Database Users

hsdpa speeds

Hi
i currently have an xperia x1 on o2 but was thinking of switching providers, i am considering t-mobile but wanted to know how fast their hsdpa network is compared to o2? i heard awhile back o2 had capped their hsdpa to 128kbs if you wasnt a business user but i have reached speeds of up to 400+ kbs. comments on other networks are welcome.
Thanks in advanced

Considering even most second generation wireless networks could reach speeds greater than that, claims of a third generation network going only that fast are highly suspect.

HD2 - Best Network?!

Hi there
My t-mobile contract ends within few weeks and I really want the HD2! My early upgrade offers were reallly bad, so I wait what they offer when the contract actually ends.. BUT - if I switch to other network... please let me know:
***Is there any difference in unlimited internet between T-Mobile (its fast on my Web&Walk!), Virgin, Vodafone?
***Customer service... Im really been happy with T-Mob, I had bad exp with Virgin but that was years ago... what you think?
***Any other plusses having HD2 with certain network?
Thanks guys and girls!

It depends on where you live and on the signal of where you are, there isn't a BEST NETWORK for a phone.

Yes- it's no good getting a cheap deal but finding yourself with no signal!
Mobile Internet: They all still advertise 'unlimited' but they all impose a fair usage policy.
Virgin, T-Mobile and Three have 1GB FUP; O2 say theirs is genuinely unlimited but they reserve the right to throttle the accounts of those they consider abusing the service; Vodafone and Orange both have a limit of 500MB.

but vodafone don't charge you when you go over 500mb unlike orange
I would say go with which ever network doesn't have the iphone clogging up the network but they all seem to have them now

fz9999 said:
but vodafone don't charge you when you go over 500mb unlike orange
I would say go with which ever network doesn't have the iphone clogging up the network but they all seem to have them now
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or you can actually use because they have the signal they advertise..
I can't wait to leave vodafone now, because I've found their coverage to be so bad, despite shown as getting 3g and told it was a temporary fault I find coverage at home to be poor to non existent, and 3g spots to be much smaller than stated often losing coverage outside any halfway decent sized town..
VF Customer service (business) are very good in my experience, until a complaint gets passed onto the network team when they start to come up with every excuse known to mankind.
Seriously tempted to just use my spare "3" payg sim when the contract runs out as I get full coverage and it's cheaper, and I get coverage 99% of the places I travel.

O2 work out quite a bit more than the others - you pay £100 for the HD2 on a £35/month contract, with 600 minutes talk and 1000 texts (if you order over the internet - 500 texts if you do the deal in store). This comes with the Unlimited Web bolt on (which normally costs £7.50), but this is limited to 500mb. And it seems you are charged if you go over this.
I've never dealt with O2, so my apologies if the info is wrong, but this is how I'm finding it.
I'm going to give mobilesphonesdirect a ring, to see what they can do the HD2 for as an upgrade on Tmobile. Tmobile want £340 for me to upgrade, or I can cancel and take out a new contract with m.p.d and pay £93 for the phone for £25 a month. That's £13 more for the phone than Virgin, but we're still not sure if Virgin throttle the data speeds more than Tmobile.
Final note - I'm more interested in the Internet on the phone, then texting with actual phone calls far behind. I talk to my misses enough in the house...

Towserspvm2000 said:
Final note - I'm more interested in the Internet on the phone, then texting with actual phone calls far behind. I talk to my misses enough in the house...
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I'm with Vodafone on their £20/month sim-only deal and worryingly I've found signal to be better where I live (which is advertised as variable outdoor coverage on their 3G map) than where I work (which is advertised as strong indoor 3G), so don't rely on their 3G coverage map service as the gospel truth.
I can achieve decent download rates via 3G, typically 150-200kbps which I guess equates to a 5mb broadband link, not too shabby.

Order a load of free pay and go sim cards from the different networks and try them out in the areas you frequent all the time.

H2D2 said:
I can achieve decent download rates via 3G, typically 150-200kbps which I guess equates to a 5mb+ broadband link, not too shabby.
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??? 5Mb (megabit) = roughly 5000Kb so your 150-200Kb is way, way under that!
Your speeds are consistent with a fair 3G signal. HSDPA should give about 1200Kbps (= 1.2Mb or thereabouts) in real life though that will depend on proximity to the cell site, cell congestion etc.

