I have found that the unofficial coverage map for sprint's 4g coverage in the Phoenix are is the Clear coverage map. Due to the multicorporate partnership to deploy the nationwide wimax network, clear and sprint are peered or at least have a very large-scale transit agreement and clear's wimax towers are sprint's 4g coverage at this time here. I've attached a map of the coverage from the Clear website. The areas that get coverage are basically; Downtown Mesa, Downtown Chandler, taukie, Tolleson/Laveen, Moon Valley, and parts of Paradise Valley (mostly north) see attached map for exact details.
I went ahead and relocked my bootloader so I could survey the closest one of these areas to me, the Downtown Mesa coverage area. I drove down Main from Tempe continuously scanning, and picked up coverage about a block away from the Temple. I stopped in the temple parking and ran speed tests in FCC and speedtest.net I'll attach screens of the results, the oldest results will be from this area, the slow ones are the 3g coverage around my house, and the fast ones at the top are tests done on cox cable via wifi router, to give points of reference.
I kept going down Main and lost coverage just shy of Lindsay, then went down to Broadway and picked it back up again at Glendale and lost it once again just past Country club. I ran wimax engineering monitor the entire time and picked up around -82 dBm signal most of the time, best signal I picked up was around -50dBm between Mesa and Stapley on Main and noticed 4g coverage drops around -94dBm
Here is the speedtest.net CSV output from the tests (wimax is "unknown"):
"2012-01-09 23:30","EvdoA","33.39904","-111.88673",466,746,244,"Payson, AZ","21.9.124.118","66.87.68.118"
"2012-01-09 23:05","EvdoA","33.40664","-111.86097",101,756,198,"Pima, AZ","21.14.191.77","66.87.71.77"
"2012-01-09 23:05","EvdoA","33.40664","-111.86097",91,623,215,"Pima, AZ","21.14.191.77","66.87.71.77"
"2012-01-09 22:55","Unknown","33.41133","-111.79353",3784,201,242,"Payson, AZ","21.12.98.250","66.87.70.250"
"2012-01-09 22:43","Unknown","33.41247","-111.81970",3415,1449,147,"Pima, AZ","21.9.66.33","66.87.70.33"
"2012-01-09 22:42","Unknown","33.41247","-111.81970",4396,1451,235,"Payson, AZ","21.9.66.33","66.87.70.33"
"2012-01-09 22:38","Unknown","33.41305","-111.82093",4251,1407,241,"Payson, AZ","21.9.66.33","66.87.70.33"
Reserved for survey data of other areas, I'm doing chandler and Taukie, maaaaybe moon valley I go up in that area sometimes. Anyone else's survey's are welcome, I'll probably put a synopsis in this post or the above if enough data is gathered from enough people. I am never in the Tolleson/Laveen area or the Paradise Valley area, surveys of those areas (actual connect/disconnect locations and speedtest results w/ 3g speetest results for baseline)
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Nearest 4G tower is over a 100 miles away and said not available, in excellent coverage for 3G though. Both according to sprint map.
About 3 months ago, started getting a weak 4G signal when messing with old EVO 4G. Longstory short, I'm getting it on the EVO 3D.
Get it even though I don't use any tweaks.
In excellent 3G coverage, but that is a load crapp. Asked Sprint and several people in my area, no reports of 4G closer than 50-60 miles away.
Q. Can a 4G signal be picked up that far away, by a hotel or large building with a small tower or receiver. Then get bounced off to my phone, and since my phone is looking for it I pick it up.
Used several signal apps to see if anything shows, shows a tower 3 blocks from me. There is no tower, unless its invisible. Only thing there is a hotel, no tower.
Looking for info on figuring out how this is happening, how I can improve on keeping the signal.
Thanks
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Wimax 4g signal as is currently deploy with clear/sprint should not travel 50-60miles....
on the other hand 3 blocks away you should be getting a pretty decent signal.
If they have not turn on the tower for customer use, you may not be able to connect, even though the phone see the tower, it seem likely they are deploying in your area but not yet ready to go live yet
That's what I was thinking, but would they put a tower on a hotel.
Because where the tower is spose to be there is a hotel, I don't see a tower anywhere.
Also, my 3G should be great, but it isn't. So I'm confused as to how i get a 4G signal even though my 3G is bad.
Example
3G - 150-250 kbs down, 250 - 450 kbs up.
4G - 800-1700 kbs down, 50-130 kbs up.
