# Signal is awful. Verizon suggested this



## otter (Mar 18, 2012)

My sister has awful reception with her nexus, both voice and data. Verizon suggested first enabling data while roaming. I told her that shouldn't help when she is home and not roaming. Nevertheless she enabled that. No help.

Secondly they said "99% of the time it's related to the SIM card" they gave her a new SIM. I never heard that before. Is that true? She still has 2 days left to decide if she wants to keep this or get a different phone

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## Kickasz23 (Jun 21, 2011)

My roommates issue was similar they said sim card but it wound up being a defective phone

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## cstrife999 (Aug 8, 2011)

3g is a problem on this phone 4g is fine. If she is in a 3g zone get a different phone if data is a big deal.


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## otter (Mar 18, 2012)

It's also a problem with phone calls. She doesn't get a signal where she could make calls with the droid

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## mcp770 (Jun 11, 2011)

Samsung radio hardware is well known for being complete crap compared to Motorola's. If she is in a less than perfect reception area the Motorola will more than likely always be much better. No sim card will fix that fact. If Motorola ever puts out an unlocked phone they will murder the rest of the market in sales.


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## Art Vandelay (Jan 4, 2012)

Isn't the sim card only for 4g? So wouldn't a new sim card only help 4g issues. If I am correct, a new sim will not help.

The SGSIII has an improved radio, but moto has the best. If she is in to root and putting on roms, I'd go with the GSIII. Otherwise tell her to get the Maxx.

The Nexus radio is garbage.

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## brkshr (Jun 16, 2011)

Don't trust anything Verizon says. Most of the time I had to school the reps in how things work on the phones. The last time I dealt with them, resulted in me losing my contract & unlimited data & them saying it's impossible for them to give me back my unlimited data, even though it was their fault. Needless to say, I left my contract canceled and moved on to unlimited voice/text/data for $45/month with Straight Talk that uses AT&T network or T-Mobile Network. Your choice which. (Yes, shameless plug, I hate VZW now)

Do yourself & your sister a favor and lose the big red baggage.

Anyways, your phone could be having a data drop problem. Insist that they replace it because this is a well-known issue on the forums with the Galaxy Nexus. Do a search for 'data drop'.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Verizon is of course going to tell you the issues it could be that don't put them out of money at first. Not to say what they said could be ruled out as issues (the sim card part has been the case in a few people, but the roaming part is bs), but they're not going to tell you unless you force them on it to give you a replacement device.


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

Art Vandelay said:


> Isn't the sim card only for 4g? So wouldn't a new sim card only help 4g issues. If I am correct, a new sim will not help.


Not really. Only LTE phones have SIM cards (on Verizon) but the SIM card is needed for activation. Without it, your phone has no identity and therefore cannont connect to the network.


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## nhat (Aug 21, 2011)

I'd tell her to switch for the Razr Maxx or SGS3.

The GN radios suck in low signal strength areas.


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## otter (Mar 18, 2012)

If she gets a replacement sent to her and didn't like it would she be able to return it and get the razr v even though it might be more than 2 weeks since she originally bought the phone? I would hate for her to get a replacement that is no good, go to exchange it and be told she can't
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## otter (Mar 18, 2012)

nhat said:


> I'd tell her to switch for the Razr Maxx or SGS3.
> 
> The GN radios suck in low signal strength areas.


I agree. However she can't afford that

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## barski (Mar 5, 2012)

nhat said:


> I'd tell her to switch for the Razr Maxx or SGS3.
> 
> The GN radios suck in low signal strength areas.


Switching to the SGS3 won't fix anything. My GN has a little better reception than the SGS3. As for the Razr, the reception is better than the Samsungs but not as good as the Droid X was. That's my personal experience, and i live in a low service area. 0 bars but still have the 3G icon and can still watch youtube vid's without a problem.


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## otter (Mar 18, 2012)

barski said:


> Switching to the SGS3 won't fix anything. My GN has a little better reception than the SGS3. As for the Razr, the reception is better than the Samsungs but not as good as the Droid X was. That's my personal experience, and i live in a low service area. 0 bars but still have the 3G icon and can still watch youtube vid's without a problem.


Thanks. I want her to get something that's 4g. Do they still sell the x in stores? That's 4g, right?

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## lDEMON (Jun 28, 2012)

The X might be sold in a few random stores here and there. But it is not a 4G phone so I wouldn't recommend it!!!


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## Raziel36 (Aug 14, 2011)

otter said:


> Thanks. I want her to get something that's 4g. Do they still sell the x in stores? That's 4g, right?
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Anything that came before the Thunderbolt is 3G, as that was VZW's first LTE device. The X was out well before the TBolt.. I had it, before getting the TBolt. The X2, I'm not sure about. Bionic is 4G if they still offer it.

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## otter (Mar 18, 2012)

What do you think about the signal boost apps? I downloaded one and didn't move the phone. Signal went from -95dBm to-75 dBm..then s again now it's at -90

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## brkshr (Jun 16, 2011)

otter said:


> What do you think about the signal boost apps? I downloaded one and didn't move the phone. Signal went from -95dBm to-75 dBm..then s again now it's at -90
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


I could be wrong, but I don't see how an app is going to boost the signal. The only conceivable way for it to do that, would be to either boost the power going to the radios (scary...) or rewrite Radio Interface Layer to their own software, which I highly doubt. It most likely just reports a higher signal to you. A faux signal. If it really worked, that would be the first thing anyone put on their phone. Just my opinion...


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## otter (Mar 18, 2012)

brkshr said:


> I could be wrong, but I don't see how an app is going to boost the signal. The only conceivable way for it to do that, would be to either boost the power going to the radios (scary...) or rewrite Radio Interface Layer to their own software, which I highly doubt. It most likely just reports a higher signal to you. A faux signal. If it really worked, that would be the first thing anyone put on their phone. Just my opinion...


Thanks. Yeah I uninstalled it a few minutes after I posted.

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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

otter said:


> What do you think about the signal boost apps? I downloaded one and didn't move the phone. Signal went from -95dBm to-75 dBm..then s again now it's at -90
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Radio software that communicates with the towers is a blackbox on the device and something we don't have any source to. Pretty much can't be touched once you flash it in fastboot or whatever and not something I would want to mess with really. An app would not be able to do anything to change it.


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