Samsung Galaxy S5 - When LTE reception is activated, the phone reception breaks down.

  • Either there is only one bar on the cell phone or no reception at all is possible. As soon as I deactivate LTE, i.e. set “Mobile Networks” > “Network Mode” to “WCDMA/GSM”, everything is fine again and the telephony reception shows all the bars.

    My Samsung Galaxy S5 is not the only S5 that has this behavior. It’s been like this for about 2 weeks now. At least I didn’t notice that before. The location doesn’t play any role. It seems to be the case everywhere.

    Furthermore, when LTE is activated and there is almost no telephony reception, when a call comes in the telephony reception briefly shows all the bars again.

    What kind of problem is this or have others also observed this?

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    • @schnider wrote:

      So the problem seems to be this borderline area. I’m trying to continue to observe a few measurement data, times (duration) and changes that can be determined. Lately I had limited the mobile mainly to G3/G2, as this guaranteed me the necessary reliability (on-call service).


      I think the problem is due to the new, not yet fully developed mobile phone hardware and software on the mobile operator side (LTE components -> Swisscom) and on the customer side (Samsung Galaxy S5). I compare my practical experience with LTE to the apples you buy in the store. The apples are usually not quite ripe yet and have to ripen in the fruit basket at home for a few more days. The new software for the LTE network components still contains some errors that will be eliminated over the next few years.

      If you don’t need a fast internet connection and can’t use VoLTE for phone calls (Swisscom: summer 2015 at the earliest), you should save the battery and switch off the 4G/LTE mode. However, you should never switch off the “GSM+UMTS” mode! Some in-house satellite antennas only emit a 2G/GSM signal. Other in-house satellite antennas only have a 3G/UMTS signal. If you activate the “GSM only mode” or the “UMTS only” mode, the cell phone and the mobile phone antenna have to transmit with a higher transmission power, you will be exposed to radiation unnecessarily.


    @schnider wrote:
    Furthermore, when LTE is activated and there is almost no telephony reception, when a call comes in, the telephony reception briefly shows all bars again.

    What kind of problem is this or have others also observed this?


    It is not possible to make calls with 4G/LTE (today). LTE no longer has a circuit switching mode (CS). In LTE, all data is transmitted in “packet switching” mode (PS). Only VoLTE allows telephone calls in PS mode (future). Today, a telephone call requires a line/connection to be set up, which is only available in 3G/UMTS or 2G/GSM mode. Today, during a telephone call, the mobile phone has to switch from 4G/LTE mode to 3G/UMTS or 2G/GSM mode.

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    @schnider wrote:

    Either there is only one bar on the cell phone or no reception at all is possible. As soon as I deactivate LTE, i.e. set “Mobile Networks” > “Network Mode” to “WCDMA/GSM”, everything is fine again and the telephony reception shows all the bars.


    The bar display is too imprecise for troubleshooting. The numerical received value is required for troubleshooting. Please the “phone number”:

    *#0011#

    and publish the RSSI value and the network used (LTE/WCDMA/GSM) here. Alternatively you can go to:

    Settings -> Options -> About device -> Status => Signal strength

    the RSSI value can be read out. The following applies as a guideline for RSSI:

    -40 to -50 dBm -> Extremely strong mobile signal (maximum values ​​for Switzerland)

    -50 to -80 dBm -> Very good reception, fast and stable data transfer rates (> 7.2 MBit/s)

    -80 to -100 dBm -> Weak to good reception, with slow data transfer rates

    -100 to -120 dBm -> Interfered mobile reception or no mobile reception at all

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    The LTE network can currently only be used for mobile data! When you receive a call or make a call, the S5 automatically switches to 3G or 2G.

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    I noticed that the S5 automatically switches from LTE to G3/G2 when there is an incoming or outgoing call. The problem with this, however, is that an incoming call cannot be received at all if the LTE reception signal is so weak that the caller receives the message: The subscriber is temporarily unavailable.

    As soon as I switch the cell phone exclusively to the G3/G2 network, i.e. deactivate LTE, reception is problem-free.

    This means that when LTE is activated, the cell phone is (currently) unreliable for receiving telephone calls.

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    A measurement this morning in front of the Swisscom building near Zurich Herdern showed the following:

    UMTS; -55 dBm / 29 asu (setting for 3G/2G networks)

    LTE; -76 dBm / 64 asu (set to 4G network)

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    The measurement results fit (almost) perfectly with the information under:

    http://www.lte-provider.info/technik/asu.php

    So the Samsung Galaxy S5 works perfectly. For each wireless technology, a different value is used for the ASU calculation:

    2G/GSM RSSI

    3G/UMTS RSCP

    4G/LTE RSRP

    The RSSI value is the average of the signal strength over the entire bandwidth of the received signal (bandwidth of GSM: 0.2 MHz; UMTS: 5 MHz: LTE: 5 to 20 MHz) including noise and interference signals from external radio antennas. The RSCP value is the RSSI value adjusted for interference signals and noise and corresponds to the signal strength of the pure UMTS useful signal.

