Seeing 1X (little circle: o) all the time at home

**whsingleton** · 03-29-2011, 09:09 PM

Anyone else have a location-specific fallback to 1X? I only get this at home. When I had an AT&T iPhone, I didn't get this. 3G seems Ok everywhere else, though. However, since 3G is on a higher frequency than voice, it doesn't achieve the same kind of building penetration--and I have noticed this.

Thinking about dumping this Verizon iPhone and moving back to an AT&T iPhone. I can't seem to "rule the air". I didn't move away from AT&T just to get the Verizon iPhone--I tried out Droid and it is nowhere near as good as the iPhone.... however when the iPhone came to Verizon I bought it thinking I would just stay with that carrier.

However, I really don't think it is as good for data. Voice on Verizon is great... however, I'm mostly a data user. You can get good voice on AT&T everwhere if you just switch to Edge anyway.

**generik777** · 03-29-2011, 09:15 PM

Cool story bro.

**joekawasaki** · 03-29-2011, 09:18 PM

Have you tried *228 option 2? Maybe that would help. It seemed to help in an area close to mine where I would switch back to 1x and now I get 3G.

**whsingleton** · 03-29-2011, 09:47 PM

Yes, I do the *228. I even do the *228 and reboot just to be certain, although I think it is not necessary. There are times at home (seems rare, though) that I get solid 3G. I have a feeling that tower congestion on CDMA is causing the cell range to shrink resulting in a weaker signal at my distance from the tower.

I'm not feeling the whole Verizon thing right now. *228 feels like a "hack" to me. Anyway, I understand why people want Verizon, however I'm in the Philly burbs and if you look at the AT&T coverage map, that area is big with 3G. Never had a problem with it.

**dndrich** · 03-29-2011, 09:55 PM

Do you not have wifi at home? If you have wifi, then no need for the 3g connection at home.

**ghostface147** · 03-29-2011, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by dndrich

Do you not have wifi at home? If you have wifi, then no need for the 3g connection at home.

I think it's more psychological for the OP. Some people may feel cheated not seeing the 3G icon.

**alpinestars1z** · 03-29-2011, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by ghostface147

I think it's more psychological for the OP. Some people may feel cheated not seeing the 3G icon.

Haha yeah, I used to have a BB on T-Mobile, and at my school, whenever I went inside a classroom my 3G would drop down to one or two bars of EDGE. It really bothered me.

**whsingleton** · 03-29-2011, 10:55 PM

Yes, wifi is available at home. However, I had an AT&T iPhone (iPhone 3G, iPhone 4) over the course of a couple of years and never found a place that had a problem like this. Because of this problem at home, I wonder if this is a weakness of Verizon. Hence, my little rant about not being able to "rule the air". I could switch on wifi at home, but now I'm wondering if I'm likely to see this signal weakness occur at other places when it will not be convienent.

**alpinestars1z** · 03-29-2011, 11:00 PM

Originally Posted by whsingleton

Yes, wifi is available at home. However, I had an AT&T iPhone (iPhone 3G, iPhone 4) over the course of a couple of years and never found a place that had a problem like this. Because of this problem at home, I wonder if this is a weakness of Verizon. Hence, my little rant about not being able to "rule the air". I could switch on wifi at home, but now I'm wondering if I'm likely to see this signal weakness occur at other places when it will not be convienent.

Well nobody is perfect, not even Verizon.

And what you were saying about signal penetration, so if you go outside your home, you get 3G back?

**whsingleton** · 03-29-2011, 11:17 PM

Originally Posted by RedChirp

And what you were saying about signal penetration, so if you go outside your home, you get 3G back?

I want to test this... the 1X comes and goes and sometimes will stick around for a while (and other times will quickly come and go in the same minute.) I would have to stand outside and surf the web or something for a while to test this in order to see if I get 1X outside. I can't have it switch to 1X and then go outside and see it switch back to 3G and have that be a definitive test since I have no way of knowing if it would have switched back to 3G regardless.