NeilM said:
??? 5Mb (megabit) = roughly 5000Kb so your 150-200Kb is way, way under that!
Your speeds are consistent with a fair 3G signal. HSDPA should give about 1200Kbps (= 1.2Mb or thereabouts) in real life though that will depend on proximity to the cell site, cell congestion etc.
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Fair enough, I'm just relating to real-world conditions where 5mb broadband doesn't equal anywhere near 5000kbps My 18mb broadband connection only achieves 1mb/s download speeds for example

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought Virgin piggyback off T-mobile?
So does this mean that if t-mob throttle the usage, the throttle is also applicable to Virgin Mob customers?
I used to be with Virgin and the coverage was great, now with Vodafone and was always told about their superior coverage compared to other networks.
I have to say I'm sadly dissapointed, I often find it drops out completely. Even in the city centre where you'd assume coverage would be good, I often get "cold" spots with no signal, yet 25m down the road I have full HSDPA signal..... weird.

bdb25 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought Virgin piggyback off T-mobile?
So does this mean that if t-mob throttle the usage, the throttle is also applicable to Virgin Mob customers?
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That's what it seems, although we are trying to see if Tmobile restrict and throttle the Virgin side of things even more...
See this thread here... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=615643

O2's data limit is actually 1GB per month, they just don't like to tell people.
If you negotiate a bit with T-Mobile you may be able to get onto their 3GB/month tariff at not much (if any) extra cost. (When I was buying I had a choice between 900 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB/month or 1000 minutes, 500 texts and 3GB/month at the same price).
T-Mobile handset deals generally work out cheaper than other networks, but there are hidden extras: you have to pay for Voicemail calls (they don't come out of your minutes) and you don't get any free MMS messages at all (while O2, say, counts an MMS message as four SMS messages from your allowance).
One thing that irritates me about T-Mobile is that they don't support EDGE, which means if there's no 3G signal you drop straight to basic GPRS speeds. Back when I was with O2, if there was no 3G signal there was still a chance you could get EDGE, which is substantially quicker than plain GPRS.
I'd advise any buyer to be wary of mobilephonesdirect - their after-sales service is simply shocking, so if your phone develops a fault you may not get a replacement unless you're willing to take legal action.

Just to add to the previous post,
Vodafone and Virgin Mobile also charge you for MMS messages

Virgin mobile seem to cap data speed at about 384kbps.
Most of them cap the speed.
In fact I tried m.speedtest.com in a vodafone store and the phone refused to load the site.
My vodafone account got defrauded and they charged me for calls which were obviously fraudulent - masked number to US/canada at over £1 a minute that appeared as 121 on my bill....on the 29th of the month every month since November.
So I'm not happy with their idiocy but it forced me to try T-mobile.
I've found that in most places T-mobile works better than vodafone - I seem to have a 3G signal in more places and more consistently. however, that means that my E65 only lasts barely a day....With vodafone's 3G constantly dropping most of the time I was on 2G...haha, funny that!!
I think the 2/2.5G signal of vodafone is better. The 3G T-mobile signal is better. At least where i go. T-mobile reaches deep into the basement of my law school, whereas vodafone could only reach 2feet into the area.
Vodafone pluses:
includes voicemail to mins
Much cheaper fixed rate roaming not per minute
Robust 2G network
competitive plans.
T-mobile plusses:
1GB data
Much better 3G network.
-ves:
Charge for voicemail
Expensive roaming.
Less good 2G network.
Quite expensive tariffs and phones.
Virgin pluses:
Cheapest deal with mins+phone for free without going ot reseller.
T-mobile network
-ves:
unknown newbie - reseller.
Data capped at 384.

I was on a T-Mobile Combi 30 + W'n'W for £35 a month (18 month contract, 600mins/unlimited txts) plan, when it came time to upgrade a fortnight ago they wanted £70 for the phone, which I would happily have paid. Fortunately they didn't have any in stock at the time. I say fortunately as another rep called me back about a week later and proposed I go on the Flext 35 for 18 months, which has a £180 per month allowance (plus internet) but the phone is free, since I never use anywhere near my minutes, or send millions of txts it's a good plan for me, plus free HD2!
The phone comes without any T-Mobile graffiti on it thankfully, and since HardSPL was released, the stock branded T-Mobile ROM lasted all of an hour.

