Database Users

Why is 3G Slow?

Ok I use have a Wing and ive never gotten a data plan because of the price. I finaly broke down and got a G1 cause there was more power under the hood plus anyone could develop on it being open. Well i got a deal on one and the price was decent so I got a data plan bundled with my original plan. Ive never used a data connection before so when I got home I started playing with it. I wasnt all that impresed with the connection speeds, Its almost like its on a crappy dial-up connection. The Youtube app is pretty much useless unless your on wifi it only plays about 2sec's before it buffers for a minute and then plays another 2sec's. Now is this normal? Is this what 3g really is? Am I missing a bigger picture here?. Heres some of the things i have done to try and get some sort of improvement.
Screwed around with APN's.
Tryed it in diffrent areas around the state.
Flashed it with 1.5 which i do believe came with a new radio.
Any input would be greatly appreciated, Im not putting down the phone as a matter of fact i love it, Im just not too fond of this connection technology.

I was dealing with some of the same issues.I installed Adrenaline and my connection seems way better

How is the coverage in you area? I've never had any problems with my 3G on my G1, always between 2 and 3 MBit connection...... Are you sure your carrier supports UMTS/HSDPA? Without those 3G is worth nothing..... Also make sure you are stationary when testing speeds.

Coverage is great ive never lost a 3g connection its just slow as hell and almost is useless to me, My carrier is T-mobile and wether or not it is supported i dont have a clue as to find out if it is.
well my test speed stationary was 38.6 Kbit\s with full bars, Doesnt even come close to your speeds. Any other Ideas?

When you're using your mobile network, does the 3G symbol show in the notification bar? Or does it say E? If it says E and you're getting those speeds then those are about right for the EDGE network. However, if you're connected with the 3G symbol next to the link, then those speeds are too slow. If it says E, make sure you don't have 2G network only checked under settings>wireless>mobile network. If that's not checked, then its likely you just don't have 3G in your area.

nope the notification is always 3G

Meh my edge is 10kb download, I would kill for 3g...
It takes miniutes to load pages and seconds to load google.

RBRat3 said:
Im just not too fond of this connection technology.
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It's not the connection technology - it's either a problem with your phone, or just that your carriers network isn't very good and/or doesn't have the necessary backbone to cope with the amount of traffic generated by its subscribers. Given that T-Mobiles 3G network in the US isn't exactly pervasive, I'd hedge my bets that it is a network issue.
Here in the UK, I live in a very rural area, and I get 2.4mbps on my G1 via T-Mobile UK. Can't really tell the difference between being on WiFi and 3G given the actual processing speed of the device.
Of course, we're very lucky here in the sense that we are a small country (thing of Georgia and Florida combined) with a high population density. This means it is comparatively simple to get blanket 3G coverage (say 95% ish at least in terms of population).
Regards,
Dave

I never really said it was the connection technology, Its just that my first impression with 3g has been unfavorable, Damn I just sold my wing and i didnt even think of trying out the 3G on it to see if anything was better. Ohh and sadly when i do get edge Its great and alot more faster which is odd to say but to face the facts i can watch youtube videos with edge with no problem. Ill probley reflash it with official 1.5 and if i get the same results then is there a way to dumb down the browser to make it almost txt based without any image and uneeded script loading to atleast make browsing the web alittle more likeable.

RBRat3 said:
I never really said it was the connection technology, Its just that my first impression with 3g has been unfavorable, Damn I just sold my wing and i didnt even think of trying out the 3G on it to see if anything was better. Ohh and sadly when i do get edge Its great and alot more faster which is odd to say but to face the facts i can watch youtube videos with edge with no problem.
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Theoretically, EDGE maxes out at 192kbps and "standard" UMTS 3G at 384kbps. With HSDPA, the theoretical maximum is 7.2mbps, but most carriers don't support speeds such as this yet (T-Mobile UK supposedly at 4.5mbps).
So, if you are getting better performance over EDGE than you are over 3G, and assuming that T-Mobile uses the same backhaul network for both 3G and EDGE traffic, it seems more likely to me that you may have a problem device. I'd suggest a trip to a T-Mobile retail location may help, since they should be able to compare your experience with other devices.
Regards,
Dave

