Database Users

Sprint 3g speeds gone way down... Evo to blame?

So I noticed a huge drop in speed (as have most of you) with my general 3G network. I am in LA, so my 4G is lucky if you find it.
On my old TP before the Evo came on, I got 700Kb on a bad day, 1200 on a good day... so very usable.
I was getting similar speeds on My Evo for the first week. Now I am getting horrible speeds with 300Kb, and when things are slow (and they are often slow) I get 74Kb. What is really bad.
I didn't know if it was the Evo, the battery "tricks" I applied such as turning off "enabled always-on mobile data" so I turned it back on.
I am still getting bad results and about to call sprint.... when I decided to test my wife's Palm Pre... She is also getting poor speeds (300Kb when I checked), and told me she noticed a difference in the last few weeks.
Is the Evo too successful for Sprint? Did it actually effect the network? Or is this a glitch at Sprint that will soon be changed.
More importantly... What can we do?

my speeds are lower
Before I got me evo I had a mogul. My speeds were great at 1100kbs down and 600kbs up. Now after my upgrade my evo will only get 100 down and 60 up. I can't believe they can charge $10 extra since I can't even watch YouTube on the lowest video quality without being on wifi. I could do more on the internet with my mogul than the evo. I know the evo is not the cause its sprints network. Also apparently sprint has no plans as of yet to put 4g here in Colorado springs. I am point to return my evo if nothing changes before my 30 days are up.

my speeds were 1.82Mbps and went down to .63-.92 most of the day today. I just checked after reading your thread and my speeds are back to normal. You just have to wait it out. It wasn't just the EVO either it was my Hero also that got crappy speeds.

apollooff320 said:
my speeds were 1.82Mbps and went down to .63-.92 most of the day today. I just checked after reading your thread and my speeds are back to normal. You just have to wait it out. It wasn't just the EVO either it was my Hero also that got crappy speeds.
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What he meant was that the evo being launched and so many getting it caused the slow down on sprint's network. This was similar to when the iphone 3g and 3gs came out, att's network slowed down quite a bit. I noticed it right away when I was on att.

I actually get better speeds than my previous phone, hell I consistently get better coverage and speed then my friends g1 on tmo and my sisters verizon moto droid
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In SF, I'm getting around ~400-450 down, ~500 up..
(For comparison, the verizon incredible that I was testing last month was getting ~1100 down / 700 up)
-mark

in socal.. 500 down, 500 up.
using a hero

Visiting my mom at the hospital in Oakland, CA on 3G I'm getting 2.2 Mbps down, 0.8 Mbps up.
@ Work Martinez, CA - 1.8 Mbps down, 0.6 up.
@ Home Vallejo, CA - 0.7 Mbps down, 0.5 up.
Been pretty consistant since the day I got the Evo.

I'm in Grand Rapids, MI & I've noticed a decline in throughput as well on 3 different android phones these last two weeks.
HTC Hero - 1.2Mb/S before about 2 months ago, last time I checked last week before I smashed it, it was ~700Kb/S
Samsung Moment - ~ 800Kb/s
EVO - 500Kb/S MAX
No 4G here yet. I think Sprint throttled things back a bit to save some bandwidth/money on 3G & to make a larger aparent difference between 3G & 4G. Also could be tied to a future plan of tiered service rates. The common consumer has no clue what kind of throughput they get, they just notice aparent speed & want more. Throttling back service before a tiered service rate initiative is a good way to entice mo monies from common folks wanting faster phone porn & unstuttering LOST reruns.

Update your prl.....in san Diego and I get 1.8 mbps down and 700kbps up
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imtjnotu said:
Update your prl.....in san Diego and I get 1.8 mbps down and 700kbps up
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Update PRL from the phone PRL update? Or are you talking about using the VRZ PRL? I don't want to to the vrz hack because of the risk of roaming.