    The LTE signal on the 1800 MHz frequency band is most likely broadcast by Swisscom in Zurich Herdern with a bandwidth of 20 MHz. The 20 MHz wide LTE signal consists of 100 individual useful signal carriers. The RSRP value corresponds to the signal strength of a single one of the 100 useful signal carriers. That’s why the RSRP value (LTE) is exactly 20 dB smaller than the RSSI (GSM) or RSCP value (UMTS) from the exact same Swisscom mobile radio antenna. The RSRP value is illustrated very well by the example in the lower half of:

    http://laroccasolutions.com/?catid=0&id=78

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    Admittedly, I probably don’t understand every detail of the explanation. I was no longer able to reproduce the problem I explained at the beginning. However, I think I have understood that, according to the explanation, the LTE signal can be 20 dB smaller than the UMTS signal, which has also been effectively confirmed by various tests on my part.

    So I now put forward the theory that my Samsung Galaxy S5 does not operate (automatically) in the limit range of LTE reception at “-100 to -120 dBm -> disturbed mobile reception or no mobile reception at all” (or even further below) for reasons that are still unknown ) on the UMTS signal, which is then still in the tolerable range of “-80 to -100 dBm -> weak to good reception, with slow Data transfer rates” should be switched. So I had no reception, at least for a certain period of time. Only when I had effectively switched to G3/G2 manually did it come back.

    The problem seems to be this borderline area. I’m trying to continue to observe a few measurement data, times (duration) and changes that can be determined. Lately I had limited the mobile mainly to G3/G2, as this guaranteed me the necessary reliability (on-call service).

    Show original language (German)

    @schnider wrote:

    So I now put forward the theory that my Samsung Galaxy S5 is not in the limit range of LTE reception at “-100 to -120 dBm -> disturbed mobile reception or no mobile reception at all” (or even further below) for reasons that are still unknown ( automatically) to the UMTS signal, which is then still in the tolerable range at “-80 to -100 dBm -> weak to good reception, with slow Data transfer rates” should be switched.


    Unfortunately, this theory is wrong. Very simplified:

    A cell phone receives a 3G/UMTS signal with RSCP -90 dBm just as strongly or well as a 4G/LTE signal with RSRP -110 dBm or a 2G/GSM signal with RSSI -90 dBm. The scale for LTE is simply shifted by 20 dB:

    RSRP reception value (LTE only)

    ---———————————-

    -60 to -70 dBm -> Extremely strong mobile signal (maximum values ​​for Switzerland)

    -70 to -100 dBm -> Very good reception, fast and stable data transfer rates (> 10 MBit/s)

    -100 to -120 dBm -> Weak to good reception, with slow data transfer rates

    -120 to -140 dBm -> Interfered mobile reception or no mobile reception at all

    The scale presented in message no. 4 applies to 3G/UMTS (RSCP) and 2G/GSM (RSSI)!

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    @schnider wrote:

    So the problem seems to be this borderline area. I’m trying to continue to observe a few measurement data, times (duration) and changes that can be determined. Lately I had limited the mobile mainly to G3/G2, as this guaranteed me the necessary reliability (on-call service).


    I think the problem is due to the new, not yet fully developed mobile phone hardware and software on the mobile operator side (LTE components -> Swisscom) and on the customer side (Samsung Galaxy S5). I compare my practical experience with LTE to the apples you buy in the store. The apples are usually not quite ripe yet and have to ripen in the fruit basket at home for a few more days. The new software for the LTE network components still contains some errors that will be eliminated over the next few years.

    If you don’t need a fast internet connection and can’t use VoLTE for phone calls (Swisscom: summer 2015 at the earliest), you should save the battery and switch off the 4G/LTE mode. However, you should never switch off the “GSM+UMTS” mode! Some in-house satellite antennas only emit a 2G/GSM signal. Other in-house satellite antennas only have a 3G/UMTS signal. If you activate the “GSM only mode” or the “UMTS only” mode, the cell phone and the mobile phone antenna have to transmit with a higher transmission power, you will be exposed to radiation unnecessarily.

    Show original language (German)

    Thank you for this discussion and valuable information. That’s exactly how I’ll handle it from now on. When limited to G3/G2, the battery actually lasts a few hours longer - as a side effect.

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    By the way: I recommend using the Android app “Signal level notification”. This app can output the numerical value of the signal strength [dBm] in the status line.

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