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So I ordered my N1 yesterday, and currently have at&t. wasn't too worried about the whole 3g thing, because I figured one of the smart guys here at xda would figure out a way to make it work. After looking in to it further, I realize the hardware just won't allow that. I would just switch to T-mobile, but they have no 3g coverage anywhere near me yet. this brings me to my question. is it worth switching to tmobiles coverage for faster 2g possibly, or in the hopes that they'll soon expand their network. I don't mind getting out of my contract with at&t, tmobiles rates seem to be a lot better. I'm just wondering if anybody has heard anything on T-mobiles future plans.
I think most anecdotal evidence by most users is that EDGE on TMO is much faster than ATT. Why? Even though the "transport" 2G technology is the same, ATT still suffers from not enough bandwidth at its towers for all the heavy 3G areas due to heavy usage. -- In other words, backhaul contention.
Also, the fact that in places where there is no TMO 3G... EDGE works quite well for the very same reason... Even with towers that only have several T1/DS1's in place instead of T3/DS3's or fiber
Cheers,
Kermee
In NYC, where I have 3G coverage as well, EDGE tops out at 10-15KB/s
hurrycaine3000 said:
So I ordered my N1 yesterday, and currently have at&t. wasn't too worried about the whole 3g thing, because I figured one of the smart guys here at xda would figure out a way to make it work. After looking in to it further, I realize the hardware just won't allow that. I would just switch to T-mobile, but they have no 3g coverage anywhere near me yet. this brings me to my question. is it worth switching to tmobiles coverage for faster 2g possibly, or in the hopes that they'll soon expand their network. I don't mind getting out of my contract with at&t, tmobiles rates seem to be a lot better. I'm just wondering if anybody has heard anything on T-mobiles future plans.
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Click to collapse
I personally have ran on EDGE for awhile on tmobile and have never had a problem with wifi while I am at home/school... however the 3g is nice, though my house seems to have 3g signals
its simple business really, though 1 man cannot make a difference... as the company grows, the service grows... verizon has the best service because it has the most customers... i think the reason tmobile has struggled in the US (as opposed to being the number 1 world wide carrier) is because of the lack of appeal from phones... with more phones rolling out and tmobile always having its doors open to unlocked phones i see the company gaining some momentum and it starts with these new android phones making it big as well as now having the fastest network in the nation...
ive had bad experiences with both verizon (contract issues) and att (terrible customer service), tmobile has yet to steer me wrong (other than not giving me an upgrade for the N1 haha)
with that said, try em out, idk if companies still let you trial their service for a week or so but you could ask?
i honestly cant tel a diff between edge and 3 g lol they both are friggin fast as hell
VoLoDaR1 said:
i honestly cant tel a diff between edge and 3 g lol they both are friggin fast as hell
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It all depends on what you're doing Tweeting and reading tweets... probably not so much
Cheers,
Kermee
are you crazy? 3G is AT LEAST 10+ times as fast as EDGE.
I know on my touch pro using att 3g over edge. they have 3g where I work, but not at my house. so I always just use wifi at my house, but don't bother at work because the 3g is fast enough. I can definetly tell the difference. granted there is wifi almost everywhere these days, but with my touch pro I have to turn it off and on when I'm using it so my battery half makes through a day. It will be nice if the N1's is more of a automatic thing, if that makes sense. I guess if I knew that t Mobile would actually be implementing 3g in my area at all soon, it would be an easier decision, but I haven't found anything to make me think they'll be adding towers in York, PA any time soon.
Im in Dallas TX and just activated my phone. I was worried because people in some forums where saying phone kept switching to 2g. I just activated my phone and its been on 3 out of 4 bars on 3g last 30-40 minutes...I know this is kind of off topic, but thought it was important do to the nature of all the talk about speed on tmobile.