Shouldnt I be getting better 3G speeds.
Also, how far should a 4G signal go. Nobody around me is picking it up.
They haven't turned it off yet, tried almost every time of day. Gets slow but but its there.
Id keep it on constantly if it didn't drain battery so fast. That and it doesn't go farther than where my house is at.
Thanks for the info getting
bitslizer said:
Wimax 4g signal as is currently deploy with clear/sprint should not travel 50-60miles....
on the other hand 3 blocks away you should be getting a pretty decent signal.
If they have not turn on the tower for customer use, you may not be able to connect, even though the phone see the tower, it seem likely they are deploying in your area but not yet ready to go live yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Hey to all in San Diego,
I noticed 4g coverage strong in north county, National City, Marimar base...and around SDSU...what's your result?
Now and then I get 4g around downtown. Sprint guys tell me by end of summer we will be covered and the problem seems to be the military bases here in town they must make sure it does not interfere with communications. End of summer my butt, yea right...it's still not here totally but we are slowly getting more coverage.
P.S...Chargers...Stink...
First of all...Chargers rule!!
Yeah, the only place I've been able to get a consistent 4G connection is the SDSU area. I've gotten connections Downtown now and then, but they're pretty flaky. I've gotten the same response about making sure it doesn't interfere with the military equipment, but that was months ago.
I live just outside the SDSU 4G area, so hopefully they switch on some more towers soon.
Sent from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe while drinking a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster
Seems central coast, central inland are without 4g. The most congested but least covered.
Why is a dollar bill better than the chargers?
Because a dollar will give you 4 solid quarters....
I do like the chargers.
I was driving by my very rural tower this morning and their were two trucks, one had a trailer filled with new panels, grayish in color. It's a very fast road but I did see it and it is usually a tower that is quite progressive (one of the first to get WiMAX in the country), I don't know why that is, maybe because it is a vacation spot. That tower is on the map for Lte slated in may. It's the tower on 2722 south of the big lake near new braunfels Texas. I am going to pick up me evo lte today and will keep people posted.
I thought the switch to lte was software based but I could be wrong. I might be thinking about evdo rev b.
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
I just got a HTC One on T mobile and waiting to port my number from ATT but the data speeds using speedtest are abysmal less than 500kb and sometimes not even connecting at all. I decided to just test the browser to see if real usage makes a difference not just in the speedtest app and same result web pages taking too long to load and sometimes time out because of slow connection.
I'm in Daly City/San Francisco area, before deciding to switch I did my research and Tmobile coverage shows I should be in "excellent" 4g speeds here where I live.
Before I run back to the store and return it and stay with AT&T , is there something I can do to check the correct APN settings or what else can i do ? I'm disappointed so far, I wanted to try T mobile because of their no contract and cheaper plan but at these data speeds it's just not worth it.
Thanks for any advice / help.
Been seeing great speeds here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2247966
But try out a demo phone in the store and test the speed. It might be the phone, or the tower (temporarily) you're connected to. SF is a market with great speed. I've seen speed tests from ppl around. Definitely better the AT&T's HSPA+ speeds.
last night I posted great speeds, today I'm down to 2g although in a different geographical area.
earlier today I lost all data connectivity, it was something wrong with TMO's system. support had to "hook something up" behind the scenes for me to get it back.
---------- Post added at 11:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 AM ----------
Update: I noticed that the phone was defaulting to 2g. No matter what, it stayed there.
Using tips from this thread: http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/37862
I went to Settings > Mobile Data > Network Mode and switched it to WCDMA Only.
The data connection re-set and went to 4g.
Repeating the above step, I went back to GSM/WCDMA/LTE Auto, and the phone reset data and got back on 4g.
I think this all had something to do with this morning's outage.
Tmobile tends to have outages sometimes, a few days ago the network in Dallas was down and I was getting horrible speeds. I say that you wait a bit and see if there is any improvement in the next couple of days. Also maybe call in to make sure that your sim is fully activated.
I'll just leave this..
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
HSPA+ in South Seattle area (up to 15mbps down). Can't wait for some LTE here soon.
J-Hop2o6 said:
HSPA+ in South Seattle area (up to 15mbps down). Can't wait for some LTE here soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't like Tmobile
spade56 said:
Don't like Tmobile
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
?? What's the purpose of this post and quoting me?
