[Q] Radio or Tower? - HTC Droid DNA

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.

Related

[Q] Improve Cell Signal

I have a very strange issue. At home I get outside / inside I get 1 - 2 bars. If i drive two / three blocks left or right from my house I get 5 bars 3G. I have called t-mobile, and they have sent engs to test. First eng said its the phone and not their service. I explained to them I have 2 blackberrys and two android phones. Same signal on each! They sent another tech out and he said they are not going to improve the coverage in my area. I've been looking around for repeaters, boosters, etc, but I see that nobody makes a booster for the 1700 MHz.
Does anyone have any ideas?
im in chicago and i get the same thing. i get 1 bar 3g, or 2-3 bars on edge. sometimes, my signal drops all together and then comes back a few seconds later. i've told tmobile about this and they said there is no outage in my area. however, my dad's phone is fine; granted it's us cellular but still fine. just has to be tmobile. any of my friends who have tmobile, always lose signal at my place.
but good luck finding any company who will admit that their is something wrong with their service.
I am having the same problem in my house but outside is perfect. I notice that many Samsung Vibrant user has same problem at their residential. Why? Don't know...
im thinkin it could be the phone. cuz i didnt have problems with my old iphone..
It is not the phone. This is typical behavior for 2100 mhz signal. (t-mobile uplink frequency)
Yeah, I know the higher the mhz the harder it is to reach through buildings...one reason why hand radios such as police, fire, ems still use 700 / 800 range.
For my location its like the 3G towers get so close they lose signal near me. There are 3 tmobile towers within a 1 mile radius of me. Im right in the middle of all three.
This has been confirmed by tmobile and their tower website.
http://www.t-mobiletowers.com
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
i was using tmobile when i had my iphone.. so i still think the phone plays a role in this also
If you've never had a 3G device on T-Mobile there is no comparison to be made.
Secondly just because you're near a tower doesn't mean all of them will have 3G. 1 of those towers could be 3G while the other two are 2G.
T-Mobile's legacy 2G network is PCS AKA 1900 - already a high frequency network. There are a NUMBER of reasons why 3G isn't as strong as 2G. First of all 2G and 3G signal strength is measured differently. 1 bar (or 0 on the Vibrant) can mean choppy, garbling calls on 2G/GSM but on 3G, 1 bar can give you crystal clear calls and good-enough data service. EDGE with 1 bar is next to unbearable.
I actually have a problem because my neighbor has an illegal repeater that is tagged for AT&T. Because AT&T has really poor service in this area, he has it cranked up so high that if you get within half a block of his house all other GSM/EDGE/3G devices start to flake out. I doubt he even gets much better service in his house (I'm sure the repeater is just amplifying garbage signal anyway).
quetwo said:
I actually have a problem because my neighbor has an illegal repeater that is tagged for AT&T. Because AT&T has really poor service in this area, he has it cranked up so high that if you get within half a block of his house all other GSM/EDGE/3G devices start to flake out. I doubt he even gets much better service in his house (I'm sure the repeater is just amplifying garbage signal anyway).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
report him to the feds and that'll get rid of all your problems
Yeah, report him to the FCC. There is the threat of a $10K fine but usually thats all it takes to get them to turn of the repeater. If you don't want to be the bad guy, call t-mobile and rat him out.
quetwo said:
I actually have a problem because my neighbor has an illegal repeater that is tagged for AT&T. Because AT&T has really poor service in this area, he has it cranked up so high that if you get within half a block of his house all other GSM/EDGE/3G devices start to flake out. I doubt he even gets much better service in his house (I'm sure the repeater is just amplifying garbage signal anyway).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if thats why my signal just drops like a rock. I literally turn the corner and I go from 5 bars to 2 bars.
The Vibrant has 4 bars max, not 5. The bar display is very sensitive on the Vibrant, just the same as any other Samsung. Stop focusing on the bars, they're totally different when compared to any other Android phone.
heygrl said:
The Vibrant has 4 bars max, not 5. The bar display is very sensitive on the Vibrant, just the same as any other Samsung. Stop focusing on the bars, they're totally different when compared to any other Android phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, I have 0 bars inside my house but I am able to place calls upstairs but not downstairs. During my testing I used the bar status and *#*#197328640#*#* for the reading. You can tell with bar status though that it will be 5 bars and drive 2 more blocks its down to 2 bars. Same with *#*#197328640#*#* by the signal numbers.