Well ill check out some nearby stores and see if they have working display models to try it out and cross refrence them to see if they compare the same. To get alittle off topic here so far i have had one problem with the device I played Retro defense from the market (Game BTW) and i played it for 2 hours straight. After 2 hours of gameplay that phone was hotter than hell which was kinda scarey and It just shut off blinking red on the notification LED so i figured the phone can actually overheat. I can reproduce this over and over only with that game. So if that hasnt happend to anyone then its a possibility that your assumption might be right that my device might have a defect. But its kind of a big crossover between overheating and connection difficulty.

Switching from 3G to 2G giving me better reception? or is it just me?

T-Mobile in my area is shown as the best they have on their coverage map, but my calls always get dropped
I'm still under my 30 days and I want them to somehow boost up my reception because I seriously want to keep the HD2.
It might just be me, but when I turn off my 3G signal, my 2G coverage is almost perfect, but I still get occasional dropped calls. Is it just me?
And also, do any of those signal booster stickers work? Should I try foil?
I am open to all comment and suggestions..thanks

i usually leave my phone on GSM (2g) through the band properties because it saves battery, and yes i do get more bars. in some locations my 3g or H connection is just as strong.
Not sure about boosters, i heard that the antenna is located at the base of the phone though.

stickers are a scam.
I can't believe those stickers are still available.
Dropped Calls are almost inevitable with today's technology.
2G and 3G coverage are different. if you have trouble with 3G at your location, simply turn it off in order to ensure a stronger connection and more stability during phone calls.

where do you turn off your 3G on a stock HD2?

adamhlj said:
where do you turn off your 3G on a stock HD2?
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settings-->wireless controls-->click phone(not on/off)-->band-->choose gsm

Tmobile is still rolling out it's 3g coverage, so it makes sense that their 3g is not nearly as available as 2g.
Furthermore, Tmobile's 2G frequencies are lower than 3G so they penetrate better.

Svegetto said:
Tmobile is still rolling out it's 3g coverage, so it makes sense that their 3g is not nearly as available as 2g.
Furthermore, Tmobile's 2G frequencies are lower than 3G so they penetrate better.
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Lawl.....I am so tempted to use the internet meme here but.....ah well.

Svegetto said:
Furthermore, Tmobile's 2G frequencies are lower than 3G so they penetrate better.
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Could you elaborate on that? Curious about the science behind "higher" and "lower" frequency penetration on the different bands...

htc707 said:
T-Mobile in my area is shown as the best they have on their coverage map, but my calls always get dropped
I'm still under my 30 days and I want them to somehow boost up my reception because I seriously want to keep the HD2.
It might just be me, but when I turn off my 3G signal, my 2G coverage is almost perfect, but I still get occasional dropped calls. Is it just me?
And also, do any of those signal booster stickers work? Should I try foil?
I am open to all comment and suggestions..thanks
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Call them and tell them your problem. T-Mobile's help desk has always been amazing for me and perhaps they know something that you don't.
If all else fails, you can use the call to drop your contract without penalties. I'd much rather have an older phone that works than a new one that doesn't!

Snarksneeze said:
Could you elaborate on that? Curious about the science behind "higher" and "lower" frequency penetration on the different bands...
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That's just the basic physics of RF signals...the lower the frequency, the higher the penetration capability (as a general rule of thumb). Same generally holds true for sound frequencies as well.

I don't get dropped calls at all on T-Mobile here in NY (AT&T is a different story).
However, especially indoros, 2G signal is generally stronger than 3G.

