yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] shouren04:
Took my Note 5 out today on a short trip. In the spot where my Note 8 gets 60-64mbps, my Note 5 got 50-53mbs. Ran the test 3 times.

As I suspected the Note 5 definitely seems to get better signal strength driving around than my Note 8, especially in between buildings & such. The bars on my Note 5 is definitely strange though, it will stay at full bars until it hits -100dBm.

I found another closer spot to my house that seems to have good LTE speeds. Note 5 got 53mbps there also. I'll go back there with my Note 8 & test again. Found it using Sensorly.com. Site seems to be fairly accurate as the spot where I tested shows on the map as a good area also.

So far my Note 5 is still slower than my Note 8. Will keep testing. I'm almost starting to think my Note 5 is having speed issues as it's backwards compared to most of you guys. Haha.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] iunlock:
Have you tried using a different (newer) SIM card?

Having spent hours on end last night diving deep into the phone, I have come to my own conclusions about this issue..

1. It is not a hardware issue. (These phones work just fine in their respected regions and there has been no wide spread reports of data issues. You also have the T-Mobile variant [MENTION=2996598]DeeXii[/MENTION] and can validate that the TM Note 8 has zero data issues; as the same with the F and N models in UK and S.Korea. They work fine.)

2. I feel that this is a software related issue that is conflicting with the modem. It's in the firmware/code/files...somewhere...

3. Could it be that the carrier isn't recognizing the phone? But then, other international variants have worked just fine in the past...

Those two wires (blue and white) are only to bridge the connection from one pcb to the other pcb. It doesn't have much to do with the actual reception.

However, I did replace the thinner stock blue wire with the beefy white wire from my Note 4 and the dBm's did drop some, while at times gaining a bar of reception on the Note 8.

The dBm/asu are about the same on the Note 8 and Note 5 in an area where I only see 1 bar of LTE on the Note 8.

What was interesting is that when removing the wire and clipping them back in, the phone would get full bars on H+ and 4 bars on 3G in the same area where I only had 1 bar of LTE before. This had me thinking....again, "SOFTWARE," related as we know that certain software tweaks can help with locking onto a tower/connection etc.... This has gotta be software guys.....

Also remember that our Note 5's are Exynos too.... so that leads me to believe that this isn't so much of a modem issue, but the other way around where the software isn't playing nicely with the modem.

I've also connected all the gold contact points with a wire and that did increase the reception a little, but after running a speedtest, I might get a pretty decent run, but the next run would be back to dirt.

On a side note, the Note 8 is a darn well made phone. King of flagships for sure and the build quality is unmatched.

I hope that we can find a solution to this issue soon...it's getting annoying have such a great phone, being useless right now due to this reception issue.

I've realized how important reception is to me more so than the average user since I'm always on a VPN.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Ian the Great:
I've tried locking to each T-Mobile lte bands 2, 4, 12 separately and ran a few tests.No noticeble difference at all for me. I'm still maxing out at about 4 mbps down, less than 3mbps up. Also get the same terrible speed with 2x Carrier aggregation connected.

This sucks...If we don't come up with something soon Im gonna sell. Hopefully get 3/4 of what I paid.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] shouren04:
When you guys are experiencing these speed issues does it affect your calls (volte) or streaming? Will it cause Pandora or Youtube not to play or buffer? What version Speed Test are you guys using? Newest I assume? I'm not using the very latest version of Speed Test but I do use the same version on both my phones. That Sensorly site has a speed test also, I ran it & it was pretty much the same as the Speed Test app.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
[MENTION=2595499]iunlock[/MENTION]

Thanks for the write up, i am getting to the same conclusion that it has to do with the software\baseband settings\code.

Should I try to hassle with Samsung in S Korea? I can pretend that I am a travelling customer to the US who uses T-Mobile SIM or something of that sort
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kamikaze_Ice:
Try different Kernels (official and custom ones).

In Kalm_Traveler's CSC thread it seemed likely that there was a permissions issue in the ramdisk on getting WiFi calling to reconnect (without rebooting) after it was lost or turned off.

I don't have this problem with AT&T, but then again their signal is absolute crap here unless you're very close to a tower. All of my past personal phones, and work phones, have always had ~3-5 Mbps down and <1 Mbps up...

*puke*
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
Clove has a 14 day return policy. How long ago did you get it?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
Do it! :D

I tried one of the two custom kernels available and the results were the same.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
Did you take notice of what the signal strength is with and without the wires connected? They are not an integral part of the reception itself, but as I have noted with my own N950N, disconnecting those wires has no effect whatsoever on my LTE signal, which is an obvious indication that something is wrong with the lower antenna/usb/mic PCB that they snap on to.

I haven't seen anything on my own device that would lead me to think that it is a software issue, especially since my LTE speeds were very fast for the first 5 days or so.

