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Using a Verizon / HTC Thunderbolt, final retail model.
Not even tethering, just holding the phone in my hand, I'm getting 4 bars of signal and a signal strength of -77 dBm.
Seems to work fine most of the time, with good downstream, well within acceptable limits of the "5 to 12 Mbps" advertised, though it's extremely variable (it tends to regularly oscillate between these speeds, occasionally dropping down to EvDO speeds).
But the speeds aren't important, just an indication of the good signal strength.
Maybe it's just my cell tower, but I am very frequently seeing no network activity at all; can't even get to google or check for software updates. It's about as unreliable as Verizon's crap DSL. This is the polar opposite of the rock-solid stability I used to get with EvDO in the exact same place (in my house). Is it the 4G network being unreliable, or the Thunderbolt? Anyone else have this problem?
Edit: In terms of the patterns of the total downtime, it seems to go down for periods of 5 to 10 minutes per hour. Sometimes the downtime only lasts 15 or 30 seconds, other times I am completely out for 10 minutes, even though it says "4G LTE" in the dock and I am still getting good signal strength. My data usage for the month is under 5GB but above 2GB. I tend not to make very bursty traffic; except for app downloads, most of my traffic is of the low throughput, consistent variety (loading webpages, listening to MP3 streams at 128Kbps, etc). I use it very often but the bandwidth usage at any given time is probably lower than the speed of an EvDO connection (unless you count webpages that are downloaded at faster-than-EvDO speeds for a split-second to load them). I'll be using it and then it's just *down*. I can still make phone calls during the outage.
I noticed the same thing. I was all over the place cycling through no data, 1x, 3G, and 4G in like a minute in the same spot. I rebooted and got a much more stable 4G connection.
I'm thinking your expectations are a little too much. There are many areas I don't get a good 3g, let alone a 4g signal. I live in a suburb of Chicago and am in 4g 95% of the time, I don't always pay attention, because, after all, it's a phone first, but 4g seems to be there whenever I need it.
Also, in regards to unacceptable, what are you comparing it to? Is there more acceptable 4g signals in your area?
fillyo said:
I'm thinking your expectations are a little too much. There are many areas I don't get a good 3g, let alone a 4g signal. I live in a suburb of Chicago and am in 4g 95% of the time, I don't always pay attention, because, after all, it's a phone first, but 4g seems to be there whenever I need it.
Also, in regards to unacceptable, what are you comparing it to? Is there more acceptable 4g signals in your area?
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I'm comparing it to Verizon EvDO / 3G. While speeds on EvDO were only about 20-25% of the max speed of LTE / 4G, it was completely reliable -- at least in my area.
Keeping the phone almost completely stationary sitting at my desk, connected to the same cell tower, and with my roaming data programmed to the latest version, my EvDO phone (a Droid 2) would have the connection available whenever I asked for it.
With the same exact usage pattern but with LTE, my Thunderbolt often has no connection, and it spontaneously comes back by simply waiting around for it to become available.
I expect the 4G channel to be "open" 24/7/365, not ever completely down -- especially while stationary in a standard building with a very high signal strength (always 4 bars). I have no unusual EMF like microwaves or bluetooth going on, just a laptop and a desktop and 2 LCDs. Wooden house, and I'm on the top floor.
If they can make EvDO stable 24/7, and EvDO is based on the same CDMA technology as LTE, why can't they make LTE stable 24/7 also? And I also don't understand why my phone does not fall back to EvDO if and when the LTE drops out. I recall a few times over the years of using it that my EvDO would fall back to 1x/RTT in the event of an EvDO downtime. But the MTBF of EvDO downtimes in my area was around 1 year. Now, the MTBF of LTE is about 50 to 120 minutes.
brandnewsimmy said:
I noticed the same thing. I was all over the place cycling through no data, 1x, 3G, and 4G in like a minute in the same spot. I rebooted and got a much more stable 4G connection.
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I rebooted my phone and am getting a more stable 4G connection now, too I wonder if the phone itself has a stability problem with its 4G transceiver after a certain period of uptime? I will test this theory over the next couple days by rebooting my phone whenever I have a problem, and see if it helps.
