2Degrees Galaxy S5 getting bad reception on Skinny?

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jayj

54 posts

Master Geek

#183688 26-Oct-2015 20:51

Hi Everyone,

I've recently switched from 2Degrees to Skinny on my Galaxy S5. I purchased it as a "2Degrees" S5 from The Warehouse. I seem to be getting really bad reception in my home on Skinny now.

When I put the Skinny SIM in a different phone (Lumia 920), I get full bars of reception.

Any idea what's going on? Has 2Degrees optimised this for their network and if so, how can I get it to work properly with Skinny / Spark?

EDIT: The Skinny/Telecom option doesn't even appear when selecting a network, but does appear to connect to Skinny when selecting "Automatically select network"

Jase2985

13466 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#1414133 26-Oct-2015 21:13

does it support sparks frequency bands?

what variant is it? ie the model number

nitrotech

1285 posts

Uber Geek

#1414144 26-Oct-2015 21:29

Could be that on the s5 you're picking up 4g and the 920 is picking up 3G.

I see a significant difference between 3G and 4g in different locations - the 1800mhz freq mainly used is pretty poor for coverage.

Turn off 4g and see what happens

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1414147 26-Oct-2015 21:37

You need to provide more INFO before anyone could help further

Where is this location?

jayj

54 posts

Master Geek

#1414148 26-Oct-2015 21:38

Jase2985: does it support sparks frequency bands?

what variant is it? ie the model number

It's the G900I - specific for Asia / NZ I think.

johnr: You need to provide more INFO before anyone could help further

Where is this location?

I'm in Mt Roskill, Auckland. The Skinny coverage map shows I have good coverage at my particular address: https://www.skinny.co.nz/coverage/#4G

firefuze

510 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1414162 26-Oct-2015 21:51

Ensure you have 2G/3G/LTE AUTO selected under network settings, if Spark or Skinny don't show as a network to select manually then it sounds like the phone is on 2G only mode?

jayj

54 posts

Master Geek

#1414170 26-Oct-2015 22:08

I've switched down a notch to WCDMA/GSM mode as nitrotech suggested, and getting much better reception.

Does this mean I have to trade off speed for good reception?

nitrotech

1285 posts

Uber Geek

#1414188 26-Oct-2015 22:40

Yes essentially that is the trade off - unfortunately in the telcos rush to push out 4g they created this fairly major issue by deploying on 1800 - if they overlay 700mhz at some point that should solve it but I imagine those with poor 1800mhz coverage are stuck with it for the foreseeable future

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1eStar

1604 posts

Uber Geek

#1414194 26-Oct-2015 22:47

Are you actually getting poor reception, or is it just the numbers of bars showing on the status bar is less on LTE/4G than on 3G? I've found the reported dBa (number of bars) is less while on 4G but this is not a problem as the data connection is still working fine. It drops back to 3G once you're in a call anyway as there's no voice over LTE implementation on Skinny/Spark. I'd just leave it on Auto the whole lot 4G included.

sbiddle

30853 posts

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Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#1414284 27-Oct-2015 07:18

What do you mean by "really bad reception". Do you actually have an issue with calls and/or data dropping entirely? If not there is actually no problem here.

LTE performance and signal bars work very differently to what you probably thing they do. 3G at -110dBm for example will be unusable. LTE at -110dBm will probably still deliver 50Mbps and rock solid performance.

jayj

54 posts

Master Geek

#1414485 27-Oct-2015 11:09

Ah I see. Good to know! It's not call quality as much as it is battery life I'm worried about. Don't want my device working harder to get better bars. Would switching it back to auto mode impact this?

1eStar

1604 posts

Uber Geek

#1414505 27-Oct-2015 11:32

I suspect your battery life will be better while on 4G standby rather than 3G. Even if reported signal strength seems lower. Do you have WiFi at home? If your data is coming through WiFi your standby battery usage will be even lower.