Galaxy S6 Cell Signal Issues

[walter_white]

Is anyone else seeing any issues with their cell signal randomly dropping on their Galaxy S6?  Often I will get "emergency calls only", even in an area with strong signals.  Any text messages will not send, and trying to use any apps that rely on data will just fail.  Often toggling the "flight mode" option will resolve the issue, but not all of the time.  Sometimes a restart is required, or just waiting it out for a few minutes will work.

[NFtoBC]

@KJS

   The responsibility for the phone working properly belongs to the manufacturer. You expecting Telus to do more than help you with sending your phone to the appropriate agency is akin to expecting the Highways Department to address your car warranty issues. 

[mhinc]

@KJS

I currently have mine in for repair, and I am not hopeful that it will come back fixed, pretty hard to repair a design flaw.

@NFtoBC

You are correct to a point.  But at the same time, by Telus using Samsung Devices, they do hold 

responsibility for said device.  You have to remember that this device is under contract, it's like leasing a car.  In the end, it's Samsung's device but it's a device the Telus has chosen to use.  

[Nighthawk]

It's not a device that Telus has chosen to use. It's a device they are offering because of demand from consumers. People want the shiny things regardless of any problems with them and then aren't happy when the widespread problems effect them, in this case specifically due to the manufacturer experimenting with a new antenna. When it works, it is amazing. I've maxed out at 85mbps download on LTE with mine.

[mhinc]

@Nighthawk

It's a device they have to use to keep their customers happy.  It's also a device that, within the first year, is expected to be supported by the Telus as the end user.  It's like when you buy certain laptops, even though it houses a Western Digital hard drive, it's up to the laptop manufacture to support and isn't supported from WD at all.

Also as the provider, Telus should start to see all the repairs that are being done and take action on it with Samsung.  I don't know if you have ever dealt direct with Samsung, but they are an absolute joke.  This is my last Samsung, I am going to go HTC after this lovely experience.  I currently have my S6 in for repair, and I have a S4 Mini loaner that works better.

As for LTE, my LTE is fine, it's the 4G that's the issue.  Which I am stuck on due to where I work 9 hours a day.  

No matter what we the consumers are never the winners.

[Nighthawk]

And what action would you like done? Samsung is losing money on them already so they are not going to be motivated to do any kind of fix, especially considering the number of devices out there already. I'm still using mine as I know sending it in for repairs will be futile unless they change the antenna design and position. Where I work LTE/4G is just not possible at this altitude but 3G still works.

HTC? HTC is losing so much money, they may not be around for long.

[mhinc]

So, After jumping through hoops, swapping sim cards, sending out my phone for repair, getting a loyalty replacement, etc.   And every employee on phone and at the Telus store telling me there were no known issues with signal on the S6 and S6 Edge...They finally launch a trouble ticket and I end up speaking to, what I would assume is a level 2 tech at Telus who tells me the signal issue is known.  And it's been reported to Samsung and they are now waiting on a software update to correct.

When I questioned how a software update is going to correct a Hardware issue with Samsung's new Antenna technology.  She explained that even though the hardware is the case, it's possible that Samsung has the signal set low, for example 30%.  The software update would boost said signal to a higher level, YES this may decrease battery life a bit, but if it corrects the problem then so be it. 

Anyway that's my story thus far.

[mhinc]

@Nighthawk - Hmm "And what action would you like done? Samsung is losing money on them already so they are not going to be motivated to do any kind of fix, especially considering the number of devices out there already."

Appears they have noted an issue and are looking to resolve it...

[BCHeyman]

similar connectivity issues with galaxy s6. i have had the phone for 3 days. if it does not get better i am returning it. what is a good phone with consistent connectivity?

[mhinc]

@BCHeyman - From talking to others and doing some research.  Sony has one of the strongest, best antennas on the market.  I am not a fan of their phones.  But if you are looking for great signal strength, you may want to go that way

[BCHeyman]

but telus does not seem to have any sony on sale right now. how about htc one or LG? or may be i can just downgrade to S5

[J9hagop]

Does anyone know when and where I can get an update on this matter?

[Nighthawk]

A resolution for this issue will only happen when Samsung has issued a recall for the S6 devices. This is a widespread issue affecting any carrier with the device. 