It seems like this issue always come out for big releases, and I'm usually...skeptical. However I'm seeing some differences lately....I compared my results to the Hero. Same location. Same number of bars. Ran the test throughout the day.
New 3g results on EVO
.43 Mbps/.30Mbps up. (only differs by about .2Mbps/.1Mbps throughout the day)
I was consistently getting close to 1Mbps down and close to .5Mbps up on my Hero.
My radio and PRL are updated.
There might be something to this at least in some locations.

EVO - 780 down, 320 up.
Touch Pro 2 - 2.1Mbps down, 268 up.
HUGE difference... and they're both using the same home agent. I think the radio hardware in the EVO is inferior as I've NEVER seen it get above 1.3Mbps, whereas by TP2 and Mogul but regularly run about 1.5 on average...
Not to mention the fact that my TP2 holds a wifi signal much better than my EVO... My EVO won't stay connected to my router if I walk outside... My TP2 holds it all the way to the mailbox (about 100 feet from the router). Though wifi speeds (I've seen 13Mbps) are much better on the EVO when you're practically sitting on the router.

EtherealRemnant said:
EVO - 780 down, 320 up.
Touch Pro 2 - 2.1Mbps down, 268 up.
HUGE difference... and they're both using the same home agent. I think the radio hardware in the EVO is inferior as I've NEVER seen it get above 1.3Mbps, whereas by TP2 and Mogul but regularly run about 1.5 on average...
Not to mention the fact that my TP2 holds a wifi signal much better than my EVO... My EVO won't stay connected to my router if I walk outside... My TP2 holds it all the way to the mailbox (about 100 feet from the router). Though wifi speeds (I've seen 13Mbps) are much better on the EVO when you're practically sitting on the router.
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Ah, so you suspect a similiar radio issue as the wi-fi as opposed to a bandwidth issue...I could see that (especially in response to the battery issues).

I'm not sure I would have really noticed it but I ran a few speed tests the past couple of days and they were all in the ****ter.
Getting 250-500 down and around 600 up.

asrebel said:
Ah, so you suspect a similiar radio issue as the wi-fi as opposed to a bandwidth issue...I could see that (especially in response to the battery issues).
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I have never seen such terrible speeds on a Rev A device... My area is blanketed in Rev A and my data card pulls 2.6/400 consistently so I know it has nothing to do with the network.
Between the 3G speeds (or lack thereof), the wifi issues, the 30FPS cap, and the battery life, that Samsung Galaxy S Pro is looking mighty nice...

Well I have been running tests all day as I prep to call Sprint. The variation is HUGE.
Mostly I am getting 200 to 500 down and 200 to 400 up with pings in the high 200
Then suddenly I got a pocket of time I got 1500 to 1200 down and 500 up with pings around 140
Then dropped again to 40 down and 100 up with pings near 600
I noticed on the tests that I did that are bad the needle on the speed test would hand and jump... it is almost like I was getting a bad signal that would be breaking up.
Basically this is really bad. I used to steam audio all the time on my old TP and now I can't because it has basically become impossible to listen to anything due to the poor bandwidth. I am paying $10 for premium service and it got worse... I am going to demand they refund me the $10 until they fix the bandwidth issue (we will see how THAT goes....)

Where are you guys conducting these tests? Don't use the speedtest app - its broken (it shows an 800 upload which is impossible - at least in my area). Speedtest.net from the phone will not give you proper latency and may or may not reflect the true speed.
testmy.net 25MB download and testmy.net 3MB upload are the tests I've been using.

In boise, id on the 3g network not 4g. I was using speedtest and the results have been pretty consistent for me when I get the same server but I'm not against using a different bandwidth test...
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Its just best for everyone to be using the same server to test on. Testmy.net has no problem handling my 50meg connection at home (tests at 62/19) whereas I have a hard time finding a speedtest.net server that works. I can tell you though, if you go to speedtest.net and run a speed test on the same server you were using in the app, your latency will be lower but your speed will be faster... That tells me the app is not reporting properly.
Also, speeds tend to peak and normalize after about 10MB... so the speedtest.net tests aren't as accurate as testmy.net would be.

