4G LTE poor performance

[rsg123]

I had my 3G upgraded to 4G LTE in my Nov 2014 S. I constantly have no connection or 1-2 bars on my commute. My iPhone X, also running on AT&T, always has reception, and at least 2 bars more than the car during the same drive. I can listen to Pandora uninterrupted the entire round trip from my phone, but streaming via the car will have at least 4-5 interruptions and 10 minutes of no connection.
Why is the reception so much worse than the phone? Should I be asking SC to check the installation?

 

[RedOctober]

I had my 3G upgraded to 4G LTE in my Nov 2014 S. I constantly have no connection or 1-2 bars on my commute. My iPhone X, also running on AT&T, always has reception, and at least 2 bars more than the car during the same drive. I can listen to Pandora uninterrupted the entire round trip from my phone, but streaming via the car will have at least 4-5 interruptions and 10 minutes of no connection.
Why is the reception so much worse than the phone? Should I be asking SC to check the installation?

I would contact the service center. I don’t always have many bars but rarely ever have issues streaming music.

 

[DrGibbz]

I have the same issue. Not sure what to do. Please let me know if you contact SC and what they say. Hate that I have full bars on my AT&T phone and only 1 or 2 bars for the car.

 

[Mjsais]

Would adding a signal booster to the car work? I’m having the same problems.

 

[MC408]

Wondering if upgrading from 3G will improve or worsen my reception. Right now, it’s not bad. Music streams fine with occasional interruption or loading issue. Maps seems to load ok. I noticed an improvement when V9 2018.42.2 software updated.

Did you guys have it worse before upgrading to LTE?

 

[Mjsais]

I didn’t see any performance change after upgrading to LTE.

 

[djlott]

I'm an east bay commuter along 680. I don't think I've ever seen the LTE signal over 2 bars. It does drop a few times during the commute. I've often wondered the same about the LTE signal.

 

[rsg123]

I’ve found that I can plan ahead and advance the song so that it doesn’t end during one of the “dead zones” on my commute route and leave me in silence. This has lessened the impact of the problem for me personally. I’m still not sure why the car has inferior reception compared to my phone, but the SC checked it and everything was fine.

 

[rsg123]

Wondering if upgrading from 3G will improve or worsen my reception. Right now, it’s not bad. Music streams fine with occasional interruption or loading issue. Maps seems to load ok. I noticed an improvement when V9 2018.42.2 software updated.

Did you guys have it worse before upgrading to LTE?

It improved for me after the upgrade. It went from terrible to tolerable, but this may have to do with reception on my commute route.
Songs load much more quickly.

 

[bob_p]

Our S had 3G. Our replacement S and our X have LTE - and haven't seen any difference. All 3 vehicles get poor signal near our house - and the map/browser performance is much slower than what we see using our smartphones.

Tesla might be able to boost the signal by designing a different location for the LTE antenna and/or adding a booster.

We're stuck with the AT&G network performance (in the US) - so there's nothing Tesla can do about that.

Though they should be able to do more to improve the performance of the software and more efficiently use the available network bandwidth...

 

[bhawkins4194]

Not sure a booster would work your antenna is not in the car, but in the driver side mirror. I usually only have 1-2 bars, only once ever seen it full. That was sitting under a cell tower. My guess is its the same issue apple had with iPhones, signal graphs are relative. Tesla is using what ATT said it should be, maybe not actual of what is in the real world.

 

[ScottCutler]

FWIW, I just had my 2015 Model S in for service and complained about 1 or 2 bar signal ever since upgrading to LTE. Here is a transcript of that element:

Concern: Customer: LTE retrofit has never worked correctly. Even when VERY close to a
tower, I rarely see 3 bars of signal and typically I see only one bar along with the very slow
connectivity expected with a weak signal (check for bug reports)

Corrections: Media Control Unit (Touchscreen) General Diagnosis
Reviewed vehicle logs, for given time stamps. Found that there was low connectivity,
however there was no indication that there is an issue with vehicle. Cell connectivity varies
in all locations. Performed cell antenna test, cell antenna checks passed. Found no issues
with vehicle's connectivity board when looking through logs. Test drove vehicle and
monitored cell connectivity during test drive, found no issues with cell connection. LTE
bars were never crossed out. Cell connectivity is similar when compared to other vehicle's
within the same VIN range. Vehicle operating as designed at this time.
​

Not what I wanted to hear.

 

[ColtsMild]

I had my mcu replaced in my 2013 Model S due to emmc failing. Now have LTE version and it is terrible compared to original which only had 3G. Rarely get beyond one bar signal on 3G and LTE. Rarely had issues before upgrade and now have constant issues with buffering and dropped signal. Tesla service has been reviewing my logs for past few months and not yet resolved. Paid $4,000 for this mcu because car was out of warranty. Not happy!! If they fix it I will post back.

 

[rsg123]

To be honest I use my iPhone’s hotspot and connect my phone to its wifi network before I start my commute 90% of the time.

 

[ColtsMild]

It's been over three months since I "upgraded" my MCU and Tesla has not come back with a solution. I'm considering trying a booster but at $500 USD there's no guarantee it will work with the Tesla due to the antenna placement in the driver side mirror. Will scan the forums to see if anyone has tried this option with success. The model recommended by repeaterstore.com is the weBoost Drive Reach (470154) as this unit should work for me in the Toronto area. Of note that I must have driven well over a dozen loaner Teslas in the past 6 years and none have had this issue. Will post back if I figure anything out.

 

[Kandiru]

Interesting, I live out in the backwoods of Appalachia and the 4G upgrade made a huge difference for my 2015 car. True, I am mostly on one bar, but songs and maps load a lot faster, rare hiccups will occur. My Samsung phone will lose signal way before the car, I know, imagine if I had a Fruit Phone

 

[rsg123]

Interesting, I live out in the backwoods of Appalachia and the 4G upgrade made a huge difference for my 2015 car. True, I am mostly on one bar, but songs and maps load a lot faster, rare hiccups will occur. My Samsung phone will lose signal way before the car, I know, imagine if I had a Fruit Phone

Maybe try a “fruit” phone. My iPhone always has better reception than the car’s LTE connection.