Also, quite sure it had nothing to do with the CSC as the attached screenshot I sent to my buddy with obviously the T-Mobile CSC applied (see the 4G/LTE data icon) a day or two before the LTE strength and data speeds suddenly went to pot.

Additionally... my mic stopped working several weeks later, and heating the lower PCB by itself in an oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes fixed it.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] iunlock:
That would be great...let me know the dept. that you talk to, maybe PM me the info and I can call them too...

I know that the wires are not an integral part of the reception, however, replacing the small blue one did gain better dBm/asu when I swapped the longer/beefier white wire over to the blue wire side. Connecting and reconnecting it caused the reception to jump around from H+, 3G to LTE and so on...

Those wires, however, are just a bridge to connect both pcb's and what I was doing is just ruling that part out of maybe it being a faulty wire.

I still think it's a software issue IMO from having seen the behavior of the tests that I've conducted myself.

Like I've mentioned in several of my posts, if it's a hardware issue, then we'd hear a wide spread fiasco like a plague of all the F and N models having reception issues in their respected regions...

The T-Mobile variant Note 5 is also Exynos and has zero issues here in the States...

[MENTION=2996598]DeeXii[/MENTION] has a T-Mobile Note 8 along with a F model and the T-Mobile one works just fine without any issues...granted it is SnapDragon, but the point is, if either the Exynos or the SD variants had any major issues, we'd be hearing about it....

I think the issue is greater than the csc itself... perhaps it is deeper within the code itself somewhere, to where it just isn't playing nicely with the modem....it's a catch 22 in a lot of ways, but again if it was hardware, we'd be hearing about it..

Also, at times my Note 8 pulled some decent speeds, but only for a few runs then it went to dirt again. When I was in areas with almost full bars, it had a mind of its own.

In the past there have been software issues to address connectivity issues, which is another reason I think it is software related....

The thing about the mic is interesting indeed... I did a lot of tests with wires hooked to all the antenna points to rule out the possibility of it being a connection issue between the contact points and the inside cover... oddly enough, there wasn't any real improvement even with that...

This is frustrating....only if the T-Mobile variant was unlocked eh.....
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Ian the Great:
Unfortunately, I preordered and received 18th of September. I Also rooted the device. Don't know if Clove checks that or not, but probably too late anyway. gonna wait a few days at least, before putting it on eBay.

This weekend I want to Google research this problem. Possible someone could come up with the answer. It seems there's at least a few people in the same boat here.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
the question remains, do s8+ s8 exynos have this problem on t-mo?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
Well we have some pretty good minds on the case at the moment. :)

Someone earlier in the thread said that they did.

It would be nice to confirm.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Interceptor777:
There's a good chance carrier aggregation isn't working on your Exynos phones. It wasn't on my S8+ so I wrote up this guide to enable it on T-Mobile, should work for the Note 8 too. It should also improve your speeds and coverage by quite a bit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS8/comments/75ru94/root_exynos_galaxy_s8_how_to_get_carrier/

EDIT: You don't actually need a PC, just get a terminal emulator and follow the commands after typing adb shell in the steps.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Ian the Great:
Yes, I've been all over that service menu. I've enabled and disabled 3xCa but I believe both were working all along. I know for sure that 2XCA works and connects because I've seen it, but still there is no speed. Also trying lots of other stuff in there. Nothing new yet, I'm def not an expert though, just trying anything that it allows me to.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
I turned off 3DL CA and it dropped me to "4G" for a few minutes (HSPA+) but I did get better upload speeds that way... like... 8mbps instead of failing or .01mbps. LTE eventually came back and I got a mind-blowing 8mbps down and 0.01mbps up.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
I tried this and it seems when I first did it the speeds got much better but then after that test or maybe a 2nd one the speeds went back to crap. :(
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
Oi so I saw two of you guys on a ATT thread about a similar issue and u guys didnt say anything.

Its clear what the problem is (no solution as of now).

Its Carrier Aggregation! It totally makes sense.

Are you guys familiar with MIMO with routers?

It uses multiple combined data streams to create more bandwidth instead of one giant stream?

Well imagine that's how the USA LTE works. Now imagine that your shiny new Note 8 could only use one of those streams of data.

There you have it. Do I have a solution? No but at least we know whats up. Its so very obvious that this is the case.

This happened on the S8 and its happening on ATT & TMO.

Now to find out how to fix. :)
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
The Exynos Note 8 supports up to 5 CA, which is more than the Snapdragon version which only supports up to 4.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
Its not that .. something in the N950F firmware is not allowing it to handle the Carrier Aggregation the way the USA firmware handles it.

They don't use Carrier Aggregation the same way the USA models do. Its not about Carrier Aggregation or not Carrier Aggregation.