Anyone who has rooted and has slow 3G, try this please

I posted this in the PRI bounty thread but don't want it to get lost and I'm curious what other people's results will be with it.
I noticed something interesting today that may be an Evo bug... So I turned 4G on when I was in traffic on 6th Avenue to run some speed tests... got 8megs, no surprise there... but I left it on... later I was in Denver waiting for my group therapy class and was downloading and browsing and noticed it was flying. Did a speed test and I was getting 1.7-2.1Mbps consistently.
I shut off 4G and went to test later and was back to 500-900 speeds. Turned 4G back on and was immediately back to the 1.7-2.1Mbps levels.
I noticed when I turned on 4G that the 3G data arrows started moving like crazy each time, then stopped.
Can someone test this for me? To do this test you need to be on a tower that you KNOW can handle the faster speeds. I tried it all over the place today and even at home where I can't usually pass 300, I got 600. Turned off 4G and back down to 300. Turned it back on, back up to 5-600. Hit 900 at one point.
Just did a test in my room with 2 bars and got 750... turned off 4G and shut the phone on, turned it back on and got 500 consistently. Turned 4G back on and got 876, 1114, 1140, 865, and 974.
Maybe the PRI update fixed the link between 4G being turned off and slow 3G speeds? Try it and post your results...
Oh and use the Xtremelabs speedtest - speedtest.net is crap.
EDIT: By the way, previous to this, the fastest I ever saw my phone go was 1Mbps - in the same areas I was testing today.

What the F, Batman!?! Definitely makes a big difference. From 75 kB/s to 139 kB/s in one test. Bars of service shot up from 0-1 to a solid 2, also.
Sent from my EVO, the true iPhone killer!

Sorry...cannot confirm. I had no discernible difference with 4G on or off. I have 5 or 6 bars with 500-1000 kbps download and 150-200 kbps upload. Get the same readings on Xtremelabs with 4G on and off. Sorry.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Seems to work on my end. That's an interesting find. Seems if you turn 4g on and its nor available where you are they boost the 3g speed. Very interesting.
Sent from my cursed EVO using 4g speed

I could be wrong but it seems like I get better data speeds with the 4G radio turned on in a non 4G area.
I'm not rooted. Running the latest software release.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Went back to the house where I have one or two bars of signal and I still do not see any difference except that my overall speed is about half what it was. But no difference between 4G on or off. I'm running Fresh 3.1.0.1 with stock kernel in a non-4G area.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I ran three speed tests with it off and three with it on and then averaged the max. While it was running, the sustained throughput was almost exactly the same. The averages were:
with 4g off: 1142 down 199 up
with 4g on: 1156 down 217 up
Not much difference.

I think that many people don't get that the 3g speeds are subject to change at any given time, that is why there can be drastic changes in speed. Too many people on this board are succumbing to the placebo effect. Just my observation.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

RTC88 said:
I think that many people don't get that the 3g speeds are subject to change at any given time, that is why there can be drastic changes in speed. Too many people on this board are succumbing to the placebo effect. Just my observation.
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agreed.
10 chars

Im just waiting for the fix to the PRI issue hoping that when it comes out people find their 3G speeds remains the same. Now how eventful would that be. Cause maybe its is just a matter of towers cause I'm on 1.34 pri and 3G test still hits 1016 down and 200 up.

im0rtalz said:
Im just waiting for the fix to the PRI issue hoping that when it comes out people find their 3G speeds remains the same. Now how eventful would that be. Cause maybe its is just a matter of towers cause I'm on 1.34 pri and 3G test still hits 1016 down and 200 up.
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Then they will just say that the pri fix is broken!

