Google support forums rife with Nexus One 3G complaints, is this a real problem?
By Sean Cooper 
posted January 9th 2010 12:01AM
posted January 9th 2010 12:01AM
What started out as a few tips on 3G issues for Google's Nexus One seems to have ballooned into a fair bit of drama at Google's support forums. The main complaint appears to be owners reporting that their device either never switches to 3G, or, it is constantly switching between 3G and EDGE. Many users are also posting that switching out to another manufacturer's set yields great 3G reception where they're testing, and others have chimed in that the service on their phones has been spotless. In an interview today at All Things D here at CES, Walt Mossberg mentioned the support problems to which Andy Rubin replied "we have to get better at customer service" -- all too true if this is a real problem. Let us know in comments if you're seeing an issue, and if there is a real problem here, hopefully it'll get addressed on the double.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
as fred would say cool
@MichaelB sorry Michael hijacking your comment
hey Engadget dont you have a nexus one that you used for your review? does it have problems with 3g?
@Ariel Bender
You're being homophobic with a name like that, seriously?
sticking with the droid ftw
@mikehannofol
As opposed to the iPhone which is actually available across the world. Sorry couldn't help myself.
@mikehannofol
fking spammer
Busted 3G at launch, my they are taking after the iPhone.
Spotless 3G coverage so far in Minneapolis/St. Paul metro.
@MattJG
your lucky, I'm getting switching between 3g and EDGE, but my friend who has a mytouch 3g gets consistent 3g, i'm in Stillwater
@MattJG
your lucky, I'm getting switching between 3g and EDGE, but my friend who has a mytouch 3g gets consistent 3g, i'm in Stillwater
@MattJG
Here in Louisville, Kentucky I've had spot on 3G...no problems so far.
@MattJG
Still have full bars at -73dBm 23 asu in St. Paul. Post yesterday was from Woodbury (~20 miles away from here), and had full bars there too. Metro Minnesota reception seems perfect.
@MattJG
I got full bars in Chicago. To be expected in a big city.
The part I'm most pleased with is the 1.8mbps down on my speedtest.
its a piece of plastic with android on it
but apparently this has never been seen before.
@Troll The body is made out of Aluminum metal troll.
@SParklingCYaNide
*aluminium
@Endadget
Aluminum is also valid, and actually the dominant way of spelling and pronouncing it in the US.
@Troll I bet you said that to every metallic phones you saw.. which begs the questions, do you really know the difference between metal and plastic? lol
Nexus One has just been unveiled to the public for roughly 4 days now, seeing this minor glitch is something synonymous to normal. At least we heard the android chief man Rubin, ayt? "We have to get better at customer service" -- simple way of saying, "we are well aware of that and we are improving it as we speak".
All questions has definitely been answered: http://bit.ly/nexus-one-official-details-and-questions
I've had a N1 for a couple days now and I've had absolutely no issues with 3G coverage on T-Mobile here in LA. The device is, from my experience, lighting quick and exceptionally responsive.
I LOVE IT!
@hummer01
I second that
@hummer01
Third
@hummer01 Im in Reseda in the valley and my T-Mobile sucks. But the funny thing is that my sister's G1 consistently gets 1 more bar than my Nexus One. Oh and I was driving south on the 405 today and it only gave me EDGE driving through Culver City until I got to Howard Hughes. WTF?!!
I drove around with the G1, N1, and my iPhone on AT&T. Man, T-Mobile dissapointed me so badly. I dont think It's worth having my N1 ride AT&T and only get EDGE. I'll decide by Monday. If nothing improves, I'm returning it and sticking with my current contract and my iPhone. Ugggh. I hate my iPhone.
@(Unverified) i drive that route 3-4 days a week, and live in the area i'm beginning to wonder if there is some larger issue with both at&t and t-mobile networks in that area? i own an iphone3GS, i hate to beat the at&t sucks drum, but my service has dramatically changed for the worse in the last month or so. 3g drops down to edge all the time, and goes out completely, it's so much so i was seriously considering a droid, but now a pre plus on verizon...
@(Unverified)
Your iPhone isn't the best device to test any network reception on. I've had 5 bars on AT&T then go to make a call and watch them drop down to 1.
Have yet to see edge in Seattle. In LA tonight, and over the weekend. No edge yet.
If you are having issues with this phone you are in the sticks.
This phone is stupid good.
@stabbytheicepic Actually I work in downtown Seattle and live in Bellevue (five blocks from main Microsoft campus) and I see E all the time at work and I have no coverage at home.