Thinking about making the switch from Sprint (EVO LTE) to T-Mobile and the HTC One. I'm in the Seattle area (Federal Way/Milton) and commute back and forth to downtown Seattle (5th and Pike) every week day. How's the coverage and speed along the I5 corridor? I've looked at the sensorly data and it looks solid, but just really wanting to get a real world feel from a user.
Thanks!
cantos said:
Thinking about making the switch from Sprint (EVO LTE) to T-Mobile and the HTC One. I'm in the Seattle area (Federal Way/Milton) and commute back and forth to downtown Seattle (5th and Pike) every week day. How's the coverage and speed along the I5 corridor? I've looked at the sensorly data and it looks solid, but just really wanting to get a real world feel from a user.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Puget Sound I-5 corridor has great Tmo coverage and speed. Never have problems streaming music in my car via bluetooth. Plus LTE in and around Seattle should launch in the next couple of months.
J-Hop2o6 said:
The Puget Sound I-5 corridor has great Tmo coverage and speed. Never have problems streaming music in my car via bluetooth. Plus LTE in and around Seattle should launch in the next couple of months.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was already getting LTE in the factoria mall area near T-Mobile head quarters. I was getting speeds around 25Mbps down. I think we are close to lte roll out across all Seattle area, I spoke to a T-Mobile rep in Bellevue store and he says it should be sometime in May.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
kirdroid said:
I was already getting LTE in the factoria mall area near T-Mobile head quarters. I was getting speeds around 25Mbps down. I think we are close to lte roll out across all Seattle area, I spoke to a T-Mobile rep in Bellevue store and he says it should be sometime in May.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to hear :victory:
alus415 said:
I just got a HTC One on T mobile and waiting to port my number from ATT but the data speeds using speedtest are abysmal less than 500kb and sometimes not even connecting at all. I decided to just test the browser to see if real usage makes a difference not just in the speedtest app and same e of slow connection.
I'm in Daly City/San Francisco area, before deciding to switch I did my research and Tmobile coverage shows I should be in "excellent" 4g speeds here where I live.
Before I run back to the store and return it and stay with AT&T , is there something I can do to check the correct APN settings or what else can i do ? I'm disappointed so far, I wanted to try T mobile because of their no contract and cheaper plan but at these data speeds it's just not worth it.
Thanks for any advice / help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I and my wife recently purchased One's moving from Sprint to T-Mobile. We live in Oakland. Our speeds are similarly slow. Actually, in the week I've had the phone I've rarely had speeds much higher than 400kbs down. Strangely, upload speeds are usually three times faster. This is from inside my apartment where I typically have 2 bars of 4g...three bars every now and then. These speeds are horrible. I called T-Mobile who responded by dispatching an engineer to the tower I use. Within 24 hrs the speeds almost doubled however T-Mobile's feedback was there were no issues. But after a couple of days speeds had declined back to an avg of 350kbs down with upload speeds still 3x download speeds. In my experience, whenever upload speeds are consistently and significantly faster than download speeds and the download speeds are far below what is expected, then either there is a problem with the network or the network is being actively reconfigured.
Assuming I might just be in a "dead" spot due to geography I decided to test speeds in I my neighborhood as I walk my dog. There are no tall buildings or anything I could see to cause much interference. On my street the speed was about the same as inside. About 1/4 mile from my apt the signal was very strong lighting all 5 bars...but speeds only increased slightly. Throughout the area I walked (1/2 circle around my home with radius of 3/4 mile) the signal strength ranged from 2-3 bars fluctuating to 5 solid bars. But there was not much correlation between data download speed and number of bars. In some places 4g speed was as fast as 10Mbs and a bit down the block it could be low as 400Kbs. The speeds were duplicateable...meaning in front of one house speed might be 5Mbs and a speeds in front of a house say 6 houses down the block speed may be 1Mbs. Those speeds would be pretty much the same when I returned later on another walk.
The most surprising discovery is there is a narrow area about 5 houses wide that had LTE. In that small area the speeds were slightly greater than 20Mbs down and 10Mbs up.
The results lead me to believe T-Mobile is actively fumbling with their towers to get LTE quickly, yet attempting to do so as quietly as possible. Due to my disappointment at the painfully slow data speeds I would consider returning the One's firing T-Mobile and moving on. However, the discovery of LTE 1 1/2 blocks from my home AND MAYBE EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY no real alternative for an "unlimited" data plan that makes financial sense to me (Sprint is nolonger an option since their network is almost unusable)...has me pretty excited as to what my T-Moble experience will be. I hope they aim that LTE antenna in my direction.