Also really depends in which country you reside.
Vodafone NL never warned me for over-usage, while I had months exceeding 500MB PER SESSION.. Never heard from them.
Speed is about 1mbit/s here at home. Signal is good in most cases. On the highway I usually get 2mbit/s.

May be slightly off topic but anyone else using this phone with Virgin and having issues with connection?
Mine says 3g sometimes but then reverts to H or even G. Also having issues at work where coverage is supposed to be good but there are times I'm not getting any signal at all. Did try the sim in anoether phone and the signal was strong so wondering if its the phone.
Thanks in advance!

Towserspvm2000 said:
O2 work out quite a bit more than the others - you pay £100 for the HD2 on a £35/month contract, with 600 minutes talk and 1000 texts (if you order over the internet - 500 texts if you do the deal in store). This comes with the Unlimited Web bolt on (which normally costs £7.50), but this is limited to 500mb. And it seems you are charged if you go over this.
I've never dealt with O2, so my apologies if the info is wrong, but this is how I'm finding it.
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Hi im new here, thought i would register as i have my new leo coming 2morrow, cant wait. I ordered a hd2 from o2 today, unlimited txts, unlimited web, 600 xnet mins free phone 18 month contract for £35pm. had to ring up and say i was going to leave if they couldent match the deal they were very friendly. t-mobile and voda do the same sort of deals on dialafone n places like that.

Duddy1986 said:
Hi im new here, thought i would register as i have my new leo coming 2morrow, cant wait. I ordered a hd2 from o2 today, unlimited txts, unlimited web, 600 xnet mins free phone 18 month contract for £35pm. had to ring up and say i was going to leave if they couldent match the deal they were very friendly. t-mobile and voda do the same sort of deals on dialafone n places like that.
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Welcome to the group!! Hope the phone is what you want. You will be in for a steep learning curve, but this is the best forum group to ask questions in.

Virgin Mobile UK do not guarantee any decent speeds on HD2

I wrote them an email asking why my data connections were so slow. Here was my reply:
Hi *****,
Thanks for your email to Virgin Mobile about your new phone.
We can only provide you with the information that's stated on the website when it comes to the technical information as we're not given any additional facts of the phone. After checking the website it doesn't state anything in regards to what the speeds should be when the phone is connected to the internet. If you'd like to take a look, click here.
There isn't any speed caps involved on your Virgin Mobile contract. Your HTC HD2 is able to connect at up to 3.5G, also known as HDSPA. You may find the connection slow if the tower you are connecting to is a 2G tower. You can identify what speed your connection is by looking at the top-right corner of the phone, a G icon would mean a slow connection. A 3 or a H should allow you to view web pages extremely quickly.
If you find that you're not getting on with the phone and you're unhappy with how it runs you've got 28 days from purchase to return the phone.
We hope that the above information provides useful.
If there's anything else we can help you with, just reply to this email. You can also give us a call on 789 from any Virgin Mobile phone – it's just 10p, no matter how long you talk for. Or, you can call us on 0845 6000 789 from a fixed line phone. These calls are charged at local rate.
Kind regards,
*****
Virgin Mobile
So I've got a phone capable of 'up to 3.5G' but they make no claim about what speeds I should be getting.
Bear this in mind if you're thinking of going Virgin too.

There is no network in the world that can gaurantee that you will be getting HSDPA speed 100% of the time.
Thats just common sense mate.
:facepalm:

Audio Oblivion said:
There is no network in the world that can gaurantee that you will be getting HSDPA speed 100% of the time.
Thats just common sense mate.
:facepalm:
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You are correct.
But surely there should be a minimum amount of service a customer should expect.
Imagine a water utility company saying they couldn't guarantee how much water would come through the pipes, but you should pay your bills anyway for 'up to' a certain amount of water per month. And if it falls to a cupful of water per day, then too bad, it just means your neighbours were using a lot of water, tough.
I'm not expecting full speed 3G. I'm expecting pages like this one to load faster than 1 minute later, and without constant drop outs when I'm sat still in a chair in central London with full bar reception and my phone displaying 3G at the top.

