Fixes on extremely poor phone signal / service

[Melly78]

Hey I've had my samsung galaxy note 10plus 5g for 4ish years now and I've had trouble with the signal/service...calls won't come through I'll be notified of a missed call via message, if I do answer a call it's poor service and I have to move around to try to get a better signal

Please help

[mbckl]

Could be a network issue? Who are you with?
Can you put your current sim card to another phone and see if you have the same issue?

[Melly78]

Im with SPINTEL they have finally confirmed that reception isn't good where I'am

[mbckl]

They use optus. It may seem like you'll have to go to telstra (or boost, which uses telstra).

You can try your luck checking Vodafone, but they're not as good as optus...usually*

[Melly78]

I've already switched from using their modem to my previous Telstra one, this has been going on back and forth with them for 4 years....

& today a worker actually messaged this:

Checked address from their portal and can see my address has no good reception. Our access provider is Optus and it shows that our provider can't give you better signal we can't do anything about it sorry for this.

I'm pissed but mostly exhausted from the 4 years of fighting this topic and told its nothing to do on their end....(AND THEIR IT's) The seeking avenues & time put in to finding a solution....
I just don't know why ppl have these " TITLES" but they are just like us lost in the wind....

[Troubadour]

Bear in mind that 5G signal is weaker than 4G, some 4G enhanced may be as fast as a struggling 5G.
1. Load an app called Aus Phone Towers from Play Store, find the hidden menu on the left and play with settings to see how good your reception is. Consider locking network to 4G as a test to see if this is better. Settings, Connections, Mobile Networks.
2. If you are not using wi-fi calling, activate it. Google "wi-fi calling Telstra etc."
3. Check your cell tower settings, Gopgle Telstra 5G APN settings. Find these in your phone by going to Settings and search for "Access Point Names". If you change settings make a hard copy of existing settings so you can revert, include spaces, caps 100% accurately.

[sekito]

I've tried the towers app. And sometimes it looks like I'm not connected to the closest applicable tower. For example, there's a close tower which is obviously blocked by a hill Because the reception drops off sharply. There's another tower nearby which usually works better, but it won't swap.

[Troubadour]

Yes. Reception is affected by line of sight (no hills, wind causing trees to sway, congestion and other factors). Worth Googling for causes. My wireless internet Optus varies from 0 to 100 Mbps download, usually 30 to 60 Mbps download due to congestion. My modem has a sim card for broadband and is therfore able to be like other modems, placed in a fixed position and to have a cheap $80 internal aerial attached to a window with line of sight to a celll tower. I am, of course, competing with other users and could add an aerial on an external mast to get better reception (despite what Optus says about balancing load). Unfortunatelly this solution is not available for mobile phones as they are not in a fixed position, which is why I have had to refer to more expensive solutions. Use the app to check if any other provider is better.

[sekito]

In the area it seems that all of the Providers share the same communication poles. The question is, how can you get it to check for other reception which might be better? For example, there is a tower which is downhill but further away and seems to have better coverage to the area rather than being at the edge of the tower at the top of the Hill.

[Troubadour · Accepted solution]

Note when using the hidden menu on the left you can separately view each provider. Separately when you click on the colour droplet in the map it shows you which frequencies that provider uses AND the allocated bandwidth for each frequency. These days most phones cover all the available frequencies but if you want to check which frequencies are supported by your phone and compare to cell tower frequencies Google "GSMArena and your phone model".
Please have you implemented wi-fi calling on your phone and using your broadband, if not it will make a huge difference in terms of receiving and making phone calls and messages, Google " wi-fi calling and e.g Telstra"".
Otherwise we seem to have reached an end point where your only solution is the expensive aerial which broadcasts wi-fi throughout the house that I previously referred to. Remember, however, that if you lock down your network to 4G you may get a better service Settings, Connections, Mobile Networks.