Database Users

tmobile 3g speeds

this is my first week using tmobile in the US with the nexus one.
I am not able to get download speeds more than 800kbps. it does not matter how good the reception is.
I have tried in various places in north CA and in cleveland OH.
I think that such speeds are pretty bad for 3g. with at&t I used to 2-3mbps at times.
my friend with the verizon droid is seeing 1.5mbps-2.5mbps download speed .
what are other users on tmobile are seeing?
seems like tmobile is rate limiting the speeds or their network is just really bad.

How are u measuring the speed? I use the speed test app and it used to have a server close by in San Jose (65 mi) now I have to use a server in new Mexico and I'm in CA so that makes it seem slower too

There are two apps in the market i test with: speedtest.net and extreme speed test.
I also checked with the laptop tethered to the phone. same pathetic speeds. i can hardly call it 3g comparing to the competitors.
Is it the phone or is it tmobiles network?

clubtech said:
There are two apps in the market i test with: speedtest.net and extreme speed test.
I also checked with the laptop tethered to the phone. same pathetic speeds. i can hardly call it 3g comparing to the competitors.
Is it the phone or is it tmobiles network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i just got 2MB/s up and 400 kb/s down
WOW thats whats im talking about best ive ever seen
still waiting for those 6mb/s up and 1mb/s down (a.k.a. my cable high speed enternet at home)

I have never seen verizon that fast in my area, generally 500 kbits to 1mbits but I would say that you are getting the norm for tmo as mine have never reached 1 mbit but can go past 10 mbit on wifi.
BGR did a test a while back although not scientific agrees with the tests I have done in my area.
BGR Carrier Wars
Average Download Speed
1. Sprint: 1361kbs
2. AT&T: 933kbps
3. T-Mobile: 786kbps
4. Verizon: 701kbps
Average Upload Speed
1. Verizon: 322kbps
2. Sprint: 267kbps
3. AT&T: 180kbps
4. T-Mobile: 177kbps

Try this speed test....
I usually see 1000 - 1200 kbps but quite often see 1700 - 2000 kbps using the speedtest.net app in the android market. Something to remember, your 3G connection is initially UMTS and will switch to HSDPA on demand and when available. You may notice that your first test will show a ping of ~300ms and speeds of 500 - 700 kbps (UMTS), but if you hit "test again" immediately after the first test completes you should see a ping of about ~175ms and approximately double the speed (HSDPA). I've noticed that the default server (closest server according to the speedtest.net app) is usually slow and doesn't give me proper results. I've had very good luck using the Chicago server. Try using the Chicago server and run back-to-back tests, let us know if your results change.

I would agree T-Mobile's 3G is crap. Using a Rogers G1 on AT&T using speedtest.net app, I was seeing over 2Mbit down and over 800kbit up consistently.
T-Mobile's so called "7.2 Mbit upgrade" is a joke. Kind of like their coverage maps. I want to like them, but at least in my area, AT&T obliterates them. It's too big of a different for me. If an AT&T 3G compatible nexus one is released, I will have to get one. I could probably live with the slower speeds if the coverage wasn't so spotty.
Your move T-Immobile.
-James

jmacdonald801 said:
I would agree T-Mobile's 3G is crap. Using a Rogers G1 on AT&T using speedtest.net app, I was seeing over 2Mbit down and over 800kbit up consistently.
T-Mobile's so called "7.2 Mbit upgrade" is a joke. Kind of like their coverage maps. I want to like them, but at least in my area, AT&T obliterates them. It's too big of a different for me. If an AT&T 3G compatible nexus one is released, I will have to get one. I could probably live with the slower speeds if the coverage wasn't so spotty.
Your move T-Immobile.
-James
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a former T-Mo Wireless Engineer Intern, I can tell you that there is only a very very small roll out on 7.2 right now. They are testing the network before they enable more circuits. The original plan when I worked there was for a gradual 2 city per month rollout. Then slowly build the network to cope with added traffic. Its suppose to be a gradual process that will also involve using old equipment and expanding current 3g service. The high speed roll out was priority one, then is service expansion. Also contracts were involved last I saw that would expand coverage 2-fold, but negotiations for tower rights were falling through, so I don't know where thats going.

hamshu said:
As a former T-Mo Wireless Engineer Intern, I can tell you that there is only a very very small roll out on 7.2 right now. They are testing the network before they enable more circuits. The original plan when I worked there was for a gradual 2 city per month rollout. Then slowly build the network to cope with added traffic. Its suppose to be a gradual process that will also involve using old equipment and expanding current 3g service. The high speed roll out was priority one, then is service expansion. Also contracts were involved last I saw that would expand coverage 2-fold, but negotiations for tower rights were falling through, so I don't know where thats going.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, talk about an honest answer. If I could just get coverage at my house, I could support team Magenta
-James

There is an issue with 3g on the nexus that has been commented on a number of times, and that is the flapping of UMTS and HSDPA. (not to be confused with those flapping between 2g and 3g). With my G1 I was able to get speeds as high as 3Mbit, but I too have only seen 800Kbit max on my nexus and I believe its due to this constant flapping of 3g technologies.

