Surface 3 LTE has no internet on HSPA+ network

Hi Everyone

I live in Australia - I have just returned my Surface 3 LTE to the retailer as it would not connect properly.

The Telco provider has written to me after 4 months of very helpful service and a response from their engineers.

In short - the engineers have said their data infrastructure does not support the way the Surface 3 manages the different data classes within 3G and 4G.

Basically the Surface 3 will not have a stable connection until to our networks in Australia until this is sorted.

I was fairly happy with all other aspects of the Surface 3.

I would suggest that when you get around to sorting this out it would be good to have some sort of "reset connection" option rather than have to go through the whole process of restarting the system, logging into microsoft, logging into VPN for work then having your connection drop due to this issue and having to go through the whole process again.

NOTE: When it switches data classes and requests an APN it will not re-connect to the internet at all unless you restart PC. There is no option to manually change/request a different data class.

Hope some of that makes sense.

A.

Thank you for forwarding my question to other people. Hope it will help in the long run. And I understand that everything with cellular has to be supported by a lot of parties. Which is a pity, but I understand :)

I don't know if you have tried disabling cellular and re-enabling it when you are in the "bad state". (This may still require a reboot).

Other than rebooting, I don't think there is a way to achieve what you want. Here, on Verizon, when moving between cell towers, I haven't seen anything that requires a restart. But I very seldom am traveling and using my S3 LTE at the same time. And we have pretty good coverage where I am with few dead spots.

There really isn't anything else I can think of - but when you are "roaming" between cell towers, there is certainly a lot of opportunity for disruption.

If I disable cellular it automatically gets enabled again without working connection.

Normally if I go to the settings and disconnect I am not able to connect anymore. It mentions that I need to set the VP; which seems no issue when I restart it after disconnecting.

Last Thursday however I had some success disconnecting the cellular connection and reconnecting. I will continue to try. And I am looking for a second had Dell Venue Pro 8 with LTE, but I am not in a hurry there. As soon as I do come across a nice bargain I can test LTE on the same network, on Windows, using another LTE modem.

It looks like there is "ok" coverage. And, in another test I had the issue while in the office as well. I didn't move anywhere :)

But, I am happy to see that my questions are taken seriously!

I don't know if you have tried disabling cellular and re-enabling it when you are in the "bad state". (This may still require a reboot).

Other than rebooting, I don't think there is a way to achieve what you want. Here, on Verizon, when moving between cell towers, I haven't seen anything that requires a restart. But I very seldom am traveling and using my S3 LTE at the same time. And we have pretty good coverage where I am with few dead spots.

There really isn't anything else I can think of - but when you are "roaming" between cell towers, there is certainly a lot of opportunity for disruption.

I sent this thread in to an internal contact, and this is the reply I received:

"So this is a behavior in the LTE modem driver for the device.  The Lumia 950 uses a different LTE modem from the Surface 3.  This is something that we are looking into and that we may be able to improve in the future, however, in order to update an LTE modem driver (or firmware) we have to get that new driver/firmware tested and certified by each mobile operator we work with worldwide – which as you might imagine is a rather lengthy process.

I’ve made a note of this issue however and we’ll see what we can do to make sure that the investigation moves along as quickly as possible.  We definitely appreciate you bringing this to our attention."

I really can't offer anything beyond this. Sorry.

Hi Barb,

We have "chatted" before here on the community regarding WMC stuff :) Good to see that you step in here.

Can you understand I am getting somewhat frustrated? As indicated I did contact the operator and they are doing their utmost best in thinking along as well. I have tried three different SIMs now and it really only seems to be happening on my Surface 3. I am pretty sure that if I put this SIM in another LTE equipped tablet I will not have this issue. But my Surface 3 has way too many other advantages over an iPad or Android tablet to ditch this one.

I hope you understand that! That's why I am currently looking for ways to reset the adapter without the need to restart the computer. I can live with the connection being broken from time to time, but it is really hard to remain understanding when I need to power off the computer in order to get the internet working again. I have done so on one train ride of an hour for 5 times today!

Still hope to get an answer on possible ways to force the network adapter to restart.

Thanks!

Best regards,

Rudi Hendrix