Snarksneeze said:
Could you elaborate on that? Curious about the science behind "higher" and "lower" frequency penetration on the different bands...
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Just to give you some very simple insight (you can always google it if you'd like detail explanation; it's actually quite simple, I just don't want to have to type all of it). In simplest terms, Tmobile 3g runs on 1700 and 2100 which is much higher then its 2g which runs on 850. Lower frequencies don't go as far, but have better penetration.
If you'd like another way to think about it, think of when you hear someone playing music from a good stereo system in a building. You'll likely only be able to hear/feel the bass because it's able to penetrate the walls and you won't hear the the actual lyrics/treble because that's higher frequencies.
Hope this helps

T-Mobile 2G runs on PCS, always has and always will.
The reason for 3G not being as strong can be a number of things, the reception on the HD2 really doesn't seem to be good and the 3G network buildout is incomplete at the moment as mentioned before in this thread.

gsvnet said:
I don't get dropped calls at all on T-Mobile here in NY (AT&T is a different story).
However, especially indoros, 2G signal is generally stronger than 3G.
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I've only dropped calls when in my poor reception apartment. It seems to be worse at keeping a signal than my HTC Dream.
However it still bugs me that the HD2 doesn't scan or update quick enough when I exit the metro. It might say I have full 3g, but it won't let me call for a few minutes. Sometimes it will decide to disconnect from the signal and reconnect even when I haven't moved to a weaker area and it's still full 3g bars. I'm also in NYC/Manhattan.

update
The data services with this phone are also going under maintenance soon, basically the software of the phone has a defect within the radio, HTC is releasing an update on May 17th to help fix this, you might see some luck having a better connection this way, but everyone is right about the different types of signals, the fact lies that there are 2 towers for each spot, the 2G network is more established where the 3G towers might not have as good of a penetration because they use a higher frequency.

Confirmation
My apartment has terrible reception. My signal will go out for about 5 mins then come back with only 1-2 bars. I turned off 3G and now my 2G signal remains around 1-3 bars with no blackouts so far (3 days).
Its just a minor hassle to remember to switch back to 3G when I go out.

firedragon64 said:
The data services with this phone are also going under maintenance soon, basically the software of the phone has a defect within the radio, HTC is releasing an update on May 17th to help fix this, you might see some luck having a better connection this way, but everyone is right about the different types of signals, the fact lies that there are 2 towers for each spot, the 2G network is more established where the 3G towers might not have as good of a penetration because they use a higher frequency.
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Where did you find this out? I really want an update, the hardware is great, but the phone quality is horrible sometimes due to all my daily location (and reception) changes.

aceo07 said:
Where did you find this out? I really want an update, the hardware is great, but the phone quality is horrible sometimes due to all my daily location (and reception) changes.
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+1
This would be great news if it's true (and actually addresses the issues)....has the date (or even the release itself) been substantiated at all?

HSDPA+ rolled/being rolled out to central florida, what to look for

Hopefully this isn't off topic.
What to look for if you still don't have it in your area:
Have had some issues the last few weeks with tmobile and noticed "funny" things like certain areas not having 3g but full edge when I knew they were capable of it. Most of the time this happened around 2am or later. Anyway I now can say without a doubt that HSDPA+ is in central Florida or in the process of being rolled out. Other odd issues I noticed was
Consistent min speed of 2.3mbit when before it was 500kbit min. Highest I got so far in my apartment which is a 3-4 bar area was 5.5mbit. Highest before was 1.5 and in a very strong 4 bar area close by 1.8 max. Upload still leaves *ALOT* to be desired with .23 to -.4 mbps upload. They seem to be using similiar technology to the burst seen on cable modems, ie road runner will give you 20mbit for their "turbo" with "bursts" up to 30mbit. This could also just be how hsdpa works anyway to make sure there aren't alot of re-requests for data due to a bad signal but it definately starts off around 300-500kbit and bursts up after 1-4 seconds to the faster speed.
Either way perfect timing tmobile.

I hope that's true. I've been having alot of 3g outtages lately.

JCopernicus said:
I hope that's true. I've been having alot of 3g outtages lately.
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I'm almost certain it is. I just called last night to complain about it because I was staying at my parents house sitting and it happened up there too, as well as by my girlfriend's house about 10 minutes down the road from my apartment.
I'm really bothered though by the upload speeds.. but i guess its whatever. It's either my area, or tmobile in general.. I've had a couple of swaps with the same issue so its not the phone.
As a side note.. does nexus support 21mbit hsdpa+?

no the nexus one only supports up to 7.2mbps

Orangeandblue302 said:
no the nexus one only supports up to 7.2mbps
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ouch I was really hoping that wasn't the case. any that go beyond to 21mbps?