There are so many variables to consider, forum usage can slow down, bandwidth usage in your area, atmospheric conditions etc, I'm also on virgin and when browsing this site on opera via 3G speeds are plenty addequate, no more than 3 seconds between links.
Sometimes i will get dropouts too but they are very rare the 3G network is massively over stretched with the popularity of 3G dongles and people sat there torrenting and what not, this is why the FUP is in effect, the 3G network at the moment cannot sustain a free for all.
Having said this you should be expected to get a reasonable service, in the past when on Tmobile, same as Virgin as it happens I have complained when not having any service for 3 days and they have knocked a few quid off my bill.

I found this on another forum from a poster called DBMandrake:
----
Having been with Virgin (with my iPhone) and then leaving them due to their poor data network I feel I should comment here.
Virgin can not (or will not) provide true HSDPA speeds on a mobile plan. Even if you see an HSDPA indicator on your phone, at best you will get around 350kbit/sec, which is standard 3G speed not HSDPA, as they throttle the bandwidth. You can get HSDPA speeds on a mobile broadband dongle from Virgin, but not on a data plan for a phone.
Before a dozen people jump in and say "but I get more than 350Kbit on Virgin", some older grandfathered plans may still have uncapped speeds, but currently selling ones do not.
I contacted technical support on more than one occasion regarding this and they were unable to do anything or offer any means of increasing the speeds above 350kbit, (even by paying more) and were unaware of what speeds I should be receiving in the first place, and had no idea whether 350kbit constituted an acceptable speed.
Secondly, Virgin put all web traffic through an image optimizer that dramatically compresses the images. While that may look acceptable on a 1 inch screen, and speed up page loads, it looks god awful on an iPhone screen, especially when zooming in, and there is NO way on a mobile phone to disable or bypass this image optimizer.
Both of these policies are in place because T-Mobile (whose network Virgin piggybacks on) also have these policies, except in T-Mobile's case you CAN pay more to get your speed uncapped (web 'n walk plus tethering addon) but you still cannot get the image optimizer disabled.
For these reasons (and others) I left Virgin and went to 3 and never looked back. No annoying image optimizer, and uncapped speeds which regularly exceed 1.2Mbit and go as high as 3Mbit in some locations, and far better 3G coverage to boot. No comparison if data is important to you as it is to me.
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http://www.talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?p=36854

I can only assume it's a problem in certain areas, which by the nature of things there's not much that can be done, other than put more masts in, its purely down to location and network load.
But if the limit on Virgin/Tmobile is capped at 350kbit is that really a problem for general browsing, email and social networking? I certainly haven't encounted a lack of bandwidth since moving to virgin last week.
I would think the limit is there to keep the network usuable to all, as said before an unlimited uncapped network would surely grind to halt. If you read virgins T&C they state they cannot guarantee any speeds, to do so would be wrong due to the nature of the of the whole system.

I'll admit I'm being a bit hyper sensitve to the data rates. It's because I was really excited about the HD2 and really putting it through its paces. Which I can do, apart from mobile web, which is more of a gentle Sunday stroll after lunch... with my gran.
I appreciate that it's a bit of a phone mast lottery when it comes to data rates, but when you work in Zone 1 of London you'd expect the infrastructure to be better able to cope by now.
And I detest the whole 'up to' measurement on data when advertising plans. I understand why it's written such, but providers should have to provide a realistic picture of what the average punter can expect on a daily basis. Not what theoretical person could get while pigs are landing on the moon.

Virgin Speed
I have seen this in other forums.
I have gone to a speed test site (www.dslreports.com) and run from opera browser with both phones on my desk showing 4bars (H)
- on my HD with orange 1M to 1.2M
- on my HD2 with Virgin getting 200k - 250k.
Will be looking into this further with a view to returning HD2 under 28day return policy.

