My wife and I recently purchased new Samsung Stratosphere phones. For me it was an upgrade from the Motorola Droid and for her it was the first smart phone. Since we have gotten them I have noticed that it cannot keep a data connection. It drops it in 4G, in 3G and in wifi without me moving. I have tried everything from turning airplane mode on/off, turning mobile data on/off, changing the network mode, rebooting with the sim card in, rebooting with the sim card out...nothing will help it keep a connection.
My wife tells me that her phone just stops transmitting when talking to people. She can hear them fine but they are unable to hear her. Mine has done that once as well.
Is anyone else having this issue? Is it just a bad phone or a bad model period?
Try reprogramming it. To reprogram go into the dialer and type in *228. Don't forget that star/astrick. that might help. it reprograms the towers and such. that might make a difference. I know I had some issues for a little bit when i first had the phone, but it got better. I have that phone currently and have been using it for a little more then a month. It has it's issues, but nothing major. If it continues though, I suggest bringing it into Verizon if that doesn't work either or it still happens.
Dialing *228 on any of the 4G LTE phones and devices will not work. That dialing is not needed because everything is through the SIM card. A reboot of the phone will reset the connection between the phone and the network.
I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.
Stratosphere has connectivity problems. We have had our phone since the 17th of April and as of the 22nd we have no connection to 3g/4g. Recent post states to go under settings/wirless-networks/mobile networks/global data roaming access-and actually allow access. You will only be charged outside us and it worked for us
I agree with polabear_33. Restarting the phone will solve a lot of problems. It's just like restarting your PC if it isn't behaving normally. Occasionally, I have a 3G/4G connection problems and doing a restart usually takes care of the problem. You may be in an area between VZW towers where the signal is always weak. Have you called VZW customer service about your problem? I have found them to be most helpful, especially if you get to the second level of support where you are dealing with a Samsung specialist.
I'm in a suburban area in a major metropolitan district that should have good 4G coverage. I generally see it drop to 3G and then die altogether at some point every other day, sometimes every day. Early morning seems to be especially problematic. I then hook up to my home WiFi and get a good connection; or sometimes do the time-consuming restart and get 4G going again.
So far, I'm telling myself that this is due to this still being a relatively early stage of VZW's 4G network, and being patient while they work it out. However, I am paying good money for a service that's reliably available maybe 80% of the time. They're cashing 100% of my checks. I understand people being upset about it, and I don't think VZW is doing their reputation any favors by selling high-end devices without fair warning that the high-end data connection is not yet reliable. If I'd have been told that this would be the state of things, I'd probably still have bought the Stratosphere; I tend to buy technology for the future anyway. And yes, I know, the Strat wasn't the latest and greatest when I bought it. I needed the physical keyboard and 4G, and when the 4G is working it's fantastic.
I am highly disappointed with the Stratosphere. I was excited about the 4G technology, it being a Samsung and the slide out keyboard. Since I "upgraded" from an HTC Incredible to this phone two weeks ago, I've had nothing but trouble with the 4G connection and am in fact am my 2nd one. My husband has an HTC Rezound and when both phones are sitting side by side his is running at 4G and mine at 3G or less. We've conducted speed tests of the two phones and mine runs CONSIDERABLY slower. I have problems with apps functioning properly as well. I really want to like this phone but I also want to have full function of what we are paying for (thanks Dave-in-Decatur for your post). I will try the roaming setting adjustment, but to be honest, I've seen quite a few posts regarding the negatives of this phone and Verizon should not be selling it with all of the problems it has. I've been a Verizon customer for quite a few years and my husband and I are paying a pretty penny (as all of us who are using this carrier, especially with smartphones) for service and we should be getting a satisfactory product we are paying for. I'm almost considering having my old phone reactivated as it seemed to run a bit faster than this one does.
After talking with Verizon I tried changing the settings for roaming, toggling airplane mode on and off, a new sim card and a factory restore. None of those actually fixed the problem for more then a few minutes. Rebooting the phone would allow it to pick up a connection - for about 5 minutes and then it would drop it once again.
Finally traded phones for a different Stratosphere. The new one has a lot of the same problems with keeping and maintaining a connection but it isn't as severe as the first one.
All in all, I would have to say the phone itself has issues with the radios.
I do want to say that, despite my post, I actually like the Strat pretty well and don't consider the connectivity issues a deal-breaker, just an annoyance (since if all else fails I'm able to use it over my home WiFi). It's worthwhile recognizing that the issues we see reported on these forums represent the phones that aren't working well. We don't see the success stories! Nevertheless, if it's not working, it's not working, and it is frustrating to pay for service you're not getting. Maybe what's really needed is a return period longer than 14 days, long enough to figure out if this device is really going to do what you want it to do.
I just bought a Samsung Stratosphere as my first smart phone and I couldn't be more disappointed.
I own a wireless router with a signal booster to extend range. It keeps my laptop and other wireless devises with full bars inside and around outside my house. The Samsung, on the other hand, gives one signal bar inside, and loses that when I sit on the back porch. If I walk into the room with my router and hold the phone up to the wireless, it increases to two bars only.
I frequently eat lunch at the park where the Verizon 3G tower is located. With the tower in view, I only get one bar and it drops occasionally.
I miss half my incoming calls because, with the weak signal the phone gets at all times, it doesn't ring until right before it goes to voicemail.
I called Verizon's support right after I bought it but they B.S.ed me into keeping the phone beyond 14 days so that I can't do anything about it.
I plan to wait it out until my contract is up, then switch to another provider that won't lie to me.
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