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https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster
Install this. Open it. There will be 4 icons in the top right corner. Click the 3rd one from the left. It's the one that's supposed to look like an antenna.
It'll launch the 4636 menu. You can select LTE only there. Keep in mind, it will probably revert after every reboot.
Without root, download Netmonster and go into the settings and flip the LATE Advanced option. Then go download something (fast.com for example) and switch back to Netmonster. The "LTE" near the top of the app should change to LTE-A.
With root, you can download Network Signal Guru.
scaricando net monster vedi quando la scritta 5G è vera o se è messa lì solo per marketing in base alla copertura e molto spesso soprattutto in Italia è così
Oh, also if you install Netmonster on your phone and enable GPS you can view in relative what bands your phone is CA and on what mast.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster
Will give you an idea of the best mast and band to try lock onto and also see how many bands it actually aggregates.
Not the answer I was hoping for. Maybe you can try this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster
Once installed and open, hit the apps lower left hamburger menu button and select "live" then hit the lower right 3 dot menu and select "phone info" from there you can check if you're "volte provisioned" on the network or not. There should be a toggle switch to trigger provisioning if need be and some other buttons to hit to update and trigger carrier provisioning. I don't know if this will help anything or not or if you'll even be able to see this "phone info" menu as it's the same menu you're supposed to see by using the dialer code provided. I'm looking to see if volte provisioning is turned off here
Check out NetMonster! My carrier doesn't support 5G yet, but this app shows what bands you're connected to, whether carrier aggregation is enabled, etc.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster&hl=en&gl=US
The first screenshot shows you an example of how it detects the CA. (it says "LTE A" plus the bands).
I've used OpenSignal. However I just found NetMonster and Coverage Map.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster
Both are looking rather cool.
Here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster&hl=en - it also tells you the bandwidth. The *#*#INFO#*#* menu has the same information (and you can access that menu as well from this app with one button rather than going to the dialer and typing the string repeatedly).
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Here's another oddity - let's say I have Operationr A's SIM in my phone and force my phone to connect to Operator B (via the network search menu). It won't work, obviously, but the phone displays the aggregated signal (evidenced from the app) sometimes. But when I actually insert operator B's SIM, the aggregation is nowhere to be found. And I've done it with the third operator as well - clearly, something is up.
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Yes, I am aware that you need to engage in some network activity for CA to deploy - but it doesn't.
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I've reset my phone - twice - in the past two weeks. Not going to reset it again. Had resetted the network settings first.
Via settings on your phone...
Somewhere near mobile data/cellular etc
I use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster btw,
icon to the right from car icon, idk if this works on all phones
on that screen that launches there's "set preferred network type:" and I can choose lte only from there (my phone / cellular doesn't allow LTE only via normal ways)
If your fast internet is LTE put it to that, if it's 3G put it to 3g only etc.
I would try forcing 4G or another connection to see what it does. (When you're at work and have bad signal)
(Unless your bad signal is already occuring at 4G, then this could prove useless)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster
Download this app & open it
So you can put your phone in LTE and that isn't the issue?
Or you're saying you can put it on LTE but it still auto switches to 3G? If it's the second, I can possibly (80% chance) help!
Download that app, open it
Click on the icon on the right upper corner, the icon between the CAR and the 3 dots.
It's the third icon from left to right counting. It looks like radar/signal thingy .
Set Set Preferred Network Type: to LTE only
Might have to turn mobile data on/off or wait for like 2 seconds after this.
Let me know if this works, because I'll be happy if it does. I'm on vacation and the 3G here is worse than 2G, so when my "4G" switches to "3G" I can't do anything.
There is a chance you won't be able to call or receive calls with this 'hack', be aware of this. you can disable it by just going into your settings app again (samsung, just the phones settings app.) and put it on a different setting like 3G/auto
A couple apps you can use to get a general idea of your connection is Netmonster or LTE Discovery.