This all sounds obsessive and silly, I know....

**alpinestars1z** · 03-29-2011, 11:31 PM

Originally Posted by whsingleton

I want to test this... the 1X comes and goes and sometimes will stick around for a while (and other times will quickly come and go in the same minute.) I would have to stand outside and surf the web or something for a while to test this in order to see if I get 1X outside. I can't have it switch to 1X and then go outside and see it switch back to 3G and have that be a definitive test since I have no way of knowing if it would have switched back to 3G regardless.

This all sounds obsessive and silly, I know....

Sounds like a really weak 3G signal. That's what my BlackBerry would do in classrooms. When I walked inside, it generally went to EDGE, but if I searched for networks, sometimes I could find the 3G tower and I would switch to it, but eventually it would go back down to EDGE again.

And if I went back outside, sometimes it would take a few minutes before picking up on the 3G signal.

**dndrich** · 03-30-2011, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by whsingleton

Yes, wifi is available at home. However, I had an AT&T iPhone (iPhone 3G, iPhone 4) over the course of a couple of years and never found a place that had a problem like this. Because of this problem at home, I wonder if this is a weakness of Verizon. Hence, my little rant about not being able to "rule the air". I could switch on wifi at home, but now I'm wondering if I'm likely to see this signal weakness occur at other places when it will not be convienent.

Well, why worry about that? Of course there will be areas with 3G weakness. That is the nature of current cell technology and local conditions. iPhone does such a good job of managing wifi connections that I leave it on all the time. It does not affect battery life because it goes off by screen state, and logs on immediately. There is no reason to turn it off like on other phones. Apple did a very good job with this. Just use wifi at home and be happy!

**coltsbr** · 03-30-2011, 05:33 AM

Try turning on your Data Roaming and see if the "o" goes away and the 3G comes back. I was having the same problem and tech had me turn that on and it fixed that issue for me.

Setting>General>Network>Data Roaming

**CalifJewls** · 03-30-2011, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by dndrich

Well, why worry about that? Of course there will be areas with 3G weakness. That is the nature of current cell technology and local conditions. iPhone does such a good job of managing wifi connections that I leave it on all the time. It does not affect battery life because it goes off by screen state, and logs on immediately. There is no reason to turn it off like on other phones. Apple did a very good job with this. Just use wifi at home and be happy!

+1 Agreed 100%!
There will always be areas where one carrier may be stronger while the other is weaker, but at home when you have WiFi available it should be a non issue..

**sting7k** · 03-30-2011, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by CalifJewls

+1 Agreed 100%!
There will always be areas where one carrier may be stronger while the other is weaker, but at home when you have WiFi available it should be a non issue..

What if the power goes out or the cable? Now you are stuck with a weak 2G network at your house when you are paying for 3G service.

**CalifJewls** · 03-30-2011, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by sting7k

What if the power goes out or the cable? Now you are stuck with a weak 2G network at your house when you are paying for 3G service.

Of course your paying for it, we all pay for it, boy do we, but the fact still remains that in some areas that may include your home a signal may be weak when another carrier is strong.

I always suggest you try out a phone on both networks, pay close attention to your signal strength in the coverage areas that you frequent most often, including your home, choose the carrier that has a strong signal in those areas, whichever carrier it may be.

ATT coverage in our city of 100,000+ is weak and the coastline coverage is non-existent, so I choose Verizon.

**korp#IM** · 03-30-2011, 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by dndrich

Do you not have wifi at home? If you have wifi, then no need for the 3g connection at home.

x2 ... get wifi.

**alpinestars1z** · 03-30-2011, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by korp

x2 ... get wifi.

The OP already stated he or she has wifi.

**whsingleton** · 03-30-2011, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by coltsbr

Try turning on your Data Roaming and see if the "o" goes away and the 3G comes back. I was having the same problem and tech had me turn that on and it fixed that issue for me.