Im not an expert into firmware at all so it will take someone who knows what they are doing to find this out.

I can almost guarantee if someone with experience were to dive deep into the U firmware they could find out how to get this to work.

Its simply the way the UK (or international) firmware is setup.

Im guessing if TEK, if he were still around would be able to figure this out.\

When you duplicated TEKs CSC fix for the S8 did you copy all the files 1:1 from the N950U firmware?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] iunlock:
As we've both said several times in our many convos.... It is not hardware indeed. :) :highfive:

It's great to now have a direction..awesome..

Again....:good: on it not being hardware ALL ALONG....

Sweeeet... Okay boys now lets figure this out.... :)

Could we take bits from the U firmware and piece something together into the F firmware, compile it and flash? Even possible? Dev's where you guys at? :P

.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
Yes, I took exactly the same files he used in his S8 patch, but from a Tmobile 950U. There is nothing in the CSC that would have the affect you guys are thinking it would have.

Also, from what I've read about carrier aggregation there are not different things ways that it works. It is a very specific technology, and either is enabled or not. If the device supports it and the carrier supports it, it will be used.

I understand that the hope is that there will be a software issue that can be addressed to fix the poor LTE speeds that many of us are now seeing but the more reports I see if this to me seem all the more obvious that there are a number of faulty antenna/usb boards that went out in both Exynos variants.

Since you guys haven't been diving in to the firmware like I have I can see why you might feel otherwise, but having really gone deep diving into N, F, and U firmware so far AND tearing my 950N apart for testing I can tell you that there definitely is a hardware issue and I'm positive it is not only my device. If one had a problem the odds are that at least several others did too.

Also, you may have missed my posts about it but i still have my T-mobile Note 5, and have been using it for comparisons since it has essentially just older versions of the hardware in our Exynos Note 8.

There is nothing mysterious about how the various technologies work, and there are not regional ways that they work. If a device supports the appropriate LTE bands, supports carrier aggregation, and is functioning properly, it will work as expected.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
So i followed instructions monitored the bands, it's connecting to band 2 or 4 but not both, unless VLD Band is the secondary band to connect with.

Speed tests were 30mbps, then 6mbps, then .17mbps in download speeds consecutively.

I agree with the synopsis that the modem firmware (or provisioning?) isn't handling carrier aggregation properly for us.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] iunlock:
If it was hardware with the specific Exynos models, even the phones in the different regions would be experiencing reception issues in general.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] MeltdownSpectre:
This is what I was talking about in the N950N on AT&T thread.

The N950F does support LTE CA, but not the band combinations used by the US carriers like AT&T and TMO.

AT&T uses Bands 2 (1900 MHz), 4 (1700/2100 MHz), 5 (850 MHz), 12,17,29 (700 MHz) and Band 30 (2300 MHz).

TMO uses Bands 2 (1900 MHz), 4 (1700/2100 MHz), 12 (700 MHz) and 71 (600 MHz), the last one is only supported by the LG V30 right now.

AT&T usually aggregates Bands 4 and 12 in a 2CA combination, or 4 and 29, or 4 and 30, or 30 and 12, or 30 and 29, or 4, 12 and 30 and so on. There are many combos they use depending on your location.

The N950F supports Band 2, 5, 12 and 17. So you're missing Band 30, which isn't unusual since the 950F isn't meant in the US and B30 is only used by AT&T.

Now comes the ability to use CA, and that's where the N950F lets you down. Firstly, it has no Band 30 support, and secondly, it probably doesn't have CA support for any of the bands used by AT&T. So it'll only be able to use 1 band at a time, and if it's connected solely to any of the 700 MHz bands, you can guarantee absolutely appalling speeds on your phone since low frequency bands aren't able to cater to as many users as higher bands, so they tend to get very congested. Hence, your poor speeds.

Same goes for TMO, the 950F supports most of the bands (or all I think), but not the CA combos used by TMO, so it won't be able to use multiple data streams.

As far as I know, CSC flashing will not enable it to use these CA combos, since they're usually hard-coded and the radio will only use CA combos in areas where the phone is officially sold and meant to be used, which would be, Europe, Middle East, Australia and so on.

If you don't believe it's not CSC based, just know this, on my previous phone (S8+), I was using it here in Pakistan, activated with my Pakistani SIM card, so my CSC was PAK, I travelled to the UAE, where the CSC used there is XSG. The only way to change my CSC was to do a factory reset on my phone, and since I was only there for around 10 days or so, I didn't want to. And so I ignored the pop-up, and continued my trip in the UAE with a local SIM I had picked up from a carrier over there. Carrier aggregation worked just fine (confirmed via ServiceMode), and I was still on my PAK CSC. I just had to put in the correct APN settings and I was getting 3-band CA (3CA) the entire time I was there and got insane speeds of over 200 Mbps with CA of Band 1, 3 and 20.