Both should display an EARFCN number. 2200/2325 is Band 4. Band 2 is around 1026. Band 12 is around 5035 IIRC.
If you still had the G4, you should be able to dial 277634#/*# in the dialer to get to the LTE Engineering mode to get more details on the connection.
Hey there. Try this. It's not super intuitive, but it's at least a bit of info...
Go to dialer, type in *#*#4636#*#*
Click Phone Information, at the bottom will be a dropdown under Cell Info Refresh Rate. Select Immediate.
Go to fast.com or speedtest app and start a speedtest. Double tap recents button to go back to the testing app. Watch the EARFCN column and see what it changes to.
For example, I know at my work I can get B4 10mhz + B4 5mhz.
EARFCN changed to 2325 after a little bit. Googling says that's 15mhz for Band 4. (http://www.qtc.jp/3GPP/Specs/36508-940.pdf pg 21)
But...it wasn't consistent. So, not sure. I can't get it to show 2325 again...just 2200.
Edit: A little more reliable test: Download Netmonster, open it up and do split screen, open speedtest or fast.com in Chrome on the second window and run a test. After it completes, wait about 5-10 seconds and the EARFCN should change on Netmonster. There's also a setting to detect LTE-Advanced (carrier aggregation) but it seemed to not change the EARFCN after that. But it did change LTE next to T-Mobile to LTE-A whenever I ran a speedtest.
Check for cell site stimulators or fake cell sites via apps links
The other apps are netmonster see the map tab and verify with government database website
Netmonster https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster
Network cell info site https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wilysis.cellinfolite
The government database of actual cell site https://tarangsanchar.gov.in/emfportal These are used by network engineer and i am a cyber security engineer and telecommunication engineer
Check for cell site stimulators or fake cell sites via apps links
The other apps are netmonster see the map tab and verify with government database website
Netmonster https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster
Network cell info site https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wilysis.cellinfolite
The government database of actual cell site https://tarangsanchar.gov.in/emfportal
Looks like a flat panel antenna to me.. could be a small cellular node (aka picocell)? You could test this hypothesis by downloading a network monitoring app, such as NetMonster, and testing signal strength while approaching and withdrawing from the pictured utility pole.
More examples of those antennas:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cellular+4g+5g+%22panel+antenna%22&t=fpas&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images
For as interesting as this thread may sound, there's a reason why reviews never talk about cell reception at a technical level similar to how they (some of them) do with Wi-Fi reception (and other stuff such as SoC efficiency, benchmarks, display accuracy, etc), and instead limit themselves to generic statements such as "good", "bad", "average", "it didn't give me any problems", or "not the best".
Reason being, that testing cell network reception in an accurate way, and having results that are useful ( = can be compared with similar results obtained from other devices, because otherwise just one single result on its own is completely useless obviously), is extremely difficult if not literally impossible.
That's because while for testing Wi-Fi speed/reception, display colour reproduction/brightness, CPU power and thermal performance, etc, you can test those in a controlled environment (which is needed so that the results of the test will be comparable those obtained from other devices tested in the same controlled environment) that you control yourself, for cell reception and performance there's no way to do so. You/we have no control over the cell towers. What the phone choses to connect to, which bands, and how the towers will manage the traffic across all the clients (phones) connected.
So, please people take the numbers from this thread with a grain of salt.
That said, I'm not here to shut down your fun. If you want to check the signal reception values across different phones, so you can compare them, you can still to a certain extent minimise the variable of what could lead to flawed results.
The first requirement, which may sound obvious, is to have a SIM/eSIM card of the same mobile operator in both phones.
Then, you can install an app to check what cell tower your phones are connected to, such as NetMonster (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster - disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated to this app or its developer).
As you open the app, these are the numbers that identity the tower and cell: https://imgur.com/a/88GLBSv
Check that on both phones, those numbers are the same.
Then you're free to compare the RSRP value :)
(then, to quit the NetMonster app, tap three dots at bottom right corner -> Finish)
It would be nice to know which bands the phone is using, if you could install https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster&hl=en_US&gl=US and re-run the tests...