@chakathebird:
Wow, I'm in Hayward which is not too far from Oakland and I also switched from Sprint (which is just awful in the Bay Area these days). On Sprint I was lucky to get over 400kbps on 3G and I couldn't even get 4G LTE. (Although 4G WiMax on my old GS2 was fantastic for me). On T-Mobile 4G HSPA I get 8Mbps down / 3 Mbps up on my HTC One and similar speeds on my Nexus 4. With those great speeds I normally just leave LTE turned off on the One, but I did do a speed test with LTE turned on and got 11Mbps down / 6Mbps up.
I work in the South Bay, but sometimes head over the bridge to San Francisco and travel throughout the Bay Area. Everywhere I go I get similarly fantastic speeds on T-Mobile. So if you are getting such slow speeds there is definitely something wrong with either your phone or the tower in your neighborhood. I'd take the phone to other nearby towns and see if you're getting similar bad speeds. If so, I'd have T-Mobile exchange the phone as it may be defective.
I'm in the Northern VA area and there is some LTE. If I'm not driving around and sitting in one place, I can stay on LTE, but driving around, it's bouncing in and out of LTE which just shuts off data all together. So i turned off LTE till they get more towers updated.
On a side note, the radio in the HTC one seems really nice. At my house I can get 13Mb/s down on the HTC but I can only get 6Mb/s down on my data stick sitting beside me. Both connected at HSPA+.
I am not even running on LTE here in NJ and I am still impressed with the speed. It actually comes pretty close to my friend's GS3 on Verizon with LTE.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 09:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 AM ----------
That being said...I still can't wait to have LTE here in the NYC area. If HSPA+ is this good then LTE should be ridiculous.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
So, I live in a rural area, and this isn't likely to change for the next year or two. We have a marginal DSL connection, which has problems that ATT is extremely apathetic about solving. So I've come to rely on my DNA on an unlimited plan to tether. We actually have an LTE tower here, which is great! However, as 4g phones have become more prevalent, naturally the quality of my service began to suffer. I believe I'm roughly 2 miles from the nearest tower.
In the beginning, I would get 20 down, 5 up. Way more than I was used to and plenty for streaming Twitch/Netflix and surfing the web. The connection was rock solid and of course great for gaming. Lately, I'm lucky to get 5 down, 2 up. From 8pm to midnight, There are periods that I'll get .5 down. Point 5. One half. 500kbps. 2 bars of 4g. 500kbps. Even right now, at 5pm, I'm buffering frequently on a 2Mbps twitch stream, doing nothing else with the connection.
So I guess I need to end with a question. Is this a tower issue, can it possibly be that congested? Is it the radio on my DNA somehow? I'm running the stock ROM (rooted, s-off, unlocked stock ROM from the forums here.) and latest radio. Is there a radio version that's reputed to perform better? I'm not much of a phone guy when I'm at home, so if there's some way I can arrange it to be more reliable, putting it on a high shelf or something weird or crazy, I'm open-minded. Is there a ROM that'll make it easier? I used to run Viper, but I didn't use all the features so felt like stock was reasonable.
Basically, any suggestions for improving my LTE performance are welcome.
It could be the tower is congested. I know if I go downtown Phoenix area during the day, I cannot get above 250kbps, but uptown areas like Glendale and Peoria, I never go below 10mbps. It is because downtown towers are congested.
If it is the tower like my experience above, no radio flash will help you.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using XDA Free mobile app
Thanks for the input. That's pretty much what I'd concluded about my location as well, even though we aren't a high population area. It's a one-intersection town in the midwest. I suppose the tower could be located differently from where I believe it is, but that one would be even less populated.
What is your 4G coverage like in an urban area as opposed to at home? I'm also s-off, rooted and on stock ROM and live in the country. I'm almost smack in the middle of two towers, one two miles to the east and one a mile and a half to the west. When I'm at home my speeds are 15 down and 2-3 up with one to two bars. When I'm in the city area my speeds are almost 35 down and 15-20 up with full bars. In populated areas Verizon lines to have many towers covering an area so the phone can triangulate between the towers to get the best speed and coverage. Those of us in the country usually have only one tower in town and towns are sitar apart so the phone can't triangulate a signal. Once the line tower becomes congested we have no other towers to fall back on and speeds are effected. Which sounds like the problem you describe.
that makes a lot of sense sabres. I don't get out much so I can't really gauge how things work out of a home situation, unfortunately.