[Hanykins]

Samsung S6 Edge here, same issue. 9 times out of 10 my data gets dropped and I have to wait a minute or 2 for it to work again, just to get dropped later. Noticed that usually when this happens I go from LTE+ to LTE and back again. 

Been contacting Telus online and in store but but no concrete answers or solutions. Told me to switch to the new SIM card but still the same issue. Quite frustrating and unfortunately it's past the return date for me. 

[Nighthawk]

As it has been said before, contacting Telus won't fix it. This is a Samsung issue. They may be able to fix it with a software update but they don't release those often and the last update didn't fix the issue.

[mhinc]

@Nighthawk - Since you seem to know everything, I am assuming you work for Telus or Samsung?  No?  Good then how about your keep your incorrect so called knowledge to yourself.

I have been in contact with Telus regarding this issue.  It's finally been deemed a known issue, there is an open mass ticket for it, I first suggest those experiencing the issue with the S6 or S6 Edge contact Telus to have themselves added to the ticket.  The more that call, the more that get added the faster a resolution from Samsung.  Which is working directly with Telus in regards to the matter.  

I am getting sick and tired of Nighthawk contradicting me, when I have done all the leg work and he just sits back and spouts off nonsense. 

If you don't believe me you are all welcome to call as I did.

[Nighthawk]

My information is not inaccurate. Telus is only one of many cell providers that are experiencing this problem specifically with Samsung S6 and S6 Edge devices. Regardless of how many people that call in, it will ultimately be up to Samsung to issue the fix for the problem as, yes, it is a known issue with their devices, and not the cellular networks. Samsung is not one known to be quick at issuing software updates and fixes so the more people that call in and are added to the ticket, definitely does not equal Samsung doing anything faster. The only thing that might is if all the cellular carriers that offer the device all put pressure on Samsung but even then an update will be many months before it reaches the devices, if at all.

[NFtoBC]

Telus with  7 million or so subscribers is pretty small potatoes to Samsung. Larger markets (US, China, Japan, Korea, and Telecoms in the EU) MIGHT have some pull with Samsung, and it will likely be a push from them which gets Samsung moving faster on this issue.  Hopefully it will be resolved sooner rather than later, but as mhinc states in an earlier post, if it is a hardware issue, it may not be fixed by a software update. 

[SD105]

I am soooooo frustrated with Telus and Samsung!  Telus claims that it is a Samsung software issue and they can't fix it.  Samsung claims that it is a Telus network issue and their network can not support the GS6 running Android 5.1.1.  Needless to say Telus technical support claims it will be fixed sometime in 2016 (1st quarter) perhaps with the roll-out of Android 6.0 (Marshmallow).  

I can't believe that I purchased this phone for business and it's useless.  I'm still dropping calls on 4g so their "work around" is garbage.  Telus basically just says sorry have a nice day.

Apparently as of 15 minutes ago Telus has received 1,426 complaints since they started seeing the problem September 14th.  That's a lot of unhappy customers. 

[Fizzbubbles]

I've been having constant issues with my S6 Edge dropping the network, dropping calls etc. Went through all the technical support channels to have support tickets logged and then through loyalty to see what they could do for me while this was happening. Eventually got to the point where my only options were to buy out my phone and choose a new one or send my phone away for repair. Took 3 business days and I just got it back and noticed I've been rolled back to 5.0.2. Called in to Telus to have this added to my mile long tech support file and was told, by I'm assuming a senior tech, that 5.1.1 is what is causing the issue and Telus is currently trying to block the upgrade for anyone who hasn't yet done so and, when they can, are rolling back phones to 5.0.2 when they go for service.

I've had my phone back for a day now, it's sitting on LTE and I haven't had a single dropped call or instance of messages not being sent so hopefully this is truly a fix until the new upgrade.

[Davidson]

Its definitely an issue with 5.1.1 and the updated modem file that was included in the update. See my other thread on how to update your phone to an older modem file. It solved all my issues while keeping 5.1.1

[SD105]

Thanks to Fizzbubbles and Davidson for your replies.  

I also just got off the phone another tech support agent at Samsung and she's had me back up my phone and do a factory reset to take it back to 5.0.2.  I haven't finished the process yet, but hopefully it solves my issues until Marshmallow is pushed out to us.

Thanks again for your help.