ATT cellular data

[Durian Fiend]

Lately it hasn't worked at all for me anywhere on East side.  Is it my phone or something else? I wonder.

[kalakoa]

Verizon has recently gotten worse, my phone wants to cycle 4G - 3G - 1xRTT (!) before maybe finding 4G again.

Could be a side effect of the 3G shutdown, ATT 3G went offline February 22.

Solution is apparently to run out and get 5G service (and a new phone).

[randomq]

On Samsung phones you can force your phone onto a certain frequency. Might help if the default frequency in an area has unusable data.

Dial *#2263#, choose bands, "go back" and apply settings.

I'm not sure what this does to 911 calls, so only use on a spare phone for data.

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*#0011# will show you the current band(s) you are on

[Obie]

Verizon has recently gotten worse, my phone wants to cycle 4G - 3G - 1xRTT (!) before maybe finding 4G again.

Could be a side effect of the 3G shutdown, ATT 3G went offline February 22.

Solution is apparently to run out and get 5G service (and a new phone).

I have never had 5G on the Big Island. When I fly to HNL the 5G symbol comes on as soon as I switch off airplane mode even on the runway.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I had AT&T way back when. My old phone started acting up, but did have excellent reception if I parked under the cell tower in Keaau. I finally got through to a high level tech agent who explained they were ending the transmission frequency for my phone as it was ancient by their standards, but didn’t cut it all off at once, they toggled down data, then voice and told people their phones weren’t working and that they needed a new one. Which is what customers eventually did.

[TomK]

This thread piqued my interest and found this. I don't know if it's an Onion-like article or true, but it certainly made me giggle. Apparently, Tim Richards wants us to work with fibers attached to our phones. 

https://insidetowers.com/cell-tower-news...alt-to-5g/

"The Hawaii County Council, which represents the entire Big Island of Hawaii and over 200,000 residents, overwhelmingly passed a resolution last Wednesday calling for wireless companies to halt 5G deployments citing health and environmental risks.

After hearing hours of public testimony decrying the supposed health risks of the new cellular network technology, the council voted 8-1 to approve a resolution calling for “telecommunication companies and public utilities operating in Hawaii County” to halt any 5G development until independent research and testing concludes it is safe for humans, according to the Hawaii Tribune Herald.

Kohala Councilman Tim Richards voted against the resolution, saying that it didn’t go far enough and that the county should investigate scrapping all cellular infrastructure on the island and invest in a safe fiber optic network instead."

[randomq]

Rippers are using cell phones to coordinate their crimes. Better not to have them at all, and go back to the old ways.

[kalakoa]

I have never had 5G on the Big Island.

Carriers are decommissioning 3G to make way for 5G -- whether or not the 5G is ever actually deployed.

the 5G symbol comes on

There is no guarantee that this means actual "5G" service exists, especially in the case of ATT. Back in 2015, ATT was claiming 3.5G HSPA+ was "4G", and in 2019 they started pushing a "5Ge" logo in 4G service areas that they "planned to upgrade soon". It's easy to manage the lie when you can push firmware to the device.

TL;DR Bars and Gs are not a reliable indicator of speed or coverage, they are purely marketing despite having some underlying technical specifications. Case in point: there are more than 3 flavors of 5G.

a resolution last Wednesday calling for wireless companies to halt 5G deployments

A lovely gesture, but symbolic at best, because "Federal regulations pre-empt"....

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

halt any 5G development until independent research and testing concludes it is safe for humans,

I think the council’s concept is sound, but their application might be better adopted elsewhere.  For instance, could we halt further action by the council until independent research concludes they are intelligent and competent humans?  Or perhaps go further and investigate scrapping the entire council? The island functioned better without a council than we did without cell phones.

[terracore]

AT&T was the first to drop 2G. I had a game camera that used 2G to text images and they essentially bricked it.

Legend has it that they were the first because there were OG iPhone users that were grandfathered on an AT&T unlimited data plan they needed to get rid of.