I didn't read everything just wanted to give a reply really quick to the OP, I live in the chicago land area, work closer to the city and live in the west burbs, on Tmo, at work and around work area i get 3-5 bars all day long on 3g but once i get intside of my house it drops down to 0-1 and phone call quility is very poor.
To help my issue, once i get home i switch to "Use only 2G networks" under Mobile network settings, and once it switchs over i have full 5 everywhere with in my house on edge only and use my wifi if i want to surf the web. But the thing is call quility is back up to 100% when switching over once at home.
IDK if this will help you but worth a shot.
or you might try a more neighborly approach, ie warn him first
i had a problem years ago with a new neighbor (young kid) had rented a house few doors down from me - and was obviously selling drugs - this was in the inner city, the historic district, cars would pull up from time to time and the driver would jump out and run in his back door, spend 5 - 15 minutes and leave, and there'd be 5 to 10 cars a night when he had a shipment in. Problem was, the guy or guys left waiting in his car would be eyeballing the BMWs, volvos etc parked in the center of the block (center of block had two alleys, with a small private parking lot between them. they see or think these cars were easy prey for breakins, and they were - after he moved in we started seeing a breakin every 2-3 weeks
i told him one of the neighbors had asked me was he dealing drugs, as it sure looked like it, and hoping he'd get the hint, i told him it's none of my business but if you are, you might ask the customers to come to the front of your house - we've had way too many breakins into the cars and that neighbor that asked is ready to call the cops.
he didn't get the hint - cops were called, but only after giving him a chance, and they ended up raiding him
you get the point - use a "hypothetical" neighbor that had complained to you, so you don't unnecessarrily start a fence war
dougE24 said:
I didn't read everything just wanted to give a reply really quick to the OP, I live in the chicago land area, work closer to the city and live in the west burbs, on Tmo, at work and around work area i get 3-5 bars all day long on 3g but once i get intside of my house it drops down to 0-1 and phone call quility is very poor.
To help my issue, once i get home i switch to "Use only 2G networks" under Mobile network settings, and once it switchs over i have full 5 everywhere with in my house on edge only and use my wifi if i want to surf the web. But the thing is call quility is back up to 100% when switching over once at home.
IDK if this will help you but worth a shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually get maybe 1-2 bars of service at my house, and on a lot of days it's worse. Sometimes I can't maintain a call at all because the conversation is so broken. I tried doing what you've mentioned here and was surprised when my bars immediately jumped to full and stayed that way....for about 1 minute lol. Then I watched as they slowly dropped again to 1 bar. Which it then flickered up to 2 occasionally. I'm glad it works for you though. It was just funny for me because I'm yelling at my girlfriend "LOOK LOOK!! I HAVE FULL SIGNAL NOW!! Then I got sad face lol.
dougE24 said:
I didn't read everything just wanted to give a reply really quick to the OP, I live in the chicago land area, work closer to the city and live in the west burbs, on Tmo, at work and around work area i get 3-5 bars all day long on 3g but once i get intside of my house it drops down to 0-1 and phone call quility is very poor.
To help my issue, once i get home i switch to "Use only 2G networks" under Mobile network settings, and once it switchs over i have full 5 everywhere with in my house on edge only and use my wifi if i want to surf the web. But the thing is call quility is back up to 100% when switching over once at home.
IDK if this will help you but worth a shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx Doug, This actually helped a lot in the house
laristech said:
..................., but I see that nobody makes a booster for the 1700 MHz.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually there are quite a few wireless repeaters / boosters for 1700/2100
do a google for 1700/2100 repeaters, it'll pull up quite a few
here's one http://www.jdteck.com/jd55-pr-consumer-repeaters-p-2.html
I have had many phones with tmobile and a previous android the euro hero and never had I only had 0 to 1 bars on 3g in my house and best 3 bars on edge. All my previous had full 3g signal in my house til I got my vibrant so I can say that is the phone and not the service.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Unacceptable 4G Stability?

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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

[Q] 4G Reception

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

Sprint 3G performance?

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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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...

HTC ONE on Tmobile data speeds slow ?

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

Categories

Resources