The 3 signal has been down/intermittent/on reduced power near me since the start of December , which has been a tad annoying , but it has led to me noticing something.

I have seen on various threads on here over the years, posters on about different speeds they have had with the same type phone in the same location , and generally the responses were of the "all phones are minutely different".

My observation , is that I have a phone with 3 batteries, and now I am right on the cusp of the low power transmitter, each battery gives me a different amount of signal.

1 gives a few bars and 3g signal, good enough for tune in and connecting to a tablet.
Swap out the battery, put back in 'exactly' the same place and get 3 bars signal and no internet (phone is forced to 3g only)
Swap out again and get no signal at all.
Back to first battery and back to 3g again.

I don't charge my phone, and the USB port has just about corroded, so it is a pain in the hoop.

Is there any logical explanation for this?

First of all.... It's not the battery.....

Second of all, It's a coincidence

Third of all, signal varies all the time no matter where you are or what phone you use.
I can have 5 bars whilst the person next to me has 1 bar. Usually you shouldn't see too much of a difference but it can happen.

Not buying it

2 out of the 3 result in the phone having to be placed in the car about 20 feet away to get a 3g signal .

The other can run tune in no bother in its place.


I have tried swapouts at various times of the day/tide (in case that could affect it), and searched for signal for 10 mins at a go, yet swap in the 'good' battery and it locks on and stays on , in seconds.

Then there's something wrong with your battery/phone.

The suggestion that a battery affects phone signal is ridiculous...

It might be due to the fact you're turning the phone on and off and every time you turn it back on it searches for a signal again when before you already had a signal.

USB port has corroded??
It's the battery/phone!

A different battery is not going to give a different signal.
The handset will use whatever current it needs to do what it needs to do.
If there is not enough available then it will shut down.
In other words it will either work or not.
There aren't different types of electricity!!! : )

Well, I suppose each battery has differing properties now, they range from about a year old to six months, and though they still hold an excellent charge, I can tell them apart by how long the last 20% lasts.

I understand that a phone can take a while to lock on, hence trying for 10 mins or so, but as each battery gets the same result each time that the transmitter has been working, it has been over a period of a month and I don't have a telly to detract me......I'll stick with my findings.

Batteries are electrical jabb, so it is hardly ridiculous to say they could not interfere with a very very marginal signal.

Ah, right. So slightly different amounts of current 'could' affect it then.

Thats not what devon said.

I guess it depends where the antennas are on the phone... but i've never heard of one that has it behind a battery. Usually at the top or bottom well away from it. Battery property is unlikely to be much different even older and differing brands. Networks power changes all the time. It's not constant especially with 3G... Then there are object which move that can make the signal stronger or weaker, weather could even be a factor but it's unlikely the battery will change things. Phones performance doesn't really change as the battery discharges. It either screws up/auto turns off or works.

Given that li-ion batteries have charging chips in the battery pack that communicate with the phone, it's entrely possible a third party non genuine battery causes something odd to occur. But that shouldn't affect cellular signal unless the battery chip creates interference of some sort that causes phone radio to squelch signal.

The real question is are these all genuine batteries or were they bought from eBay or similar where fakes are rife?

It is a jiayu g4 advanced phone, and all jiayu batteries, either coming with phone (bought from SpeMall) or purchased separately with seat charger (again from SpeMall).

I have been tethering since I finished work 4.30 on the 'good' battery , had just read jabbs reply around midnight when battery died. Apart from a few outages causing tune in to buffer 20 secs or so it went well.
Swapped out and spent since then either 'searching manually' , trying airplane mode, rebooting and taking out and putting back in battery. 3 bars signal, no internet was all I got so gave up, on with the boots and put phone in car and presto. Back on line.