I wish AT&T upgraded the towers here. I can't tell you how many times I go into a classroom at UCF and there's no reception.

mariolopezjr said:
I wish AT&T upgraded the towers here. I can't tell you how many times I go into a classroom at UCF and there's no reception.
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I'm pretty sure schools do that on purpose so you can pay attention in class.
The same thing happens at my university up here in Illinois, once you step outside the building, full bars again.

rolled out in Houston Texas
Hey - starting last week, I noticed flaky things with T-mobile in Houston area similar to what OP stated. But over the weekend, I realized they were rolling out hsdpa+ and then the next day - full blown hspa. I'm so happy.
Before today, the ul speeds were .5 - .6. Today, I'm getting between 1.5 and 1.8 ul speeds!

TurboTsi said:
I'm pretty sure schools do that on purpose so you can pay attention in class.
The same thing happens at my university up here in Illinois, once you step outside the building, full bars again.
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More than anything its the wireless spectrum they use and the fact that you're in a large buildling. Depending on the frequency your provider uses you'll have better luck than some indoors.. generally its all the same. Of course the number of towers is important too. But for example LTE on 700mhz will give verizon LTE speeds 8-10 miles from the tower, 2500mhz on wimax will give sprint 2-3 miles from the tower. Higher frequency means more bandwidth available however.
I'm in engineering at UCF and pretty good reception in HEC and engineering 1 as long as you're not in the inner part of the building and those hallways and labs you're good. Brick walls = signal drop with anything but the lower frequencies and a well covered area. It's pretty strong coverage over here though on this side of campus.
They do have paint and stuff that have metal in it I think because its illegal to have a device that emits a radio signal to jam cellphones, however blocking it with shielding isn't. I'm pretty certain its expensive though. This was years ago that I saw that link on it... don't know if it still exists.

How big of a swath is it being rolled out to do you think? I am in Deltona and nothing has changed as of yet. I assume your talking about the Orlando metro area...
I am using the FRF50 radio by the way.

yeah you will get a increase in speeds due to the extra bandwith, but don't expect to get past the 7.2 mark, hell don't even expect to hit the 7.2 mark due to all the other factors.
not many devices out there to take full advantage of the added speed. new blackberry bold does........not sure what else, even the *cough* iphone 4 doesn't

saint327 said:
How big of a swath is it being rolled out to do you think? I am in Deltona and nothing has changed as of yet. I assume your talking about the Orlando metro area...
I am using the FRF50 radio by the way.
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I was up in deland when I noticed the problems 2 nights ago with the 2g and not going to 3g in an area that I knew had 3g. This was actually during the day. I just tested it again within the last day before leaving and it was working again. Give it a week or two and I'm sure you'll see it. It seems the whole area is being upgraded including you. I'm on the older radio... update-1 radio.
Also please report problems to tmobile as you see them. I'm going to report my ****ty upload speeds. Looking online it seems other areas have better upload than I do. I mean 200kbps max 400 and choppy is just terrible.

y2whisper said:
yeah you will get a increase in speeds due to the extra bandwith, but don't expect to get past the 7.2 mark, hell don't even expect to hit the 7.2 mark due to all the other factors.
not many devices out there to take full advantage of the added speed. new blackberry bold does........not sure what else, even the *cough* iphone 4 doesn't
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ATT is only going to 7.1 HSDPA... at least offically announced as of a month ago.. I guess that could change.. They're doing LTE after that.

Re 3g in O-Town.
I have had full 3g bars when I visit my younger brother around Alfaya and UCF.