Most of what you can access is covered by TelephonyManager - take a look at the source code for NetMonster if you want an example to go off of.
Current using NetMonster
Simple easy to use and open source
Seems you are right it wont take a Cell Id, But you can search the eNB, which with Android is easy enough to get with either of these apps linked below..
If on IOS, you are out of luck since Apple wants to lock you out of this information.
What you can do though is goto https://www.cellmapper.net/ set it for your provider and Network type and check a few towser right around you and look at their Cell Ids., might be able find the one you are looking for.
NetMonster
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster
CellMapper
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cellmapper.net.cellmapper
I mean it's a bullshit icon usually anyway until improved
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster
But I switch towers slowly
Hey. The Mi A2 can do CA, but it can't aggregate all the band combinations.
You can check the Bands it can aggregate on the following site: https://cacombos.com/device/M1804D2SG.
You have to check your mobile network operater and the bands it operates on. Then (using the table from cacombos) you can check which of those band combinations are supported by the phone.
Since it hasn't worked for you I assume the MI A2 can't aggregate the bands used by your MNO. Most (typically newer or more expensive) can aggregate more bands at the same time and also support more bands.
The MI A2 has doen CA for me but only since one of the few combinations (band 1 + 3) is supported by my MNO.
NetMonster is a very good application to check the used bands (therefore also CA) of your phone at any time.
Hope that helps ;)
>How is 5G SA and 5G NSA displayed?
Here is a screenshot of Cellmapper on my OnePlus 8 while connected to 5G NSA, as you can see it displays a good amount of information about 4G (including what band I am connected to), whereas with 5G the only information reported is the signal strength.
With 5G SA it is only connected to 5G so all the Cellmapper shows is the very limited 5G info.
One thing that I would like to note is that 5G NSA consumes a lot more power than 5G SA or 4G due to having to maintain both a 4G and a 5G connection simultaneously, so many devices (including OnePlus 5G devices) will drop down to 4G when not doing anything network intensive but continue displaying the 5G icon and then reconnect to 5G NSA when doing something network intensive. So you may want to run a speed test before checking information about 5G so that your device is actually connected to 5G.
>In the settings of my 8 pro, these are my options for mobile data connections.
>https://i.imgur.com/iZqXVmd.jpg
>Will the 5G SA update will show this differently?
That menus will remain the same.
There is a secret menu that is similar to that one except with a lot more options. Here is a screenshot of that menu, one of the options is "NR only", which forces the device to connect to 5G SA only. If you select "NR only" and you have not yet received the 5G SA update then your device will just not receive a signal until you re-enable 4G.
There are 2 ways to access that menu.
Method 1: Dial a number in the phone app.
- Open the OnePlus Phone app on your device.
- Dial *#*#4636#*#*.
- Click "Phone Information".
- Click on the drop-down menu labeled "Set Preferred Network Type".
Some people have reported that on the T-Mobile variant OnePlus 8 that method stopped working after the 5G SA update, however some people report that it still works.
Another method is to use a 3rd party app to access that menus. One of the apps that lets you access that menu is NetMonster (NetMonster is an app that reports information about your cellular connection, however it is inaccurate much more often then Cellmapper). Here is how to do it:
- Open NetMonster.
- Click the 3 dots icon in the bottom right.
- Click "Phone info".
- Click on the drop-down menu labeled "Set Preferred Network Type".
>Do you know if OnePlus is planning to issue that update for phones bought directly from them vs phones bought at a TMO store?
They will eventually, it just might take a little while.
>Also, my launch day 8 pro is still waiting on the dual SIM update. I'm really surprised it's taking them so long to get my 2nd sim slot functional.
The Android 11 beta for the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro enables dual SIM.
I recommend NetMonster! Slick UI and really robust featureset, including a war-driving mode!
Wonder if https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mroczis.netmonster can force enable it
click on the antenna icon