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MaskedCarrot

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2009
519
331
Northern VA
So I've been having issues with crappy reception on my AT&T IP7+. I am thinking maybe the AT&T's 28.4 carrier file is to blame.

My phone used to be normal around my area of Northern VA, but I have been noticing for a few months my reception got really bad. It will start out good with 4 or 5 bars, then go right down to 1 bar. Stay there for awhile, then maybe go up to 2 or 3 bars, then back down to 1. And that's in various areas. It's also making my battery die quicker.

So I tried a test. I took my Pixel XL out of the drawer and put my sim in there. Low and behold my reception is fantastic with it. The way it used to be on my iPhone. Most places I get 4 or 5 bars. What makes it weird is that the Pixel is known to not have as good of reception as other Android phones, but it still is far batter than my iPhone.

But, I know better than to look at just the bars. So I have been keeping notice of the dB signal for the real comparison.

A good example is at work. At my desk, my IP7+ is usually at 1 bar, hovering around -115 dB or so. My Pixel is hovers around -98 to -100. Actually around my area, my Pixel rarely goes above -100 dB and gets great reception, but my IP7+ is usually -110+ dB. Sure it will bounce up to 2 or 3 bars for awhile. but it always goes back to 1 bar.

I went to the Apple Store a few weeks back and they swapped out my phone, and I also went to the AT&T store and got a new Sim card, even though them crooks charged me $5 for the sim card.

So I am not sure what is really going on here. I am really thinking it's the carrier file which has to be causing issues. It seems like it's bouncing me to towers which are farther away. Like the local load balancing of the towers is out of whack in the carrier file.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
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