Google 'no longer investigating' fix for Nexus One 3G issues, advises 'changing your location'

Looking back through our archives, you'll find plenty of user dissatisfaction with the 3G reception on Google's Nexus One. Blamed alternately on T-Mobile's inferior 3G coverage and on software bugs, the problem was expected to be banished with an over-the-air update in early February. The update came, but the trouble also stayed. It might now be time to finally lay those last lingering hopes for rectification to rest, as Google has directly responded to calls for a bigger and better OTA patch by explaining that it's no longer working on "further engineering improvements." That's a pretty conclusive sign that the problem is in the hardware, particularly when you peruse the support thread in question and the reception comparisons users have been doing with other handsets. Well, at least you know for sure now.

[Thanks, Ryan]

[techi25 Posted Apr 22nd 2010 4:55PM]

@KingFaisal94 The fail of google has always existed. android fanboys were just blind.

[pika2000 Posted Apr 22nd 2010 6:02AM]

Question is, is this problem only on T-Mobile's 3G version, or on both? I mean somebody can easily test the AT&T 3G ver of Nexus One and the T-Mobile one, and see whether one or the other or both have more issues. If one is fine, then the network is the problem. If the hardware is the problem, then both would have issues. Simple no? Shouldn't a good tech reviewer/journalist pursue this test?

[thernus Posted Apr 22nd 2010 6:14AM]

I think it's the carrier too. Ive got a AT&T n1 on telstra in au (850mhz) and haven't had a problem at all. I had a iPhone and euro palm pre on optus (2100mhz) and was constantly having 3g issues all solved by just going with a better carrier

[glentendo64 Posted Apr 22nd 2010 6:28AM]

A friend of mine went though 3 different phones (not the nexus1) on t-mobile before he realized that the dropped signal wasn't a hardware issue, but a service issue. I say carrier as well. Google is doing nothing wrong in my opinion.

[rkd Posted Apr 22nd 2010 8:12AM]

@glentendo64 This contradicts the experience of a lot of other people.

[McPOW Posted Apr 22nd 2010 4:24PM]

@thernus I've never had any trouble with mine. I'm siding with this is just an issue of shoddy coverage in some areas.

[Kwame Nkrumah Posted Apr 22nd 2010 6:17AM]

Look at the apologists lining up to make excuses, hypocrites everywhere.

[mhloh Posted Apr 22nd 2010 6:23AM]

It wouldn't be fair to solely blame this to Google, but I feel if more R&D was done by either Google/HTC, this would not had happened.

I am in Singapore and yeah, I had issues with 3G. I wouldn't get any signal using 3G in the office, had to force 2G just to make sure I am contactable. In the other hand, my colleague just next to me, happily surfing via 3G on his iphone. Bare in mind that we both are using the same telco.

[Vanityeverlastingbonet Posted Apr 22nd 2010 6:27AM]

Soros sucks anyways I would never buy ish that he hot his greedy hands in

[willengage Posted Apr 22nd 2010 6:50AM]

This is what happens when you buy the copy instead of the original.

[cdaein Posted Apr 22nd 2010 6:59AM]

I got my N1 a few days ago, and so far I didn't have problem with getting 3G signal here. It works fine. Maybe Google made some changes in hardware, recently?

But, my problem is with wifi signal. Compared to my laptop and other cellphones, N1 gets a very weak signal or drops. Anyone having the same problem?

[darkazure Posted Apr 22nd 2010 9:09AM]

@cdaein

Lets say they made a hardware change. You'd think they would let the people with the defective hardware know, right? Oh, thats right! It's called a recall. It will never happen. I'm just a disgruntled N1 owner, sorry.

[StalkyTheFish Posted Apr 22nd 2010 2:29PM]

@cdaein

My N1 tends to report fewer "bars" than my 1st gen. iPod Touch on WiFi in the same location, but throughput is about the same. Even 1 bar on my N1 works fine.

Of course you never know whether #bars means carrier strength or packet loss/error correction ratio.

[Leindurstit Posted Apr 22nd 2010 6:59AM]

Works great on at&t. Fast, too.

[Drey Posted Apr 22nd 2010 7:18AM]

@cherryboom
WOW.... I don't even have a comeback for that one... just wow.

I would gladly buy a nexus one and give my money to a company that provides many quality FREE services to people, then a corporation that has become a cult that primarily (not all people) services douche bags like you. Go make out with your sister.

[RadHam Posted Apr 22nd 2010 7:24AM]

I'm disappointed that Google isn't looking into officially fixing this. It's been identified by the community recently as a missing line of code in the build.prop that is in Android 1.6 but not in Android 2.1. It's been added into the newest version of CyanogenMod but North American users will have to manually edit the value from "2" to "1".