Sorry it didn't have positive effects for everyone.
In the Denver area, at the very least, I've confirmed it on my Evo and a coworkers Evo. We regularly are getting two megs now... if we shut off the 4G, it takes about 10 or 15 minutes but we will drop back to 900 and stay there. Turn it back on, back to 2megs.

Just for grins I tried turning on the 4G to test my results.
I'm not rooted and running 2.2
3G alone = 1296kbit/s
4G on (no 4G service) = 1102kbit/s
So, it didn't do anything for me.

As I said, this is for SLOW 3G speeds, meaning >600kbps - with those speeds, you're probably not being affected by any sort of a bug. I had never seen 1Mbps much less 2 on this phone until that fix.

I still doubt the PRI has much of an effect, but perhaps there is hope that you can go back to 1.40 soon and find out.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7602569&postcount=70

Nexus One Getting 12mbsp download speeds! No Wifi! CM6 RC3 with radio update!

http://www.jasoncohenitservices.com/IMG_0022.MOV
posted this in another thread cause someone didn't believe the speeds I was getting in the same town they were. As you can see there is No WiFi turned on.
Enjoy

its general knowledge that that testing website is just not accurate at all. try using some other speed tests for comparison, and you will see the difference.

Well, I'm sure you're on HSPA+ but 12Mbps is impossible.

Sooooo the last I checked the Nexus was limited to a 7.2 mbps MAX by hardware...

Thats pretty ****ed up, I was wondering why when I changed the DL size speed seemed to increase each time.
At Speakeasy and Speedtest I hit 3.5 but even that is much after then the 1 I get with Clear.

jcohenlv said:
Thats pretty ****ed up, I was wondering why when I changed the DL size speed seemed to increase each time.
At Speakeasy and Speedtest I hit 3.5 but even that is much after then the 1 I get with Clear.
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Clear is pretty lame here. It gets especially slow during 5-8pm

Ya heavily considering telling them to GTFO and just stick to tethering my Nexus

If you really want to test the phone's speed use the phone thetered to the PC and use dumeter to monitor 3 or 4 parallel downloads.
The maximum you can reach on a 7.2 network is 6.7 megabit.
If you have a 10 Mbit modem (like the N900 or the milestone) and your network is updated you can expect 8Mpbs as maximum.

If you can manage the 5 or 10GB soft cap (T-Mobile throttles after 10GB of usage on phones, but older plans are capped at 5GB (total internet is 5GB)) go for it. The only good thing Clear has going for themselves is unlimited usage for the time being.

I am getting 12mb/s on that site (mobilespeedtest.com) also. In the same location SpeedTest shows me 1,4mb/s which is more accurate

gerikss said:
I am getting 12mb/s on that site (mobilespeedtest.com) also. In the same location SpeedTest shows me 1,4mb/s which is more accurate
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Hahaha my real speed is about 8Mbps, that site has calculated 550kbps.
Very accurate !!

mobilespeedtest is wroooong

T-Mobile is Growing: Data is Slowing Down

Anyone else notice slower data? I used to average 7.2mbps on my Vibrant, I even scored 10mbps on a G2.
Nexus S averages out at 4mbps.... Sometimes 2.5. Highest I've got it to was 5 on a lucky day. My GF has my old Vibrant and she is getting the same download speeds.
Don't know if I should be happy or sad Lol!
Anyone else notice speed slowing down in the last 6 months?

Anderdroid said:
Anyone else notice slower data? I used to average 7.2mbps on my Vibrant, I even scored 10mbps on a G2.
Nexus S averages out at 4mbps.... Sometimes 2.5. Highest I've got it to was 5 on a lucky day. My GF has my old Vibrant and she is getting the same download speeds.
Don't know if I should be happy or sad Lol!
Anyone else notice speed slowing down in the last 6 months?
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HSDPA or HSPA+ makes no difference in the end. Reason we get a performance boost from HSPA+ even though we dont support it is HSPA+ is all in the backend.
which means faster speeds for all. Imagine what the speeds would be without HSPA+

I realize this. But speeds have been slowing down lately.
We do get the boost from HSPA+ but what slows it down is the fact that T-Mobile is getting tons of new customers... The network may get clogged and we could have an AT&T disaster!