Anyway, my point is, this is probably one sacrifice you're gonna have to make when buying Exynos Note 8's in the US since flashing the CSC can get stuff like VoLTE and WiFi calling to work, but not CA. That is definitely hardware related, and can NOT be changed.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
There's two flaws or problems in what you are saying.

For one the phones work fine in their respected regions.

For example South Korea has crazy internet and there is no issues. (Confirmed by people unlock knows that actually live there)

Two, from what we know about CA it makes total sense.

It is the one any only thing that makes sense.

Now a far as a solution yoky may be right.

I fear the problem lies in the baseband part of the firmware, which if that is the case then only Sammy can fix. I highly doubt that will happen. However maybe there is one variable setting in the Rom (os) part of the firmware that interfaces with the baseband that you simply have not found yet. It's more likely the modem and we are screwed, but still there is Small percentage that this is fixable via software. I choose not to give up quite yet and I know my brother man [MENTION=316759]unlock[/MENTION] feels the same way. :)
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Limeybastard:
Can you do me a favor please. I have another Samsung device that is an international version SM-T819Y. I can take a screen shot of the bands it supports and also a speed test shot. It's on T Mobile also.

Edit some screen shots. Used same speed test server for each test and also devices were in same place for each test. First two are Samsung international tablet using TMO . Last image is the screen shot of my TMO branded note 8.

Ran a few more tests using same speed test server both devices are about the same upload and download speed.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] MeltdownSpectre:
Obviously they work fine in their respected regions. Why wouldn't they?

The Exynos variants were never meant to be sold in the USA so Samsung didn't feel the need to add CA combos or software support for the Exynos variants in the US.

It is definitely baseband related, however I highly doubt this is fixable by software since you can't pick up bits from the U firmware and use them on the F variant since the hardware is totally different.

Sent from my SM-N950F
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] MeltdownSpectre:
[MENTION=5469644]Limeybastard[/MENTION]

To verify the connection is the same on both, dial *#0011#, take a screenshot on both the tablet, and the phone, and then do a speed test.

I can guarantee the tablet will be on single band LTE and the TMO branded Note 8 will be using Carrier aggregation (LTE-A).
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Limeybastard:
Hi,

Are you referring to this line on the service menu ?

If so, they both show the same band, but one cannot see it change ( when speed test is running?) Not sure split screen works with it.

---------- Post added at 11:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:38 AM ----------

The speed test ran in the back ground on the note 8 whilst I was on the *#0011# service mode screen. LTE was continually on band 4.

Let me know if you would like me to film it.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] MeltdownSpectre:
That is the line, yes. But look a few lines down where it says 'CA-Not Config'.

Open ServiceMode, hit the home button, go to the speedtest app, start a speedtest, double tap the multitasking button to go back to service mode and see if it looks any different.

Then do the same on the tablet.

If both the phone and the tablet are still getting very different results then there's just the case of different CPU, different antenna placement, different SINR values, and a bunch of other factors.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Limeybastard:
I've done a side by side video. Once it's uploaded I'll post link showing the service mode operating during speed test using same servers.

The speed test on the TabS2 were significantly slower but generally it's about the same as the N8. My original query wasn't about why my other Samsung device is slower by the way. It was more of a comparison between a T Mobile Samsung branded device and a international Samsung device albeit the best test would have been to show note 8 v TMO note 8 but I don't have F or N model.

---------- Post added at 12:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 PM ----------

Here's the video.

https://youtu.be/aAAJmqaiEK4
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
Using Korean version on T-Mobile and my screen is WAY different
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] MeltdownSpectre:
It's different because ServiceMode reads and displays the data differently on Snapdragon phones vs Exynos phones.

I have the Exynos Note 8, so my ServiceMode screenshot would look similar to yours, however the Snapdragon ones look completely different.

Sent from my SM-N950F
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
A few questions, how do we enable disable CA again via shortcust master? I am in the code and can't remember where that option was.

Also, not sure if y'all realized this but, any data connectivity outside of WiFi for us, will be battery draining. I went for a hour drive, left house phone was at 100%, came home didn't touch phone was at 95%, visually my phone was jumping from "4G" to "4G LTE" back and forth a lot .
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
[MENTION=5063250]murtaza02[/MENTION], Thank you for joining the conversation. :)
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] MeltdownSpectre:
*#2683662# is the code that used to work for me but Samsung disabled it a few updates ago.

I myself don't remember exactly where it is, took a while to find it, only to never use it again since none of the networks in my country use CA.

Sent from my SM-N950F
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
Also I apologize, my previous post earlier this morning was not intended to reply to you. :)
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] MeltdownSpectre:
Not a problem.

Sent from my SM-N950F