Ok im scared now, i just looked at the USA map on tmobile https://my.t-mobile.com/Plan/CoverageMap.aspx and looks to hardly be any 3g coverage! What! Tell me it aint so!
that's what I'm saying, I want 3g on this phone, but it's just not in my area on tmobile. we've established it's pretty much going to be impossible to get att's to work on this phone. It doesn't look like tmobile has 3g anywhere, atleast not hardly. what to do, what to do.
dallastx said:
Im in Dallas TX and just activated my phone. I was worried because people in some forums where saying phone kept switching to 2g. I just activated my phone and its been on 3 out of 4 bars on 3g last 30-40 minutes...I know this is kind of off topic, but thought it was important do to the nature of all the talk about speed on tmobile.
Ok im scared now, i just looked at the USA map on tmobile https://my.t-mobile.com/Plan/CoverageMap.aspx and looks to hardly be any 3g coverage! What! Tell me it aint so!
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thats called #4 carrier coverage
as for that map, its ancient... the thing has never worked properly and the maps take forever to load yet i wish i could get a decent detailed coverage map for tmobile somewhere...
hurrycaine3000 said:
I know on my touch pro using att 3g over edge. they have 3g where I work, but not at my house. so I always just use wifi at my house, but don't bother at work because the 3g is fast enough. I can definetly tell the difference. granted there is wifi almost everywhere these days, but with my touch pro I have to turn it off and on when I'm using it so my battery half makes through a day. It will be nice if the N1's is more of a automatic thing, if that makes sense. I guess if I knew that t Mobile would actually be implementing 3g in my area at all soon, it would be an easier decision, but I haven't found anything to make me think they'll be adding towers in York, PA any time soon.
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OMG i live in york to lol. ive asked tmobile many times if we'll ever have 3g and they told me december 09 but that never happened. who knows if we'll ever get it. but edge for me on tmobile works good unless u use media functions like youtube and streaming video but its good for web browsing and email
Make sure T-Mobile has EDGE all around your area because I've found that there are many places that don't even have EDGE on T-Mobile and are GRPS only. That being said, I do find that usually T-Mobile EDGE is faster.... The difference is so small that I wouldn't change networks over it though..
I get around 25KB/s or so, which works fine for streaming music and such. This is quite a bit faster than the AT&T users seem to get here.
Yeah you should be happy with what you've got. EDGE isn't amazing but at least with the 900mhz range you've got coverage. I'm not sure about T-mobile US thought but it has to be better than UK. I live in the UK just outside of town with 3 basestations surrounding my house just out of range with 2100 3g and 1800 2g. I can get signal occasionally with my Iphone 3gs, until I touch it...
The coverage is okish but I get Black-spots everywhere; literally, I can walk round the corner away from a basestation and lose signal. I can only use my phone if I'm underneath a basestation and even then the crappy 4.2Mbit/s (It may even be less than that) limited basestations are overloaded. Each user is then further capped at roughly 1.8Mbit/s
That's 3G and above, which I rarely get as I mentioned. When you get 2G you get EDGE. When I get 2G I don't get EDGE, I don't even get 2.5G, I get slower-than-dial-up GPRS which is unusable. None of T-mo UK's basestations are EDGE enabled; with common black-spots and poor 3G reception, this makes for an appalling network. I can't wait to switch to Three UK. Blanket UK 3g coverage with amazing deals: £15/mo rolling contract with 300 mins, unlimited texts, Unlimited (7.2Mbit/s) data. The only problem is they have shockingly bad phones (no problem for me, or so I thought...)
melterx12 said:
are you crazy? 3G is AT LEAST 10+ times as fast as EDGE.
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That pretty well sums up the problem with TMUS users.
They have no f***ing clue.
Has anyone else had an issue with having the phone drop out of 3G coverage, and not want to reconnect by itself?
It seems to me as if when there is no 3G coverage it falls back onto GPRS and doesnt check if 3G is available.
I've set it to WCDMA (3G) only mode just to get on 3G, but it sucks cause I have no fallback and am out out of coverage often enough to take some advantage of GPRS.
Also 3G signal seems pretty weak compared to my HTC Magic in same locations...
Any ideas?