Data Bandwidth: 2G (GPRS), 2.75G (EDGE), 3G (UMTS), HSDPA (H/3.5G)

I've seen that there's a LOT of confusion over the different data connection speeds.
I've seen a lot of comments with people asking why they keep getting a 'H' symbol like it's a bad thing, so here's a basic run-down:
GPRS: 56Kbit/s
EDGE: 236.8 kbit/s
UMTS: 384 kbit/s
HSDPA: 14,400 kbit/s - 14.4 Mb/s (only in certain places in England, blanket 7.2 Mb/s for Three UK)
GSM isn't included because it can't be used for data transfer, this is usually when the signal bar is shown, with nothing else.
2G:
GPRS is pretty negligible, I'd know I get stuck with it all the time in my house. It can load web pages but pretty slowly. This is shown on the N1 with a G next to the signal bar.
EDGE is still 2G but is multiple 2G connections combined. Here's a definition from soul2soul from a quick Google search:
"EDGE is part of GPRS network. During idle state, you will be given 1 timeslot only which is GPRS speed. When you start to download, you will be given more timeslots, hence you notice the sudden increase of speed to EDGE. If you are have lots of data users, you might be given only 1 timeslot. THis way, you might not hit the 220kbps speed consistently. Besides, Edge ping is quite horrible around 450-550 ms at first hop.
3G on the other hand, to my experience, consistentlys hit the 384kbps. It is sort like a guarantee pipeline for you. Of course, the latency is much lower at 150ms to 200ms."
This is shown by an E next to the signal bar.
3G:
UMTS is faster than EDGE but is still nowhere near HSDPA. As explained above though, 3G is much more stable than EDGE so you will get a more reliable speed. This is shown by a 3G symbol next to the signal bar.
HSPDA Is the good one. This one supports up to 14.4MB/s. This is shown by a H symbol (on certain ROM's) next to the signal bar.
Personally, I love knowing when I get HSPDA over UMTS since there could be a whole 7Mb/s difference on Three UK, for example; 14Mb/s on Vodafone (some places).
Feel free to comment on any faults and I'll correct them. I did this very quickly
Someone care to comment on LTE?

This post triggered me to try running a speed test on my N1 out of pure curiosity. I am using the speedtest.net app from the marketplace.
N1 status shows: HSPA
Server: New York, NY
My location: Midtown west manhattan, 12th floor of an office building
Ping: 109ms
Down: 1656 kbps
Up: 1286 kbps

HSDPA can range from just faster than 3G speeds to 14.4 Mb/s. Keep in mind it depends on how many people are connected to the cell (since it's the max bandwidth distributed between how many people connect to each basestation), and also the max bandwidth of the Basestation. If no one else is connecting to your basestation then it looks like it's limited to 1.8Mb/s. But i'm not sure on the specs of other basestations aside from the UK, so I could be wrong.

I would also like to add that HSPA is JUST a data service where 3G carries both data and voice. Quite a few people on here seem to be confused when they see their phone switch back and fourth from 3G to HSPA and they ask why its going back and fourth. It is because you phone will only use the HSPA services for data and then switch back to 3G when idle and not doing data.
Oh, and lets not forget HSPA+, currently launched on T-Mobile USA in Philidalphia, which has theoretical speeds of 56Mbps down.

setzer715 said:
I would also like to add that HSPA is JUST a data service where 3G carries both data and voice. Quite a few people on here seem to be confused when they see their phone switch back and fourth from 3G to HSPA and they ask why its going back and fourth. It is because you phone will only use the HSPA services for data and then switch back to 3G when idle and not doing data.
Oh, and lets not forget HSPA+, currently launched on T-Mobile USA in Philidalphia, which has theoretical speeds of 56Mbps down.
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Anyone know what happens when a call comes in if you're using HSPA, for example downloading a large file?

I've gotten speeds of around 600-700kbps on UMTS pretty consistently here in Toledo... are you sure it's max speed is only half that?

I rarley get good speeds anywhere here (California). The best i can muster up is 700k down and up. :-/

Please take note that the Nexus One, as most other mobile phones has a official maximum bandwidth of 7.2 MBps using HSDPA, not the full 14.4 MBps.
Quote:
google.com/phone
Cellular & Wireless
UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
HSDPA 7.2Mbps
HSUPA 2Mbps
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