As far as off-topicness goes I do think XDA is large enough to need carrier forums..
But yes, 3G/2G switching where it previously wasn't, weak 3G, no 3G, 3G not working, are all signs that 3G is being worked on for HSPA+ which includes going from T1's to fiber backhaul
My sig shows what I get with my slow G1. This is in a high traffic area, where before it was .10Mbps during the same time, yes.. that slow and congested.
Also if you're not getting HSUPA you need to make sure your Nexus One has it enabled. Stock roms do have HSUPA enabled, some custom ones don't.

blisk said:
I was up in deland when I noticed the problems 2 nights ago with the 2g and not going to 3g in an area that I knew had 3g. This was actually during the day. I just tested it again within the last day before leaving and it was working again. Give it a week or two and I'm sure you'll see it. It seems the whole area is being upgraded including you. I'm on the older radio... update-1 radio.
Also please report problems to tmobile as you see them. I'm going to report my ****ty upload speeds. Looking online it seems other areas have better upload than I do. I mean 200kbps max 400 and choppy is just terrible.
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Cool. I was discouraged back in January when they supposedly flipped the switch to HSDPA. As it turned out the backhaul wasn't here to support it. The max down I can remember is right at 1Mbps. Most of the time its around 900Kbps. Uploads usually come in around 350Kbps, with 500 being the highest I've seen. I live in Deltona, but work in Lake Mary and the speeds have been similar in both locations.
I hope that with this rollout everything will be in place.

HSDPA was already active on the network. The most they did was enable HSUPA.

blisk said:
More than anything its the wireless spectrum they use and the fact that you're in a large buildling. Depending on the frequency your provider uses you'll have better luck than some indoors.. generally its all the same. Of course the number of towers is important too. But for example LTE on 700mhz will give verizon LTE speeds 8-10 miles from the tower, 2500mhz on wimax will give sprint 2-3 miles from the tower. Higher frequency means more bandwidth available however.
I'm in engineering at UCF and pretty good reception in HEC and engineering 1 as long as you're not in the inner part of the building and those hallways and labs you're good. Brick walls = signal drop with anything but the lower frequencies and a well covered area. It's pretty strong coverage over here though on this side of campus.
They do have paint and stuff that have metal in it I think because its illegal to have a device that emits a radio signal to jam cellphones, however blocking it with shielding isn't. I'm pretty certain its expensive though. This was years ago that I saw that link on it... don't know if it still exists.
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You can be right about that, but I think it's mostly older buildings to blame and not the fact that they did it on purpose to block cell phone usage. Classroom Building 1 has horrible reception and around it too. At my job (in Millican Hall) the reception is horrible at my coworkers office (but it could be because the office is near a lot of beams). So structure is sometimes the cause.
I also get almost no reception in my cousin's house. She lives a little bit past Pegasus Pointe.

prscott1 said:
Hey - starting last week, I noticed flaky things with T-mobile in Houston area similar to what OP stated. But over the weekend, I realized they were rolling out hsdpa+
Before today, the ul speeds were .5 - .6. Today, I'm getting between 1.5 and 1.8 ul speeds!
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I think you mean HSPA. HSDPA wouldn't help your Uplink.

saint327 said:
Cool. I was discouraged back in January when they supposedly flipped the switch to HSDPA. As it turned out the backhaul wasn't here to support it. The max down I can remember is right at 1Mbps. Most of the time its around 900Kbps. Uploads usually come in around 350Kbps, with 500 being the highest I've seen. I live in Deltona, but work in Lake Mary and the speeds have been similar in both locations.
I hope that with this rollout everything will be in place.
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I use to get approximately the same speed at my apartment.. with a place I work on campus getting 1.8mbps down and .3-.5 mbps up and that was the best speed I've gotten around here. Its alot better now.. i'm sure they're still tweaking it.. I hope they are with the upload speeds.. its choppy and inconsitant.. sometimes just stops. Download did that a couple times too but that's probably related to the terrible upload (downloading needs upload to request the next bits of data to be sent.. it sends "acks" to acknowledge that the packet of data was sent properly). It's just really bad sometimes around UCF where it refuses to send a text, make a phone call, or go online as it just has that stuck up arrow thing. Really annoying.
I called tmobile to complain about the upload speeds and I guess they didn't want to fill a report out. Also HSDPA+ is only in Philly and there is no way I could get it in this area they claim.. gave me a hard time about things. So I asked what the max speeds I should be getting and I said well I'm getting much faster than that.. why is that? I think its cause I called twice recently and they already filled out one for each occasion. I had to really be forceful about them filling one out for me.. with the original person one not filling it out and then transferring me to pda support and then he didn't want to either. Both said they couldn't select nexus one as a phone when reporting a service issue and the second guy just decided to bull**** me off the phone the whole time after finally admitting that. I said bull cause I just had two filled out previously... they just kept discounting what I was saying.

