area so I returned it. It was driving me nuts.

Imo, it's not worth it to have a phone that you have SUCH extremes in service when you have other ones without this issue.

 

[Dano91]

Regarding that jump in a number of bars when you place a test call - by default 4G doesn't support a voice, so when you make a call, phone will switch to a 3G or 2G.. Unless your carrier supports VoLTE. You can find that out easily by watching for the change of network sign.

On the other hand, it's true that I'm also seeing some problems with signal, but on the gps side. Maybe that metal stripe around a body is responsible for degradation of signal quality, who knows.. but if software is indeed the cause of these issues, then we will have to wait for a firmware update, since OS has nothing to do with that.

Oh and btw, you can find out supported bands on your specific variant by looking at the side of the box in which your phone came in.

 

[humpdawg]

Thanks for the replies. I really appreciate it. I'm used to being locked down on CDMA with Verizon branded phones so I wasn't sure on the gsm side. Ya maybe I will return it and go with the 950 or 640 and upgrade it so I can get a fully supported phone. I really like Windows 10. The nexus 6p behaves great with the sim so I'm glad I had it to test with because it definitely must have all the bands. I guess I figured being unlocked and didn't realize there are so many gsm related items to look at.

 

[humpdawg]

Thanks! I think 17 is the huge issue. I have a feeling it's the mostly deployed band in Lincoln\Omaha.

 

[libra89]

Thanks! I think 17 is the huge issue. I have a feeling it's the mostly deployed band in Lincoln\Omaha.

That sounds right. Same here with t-mobile. The 950 should be a safe bet.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[Terrigno]

I had the dual sim version and wasn't getting LTE on it where I am when my ATT 640 did. Got the cricket version and a cricket account. LTE is there again. It's the missing band in the Dual sim version i think.

Sent from Windows 10 Phone