Edit: I usually keep my phone "up" 24/7, and just leave it on the charger when I'm not on the go. I power it off only rarely, because I want to receive phone calls and text messages. When I just rebooted it, it had 2.5 days of uptime (hard to have too much uptime considering launch day was just a few days ago!)
fillyo said:
I live in a suburb of Chicago and am in 4g 95% of the time...
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Out of curiosity, what suburb are you in that you're getting 4G 95% of the time? I live in Highland Park (about 20 miles up the north shore) and I don't have nearly as good of coverage (still decent though and I'm not complaining).
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
I'm guessing it has to be your area. I am getting amazing 4G coverage in LA. I going to assume its going to take VZW some time before their 4G coverage truly blankets areas. I remember when 3G came out.. it was totally spotty for a long time until they had enough towers.
Kind of like what I recorded on my phone this afternoon....?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRTOCFoGFmU
5 min clip showing me cycling through web and map but getting no data, despite cycling airplane mode on and off. This has happened almost daily since getting the phone last Thursday, in multiple locations that are supposedly full 4G areas. Pretty annoying.
Double annoying since I got the Verizon phone because they're network's so much better (allegedly)...and yet my Nexus S on T-Mobile had full bars and fast "4G" data in the same location. I'd also had a reboot, and the 1tx symbols flashing but wasn't recording at the time. I'd been screwing around with this for at least 10 minutes before activating ShootMe to record it.
Thrillhouse847 said:
Out of curiosity, what suburb are you in that you're getting 4G 95% of the time? I live in Highland Park (about 20 miles up the north shore) and I don't have nearly as good of coverage (still decent though and I'm not complaining).
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
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Well im in Gurnee area with 4g 99% of the time. Only time without is in my GF's brothers house. no 3g there either though lol. otherwise i never loose 4g. Even driving to vernon hills and around i always have 4g. not sure y in HP u dont always have it.
i am complete opposite i have 2-1 bars inside a building getting 12mbps
I notice it has an issue where it just randomly drops all my signals to search for 4g even though its not in my area... I think the only way to get reliable signal would be to set the radio to whatever you are using mostly... *#*#4636#*#* will get you into diagnostics and select phone infotmation and then choose CDMA auto for 3g or lte mode..... I'm thinking in the near future there will be a update that allows for easier lte turn off like 4g on the evo... the automatic thing is nice but it wastes battery and seems to cause some problem
RafficaX said:
Well im in Gurnee area with 4g 99% of the time. Only time without is in my GF's brothers house. no 3g there either though lol. otherwise i never loose 4g. Even driving to vernon hills and around i always have 4g. not sure y in HP u dont always have it.
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Hm. Not sure either, Gurnee/Vernon Hills is pretty close, maybe I just need more testing time (I'm also indoors most of the time).
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Thrillhouse847 said:
Hm. Not sure either, Gurnee/Vernon Hills is pretty close, maybe I just need more testing time (I'm also indoors most of the time).
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
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i mean i never saw 4 bars on 4g but 2-3 always and hit 30 on the down and 50 on the up while in the antioch walmart lol but never with out 4g expect in that one house lol.
I just set mine to LTE only let's see if its more stable than the auto mode
itzjonjon69 said:
I just set mine to LTE only let's see if its more stable than the auto mode
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let me know, i should try that too. never thought of that when looking at it. wonder if ill save a bit of battery not trying to also find 3g, im sure i lose very lil hunting for 3g but still. saving some battery may give me another in on 4g lol
RafficaX said:
i mean i never saw 4 bars on 4g but 2-3 always and hit 30 on the down and 50 on the up while in the antioch walmart lol but never with out 4g expect in that one house lol.
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You realize that the phone is incapable of 50 up, don't you? Those kinds of speeds are a known bug in the Speedtest.net and other similar speed tests that don't deal with the Thunderbolt's large transmit buffer properly.
Anyone else seeing any errors in the logcat that look similar to this?
D/DATA ( 1779):[QCTMM] DataNetStatistics sent == 0 && received == 0 newActivity=NONE
D/DATA ( 1779): sentSinceLastRecv=0,watchdogTrigger=10,maxindex=0
E/TrafficStats( 1555): [QCTMM]tryAll index =1
E/TrafficStats( 1555): [QCTMM]tryAll index =2
There is an entry like this every few seconds when I'm on mobile data.