Vibrant signal strength -110 :((

I do not know why but i get extremely poor signal with my new vibrant and T-mobile at my house. Outside the house and inside it is averaging - 110 db. My work is 1.5 miles away and I get 4-5 bars and excellent signal and 3G. T-mobile store is 1 mile away and i get excellent service there... Even 4G is offered in my area.
I called tech support, first they told me i had an old sim card, so today I changed the sim, but that did not help. I called them again, all they did is take me off the system and add me back on, did a test call, i received the call and that was it. Am I stuck with poor service or it is the the vibrant that is too sensitive.

I am looking at the signal strength at work now, and again, I work 1.5 miles away from my house, literary straight down the road.. I am getting -65 to -75 db with full 5 bars. When I hold it with my left hand supposedly blocking the antenna, I get a drop of -5 db, but it still stray very strong..
So I guess, it is not a phone issue. It is definitely Tmobile and their crappy signal!

azsamsancho said:
I do not know why but i get extremely poor signal with my new vibrant and T-mobile at my house. Outside the house and inside it is averaging - 110 db. My work is 1.5 miles away and I get 4-5 bars and excellent signal and 3G. T-mobile store is 1 mile away and i get excellent service there... Even 4G is offered in my area.
I called tech support, first they told me i had an old sim card, so today I changed the sim, but that did not help. I called them again, all they did is take me off the system and add me back on, did a test call, i received the call and that was it. Am I stuck with poor service or it is the the vibrant that is too sensitive.
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azsamsancho said:
I am looking at the signal strength at work now, and again, I work 1.5 miles away from my house, literary straight down the road.. I am getting -65 to -75 db with full 5 bars. When I hold it with my left hand supposedly blocking the antenna, I get a drop of -5 db, but it still stray very strong..
So I guess, it is not a phone issue. It is definitely Tmobile and their crappy signal!
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Do you want XDA crew come and hug you?
Which baseband are you running? JFD, JI2 or JI6?

azsamsancho said:
I am looking at the signal strength at work now, and again, I work 1.5 miles away from my house, literary straight down the road.. I am getting -65 to -75 db with full 5 bars. When I hold it with my left hand supposedly blocking the antenna, I get a drop of -5 db, but it still stray very strong..
So I guess, it is not a phone issue. It is definitely Tmobile and their crappy signal!
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what rom are you running? What you're describing seems to be similar to what happened with the original vibrant radio.

Group hug aside
The above comments are excellent. Check what radio you are running. Then, check your tower locations
I am on an Island and there are places that every carrier has problems covering here. Not sure why it is that way but, that is the way it is. T mobile is pretty good on a whole compared to ATT and the others.

lqaddict said:
Which baseband are you running? JFD, JI2 or JI6?
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I was running stock at first, and then I upgraded to JI6 as it supposedly improves the signal.. i seem to have had some improvement but still extremely poor service at or around my house. last night as a test, I called my work and left a voicemail. When I got to work, I saw a missed call, but no voicemail!
The scary part is reliability, not being able to rely on important calls/voicemails to my phone. I tried to use google voice at least the voicemails to be covered, but I found out that google voice is not reliable either, a couple of times already it tells 'Cannot leave a voicemail servers are busy" something like that.. It is insane, and I have 4G in my area!