Might be something about your area, I haven't lost 3G once since I got my phone.
Once I put it on 3G only mode it seems to be alright but the odd building I wont have anything cause I have no GPRS to go to unless I manually switch it back and forth.
Maybe I'll call up rogers tech support and see if theres any known issues, but usually Im more informed then they are. :S
I have had this problem, for the first week or so the 3G was rock solid and i was getting pretty good speeds. Then things started playing up and Orange in the UK told me to switch to GSM only, data speeds sucked big time, timescape would fail to update etc etc. So i called up and they are sending a replacement handset out.
The 3G coverage where i live and work is excellent according to the Orange website, so there shouldn't be any issues there.
I could not put up with the slower internet speeds, so i hope it was just a duff handset.
i drove across the US and i had 3g where there were 3g and it was on edge where there weren't any 3g. it went back to 3g once i reached 3g area.
my setting is on gsm/wcdma preferred.
i dunno why yours isn't going back up to 3g in a strong 3g area ??
which carrier are you with?
Rogers in Canada
i would check with your carrier and see a map of coverage. did you get the phone from them?
the only other way is to repair the phone. but losing 3G in a 3G covered area is the first i've heard from the X10. i've heard that the NEXUS ONE has somewhat of the same issue....
Well I know the coverage is there because when the phone is set to WCDMA (3G) only mode, I will have coverage. But when it is set to dual mode, as soon as it drops to GSM it seems like it doesn't even bother checking or reverting back to 3G, even though I am back in 3G coverage.
i'd probably talk to the carrier about it and troubleshoot it. maybe you can see if the phone is defective or not by doing that. and hopefully get a new device.
arcticreaver said:
i'd probably talk to the carrier about it and troubleshoot it. maybe you can see if the phone is defective or not by doing that. and hopefully get a new device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol troubleshooting with rogers is like putting a sawed off 12 guage in your mouth and pulling the trigger...
wow rogers service is that bad?
yup sadly. I have dealt with all the majors in North america (even worked for att) and rogers is THE WORST.
"power concedes nothing without a demand. it never did. it never will."
They have been the premier carrier in canada for many years, only recently has telus been catching up. So now they're changing... but they still hire idiots for tech support.
Case in point, instead of giving me apn settings they said my x1 was defective. Found the apn settings and x1 worked perfectly.
Ive had pretty good luck with rogers so far, and I've worked for all the big carriers.
I think with tech support its really hit and miss but id have to say bell is probably the worst for issues, account and phone related...
IMO ...
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Funny you said that, I just was toying with my X10 (running on AT&T in Bay area, bought from Rogers Wireless) and its doing the same. Once it goes to Edge, doesnt bother to check for the 3G.. hmmmm.... let me play a bit more.. if i find something .. i will update !!
I lost 3G while in a tunnel today, lots my radio stream and it went Edge, once I was back in the clear it recovered properly.
The program Power Manager, has a 2G / 3G toggle on it, maybe you can use that to force switch it back if its not auto switching.
Ya that would probably work, I'll try it out. Thanks
I was just hoping for fix rather than a work around, lol :S
midnight79 said:
Funny you said that, I just was toying with my X10 (running on AT&T in Bay area, bought from Rogers Wireless) and its doing the same. Once it goes to Edge, doesnt bother to check for the 3G.. hmmmm.... let me play a bit more.. if i find something .. i will update !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my rogers on us atnt switches back to 3g. is it because the 3g signal where you are is weak so it just stays on the stronger edge signal ?
cause i swear i drove from somewhere with 3g though many many parts without 3g and now i have 3g again. strange.....
I can go to a location where i know there is full 3G coverage (by switching to 3G only mode) but it wont switch back after being dropped (down to EDGE in low coverage) but it doesn't want go back to 3G by itself for whatever reason?
dan.expo said:
I can go to a location where i know there is full 3G coverage (by switching to 3G only mode) but it wont switch back after being dropped (down to EDGE in low coverage) but it doesn't want go back to 3G by itself for whatever reason?