RafficaX said:
Well im in Gurnee area with 4g 99% of the time. Only time without is in my GF's brothers house. no 3g there either though lol. otherwise i never loose 4g. Even driving to vernon hills and around i always have 4g. not sure y in HP u dont always have it.
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verizon towers fallowing u now? from 95% now 99% lol ...that 1% its your gfs house damn it.... probably a bridge on the way and tower to tall to go under ...****...otherwise u would it have 100% wooohoooo
I'm at my desk at work in times square, nyc. Yesterday I had 1-2 bars of 4g at my desk. Today, my phone has yet to switch out of 1x mode my entire 2 hour commute here and so far today. I tried rebooting and can't get 3g or 4g to come on. I'm pretty annoyed
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
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Click to collapse
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Sorry if this has been asked before, I could not find it anywhere...
With my Evo LTE, if I have no 3G signal, I get no data at all (not using wifi). Is there supposed to be 1x data? With my Epic, I would bounce between 3G and 1x while at work, getting about 60 Kbps (horrible I know, but at least it worked). Now with my Evo, I either get 3G or nothing. Most of the time I get an error that there is no network connectivity, where with my Epic I never got that, it just worked slower at times.
So, is it a configuration issue, does the Evo not support 1x, or could I possibly have a hardware issue? I have domestic data and voice checked.
Well, this EVO does not want you to know whether you are connected with 1x vs 3g. So, on stock it will ALWAYS show as 3g. This is why you are going from 3g to no connection whatsoever.
If you are rooted, install a custom ROM as they all have the option of including this modification. If you would like to keep your current set-up, there is a thread to walk you through the necessary changes.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1688413
On a side note, the EVO also gets horrible reception in general. So although you will have a better idea of what your connection is, the fact of the matter is that your reception is probably not as good as it was with a previous phone.
gdrocks said:
Well, this EVO does not want you to know whether you are connected with 1x vs 3g. So, on stock it will ALWAYS show as 3g. This is why you are going from 3g to no connection whatsoever.
If you are rooted, install a custom ROM as they all have the option of including this modification. If you would like to keep your current set-up, there is a thread to walk you through the necessary changes.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1688413
On a side note, the EVO also gets horrible reception in general. So although you will have a better idea of what your connection is, the fact of the matter is that your reception is probably not as good as it was with a previous phone.
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Well, at least it makes me feel better knowing that it isn't a hardware issue. My voice reception seems better with this phone than my Epic, but data, not so much. Maybe LTE will magically fix all my issues? Other than a dead pixel, screen being a little washed out compared to SAMOLED, and reception issues, I still like my phone. Not sure if the SGIII would have better data reception where I'm at. Sucks that I have unlimited data, but just can't get at it.
I'm not convinced.
the first day our two after I got my phone, I had the same problem.
I tried changing from CDMA & LTE to CDMA only. That didn't help.
I then rebooted my phone. After that, data seems to work fine. My display sometimes shows bars with 3G, and sometimes simply bars only.
Before I rebooted, it never showed 3G.
I had even started a thread about it. But it seems to work fine now.
Sent from my EVO using XDA
Recently left VZW for SPrint in order to drop my cost and pick up Unlimited data. Both the GF and I went with HTC EVO 4G LTE phones, as we were quite pleased with our HTC Rezounds on VZW.
Her phone is bone stock, mine is unlocked/rooted with S-On, running MeanROM 4.7
Both phones have HORRENDOUS 3G performance. 4G is still only in small pockets in Atlanta, but even down at my office, I am in front of a windo, have 4 or 5 bars on 3G, and I run Speedtest app and my pings range from 500ms-2300ms, my download speeds top at 400kbps, but are usually under 100kbps, and upload is typically around 200kbps...
That's with almost 6 bars of 3G. Been that way for 2 weeks, it almost makes the phone unusable for data. Tried the few mods I could find with my MSL number to bypass Sprint's slow proxy, lowered my LTE threshhold scan time from 30 to 5... Still blows.
Sprint 3G, at least in Atlanta, seems on par with 56k dial-up performance, all kidding aside.
is this normal?
I left VZW thinking that the grass was greener, and I think that I made a huge mistake, and it is after the 14 day return window. VZW was averaging 25mbit up and down, over the entire area, you could get signal almost everywhere in the metro area. And their 3G was at least around 1mbit or so,
Now I am getting almost no 4G, and Sprint's 3G is no faster than dial-up, even when in metro areas with strong signal.