Have you tried another phone?

lqaddict said:
Have you tried another phone?
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I have not because I do not have another T-mobile phone. I used to be with AT&T for years and I never ever had a an issue with reception.

azsamsancho said:
I have not because I do not have another T-mobile phone. I used to be with AT&T for years and I never ever had a an issue with reception.
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it could be that your place is under a sub-optimal coverage for TMO.
Without a second phone to try there is little you can do to confirm or deny it.

azsamsancho said:
I have not because I do not have another T-mobile phone. I used to be with AT&T for years and I never ever had a an issue with reception.
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lol isn't obvious to you yet that AT&T network has wider coverage than T-Mobile? T-Mobile is still building out their 3G network, they still don't have the type of coverage AT&T have. I suggest you unlock you Vibrant and go back to AT&T if your not on a contract. Otherwise you will just have hope T-Mobile cares about coverage than SPEED.
I love T-Mobile but their coverage have me on the edge at times.

ram130 said:
lol isn't obvious to you yet that AT&T network has wider coverage than T-Mobile? T-Mobile is still building out their 3G network, they still don't have the type of coverage AT&T have. I suggest you unlock you Vibrant and go back to AT&T if your not on a contract. Otherwise you will just have hope T-Mobile cares about coverage than SPEED.
I love T-Mobile but their coverage have me on the edge at times.
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I unlocked the phone, but I can't go back to AT&T right, I will have to cancel the 2-year Tmobile contract and return the phone as well..

azsamsancho said:
I unlocked the phone, but I can't go back to AT&T right, I will have to cancel the 2-year Tmobile contract and return the phone as well..
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Well I guess you have some bad luck. Looks like your stuck until T-Mobile does something, which can take upto two years either way...I wish you luck.
Have tried switching to EDGE?

I had the same signal quality problems and switched to att as a result. Problems resolved and I still have my beloved Vibrant.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

ram130 said:
lol isn't obvious to you yet that AT&T network has wider coverage than T-Mobile? T-Mobile is still building out their 3G network, they still don't have the type of coverage AT&T have. I suggest you unlock you Vibrant and go back to AT&T if your not on a contract. Otherwise you will just have hope T-Mobile cares about coverage than SPEED.
I love T-Mobile but their coverage have me on the edge at times.
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I'm sorry, but that's the stupidest generalization i've seen here in a long time.
While T-Mobile is building out coverage, there are many areas that they serve and ATT doesn't (cheyenne, wyoming), and where TMO brought 3g first (peoria, IL; manhattan, ks).
If you don't like their coverage, then switch. But don't make silly generalizations based upon talking points from 5 years ago. Coverage is ALWAYS subjective.

I usually sit around -105dBm and I'm in Sacramento where supposedly HSPA+ was just rolled out (I know I can't get HSPA+, but I thought it was supposed to improve the network here )
So I feel your pain...

reuthermonkey said:
I'm sorry, but that's the stupidest generalization i've seen here in a long time.
While T-Mobile is building out coverage, there are many areas that they serve and ATT doesn't (cheyenne, wyoming), and where TMO brought 3g first (peoria, IL; manhattan, ks).
If you don't like their coverage, then switch. But don't make silly generalizations based upon talking points from 5 years ago. Coverage is ALWAYS subjective.
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Hey it's the facts..t-mobile network is still "spotty"...stop making them seem like god, they cover 96% while AT&T has 97%,,We don't even want to mention Verizon..but hey, nothing is perfect, it's just what's best in your area.

ram130 said:
Have tried switching to EDGE?
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Yes, I did experiment with EDGE (GSM only) setting. It seems to be a bit better -100 dB (compared to the -110 dB I get on 3G).
I know Tmobile has less than perfect coverage, but I think it is extremely unfortunate that a mile from my house networks are blazing fast. My 3G is super fast and internet pages load very, very quickly. I do not live in a mountain area either..
I guess I will have to live with it. Use hands free to talk when I am at home so antenna is not blocked.. and use google voice for voicemail so important calls are not lost. if gogole voice fails, at least ppl won't be able to leave voicemail, and thus forcing them to call me back..

azsamsancho said:
Yes, I did experiment with EDGE (GSM only) setting. It seems to be a bit better -100 dB (compared to the -110 dB I get on 3G).
I know Tmobile has less than perfect coverage, but I think it is extremely unfortunate that a mile from my house networks are blazing fast. My 3G is super fast and internet pages load very, very quickly. I do not live in a mountain area either..
I guess I will have to live with it. Use hands free to talk when I am at home so antenna is not blocked.. and use google voice for voicemail so important calls are not lost. if gogole voice fails, at least ppl won't be able to leave voicemail, and thus forcing them to call me back..
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Funny, I use Google Voice for all my voicemails and never got the error you had..oh well..i wish you luck

You may try returning it for a G2. TMo is supposed to release Wifi calling for it soon. It's probably coming to the Vibrant too, but I doubt before 2.2 is released.