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Click to collapse
HSPA+ Upgrades going on in Red Deer/Lacombe
I have searched the web and see that TMOUS has been upgrading its 3g network with HSDPA but is there any word that they will increase the size / range of its high speed data network?
I live in Georgia and just happen to be in an ATT dead zone so I switched to TMO but only have edge in 30680 Winder, GA
3G coverage
Call customer support. The support folks I always talk to about service/coverage have always been dead on when it comes to coverage issues. I've been told with point blank honesty what kind of time table I could expect with coverage in my area. When I first moved to Nipomo, I had a dead spot on the main freeway. It was about a two mile stretch. Once I explained where it was and what I was experiencing, support told me it would take 60-90 days for them to get a fix from the engineering department. Sure enough, that dead spot is no longer there. The signal is crappy, but I can make and receive calls there. I don't have 3G in my town. I asked about that and they said it will not happen within the next year. No hedging or not sures. Just "it's not going to happen within the next year." and I'm cool with that. I like the honesty and customer service.
Where I work, it's a complete void. The "coverage" map states "two bars", but it actually non existent. I was told 90-120 days for the fix to be done. So, we'll see. Still got 30 days or so before I hit the window.
amurch said:
I have searched the web and see that TMOUS has been upgrading its 3g network with HSDPA but is there any word that they will increase the size / range of its high speed data network?
I live in Georgia and just happen to be in an ATT dead zone so I switched to TMO but only have edge in 30680 Winder, GA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I looked up your zip code on the t-mobile coverage tool. Your right past the 3g coverage! Normally i would say don't expect miracles but your close enough where i think they might eventually. Worse case, depending on the phone you have, try using its wifi at home or something. (Yeah, i know. not the same)
My samsung vibrant on t mobile
Vs
My wife's samsung fascinate on the nations largest 3G network.
Both pics were taken around the same time and right next to each other, I took the pc of mine from my wife's fascinate, and the pic of hers on my vibrant.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
only see one pic.
My wife's fascinate
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Cool Did you say where you live?
i was pulling down 6Mbps the other night
suck it, verizon
this is the reason i ditched verizon. most places i was hitting .6-.8 mbps and i almost hit 5mbps with tmo on my vibrant.
Verizon's service was a lot slower at times, but I REALLY miss having 3g literally EVERYWHERE
T-Mobile 3G isn't even in every major city here in Northwest Arkansas....let alone the rural areas
Tmobile has the fastest 3g around hands down. I have tried sprint and att. Both are slower, noticeably slower and the thing is t-mobile hasn't even started 4g or lte lol
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant
Tmo does have hspa+ though which can have an impact on data speeds depending on where you live
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Tmo will beat everyone on speed but man good luck on finding it. Sprint was slower but everywhere
T-Mobile is the fastest 3G carrier in the US right now IF you live in a HSPA+ area.
The real question is why does your wife have the outrageously high priced verizon while you sport the more economical t-mobile? Business issued?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
There are two main reasons Tmo typcially tops in speed:
Tmo has the fastest hardware right now. This will change, of course, seeing as both ATT and Verizon are working on their 4G networks and Tmo has no plans to go to 4G for the next two years. It is worth noting ATT and Verizon will have LTE not WiMax.
Tmo has a lot less customers so there is less demand on their towers. Less demand means faster speeds for those that do have Tmo.
T-Mobile is increasing 3G coverage a bunch recently. They just gave Puerto Rico 3G coverage and I've been hearing of other places getting 3G recently.
Verizon 3G is much slower here, you can hit 1.9Mbps but you're usually under 1Mbps like T-Mobile 3G before HSPA+. 3G coverage isn't all that either, EV-DO drops out sometimes at my house but I can't complain.
3G is also slightly on JI2 now that the -dBm reading is more accurate within the Android system. The Vibrant grabs onto a 3G signal much better than ANY phone I've had on T-Mobile. (G1, CLIQ, myTouch, TM506, TouchPro2, Nuron).