25th Feb in Waitrose (** a supermarket **) car-park in Wokingham, Engerland @ 10:33am [waiting for the wife] download 3922Kbps, upload 1673Kbps, (Speedtest), 'phone status switching between UMTS & HSDPA.
At home some 5 miles away usually download about 1.4Mbps: When I'm back in God's ain country (bonnie Scotland, the Highlands,..) I'll try again...
& If the 'phone was normal way up (therefore aerial at the bottom... slightly behind car dash) I got a lower speed, turn N1 upside down and she goes faster ..
Anyone??
Cheers!
Lodger

uansari1 said:
I've gotten speeds of around 600-700kbps on UMTS pretty consistently here in Toledo... are you sure it's max speed is only half that?
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Actually, a correction to the previous. You see, HSPA is just an enhancement of UMTS. To say 3G is VERY broad statement because pretty much all carriers have some sort of 3rd Generation technolocy in use on thier networks. Now, T-Mobile and ATT both use UTMS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service) and to be specific they use W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access).
The quoted data speeds of 384Kbps are the theorecital max of R'99 (Revision "99). Moving on to R5 (Revision 5) incorporate HSDPA (High Speed Download Packet Access) with theorecial max download speeds of 14.4Mbps. Then there is R6 (Revision 6) which incorporates HSUPA (High Speed Upload Packet Access. I'm sorry I dont know the max theoretical upload speeds. Lastly we have HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Enhanced) which has theoretical download speeds of 54Mbps.
Now on to your quesiton, if you are reaching those speeds you are more than likely on a HSPA network. If you are using an Eclair ROM your data symbol next to your signal strength will NOT switch from 3G to H. Its not built into the rom. If you are using a Desire ROM you will see this happen.
Here is another way to check, start downloading a large file (to give yoruself time) then back out and let it download in the background. Open your dialer and type *#*#4636#*#* then select phone info. Scroll down and look at network type. It will either say UMTS or HSPA. Make sure when your viewing it that there is data going in the background.
A quicker way to get to the Phone Info is to download/install Anycut and create a shortcut on your desktop for Phone Info.
Hope this helps.

You guys are incredibly knowledgeable! I have been extremely curious as to what HSPA+ was exactly, thank you for explaining it!
I do have a few questions:
1. With HSPA+ on the horizon for T-Mobile (US), what frequencies will be used to broadcast?
2. Will the freq be the same as UMTS?
3. Will devices like the HD 2 be able to utilize the new network (if not will a simple radio ROM fix that?)

Thanks for the explaination,as I was wondering what this ment as well..

My UMTS/3G speed too high?
There's a device that I'm interested in that will only do Edge. I wanted to see if I could tolerate the reduced speed and found this thread stating connection speeds. When I select "use only 2g networks" I connect at about half the max you state for Edge...which sounds about right. But, when I connect 3G (with my 3G phone), my DL speed is about 2.5Mb/s or 2500Kb/s, almost 7x as fast as the 384Kb/s stated here for max 3G. Could somebody please explain to me how I'm looking at things the wrong way? Thanks.

Because by "3G" the setting you're switching means "3G and up". To reach those speeds your phone is switching to HSDPA mode, which on Nexus One is limited to 7.2 Mbps, and you're still far below that limit.

Jack_R1 said:
Because by "3G" the setting you're switching means "3G and up". To reach those speeds your phone is switching to HSDPA mode, which on Nexus One is limited to 7.2 Mbps, and you're still far below that limit.
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Thanks for that. But bear w/me for just one more sec; I'm a relative newby. Let me see if I understand. With my 3G Huawei Comet in hotspot mode and a netbook connected to Speedtest.net thru the hotspot, I'm getting a download thruput of 7X 3G speed and 1/3 4G speed. If this is right, since I don't think I could expect to reach the maximum 4G speed with an actual 4G phone but maybe more like 1/2 4G speed, since I'm getting close to that (1/3 4G) miraculously I think, (especially since that was at 2 of 4 bars), I think I shouldn't waste my time and money ever upgrading to a 4G phone; I should stick w/my miraculous little 3G Comet. Please let me know; is all this right? Thanks for any more help.

Is my connection way faster than my device is supposed to be capable of?
Sorry for repeating myself but I didn't get a reply and I really need an answer.
With my 3G Huawei Comet in hotspot mode and a netbook connected to Speedtest.net thru the hotspot, my DL speed is about 2.5Mb/s which is almost 7 times as fast as the 384Kb/s I read is supposed to be the max for 3G. My signal indicator does show the H for HSDPA (2 bars) so since my connection is SO much faster than the max for 3G, and squarely in the realm of 4G speeds considering 2 bars (about 1/3 the max for 4G), is my Ideos/Comet somehow doing 4G? Thanks for clarifying for me.