Anderdroid said:
I realize this. But speeds have been slowing down lately.
We do get the boost from HSPA+ but what slows it down is the fact that T-Mobile is getting tons of new customers... The network may get clogged and we could have an AT&T disaster!
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hm, i noticed this too, and also, theres at least 20+ people that i know that used to have ATT/Verizon that has jumped over to tmobile in the past month or 2.

I haven't noticed any noticeable difference in average network performance over the past seven months. I haven't been clocking it, though; just speaking from my personal sense of how quickly it was downloading.

Yes, I've definitely noticed a slow down in the past 60 days.
I used to get 3800 to 4400 Kb/s on my N1. Once I switched to the NS, I've never seen faster than about 3000 Kb/s. I posted in a different thread yesterday that I ran some tests with both the N1 and the NS (using the same sim card in both) and found that the N1 no longer goes over 3000 Kb/s.
Conclusion: the service has degraded around here.
But it just occurred to me that I had been "throttled" for being a data pig last November, and the throttling was supposed to last until mid-December. Here's the interesting part, even "throttled" my speeds only declined to about 2800 Kb/s; which means I'm still getting those speeds that I got while "throttled". I wonder if they forgot to "un-throttle" me.
I'll call customer service today and double check. I'll also complain about the drop in speeds.
Is it possible you're being throttled and missed the notification?

I'm in central Florida and can say there has been a big decrease in speed here in the past 3 months. I too came from a Vibrant that my wife now uses and can say the same as the OP.

I think its a mix of things. New customers on high data use handsets utilizing that advertised 4g speed. I also think it being winter time that people are staying inside and using their phones and devices more, much like how gas use in homes goes up in the winter time. There's less to do outside, etc, so you are connecting more through electronic means. Hopefully tmo continues to expand their back haul, and they will have to to achieve those even faster than 21mbps speeds. I think conversely that in the summer you will see your speeds come back.
Sent from my HTC Dream using XDA App

Glad I'm not the only one! Let's hope it's just for the winter! Heh

Wouldn't winter help more? Since having wireless in the home? By your logic it would be worse in the summer because it's nicer weather and people travel more and need mobile data to facebook it up.
If you want to test if the service is slowing down due to many people, test it at least 4 times throughout the day with at least twice at night such as 1am and 3-4am, shouldn't be many people on then.

About 6 months ago I was on T-Mobile at which time I switched to Sprint for yearly updates and a supposedly cheaper plan. When those two things ended up not happening I switched back and I can say without a doubt that my speeds are faster. This could be due to the fact that I had a MT3G before and now have a NS or that when I was on Tmo before their HSPA network was not really available or it could be just that its faster. Either way I'm much happier as with Sprint I was topping out at 1.5mbps on 3G and now on Tmo I'm getting up to around 3.5 some times even closer to 4.

About 20 days ago I started experiencing data slowness. Before I was averaging 3.0-4.0 I called Tmobile multiply times to reset me with the towers. No luck. I have the nexus S and my girl has the vibrant. Now we can barely hit 1.0 its very frustrating I thought I was the only one but after googling and finding this thread I see Im not alone.

I have no complaints here in terms of TMOs speed. With the NS I get about 4-5mb consistently. When I was at best buy playing around with phone the MT4G hit 11mb down, although the average speed was closer to 9mb

jlevy73 said:
I have no complaints here in terms of TMOs speed. With the NS I get about 4-5mb consistently. When I was at best buy playing around with phone the MT4G hit 11mb down, although the average speed was closer to 9mb
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What part of Los Angeles are you in?
It was 3.8 - 4.2 pretty consistently near the Van Nuys Airport for a while, but now it's never more than 3.0.

distortedloop said:
What part of Los Angeles are you in?
It was 3.8 - 4.2 pretty consistently near the Van Nuys Airport for a while, but now it's never more than 3.0.
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I'm in the Hollywood area.