This is what I typically see with T-Mobile. Data speed is much better than all 3 of the carriers combined here for me. Still needs work in some areas though! Not going to lie.. but overall, it's better.
You would be lucky to get 500Kbps with AT&T or Verizon during peak hours. The Sprint EV-DO network is taking a huge hit due to the new smartphones on their network. It went from being underutilized to being over used.
As a former verizon/sprint/att/and uk versions f#ckee, ive never been more happy with a carriers service/price.
Tmo Hpsa ftw ..see sig
98classic said:
Tmo will beat everyone on speed but man good luck on finding it. Sprint was slower but everywhere
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Click to collapse
Sad but true. I'm TM all the way, but F#$#, I hate how it's so limited still to a small area. Granted they are still expanding...Anyway, here's my pictures below...
I wouldn't quite knock Verizon...they'll kill TM on coverage on the mainland...but in some areas TM kicks @$$ over all....
Here's the true coverage ranking, hate it or love it, it's real:
1. Verizon
2. AT$T
3. Sprint
4. T-Mobile
Don't get me wrong, I get sick speeds...super fast...but only in certain areas...
My speed test pic is below...
Sprint coverage is way below T-Mobile coverage. 3G yes but I'd like to keep my calls.
heygrl said:
Sprint coverage is way below T-Mobile coverage. 3G yes but I'd like to keep my calls.
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As a trucker having gone through all 48 states with both carriers this is just not true
Well maybe in WU tmo might have slight better coverage
98classic said:
As a trucker having gone through all 48 states with both carriers this is just not true
Well maybe in WU tmo might have slight better coverage
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Click to collapse
Roaming on Verizon in most of those states no?
When you lose the signal in a big city you can't just roam the rest of the time because the phone will try to pick up the weakest bit of Sprint signal. Sprint drops out often here. Deadzones in stores where T-Mobile manages a good usable signal? Check. Signal drop outs when driving down the road? Check. Lesser amount of coverage overall? Check. Dropped calls when signal fades and roaming switches over? Check.
heygrl said:
Roaming on Verizon in most of those states no?
When you lose the signal in a big city you can't just roam the rest of the time because the phone will try to pick up the weakest bit of Sprint signal. Sprint drops out often here. Deadzones in stores where T-Mobile manages a good usable signal? Check. Signal drop outs when driving down the road? Check. Lesser amount of coverage overall? Check. Dropped calls when signal fades and roaming switches over? Check.
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Click to collapse
Lol must be the vibrant that sucks then cuz in a 1000 mile stretch of road I might get 3g 3 times for a few minutes, and speed is the worse while moving,. Just last night in portland, stopped, in the driver seat I had 3g, if I moved back to the sleeper 3 feet away it dropped to edge. Might be the phone that only gets 3g in wide open spaces like a satellite
Ok, my hspa+ does not work, my top speeds have been 3.2 ....I was wondering if anyone else here in south florida is picking up quicker speeds, I'm using the quick speeds app to see what network speed I'm running also, If you guys know any other one I can use please let me know.
Its been really random for me. I dont think hspa+ is active in all of south florida.
However the other night I was getting 7-9 Mbps constantly. I use speedtest.net app.
Bbe1367 said:
Ok, my hspa+ does not work, my top speeds have been 3.2 ....I was wondering if anyone else here in south florida is picking up quicker speeds, I'm using the quick speeds app to see what network speed I'm running also, If you guys know any other one I can use please let me know.
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Miami or Ft Lauderdale? I know West Palm wont be active until the end of the year i think
I drove around today between Hollywood and boca - no H+ indicator at all. The best speed test I've seen was 7mbps on Hollywood Blvd. Thing is, my Nexus One supports HSDPA, so not a huge difference between the two devices in that regard.
I'm sick of T-Mo's bull**** on this, their coverage map is retarded and we can't get a clear idea of wtf service we are supposed to be getting.