The phone definitely doesn't deal well with switching between Edge and 3G. For example I was browsing in the Amazon MP3 store this morning and every time 3G got dicey the Amazon app would report "Connection lost press here to retry". You'd retry and it would flip into Edge mode and start working but about 2 minutes later it would hear the 3G siren song and flip back to the non-working 3G. Then you'd repeat the whole "Connection lost..." cycle again.
Very irritating.
The lack of coverage at home just a few blocks from the main Microsoft campus is irritating as well. (I don't live in the sticks)
That I have 50Mbps Comcast and Google Voice doesn't take over via Wifi at home when I have no T-Mobile is VERY irritating! I don't understand this at all. When I got it the first thing I did was set the phone to make my Google Voice primary over T-Mobile and it can't do VoIP over Wifi when T-Mobile lets me down???
I'm getting very disillusioned with this "Google Phone", so far there isn't very much Google in it. I mean where is the Wave support? Even the iPhone has a decent Wave app, why doesn't the "Google Phone" have a decent Wave app?
@scotty1024 Considering that Google Voice is not a VoIP app, what you describe is impossible.
@scotty1024 Sounds like you should get a UMA phone. I love UMA on various Blackberries I've owned.
Speaking of which, where the hell is UMA on Android handsets, T-Mobile?
DROID DOES
@Troll
Nexus Doth Murder 3G.
HEY LOOK GUYS THIS MUST BE SO MUCH BETTER THAN AT&T
RIGHT???
RIGHT????????
@Troll
It is.
I've been with each of the carriers over the past 2-3 years. Each time, with whatever their top-end phone was. I don't care if AT&T keeps their iPhone exclusivity until the cows come home, I will NEVER go back to AT&T, ever!
I'm just glad Google's finally giving Apple a run for their money with the Nexus One.
It's amazing.
@hummer01
hardly. you say this after three days? I bet apple still managed to sell more iphones than google did nexus ones, and this problem hasn't spread yet, damaging the nexus's reputation. Meh. Can't say much. still sitting over here texting with no data plan with a holdout from Alltel's reign (LG Scoop, a phone that has now been surpassed three times, by rumor 2 and rumor touch, let alone the smartphones.)
I'm sure a firmware update will fix it soon
@Hydra The HTC Eris is seeing a similar issue. One firmware partially fixed the issue for some, but there still people who still are seeing it switch from 3G to 1x when they are in perfect 3G range, while other VZW phones show 3G. HTC tech support told me it was partially their fault(firmware side) because CDMA and Android is kind of a new territory for them. According to tech person the Hero is also seeing a little this issue also.
@Patlex
Just to add more fuel to the fire, I strongly feel that this is an HTC problem. I too have the Eris with Verizon, and had the issue with switching prior to the firmware update. The update worked for me, but you're right in that others haven't been so lucky. Before the Eris, I had the HTC Touch Pro2 on Verizon, which is a WinMo phone, and had the same problem with it. Only this was worse since it liked to get stuck on the slower data speed and require a soft reset to pick up 3G again. This is still an ongoing problem with this phone last I checked.
All in all, I feel HTC needs to do a better job on their R&D, specifically with their radios. I love their phones, but this is starting to turn me off from them.
No problems here.
Google has support forums? Interesting.
@Yanguang
lmao, my thoughts exactly
alls good in florida, nexus ones grabbing 3g covereage fine.
I think it is a software issue probably
Why would it be hardware if HTC has great phones and has experience in this market.
I expect a software fix for this if it even exists.
But I wouldn't doubt on T-Mobile that you would leave 3G zones easy...
That is why waiting for the Verizon version will be worth it.
@phoenix844884
Unless you want 7.2mbps 3g.
@stabbytheicepic Verizon is already starting their 7.2 rollout.
@phoenix844884
Ha, Sprints getting a wimax HTC bar phone. Sounds like a N1 on ster(dr)oids... ha ha
I'd rather wait for this...
@Nathan V
VZ is maxed out until they roll out 4G they can not achieve 7.2
And you thought AT&T 3G was bad. Dark purple is 3G.
http://coverage.t-mobile.com/default.aspx?MapType=Data
@bighap
Well yea but they don't charge as much as AT&T does and all of T-mobile's 3G is HSDPA unlike AT&T's.
@ZeRoCo0L - no excuse if we are to fully buy into this 3G coverage is what matters most perpetrated by Verizon. You would think Google a fairly well run company, would have learned from the Apple / AT&T "3G coverage" debacle. To launch your premier device on T-mobile only which has the least 3G coverage IS A BIG MISTAKE!
PS The N1 should have supported ALL frequencies (i.e. 850 and 1900mhz for 3G HSPA).