New phone has issues connecting....

[Pennywise]

My old phone was a Moto G power and was always reliable out in the country with weak signals so when I replaced it I got another Moto..... this new one is a Moto Gpower 5g.

I've had problems with connecting from the start, my signal strength is -115 to -121 Dbm but my old phone was reliable with this signal.

I reused the sim card from the old phone and for a month made and received a few calls but callers have said they often can't hear me, I've checked my phone using the built in diagnostic apps and nothing of concern. ( as for the microphone function, etc)

I found the menu for "sim status" and it states that it's "in service" but under "Mobile Network State" it lists "Connected" but frequently will say "Disconnected".

Is this because of the weak signal?

I've tried switching the preferred network type from "automatic" to "manual" and choosing "3G" but it doesn't accept this it will only accept "LTE" so I just revert back to the automatic network function.5G isn't an option .

I'm a little disappointed with this phone as the previous Moto was so reliable under poor conditions.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm thinking of buying a signal booster, there are 2 cell towers 3Km apart and 10 to 10.5 Km from me, they are Bell.

[Pennywise]

I've installed the booster you suggested and it works, thanks.

Just as you said location relative to the outside antenna was critical, I spent a couple of hours tweaking things like aiming & raising outside antenna, moving booster around the house, etc.

[Pennywise]

farmbot1, as you said it should pick up a 3G signal so I drove up the road to the cell towers to check the signal strength and  perhaps not surprisingly the signal strength didn't increase much beyond -90dBm or so even within one Km ....hmm.

And I checked the manual network option while I was there and it did pick up a 3G signal (no Lte or 5G option) and it hooked up with no problem.

Later I'm switching the sim card to my older Moto G and will see how much better the connection quality gets, or not....

[Pennywise]

Yeah thanks for that, when I did some foundation work on my house back in 2019 I tore down the 60's style tv antenna mast and aerial. Should have kept it intact as I now have a digital OTA tv aerial as well as a potential aerial for my signal booster, lol.....

[Pennywise]

The dBm strength on my older Moto g phone is definitely better at -108, both on the free signal strength app, and the baked in Android indicator on my phone settings.

I contacted Motorola and they wanted me to check the signal after a system reset.

Which I did and there was no difference, even with a google Drive backup it is still a PITA btw....

So back I go to plead my case, I would rather not install a signal booster if the root cause is a new phone that has a sketchy antenna.

[farmbot1]

If u order booster u will need mounting pole for outside antenna.

something like this amazon sells others

Leilong K001 V3 Antenna Pole Mount,Upgraded Ribbed Bracket Combine with Double U-Bolts 12in Longer 2...

[Pennywise]

Thanks for the information, I'm charging my old Moto G now to see if the dBm's are better.

Maybe I can plead a case of quality control to Motorola if I can, since I bought this new phone directly from them.

Your house sounds like mine btw.....my shop/garage is larger....lol.

[farmbot1 · Accepted solution]

The moto should pickup 3 G

Test to see if 3G available on other phone or your old moto G power

https://www.amazon.ca/SolidRF-5G-band13-Compatible-Canadian-Carriers/dp/B077N6822R/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?c...

Only good for a couple rooms. I use in 1000  sq 1 level house.

Separation of outdoor and indoor booster critical.

For my placement the outdoor antenna and the inside booster are in a 180 degree arc ie. antenna facing tower and inside booster directly behind 20 feet separation.. there is a small dead zone if the are in line and u will get no flashing lights.

Only the power line should be lite

I get boost of about 10db which means it doubled

Typical inside without booster -115db

with  booster -100db

It will boost 5G.  Don't worry too much about the -number as long as it is smaller..... if the booster is working the signal from the booster rams up. Test streaming on video. unplayable for me before booster.

Booster only boosts  for 20 feet or so from inside radio otherwise there would be conflict with original signal from tower

Solved all my issues

Good luck

My outside antenna for booster  best location was low on wall so it may take some experimenting for location.

[hTideGnow]

hi @Pennywise 

in your case, best to test the sim card using another phone as well to confirm if it is a device problem

[Pennywise]

I had the techs look things over and they say that my account is "properly provisioned" so it seems that my last phone was a happy fluke in terms of the reliability of service provided with the available signal....oh well.

So now I'm looking at a signal booster.

farmbot1 said he installed a booster, I may PM him to find out what brand/price range he ended up with....

[Pennywise]

Yeah, I have attempted this but the phone's manual settings wont accept the change to 3G, it will give the message "couldn't connect" so I revert to "automatically connect network"  & it uses the LTE.

[farmbot1]

The metal roof degrades the LTE signal. The voice is now carried by LTE therefore the dropped calls i think.

I'm in a similar situation so i installed a booster mostly to improve data speed.

Placement of the booster is finicky, antenna must be pointed at tower and separation between booster indoors and antenna outdoors is critical to success.

LTE carries more data but is not as robust as 3G. In phone setting click on network and internet then mobile network scroll to preferred network type choose 3 G and reboot my moto 5G will show 3G and stronger signal.

Progress VoLTE i guess.

[softech]

@Pennywise 

"3G is almost obsolete" is for US only

In Canada, we are still relying on this a lot, although VoLTE is catching up. There is no firm date for sunset of 3G yet, at least 2026 I would say.  So, it will still be around

For your issue, please open ticket with PM agent, let them see if they can reset anything and help your VoLTE situation

[Pennywise]

Softech, I checked for the VoLTE toggle and there was none, I have the developer option activated and checked there as well with no result.

Yeah, I updated the phones software & reset the network settings before posting with no result.Oh well....

The nearest town to me is Renfrew,Ontario about 8 Km away. I haven't checked the signal strength closer to the cell towers , short of a walk in front of the house tonight as I have a metal roof and find I didn't gain much by doing so.

I googled "LTE versus 3G " and found that some sources claim that 3G is almost obsolete, sort of like 2G, but I seem to remember that the lower frequency signal in the 3G bands would travel further, albeit with less bandwidth, if that makes any sense, lol ! (better for phone audio with fewer towers,but worse for streaming data/video?) So I'll do what you suggest and open a ticket asking them to investigate those options, thanks.

[softech]

@Pennywise i don't think you have such an option, but is VoLTE toggle can be found?  Should be under Settings> Network & Internet> Mobile Network 

If it is there, turn it off and test (and turn it back on after to test again)

Also, make sure your OS is updated, try Reset All Networks

If you have changed to 3G network but unable to connect, then you have a very weak 3G network in your area and that's why the phone is not connecting, and it is possible VoLTE was not working well.  Did you try in other area far away from where you are now?  And what city and province is that? (but it was ok in the same location with your old phone??)

If it is a 3G issue, I suggest you to open ticket with PM support and see if they can do anything with the VoLTE settings on the system side, or ask them to reprovision your account/sim and hope that helps.  You can engage support here:

                 https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

**Monitor your Community inbox (envelope icon on top right) after the ticket is opened.  CS Agent will reply to you there