That, among many other reasons (especially MMC write protection), is why my G2 goes back to T-Mo this week.
kcm117 said:
I'm using the quick speeds app to see what network speed I'm running
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Click to collapse
I'd like to check out that app, but can't find it... What's the full name and/or developer?
I've been using http://bit.ly/dc83QK this widget updates what type of service your getting and strength. Try it out. Hope this helps.
fRom Snugs G2 ^.^
Hey everyone,
Just to add, Im also in South FLA, miami to be exact and I too have been experiencing pretty odd signals on my G2. Sometimes my speeds are blazing fast then all of a sudden I'm running on edge with super low speeds.
It seems to me as the phone has trouble staying connected to one network and is constantly switching.
(I'm on my 2nd G2 btw since I thought it was a hardware related issue)
Esteef said:
Hey everyone,
Just to add, Im also in South FLA, miami to be exact and I too have been experiencing pretty odd signals on my G2. Sometimes my speeds are blazing fast then all of a sudden I'm running on edge with super low speeds.
It seems to me as the phone has trouble staying connected to one network and is constantly switching.
(I'm on my 2nd G2 btw since I thought it was a hardware related issue)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go into settings / about phone / status - you will see exactly what network type you are connected to (UMTS, HSDPA, etc) I'm not sure how + would show up, or if the indicator at the top changes, but you should be able to tell from that screen or the "Phone Information" screen (dial *#*#4636#*#*)
Esteef said:
Hey everyone,
Just to add, Im also in South FLA, miami to be exact and I too have been experiencing pretty odd signals on my G2. Sometimes my speeds are blazing fast then all of a sudden I'm running on edge with super low speeds.
It seems to me as the phone has trouble staying connected to one network and is constantly switching.
(I'm on my 2nd G2 btw since I thought it was a hardware related issue)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's crazy, in westchester I get pretty nice 3G speeds, but I go to kendall and I'm on edge. And it seems like its the most random switchoff too, because 5 steps in one direction I'm back on 3G, so I don't know if it's the phone or tmo's network. I expect edge in the middle of BFE, not in the middle of a pretty densely populated area.
add.: I've never seen my phone connect to the HSPA network, ever. The UMTS 3G has been enough to get me by I guess, it's just the random edge switching thats confusing me.
i live in miami, near the miami international airport. on average my nexus one would run about 1.5-2.5mb per second. with an occasional spike around the 4mb realm.
in contrast, my g2 is getting me 2-4.2 on average with spikes as high as 9mb per second.
Here in Boca the fastest i have gotten is around 3 Mbps in East Boca. In West Boca i only get edge at my house , i have to use wifi at home.
Side note: wow there are alot of South Floridians here, lol.
I live in palm city about 15 minutes from west palm and i get around 7 mbps and it says im on HSPDA network?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
ShaunMichael80 said:
I live in palm city about 15 minutes from west palm and i get around 7 mbps and it says im on HSPDA network?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Froyo won't ever say HSPA or anything of that sort, it always will say HSDPA or UMTS, depending on where you're at.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Try this widget out its awesome! http://bit.ly/dc83QK I use it whenever I wanna speed test.
fRom Snugs G2 ^.^
You all need to understand the difference from 3G to HSPA+.
HSPA+ is not 4G network like sprint it is simply a boost to the 3G network. On 3G you would never ever achieve a download speed of 4mb down constantly there for H+ is working how it should. I am getting anywhere from 3mb to 7mb down in NYC and evryone should know that in the city the service kinda blows.
What we should be upset about is the fact they stated we will achieve up to 20mb down. Still I also believe that its too soon for H+ to get these speeds as these "towers" are fairly new and not everywhere yet.
Give it time people and figure out how far you are from your H+ towers. I reach what I do only from 4+ miles away. I still think it isn't bad as it is faster then regular 3G
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
TheMan42 said:
Froyo won't ever say HSPA or anything of that sort, it always will say HSDPA or UMTS, depending on where you're at.
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Click to collapse
HSDPA is HSPA and HSPA+ - both appear as "H" in the signal indicator.