It's area dependent.
Brooklyn
in 18th/68th, I get top speed (up to 9Mbps with N900), average 4-5
in home area (N train Bay Parkway), I also get top speed
in Bay Parkway/86th, the speed is slower (2-3Mbps)
in Downtown (Fulton/Jay, A/C/F/R train station), the speed is barely workable
Manhattan
in Lower Manhattan (both Canal Street and City Hall), the speed it up to 2Mbps
in Midtown (Empire State Building), the speed is much slower (no more than 1Mbps)
in Inwood (A train 207 Street), the speed is good (4-5Mbps)
The speed test was conducted with either MT4 or NS except stated.

mingkee said:
It's area dependent.
Brooklyn
in 18th/68th, I get top speed (up to 9Mbps with N900), average 4-5
in home area (N train Bay Parkway), I also get top speed
in Bay Parkway/86th, the speed is slower (2-3Mbps)
in Downtown (Fulton/Jay, A/C/F/R train station), the speed is barely workable
Manhattan
in Lower Manhattan (both Canal Street and City Hall), the speed it up to 2Mbps
in Midtown (Empire State Building), the speed is much slower (no more than 1Mbps)
in Inwood (A train 207 Street), the speed is good (4-5Mbps)
The speed test was conducted with either MT4 or NS except stated.
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Wouldn't the MT4G get higher speeds and skew the results since it can access HSPA+ while we can only rid the coattails of it? Since only the MT4G can access the HSPA+ (the G2 can do HSPA, I believe but it cannot do the higher speeds) wouldn't that mean that the number of devices slowing that network was significantly smaller and therefore the amount of throttling due to network bottleneck would be significantly lower. Therefore to make an accurate speed test you would have to use the same type of phone (or to be completely scientific, the same phone).

mingkee said:
It's area dependent.
<snipped>
The speed test was conducted with either MT4 or NS except stated.
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I've always said cell service is like real estate, it's all about location, location, location.
Your point doesn't address the real issue. Sure, in different parts of town with different devices that have different speeds abilities we're going to see different speedtest results. We'll even see different results depending on the time of day in some areas.
The issue is that those of us who were averaging some particular speed, using the same device, in the same location, at the same time-of-day are now seeing reduced speeds.
For me it's a 25% reduction, consistently, on two different devices...

insanemachine said:
Wouldn't winter help more? Since having wireless in the home? By your logic it would be worse in the summer because it's nicer weather and people travel more and need mobile data to facebook it up.
If you want to test if the service is slowing down due to many people, test it at least 4 times throughout the day with at least twice at night such as 1am and 3-4am, shouldn't be many people on then.
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My last speedtest was at 4am lol

jlevy73 said:
I have no complaints here in terms of TMOs speed. With the NS I get about 4-5mb consistently. When I was at best buy playing around with phone the MT4G hit 11mb down, although the average speed was closer to 9mb
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It's as I feared. They're throttling non 4g devices so that the 4g devices get worlds faster. I used to max out at 7.2mbps on Vibrant. I wonder if the G2/MT4g still get 10mbps around here. Damn.
The Nexus S does get HSDPA and benefits from HSPA+. It should be maxing out at 7.2 if MT4g is getting over 7.2.
I mean. I am getting 3-5. Which is still awesome... But. I want my 7.2 back.

Did at&t make 3g faster?

Today i decided too tether my laptop with my atrix sense were im at now has really bad internet, And i tested it with speed test and i got great results.
Couple times it went too 6.2mbps!! And was averaging 4.5 and 5s And pretty much it never went under 3mbps, upload is 1.26 too 1.4mbs.
Before the max i saw it hit was around 2.8mbps and went under 1mbps sometimes.
Did at&t uncap the speed or something?
I even tried some gaming call of duty black ops and it didn't lag once.