Thoughts?
SquireSCA said:
Recently left VZW for SPrint in order to drop my cost and pick up Unlimited data. Both the GF and I went with HTC EVO 4G LTE phones, as we were quite pleased with our HTC Rezounds on VZW.
Her phone is bone stock, mine is unlocked/rooted with S-On, running MeanROM 4.7
Both phones have HORRENDOUS 3G performance. 4G is still only in small pockets in Atlanta, but even down at my office, I am in front of a windo, have 4 or 5 bars on 3G, and I run Speedtest app and my pings range from 500ms-2300ms, my download speeds top at 400kbps, but are usually under 100kbps, and upload is typically around 200kbps...
That's with almost 6 bars of 3G. Been that way for 2 weeks, it almost makes the phone unusable for data. Tried the few mods I could find with my MSL number to bypass Sprint's slow proxy, lowered my LTE threshhold scan time from 30 to 5... Still blows.
Sprint 3G, at least in Atlanta, seems on par with 56k dial-up performance, all kidding aside.
is this normal?
I left VZW thinking that the grass was greener, and I think that I made a huge mistake, and it is after the 14 day return window. VZW was averaging 25mbit up and down, over the entire area, you could get signal almost everywhere in the metro area. And their 3G was at least around 1mbit or so,
Now I am getting almost no 4G, and Sprint's 3G is no faster than dial-up, even when in metro areas with strong signal.
Thoughts?
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Welcome to the now network !!!!
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
I get decent 3g in pittsburgh but its really terrible sometimes. If and when i get 4g i wont mind not getting crazy speeds because its unlimited. Thats the sacrifice you make with "The Hopefully Sometime In The Future Network™"
They recently upgraded my area and my service was better before ehrpd
So my suspicions are confirmed, I was an idiot to leave VZW. LOL
I am paying huge ETF's to get out of a high cell phone bill and get Unlimited Data, but the joke is on me, as it is easy to offer Unlimited Data when the network only let's you download at dial-up speeds. A 5mb app takes well over a minute to download, rather than the 1-2 seconds that I am used to...
Sigh....
They're upgrading your area now so what your seeing is the norm until local tower work is done.
Trips and stumbles dude.
So yeah, given the under construction status, it's normal.
Voice signal strength has nothing to do with 3g. Just because u have 6 bars doesn't mean you'll have good data signal.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
I sometimes get 1 mb down @ 3 am. Just switch your job to 3rd shift and become a vampire man. It's not that hard. U wanted unlimited data and lower phone bill right? Steal WiFi, lol...
Am thinking about the evo 4g lte because I've read excellent reviews about the call quality. I already know I won't be getting lte in my area for a long time. Are the 3g speeds actually worse on this model as compared with other Sprint models ? (some reviews have claimed this)
My 3g is slow enough as it is on my HTC Touch (can live with it though), but won't be able to accept anything slower.
i have kno problems with this phone.. its perfect for me im just bored with it... i need a new phone every 6 months i think!!! lol..
I'm hoping the following review is incorrect:
The ugly:
This is where the phone starts to fall apart for me. The network capabilities are awful. They are a clear downgrade from my Evo 4g. I live in Kansas City, and my old Evo 4g had both excellent 3g coverage, and excellent WiMax coverage. Ping times were the only problem I had with WiMax (typically in the 200-300 range), but I typically got 3-7Mbps down and ~1Mbps up with very reliable coverage, especially in my home. Outside of WiMax range, I reliably got 3g coverage that pulled ~1-2Mbps down and up. This is what I would expect, given that I am in Sprint's home market.
I upgraded to the Evo 4g LTE after hearing that LTE was officially "live" in Kansas City. Unfortunately the news that I missed was that by "live", they really mean "about 30% live". There is little to no actual LTE coverage in the city. At my apartment, where WiMax was previously very strong, I can only connect to LTE rarely, and when I do the signal is so weak that my connection times out regularly. Watching antenna strength, the LTE connection sits around -115 to -120dBm (in non-technical terms, that is just a hair above zero bars). I actually disabled the LTE antenna on my phone because it is disruptive FAR more often than it is useful.