[RadHam Posted Apr 22nd 2010 7:26AM]

Almost forgot the link:

http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?/topic/1721-3g-connectivity-issue-fix/

[Tes Posted Apr 22nd 2010 9:45AM]

@RadHam

What are you talking about? This is about 3G issues on the Nexus One...a phone that has only ever had Android 2.1 on it...so some beef about a missing line of code in 1.6 isn't even nearly relevant.

[RadHam Posted Apr 22nd 2010 9:56AM]

@Tes

You should read the link it explains everything very nicely. I never claimed that the Nexus ever ran AOSP 1.6. But to summarize one of the main configuration files in Android is named "build.prop". In Android 1.6 there is a value listed in the config for "ro.ril.hsxpa" which is for 3G configuration. Since it is in AOSP 1.6 the G1/MT3G have this value and don't experience the same 3G issues. When you add this line into your build.prop file and set the correct value you experience a huge performance gain. Also, flashing the latest PASSION radio image helps as well (the one which the AT&T variant shipped with). I've updated this config on my Nexus along with flashing my radio image and the performance difference is night and day.

[dannyry Posted Apr 22nd 2010 7:32AM]

How does google advise "changing your location" be deduced by engadget as a hardware problem? Anyway I get it though. How many tmobile phones does this same problem happen to? This is what I've been saying all along about HTC. They'd win the beauty contest but a marriage with them would never last.

[Hazdaz Posted Apr 22nd 2010 8:10AM]

Looks like the SuperPhone is either deaf or mute.

What happened Google?
Why'd you drop the ball and now not willing to pick it back up? Does this maybe prove that you should never have gotten into the hardware business at all, and simply concentrated on just the software?

My biggest concern about this is that if the HTC Incredible is supposed to be very similar to the N1 internally, is that phone going to have the same problems??
A mess like this looks bad on the entire Android market. Not good.

[McPOW Posted Apr 22nd 2010 5:41PM]

@Hazdaz That... or maybe they did evaluate it and have concluded that it isn't a technical fault at all, but a simple matter of people who are reporting it are in a weak signal area. That certainly jives with my N1 experience.

[darkazure Posted Apr 22nd 2010 8:43AM]

I had the Nexus one. Returned it due to this issue amongst others (Touch screen calibration issues). The hardware on this phone is nothing spectacular. The Snap Dragon is very nice, but the synaptics clearpad 2000 DUAL TOUCH capacitive sensor is inferior to the true 4 point multi touch sensor (good for games) that the iphone 1G has. I want to give google my money, but they don't seem to want to provide me a good phone for it. I love the OS, but the phone is just riddled with bugs and bad hardware decision... especially for a flagship device.

[CannedCorn Posted Apr 22nd 2010 5:18PM]

@darkazure i did the same, the touch screen blows on this phone. inb4 iphone, because I've used one, but i always wind up going back to my bb9700

[Kwame Nkrumah Posted Apr 22nd 2010 9:26AM]

@Drey

So Android phones and the phone service are free right?

[markolic Posted Apr 22nd 2010 9:49AM]

Changing the sexual orientation of the phone does not fix reception issues. Confirmed

[mhloh Posted Apr 22nd 2010 10:38AM]

@markolic
I never bothered to try :P Next, Google will probably come out something like..try holding the phone backwards up..and see if it works

[Elranzer Posted Apr 22nd 2010 10:38AM]

Where the hell is the Verizon version of the Nexus One...??!

[dhw Posted Apr 22nd 2010 10:46AM]

No 3g issues with my n1. And I bought my the 1st day it was available for order.

[LEDfoot Posted Apr 22nd 2010 10:51AM]

I don't get why it's specifically the Nexus One on TMobile that has so many complaints.
HTC makes a lot of phones: They know how to design a 3G phone.
HTC makes a lot of Android Phones: They know how to implement that.
HTC makes several 3G phones sold by TMobile: They work well on that network.

It's almost as if the HTC hardware requires some OS tweaks/drivers/etc that they are keeping for use with their own Android implementation but isn't letting Google use on the N1.
Or it could simply be that a lot of N1 user jumped ships from the iPhone and didn't realize that TMobile 3G coverage isn't as big as AT&T.

[nothingreal Posted Apr 22nd 2010 11:45AM]

I've had both GSM Nexus One phones (I'm on AT&T) and the newer AT&T version is as good on 3G as my previous iPhone was. Neither are stellar, but neither appears to have a crippling defect.

