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Three APN Bearer Setting

oddity

Member
Hi all

I am temporarily using my mobile in an area with poor signal and the mobile is swapping between bands very frequently. This is causing dropouts. Usually the band that was previously in use seconds beforehand is reselected, so I don't think the swap is due to a complete loss of signal.

This is becoming an annoyance when trying to stream video or browse the web.

Would selecting the correct bearer setting help? I've duplicated my APN (from default) and ticked off the options I think Three uses, although I'm not 100% sure if I've missed any or selected incorrect options.

I ask as the mobile seems to suffer less dropouts and transitions between bands much quicker with the bearer settings entered (this may be placebo?). I know this won't increase signal strength or quality, but would there be any other improvements?

Any advice refering to the above points would be welcome.

Options (tick multiple):
Unspecified [default]
LTE
HSPAP
HSPA
HSUPA
HSDPA
UMTS
EDGE
GPRS
eHRPD
EVDO_B
EVDO_A
EVDO_0
1xRTT
IS95B
IS95A
NR

Thanks
 
Hi all

I am temporarily using my mobile in an area with poor signal and the mobile is swapping between bands very frequently. This is causing dropouts. Usually the band that was previously in use seconds beforehand is reselected, so I don't think the swap is due to a complete loss of signal.

This is becoming an annoyance when trying to stream video or browse the web.

Would selecting the correct bearer setting help? I've duplicated my APN (from default) and ticked off the options I think Three uses, although I'm not 100% sure if I've missed any or selected incorrect options.

I ask as the mobile seems to suffer less dropouts and transitions between bands much quicker with the bearer settings entered (this may be placebo?). I know this won't increase signal strength or quality, but would there be any other improvements?

Any advice refering to the above points would be welcome.

Options (tick multiple):
Unspecified [default]
LTE
HSPAP
HSPA
HSUPA
HSDPA
UMTS
EDGE
GPRS
eHRPD
EVDO_B
EVDO_A
EVDO_0
1xRTT
IS95B
IS95A
NR

Thanks
I don’t think we use this here in the UK or for any of our networks.

LTE
HSDPA
UMTS
EDGE
NR (limited use of this alone).

If you wanted strict 4G/5G you’d want LTE and NR, the rest are 2g/3g. But that means while travelling you’d probably lose signal a lot in 3G only areas or abroad.

Unspecified (default) is probably where it should stay.

In terms of band, these settings won’t help anything unless you fixed to HSDPA for 3G, which even then could swap about.

What phone do you have? Some (very few now) allow you to fix to a band within the network, say band 20, and swap less, but you may find your connectivity slow.

It’s the nature of mobile networks sadly, and what you’re asking won’t really impact that.

Edit: I don’t think Three has any NR spectrum available, or widely available if they do.
 
The phone is a Samsung Galaxy A34 5G (2023).

In areas with strong signal it will happily sit on 5G all day long (not even dropping to 4G to save battery).

There does seem to be some 5G NSA coverage in my home/work location and even a little here.

How would I go about locking to a specific band? That does sound useful in my current location as it would at least prevent most of the dropouts.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
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The phone is a Samsung Galaxy A34 5G (2023).

In areas with strong signal it will happily sit on 5G all day long (not even dropping to 4G to save battery).

There does seem to be some 5G NSA coverage in my home/work location and even a little here.

How would I go about locking to a specific band? That does sound useful in my current location as it would at least prevent most of the dropouts.

Thanks
Samsung band selector app used to allow but not sure it does and I don’t think you can any more without rooting with other apps such as Network Signal Guru which costs a pretty penny.

Turn off 5G if you can as that can have impact.
 
Samsung band selector app used to allow but not sure it does and I don’t think you can any more without rooting with other apps such as Network Signal Guru which costs a pretty penny.

Turn off 5G if you can as that can have impact.
You can band lock with the free version of NSG, btw, just done it yesterday to test O2 on B40.
 
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