If you happen to have Sprint for your wireless provider of choice and rock the carrier’s version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus but are actually having a hard time keeping a lock on a steady Sprint LTE signal, you are not alone. After all, the carrier’s decisions when it comes to the type of connectivity it will offer have been more of an ill-advised action, don’t you think? First off, Sprint took its chance with Wi-Max while every other carrier is already looking at the LTE option. Now that Sprint has joined the LTE party, its subscribers are unable to get LTE even when they are in an LTE-covered area. What gives?
It turns out that some well-intentioned technical stuff is getting in the way. As it stands, the problem of not getting LTE connectivity in an LTE-covered area usually occurs when your 3G signal is stronger than your 4G LTE signal. Whenever that is the case, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus from Sprint decides that it would be best for you to have a reliable signal rather than a fast one which is why it automatically chooses the 3G signal despite the presence of the weaker 4G signal. However, a lot of users are claiming that a single-bar LTE signal is still pretty stable and a whole lot faster than a 3G signal that is twice as strong.
So what are the things you can do to get a lock on that 4G LTE signal?
First option is to use a custom ROM such as CyanogenMod 10. With this in the guts of your Sprint Samsung Galaxy Nexus, you get the capability to choose LTE only but you also run the risk of losing network connectivity once you outside the coverage area. Worse, you also give up calling and texting by going this route.
Another option is to use dialer codes to select LTE only. To d this, you just need to access your dialer and input *#*#DATA*#*# (or *#*#3282*#*#) to get to the Data Programming options. Once there, tap Edit then get ready with your MSL (which you can get by running the MSL Script). Afterwards, select Others/More (which could also show as HDR/1X Selection) then choose “LTE only”. Reboot and voila, you get pure LTE on your Samsung Galaxy Nexus. However, similar to the custom ROM route, you also end up without calling and texting with this little work around.
If you are wondering as to why you lose your capability to make and receive calls and send out texts messages if you do the options outlined above to get a lock on an LTE signal, the reason for that is because both voice and data use Sprint’s CDMA network to operate. This simply means you can talk and text or you can use data, but not at the same time. With the options mentioned above, you essentially shut off CDMA completely just so you can get that pure LTE signal so this means you are completely deactivating voice and SMS on your device.