Kubernetes said:
You may try returning it for a G2. TMo is supposed to release Wifi calling for it soon. It's probably coming to the Vibrant too, but I doubt before 2.2 is released.
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I am still within my 14-days (until tomorrow), but the problem is I did not buy directly from Tmobile. I bought from online retailer so I cannot just go and swap phones I think. I think if I can back out of the contract and keep the phone and go to AT&T might be a good option (not sure how good the 2 GB data limit is)..

I have run out of ideas! 3G Limited?

Hello there new guy here, and XDA noob
For a while now, about 2 years i have been stuck on a maximum of 250 kbps. Previously i had a HTC Desire Rooted and with custom rom Redux. I could never get above 250 kbps on 3g.
Now i have a HTC One X, and yet im still getting the same speeds, which kinda rules out any hardware bottlenecks. I can run on both T-Mobile and Orange Uk (because they merged). My brother owns a HTC Sensation and runs on the exact same carrier as i do and uses the same mast and manages to gain over 500kbps.. HOW?!
I tried ringing orange and asking if there was any limitations and they said no, they even put me through to the best tech service they had :l. Any ideas guys? I would be very rgateful if you could give me any insight. thanks

need more info. this doesnt sound right at all. where do you live? ever checked your distance to nearest cell tower? do you know of anyone else getting better speeds on the same network?
do you have proper network selected in settings? correct APN?
perhaps network build.prop tweaks? sometimes they help other times they can hurt..
also *#*#INFO#*#* select phone information and radio band.
could also have a bad SIM card if it is old.

I live in the UK, Around Birmingham and Coventry. I'm usually always on full signal and iv'e even been as close as the "Danger Radiation" sign lol My brother typically gets over 500 kbps and is pretty consistant... lucky B... :l
Correct APN? I presume you mean Carrier? im with Orange and it all seems grand.. so i think anyways.
Build.prop, i wouldn't know where to start with that ,i presume make a backup and try flashing an update.zip, if any problems use restore?
Not quit sure what im looking for in Phone info, help me out ?
And im sure it's not the sim card, it's the new micro sim that came with the phone !

APN = access point name
and you would only have access to your build.prop(properties) if you are rooted.
phone info; try entering this into the dialer : *#*#4636#*#*
select phone information (then you might need to press menu button) and choose radio band from there. You may also be able to change this in settings.
Is 500kbs the fastest speed you guys have seen? sounds very odd. I think I may have heard of this.. being too close to a tower causes terrible speeds, if it is fact the case, you may want to try connecting to the next closest tower. there should be some free apps around to view your cell tower info and possibly even change towers.
500kbs is not 3g.

Yeah it looks like all my APN settings and band is correct, if they weren't i wouldn't really be on a 3g signal what so ever. No other useful information is seen in info, Also, i have tried switching between carriers and tried the speed test on many many differen't towers. Im really stumped myself, and my phones rooted, but without RUU i can't install any Radio drivers can i?

3G service usually does not get above 2mb which in reality is only 200kbs.. i ran a speed test on a buddy's iPhone and it was only 1.54mb which is only 150kbs.... So you are right in the mid grade of speed... Get a 4G cell...

Those are horrible speeds for 3G at the least. Absolutely atrocious!
Have you tried consulting your carrier? Perhaps they could resolve the issue.

emuhack said:
3G service usually does not get above 2mb which in reality is only 200kbs.. i ran a speed test on a buddy's iPhone and it was only 1.54mb which is only 150kbs.... So you are right in the mid grade of speed... Get a 4G cell...
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My brother has a HTC Sensation and is able to get 600 kb/s+ I hope your not confusing it with kbps ! Sorry if i confused you !
And yeah i contacted them a while ago and they said everything was fine from their end !
I have a HTC ONE X, surely that's capable of H+, Something isn't right.