[Q] Tmobile-UK Data speed

I've recently purchased the Atrix on Tmobile here in the UK.
I'm still running the stock rom (froyo 2.2.2) and have carried out some speed tests.
Download speeds max out at ~350kbs!
This seems incredibly disappointing as my Blade on the 3 network gets much faster speeds.
My question is:
If I unlock and update to a gingerbread based rom will my data access speed improve?
i.e Have tmobile in UK crippled data transfer speeds on the stock rom?
I would be grateful for any info.
Regards
Sam

I'm on T-Mo Uk on an Atrix too and that's decent speeds for 3G/HSDPA I've tried a few different rims and radio flashes but doesn't make much if any difference, so guessing T-Mo cap the data rate. When I first got the phone in May I was lucky if I got 100 kb/s. 3 or 4 phone calls later to T-mo and they realised I was setup on the wrong data tariff, so maybe worth checking that?
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

Thanks Chaz,
I do think this is sim related rather than the network though.
My son is now using an old T-Mo G1. Ran the speed test on his phone which has a T-Mo PAYG sim in it. Results of 3 runs are:
Down Up
1541 402
1714 414
1533 344
Now this is 3-4 x faster than my contract sim I got with my Atrix (and still half the speed I'm getting on 3's network).
Why would the atrix be performing so much worse than the ageing G1?
Next I will test PAYG sim in the atrix.......

SamHanlon said:
I've recently purchased the Atrix on Tmobile here in the UK.
I'm still running the stock rom (froyo 2.2.2) and have carried out some speed tests.
Download speeds max out at ~350kbs!
This seems incredibly disappointing as my Blade on the 3 network gets much faster speeds.
My question is:
If I unlock and update to a gingerbread based rom will my data access speed improve?
i.e Have tmobile in UK crippled data transfer speeds on the stock rom?
I would be grateful for any info.
Regards
Sam
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Hi Sam
You are not on HSDPA (despite what the phone might report). You are only connecting to T-Mobile's normal 3g network which runs at around 0.4Mbps... HSDPA will run at anything up to 3.6Mbps, though more realistically 1-2Mbps.
All Android handsets bought directly from T-Mobile should come with the ability to connect to the HSDPA network (though I am of course refering to the SIM card - all Atrixs in theory can connect to HSDPA). If you bought the handset through a third party company (such as dial-a-phone) then they may supply the handset with a "none Android" tarrif SIM card.
Read about it here on the T-Mob forums... you may be able to speak with T-Mob technical support to get the ability to connect to HSDPA. Good luck!

Thanks for the info surrealjam.
I bought this from the T-Mo website and it didn't mention capped internet speeds.
Interestingly my wife recently (this month) switched to a sim only contract after 2 years and speedtest on her T-Mo G2 is stuck at 357kbs. I remember when she first got the phone that it had a faster internet connection than our landline ~ 2.5Mbs.
Looks like they have tweaked her settings too.
I'm off to phone technical support. thanks again.
.......
Having phoned technical support on 150 they have enabled HSDPA for my internet access.
Job done, thanks again surrealjam.
I reckon you should give them a phone Chaz
Regards
Sam

No problem, Sam - I love a happy ending. There's no way to say that without sounding smutty these days... shame.

SamHanlon said:
Thanks Chaz,
I do think this is sim related rather than the network though.
My son is now using an old T-Mo G1. Ran the speed test on his phone which has a T-Mo PAYG sim in it. Results of 3 runs are:
Down Up
1541 402
1714 414
1533 344
Now this is 3-4 x faster than my contract sim I got with my Atrix (and still half the speed I'm getting on 3's network).
Why would the atrix be performing so much worse than the ageing G1?
Next I will test PAYG sim in the atrix.......
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I think we had our wires crossed here I was giving speeds in kb/s and you gave kbps above ? lol
My speeds are around 1900kbps down and 400kbps up, which is around 400-450 kb/s (or 1.8-1.9mb).
As I mentioned before I was capped too and a few calls to T-Mo sorted it for me as well.
Glad you got it sorted out too