Correlation between signal strength "bars" and numeric?

[hakr100]

Sitting in my office, I get a reading of -106 for the strength of the Verizon "signal" on my iPhone 5S.

Yet, if I switch to an app in which the numeric doesn't work, I'll get a reading of five "bars," or in the case of the current IOS, five dots.

Five "dots" is a pretty strong signal. But -106 isn't. So...which is accurate and is there any app that shows real signal strength?

Thanks

 

[dcp10]

Start here

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_by_five

 

[hakr100]

Uh...yeah. But that page is devoid of relevant content, in re: what I asked.

 

[dcp10]

I said start there. Within the article is this link.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_strength

 

[phositadc]

Sitting in my office, I get a reading of -106 for the strength of the Verizon "signal" on my iPhone 5S.

Yet, if I switch to an app in which the numeric doesn't work, I'll get a reading of five "bars," or in the case of the current IOS, five dots.

Five "dots" is a pretty strong signal. But -106 isn't. So...which is accurate and is there any app that shows real signal strength?

Thanks

Pretty sure the numerical strength is accurate. The dots are basically a meaningless representation. Apple chooses how many dots correspond to what signal strength. Although right now I'm at -86 dbm which is showing as 4 dots. So no idea why your -106 would show as 5.

Tldr rely on the number, not the dots.

 

[SanjeevRana]

As far as my knowledge goes those dBM numbers are not fixed value for every point on earth ... the bad/good/best range varies from region to region and then from carrier to carrier ... I think there are values like noise etc also which are pushed from the tower to the phone ... so actually that -106 might be the best for that area ... hope I made sense

 

[dcp10]

Here's a great article Explaining the relationship between bars/dots and the dB value.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/05/cell-bars-reception/

 

[abshole765]

Number > Dots.

I can get -106, reads 5 dots, & 3G. Makes zero sense.

 

[hakr100]

I think I have resolved the great mystery.

My home office is in the lower part of the house, and part of it is below grade. LTE service here is non-existent. It's pretty miserable generally in the area where we live, unless you happen to be close to a Verizon cell facility that handles LTE. Most of them in our area...do not.

I have a Verizon Network Extender in my office. If I turn off "LTE" on my iPhone 5S, I get voice cell at the "five dot" or a -56 or so dBM signal source.

Turn LTE back on, and the numeric goes to -115 dBM. So, obviously, the read-out on my iPhone is showing me the LTE signal strength when the phone is idle and LTE is switched on.

I seem to recall that LTE is for data only, so when I am using the iPhone as a phone, the strength of the LTE signal is not relevant. Right now, in my office, I've got five dots as my signal strength readout, and it reads as follows:

***** Verizon

Just Verizon...not LTE or 3G.