How to force phone to switch to faster mobile data network during file transfer

For some context, I am downloading Dragon Mobile Assistant which is a 40+ mb apk from the Google Play Store.

I have an unreliable connection to Verizon Wireless' 3G mobile data network. If I am a few inches too far to the right of a sweet spot, the signal quality will degrade and I will be passed off to 1X. If I am in the middle of a download, it'll just pass me over with no interruption. However, it will not pass me back to 3G during the transfer once quality to that network is "good enough."

This is highly annoying, because if I am downloading a big file, it basically comes to a screeching halt on the horrible 1X network. Sometimes it is even better to cancel the download, wait to be passed back to 3G and restart the download.

Is there anyway on a Droid 3, rooted stock android 2.3.4, to have my phone continue to poll the 3G network and switch to it even while it's transferring data on 1X? It already allows me to go down during a transfer, why can't I go up?

Answer

I hate when that happens. It happened to me more times than I could count while I was traveling through western Maryland (and it's even worse when the phone mysteriously switches from 4G to 1X and refuses to go back to 4G or even 3G)...

Anyway, there are three things you can try.

The first, obvious one is to relocate the phone to somewhere that you get a better signal. This may not help much at all if you're in a fringe coverage area and in a residence, but it's definitely something you should attempt.

Next, to force the phone to reconnect to the network, just toggle airplane mode on and off. (BTW, don't bother with any of those so-called "network signal booster" apps. All they do is toggle airplane mode on and off, hiding the notification bar so you can't see what it's doing.) This is probably your best bet. In my experience this will get your high speed connection back most of the time, but you still aren't guaranteed to keep it long enough to finish your download.

Your phone also has a secret menu which can be accessed by entering *#*#4636#*#* into the dialer. In this menu you can view various statistics about the mobile data connection, as well as change which network types the device will try to connect to. (The exact types vary by device and firmware revision, and I don't have a Droid 3 on hand, so you'll just have to look and see for yourself.) In my experience, though, this didn't help much; the phone would just give me no data service instead of 1X, or refuse to connect to 3G/4G, or to any network at all. Also, be careful in this menu; if you change a setting and don't know what to change it back to, you could completely kill your ability to connect to the network, requiring a factory reset.