"So what", you might say. "Just use 3g". I would agree with you. 3g should be able to get me by in the next few months while Sprint continues their LTE rollout, hopefully with an antenna near my home. Unfortunately the phone's 3g antenna is also highly problematic. 3g signal pickup is weaker than my old Evo 4g, and speeds are considerably worse than my previous phone. Pings usually sit around 200, which is acceptable, but I almost never get above 0.5Mbps down, or up. Additionally (and even more importantly), the phone has a habit of dropping the 3g signal. I tether often, and when I do I tend to lose 3g every few minutes. This is in close proximity to a 3g tower, and with a strong signal (4-5 bars, in the -70 to -80dBm range). The phone will just inexplicably lose 3g connectivity. Google around a bit and find out: this is a known problem that many people are dealing with, and HTC/Sprint have acknowledged the issue and are trying to rectify it. Problem is, it isn't fixed. I truly hope that in the near future an OTA update will fix the problems... after all, I'm basically stuck with this phone for the next 23 months. The network issues are bad enough that I really do miss my old Evo 4g, and I'm very tempted to reactivate it.
Conclusion: at the end of the day, the Evo 4g LTE is a phone, and as such I think the network issues are a pretty big deal. If you are on WiFi constantly, then they won't be an issue for you, but if you're dependent upon Sprint's network in any way, be very careful... this phone has some major baggage.
Update 9/25/2012: A couple OTA updates later, and it is still in pretty bad shape. I am very used to 500ms+ ping now, and 0.1Mbps download/upload speeds. 4g coverage is still nonexistant. According to xda and s4gru, this problem is SPECIFIC TO THE EVO 4g LTE. As in an iPhone 5 and SGIII will both connect just fine to 4g, but an Evo in the same room will not.
Try this neat trick: Go to craigslist and search for Evo 4g LTE. See how many nearly new Evos are being sold for less than half the price of a new one? That speaks more volumes than my review does
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http://wireless.amazon.com/customerreviews/B007ZUN6GS/ref=cr_detail_histogram_top
These post really make me scratch my head...In Memphis LTE is only a month old and only in the northern parts of the city...constant 15mbs+ and elsewhere 4g isnt on yet 3G is maxed out....I never have any problems maintaining a over decent connection on 3G.....it's just odd how much I hear how crappy the ELTE is.....Is it really a bad phone and I'm just in a city where Sprint has it act together or are some of you vice-versa??
jauger said:
These post really make me scratch my head...In Memphis LTE is only a month old and only in the northern parts of the city...constant 15mbs+ and elsewhere 4g isnt on yet 3G is maxed out....I never have any problems maintaining a over decent connection on 3G.....it's just odd how much I hear how crappy the ELTE is.....Is it really a bad phone and I'm just in a city where Sprint has it act together or are some of you vice-versa??
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I sure would like to know before I upgrade to this device.
TravisBean said:
Am thinking about the evo 4g lte because I've read excellent reviews about the call quality. I already know I won't be getting lte in my area for a long time. Are the 3g speeds actually worse on this model as compared with other Sprint models ? (some reviews have claimed this)
My 3g is slow enough as it is on my HTC Touch (can live with it though), but won't be able to accept anything slower.
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My 3g has been much better than my old HTC Hero and better than my Dad's og Evo(not to mention my mom's Samsung Nexus S, My brothers' Samsung, Motorola, and my sister's iCrap 4s).
As long as you stick to stock based roms, you'll be fine. HTC has some great tweaks that cm10 and aosp roms don't have that seem to boost bandwidth and 3g speeds.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Test it out. Set a timer for 13 days just to be sure.. Thats why carriers give you the 14 day trial period to make sure your happy before being stuck 2 more years with them.
I for one am happy with my EVO LTE. I also have a GS3 and from time to time go back and forth.
I had a chance to spend about 3 minutes with this device today at the Sprint store. Love at first sight. I can't put into words how elegantly this phone felt in my hand.
Didn't have time to check out the 3g connectivity, but call quality did seem above average for a Sprint phone.
Can you download a larger format dial pad for this phone (that works properly) ?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I'm in Boston mass 4g is 27-34 mgb and 3g is about 3-5 on my lte no issues
pbedard said:
I'm in Boston mass 4g is 27-34 mgb and 3g is about 3-5 on my lte no issues
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Are you saying you're getting 3-5 Mbps download speeds while connected to 3G?
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2