Setting>General>Network>Data Roaming

Actually, I had this on for a while after reading an earlier thread that you were involved in. Thank you, this is a great tip. I think some people posted some information that the carrier file update that was pushed out a couple of weeks ago might make this no longer necessary, however I do not know for sure... therefore, I have left my data roaming turned ON.

**whsingleton** · 03-30-2011, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by CalifJewls

Of course your paying for it, we all pay for it, boy do we, but the fact still remains that in some areas that may include your home a signal may be weak when another carrier is strong.

See, that's the thing... my voice signal *is* strong. It is just the data that is weak at home. It is not so much that I am troubled by the weak data signal (because I can just turn on wifi, as has been discussed in this thread), it is the __inconsistency__ here. It just makes me wonder if Verizon is full of inconsistencies like this with the data signal (and hence is not a very good carrier for data.)

They are the ones who said "rule the air" and access data over a larger 3g footprint as compared to the competition.... not me.

**generik777** · 03-30-2011, 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by whsingleton

It just makes me wonder if Verizon is full of inconsistencies like this with the data signal (and hence is not a very good carrier for data.)

So now since you have bad reception areas at your home, all of a sudden the entire verizon network is inconsistent and is garbage for data.

Originally Posted by whsingleton

They are the ones who said "rule the air" and access data over a larger 3g footprint as compared to the competition.... not me.

You may need to study the English language if you think the statement "access data over a larger 3g footprint as compared to the competition" means that you will have 3G data every single place you go. All it means is that you can access data over a larger 3g footprint as compared to the competition. So verizon has bad reception at your house, big deal, move on. Change carriers if your not happy, no need to create some thread complaining about it and making the assumption that the entire Verizon must suck everywhere.

**whsingleton** · 03-30-2011, 08:30 PM

Why so nasty in your response? Look...

Originally Posted by generik777

You may need to study the English language.

Originally Posted by generik777

So verizon has bad reception at your house, big deal, move on..

Originally Posted by generik777

Change carriers if your not happy, no need to create some thread complaining about it and making the assumption that the entire Verizon must suck everywhere.

Dude, just trying to have a conversation. I'm having fun conversing. That's what the message base is for. I'll do what I need to do regardless of where the conversation leads. I don't understand why people get nasty in their tone on these message boards. This is just a fun conversation for me to pass some time; I just simply don't understand the bravado when people are anonymous over the internet.

**generik777** · 03-30-2011, 08:48 PM

I'm not gonna change the way I talk to avoid hurting your feelings. I said what I meant, You were completely misinterpreting something Verizon said. If your experience with Verizon sucks, go to a different network that works where you live. It doesn't mean the whole network sucks, same goes with any other carrier. And to avoid any hurt feelings, have one of these

**whsingleton** · 03-30-2011, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by generik777

I'm not gonna change the way I talk to avoid hurting your feelings. I said what I meant, If your experience with Verizon sucks, go to a different network that works where you live. It doesn't mean the whole network sucks, same goes with any other carrier. And to avoid any hurt feelings, have one of these

Haha, I was thinking the same thing; in that I'm not going to censor anything I post just to make sure I please everyone either. But enough of that, your point is that "your mileage may vary". That I get. Are you on VZW, btw? If so, what is your city and how is VZW vs. AT&T there?

**generik777** · 03-30-2011, 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by whsingleton

Haha, I was thinking the same thing; in that I'm not going to censor anything I post just to make sure I please everyone either. But enough of that, your point is that "your mileage may vary". That I get. Are you on VZW, btw? If so, what is your city and how is VZW vs. AT&T there?

Yes I am currently on Verizon and it works great where I live and almost every area that I go with the exception of a few very rural areas that have dead zones with every carrier I've been with. The reason I choose Verizon over AT&T is that where I live AT&T coverage is complete garbage with nothing but EDGE almost everywhere. As well as they are currently expanding in the area to the very many areas that don't even have coverage by AT&T at all. But, if the coverage was decent here with AT&T and they offered unlimited data I would have actually considered them.