The real issue (if you can call it that) here is that mobile phones in general follow a trend that doesn't put a premium on reception and voice connectivity. Phones are designed to be thin, stylish and premium-looking portable computers first.. and as voice communication devices second. Often times this comes at a lack of reception and voice quality.

[uansari1 Posted Apr 22nd 2010 12:34PM]

The fact of the matter is that the problem lies with the carriers at this point. I live in Toledo, OH. I often visit my sister in Chicago. In Toledo, I can recreate the 3G switching issue easily by covering the antenna area with my hand... I also lose 3G inside of my apartment just by picking up my phone or moving further into the building. In contrast, when I visit Chicago I can not drop off 3G, regardless of how I hold the phone or where I am! I blame T-mobile's less than complete saturation of most of the cities for this issue. Also, I believe that in most of these smaller markets, the carriers, with T-mobile in particular, have opted to put up a higher number of cell towers that put out weaker signals in an effort to save costs, rather than putting up fewer that put out stronger signals that penetrate buildings better.

See here for more information: http://cellphones.org/reception/

[LANjackal Posted Apr 22nd 2010 12:41PM]

Yikes. Google's Beta model really burned early adopters this time. IDK about the rest of you, but if I paid triple digits for something I expect a better resolution than "Oh well forget it"

[Wesscoast Posted Apr 23rd 2010 12:52AM]

@LANjackal

FYI, from a business standpoint, the Google Beta model is basically "the sooner we get it out, the sooner we can slap ads on it"

No other company but an advertising company would do this ... "Let's put it out half baked... just do it.. who cares, we'll fix it later...its free anyway... "

[G building Posted Apr 22nd 2010 12:53PM]

Hard to say. When I called Google about this issue with my phone, after doing a bit of troubleshooting, you know setting the phone to only received a 3g signal and still having the same issue, the rep then told me over the phone that the problem was how t mobile sends out their signal or something to that affect and how the phone interprets its. After that i pushed for a warranty replacement. Shipped in two day, when I received the replacement, i've since had anymore issues in regarding the dropping of the 3g signal. So is it hardware, or is it t mobile? I love the phone nonetheless but if the replacement worked for me try for it yourself if youre having the same issue even after the update.

[angermeans Posted Apr 22nd 2010 1:09PM]

@cherryboom wow aren't you cool. I read through your rant three times and still couldn't discern what it was you were saying. All I saw was own this and bitch that. You sir, look like an uneducated fool and on top of that a fanboi. People are having problems with a device and you come in and call them all bitches and tell them they got pwned. What an ass you are.

[eahiv Posted Apr 22nd 2010 1:16PM]

Shame on you, google

[dingus Posted Apr 22nd 2010 1:35PM]

It looks like the thread got buried. Two words Google: Streisand Effect.

[StalkyTheFish Posted Apr 22nd 2010 1:41PM]

Honestly, I haven't had a problem lately. It pretty much only drops to "E" in areas where I'd expect it to have a crappy signal.

[dallasfever Posted Apr 22nd 2010 2:28PM]

I have NEXUS and HD2 its def Tmobile unless HTC didnt get the radio specs correct which i doubt. Both go in and out of edge and very slow 3g service.

[AbsoluteDesignz Posted Apr 22nd 2010 4:05PM]

There should be a poll for N1 owners who go on this site to see who has issues or not...because I have absolutely NO issues with mine...at all. I too did the covering phone with hand test, and nothing happened...granted I live in a great 3G area...I also did the side by side with the G1 test...and ummm yea, my N1 had better signal (or more bars at least) than the G1...so I dunno...people who do not own an N1 shouldn't comment though, it's pointless trolling.

But yea...

[Socalfrank Posted Apr 23rd 2010 1:58AM]

I've always been a big fan of TMO. Great rates and really good voice coverage. Got my N1 and I'm ready to jump ship to try out Sprint when the EVO comes out this summer. TMO 3G coverage is lousy where I live and they make no apologies for it either. Been a nice 8 years with you TMO. Anyone interested in a slightly used and rooted N1?

[sibyy Posted Apr 23rd 2010 8:29AM]

Day 116: Still having 3G connectivity issues. No solution in sight.

[MAPCINQ Posted Apr 23rd 2010 2:12PM]

I have an N1 on Rogers in Canada. To date I have probably only dropped down to edge 3 or 4 times. I get perfect 3G signal in places I didnt expect too. So far I have been nothing but impressed with this phone. I dont take what I read on the net seriously as any jackass with a grudge and a keyboard can make up whatever they want. BTW i used to have an iPhone, but it blew up after my dragon dropped it one day.