UMTS appears as "3G" in the signal indicator.
There is no distinction between HSPA and HSPA+ according to T-Mobile - the phone will display H/HSDPA for either.
elracing21 said:
You all need to understand the difference from 3G to HSPA+.
HSPA+ is not 4G network like sprint it is simply a boost to the 3G network. On 3G you would never ever achieve a download speed of 4mb down constantly there for H+ is working how it should. I am getting anywhere from 3mb to 7mb down in NYC and evryone should know that in the city the service kinda blows.
What we should be upset about is the fact they stated we will achieve up to 20mb down. Still I also believe that its too soon for H+ to get these speeds as these "towers" are fairly new and not everywhere yet.
Give it time people and figure out how far you are from your H+ towers. I reach what I do only from 4+ miles away. I still think it isn't bad as it is faster then regular 3G
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Actually your'e wrong on a couple of points here...
First off, the G2 (and MyTouch HD) have only been advertised to do 14mbps. The 21mbps upgrade does not happen until next year.
Second, just because you have a certain connection, that doesn't mean you can pull that much bandwidth from the internet. There are many obstacles: Traffic on your local cell, insufficient backhaul bandwidth to the tower, any connectivity issues between your tower and the other end of the connection, etc.
This applies to any sort of service, cable, dsl, mobile, etc: Just because you have X mbps connection does not mean that you will see X mbps to every site on the web.
On DSL, for example, you are less limited by others in your area, you have a 1:1 connection that terminates at your local central office. But on Cable or Wireless, you are sharing the available bandwidth X:1 with all others in your "neighborhood" (cable) or cell (wireless).
So your actual speed depends on many factors. Take speed tests with a grain of salt, the bigger issue for mobile is latency, not bandwidth. All the bandwidth in the world still makes a 300ms round-trip time "feel" slow.
ZeroSX said:
It's crazy, in westchester I get pretty nice 3G speeds, but I go to kendall and I'm on edge. And it seems like its the most random switchoff too, because 5 steps in one direction I'm back on 3G, so I don't know if it's the phone or tmo's network. I expect edge in the middle of BFE, not in the middle of a pretty densely populated area.
add.: I've never seen my phone connect to the HSPA network, ever. The UMTS 3G has been enough to get me by I guess, it's just the random edge switching thats confusing me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, I seem to get the best reception around 137th Ave and Coral way actually. (A go there alot to eat at some place)
And the speeds there are almost at 1MB/sec (Yes i'm saying 1MegaByte not megabit)
But a few hundred feet west of that spot and I'm already running on Edge. O_O
elracing21 said:
HSPA+ is not 4G network like sprint it is simply a boost to the 3G network. On 3G you would never ever achieve a download speed of 4mb down constantly there for H+ is working how it should. I am getting anywhere from 3mb to 7mb down in NYC and evryone should know that in the city the service kinda blows.
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Actually, there is no real 4G network yet. Sprint, like T-Mobile, have used the term 4G for marketing purposes.
Here's a good read on Sprint's forums:
http://community.sprint.com/baw/message/141144
With the HSPA+ infrastructure upgrades, T-Mobile also gained the ability for HSDPA to cap at 7.2mbps. So in reality, you might see 6+mbps.
As for the coverage in urban areas, Verizon's frequency is better suited to penetrate buildings and urban environments. This is why they have been so successful in cities like NYC, while GSM-based providers have trouble with weak spots around any given corner.
HamNCheese said:
HSDPA is HSPA and HSPA+ - both appear as "H" in the signal indicator.
UMTS appears as "3G" in the signal indicator.
There is no distinction between HSPA and HSPA+ according to T-Mobile - the phone will display H/HSDPA for either.
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The stock "signal indicator" on the notification bar will never display 3G on the G2.
RTFM
I'm in the Tampa area, and I get 3-4Mbps d/l speeds. Occasionally I will get 8 or 9Mbps down. Upload speeds are consistently 1.5Mbps.