Today is my first day on tmobile with the N1, I've been running on Edge ATT.
I was worried about switching over because my gf has had tmobile and doesn't have great service at our house.
I was afraid mine would be worse with the 3g issues the N1 has been having but it appears to be almost identical to hers.
in my living room we get 1-2 bars 3g and I see test speeds of 50-300 down and 950-1250 up.
I go to my office right above the living room and get 3 bars and 700-900 down speeds with 700-900 up speeds.
No stoked about it but I havnt had any signal swapping issues so I'm going to use it for GPS to test out now and see how it does. GPS and mapping even on edge with ATT was super fast so I have high hopes.

bofslime said:
There is an issue with 3g on the nexus that has been commented on a number of times, and that is the flapping of UMTS and HSDPA. (not to be confused with those flapping between 2g and 3g). With my G1 I was able to get speeds as high as 3Mbit, but I too have only seen 800Kbit max on my nexus and I believe its due to this constant flapping of 3g technologies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So are you saying that if you pop in the SIM card from the N1 to the G1 in the same place you get 3Mbps vs. 800Kbps on the N1?

clubtech said:
So are you saying that if you pop in the SIM card from the N1 to the G1 in the same place you get 3Mbps vs. 800Kbps on the N1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, I get full signal at my work (-63dBm 25asu). The G1 didn't skip around and stuck firmly to UMTS, and I was getting much better rates with it. My N1 however maxes out at no more than 800.

@jmcdonald what are you agreeing with LOL were talking about decent speeds then you say you agree with the low speeds??? LOL
Anyway I don't have 3g flopping problems neither did I on my g1

I am seeing speeds in most cases upward of 2.2 mbps... and am even averaging over 1mbps in upload speeds which is pretty good when I have full 3g reception in the Northern NJ area.

I get anywhere from 2.0 - 3.5Mbps down on average, and I have seen up to 4.5Mbps down on occasion. Up is always around 1 - 1.3Mbps.
However, I'm in Philadelphia, and we have HSPA+

Wow, I don't know how you guys are getting DL speeds upwards of 1.5mbps! Here in San Diego, the most I've seen anyone on ATT get is around 1.2mbps, and 1.1 on Sprint. Tmo is usually anywhere from 700-1mbps with some spikes over that now and then.
My G1 and N1 get the same speed range.

I'm in Maryland, just outside of D.C. I also just switched from AT&T to T-Mobile (yesterday actually). I'm also getting DL speeds of like 700-800 kbps. Hope it will someday be a little faster than that.

download - 137kbps
upload - 217kbps

From all the repots in this post it seems that tmob is just slower in some parts of the country and faster in others.
I hope they are planning on catching as 700-800kbps is a joke.

Sprint 3G speed in Los Angeles?

Anyone on sprint can comment on this?
What's the 3G speed in Southern California (LA and vicinity)?
I am coming from ATT and just wanted to compare the speed!

Orange county I get 700-1300 down about 300-500 up.

Bielinsk said:
Orange county I get 700-1300 down about 300-500 up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Orange county is kind far from LA but don't you think 700-1300 is kind of low compared to ATT? Did you use ATT before?

No, never with AT&T, and I am using a Hero not an Evo.
Thought you would want as much data as possible and didn't see any responses.
So disregard if this doesn't provide you some ballpark.
Its been fast enough that I never use wifi.

Downtown Los Angeles: ~1MB down, ~.4/.5MB up.

Bielinsk said:
No, never with AT&T, and I am using a Hero not an Evo.
Thought you would want as much data as possible and didn't see any responses.
So disregard if this doesn't provide you some ballpark.
Its been fast enough that I never use wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I really appreciated your response. Thanks again. I use my phone more for data than voice. Just wanted to see whether I will lose any speed going from ATT to Sprint.
Anyway, I will have 30 days to decide so I should be good.

v2tech said:
What's the 3G speed in Southern California (LA and vicinity)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From La Mirada/Norwalk (5FWY/605FWY) I get 1.4MB down; .5MB up on my Hero. The EVO will be uncapped 3G as well, no? I've had ATT and T-Mobile, and my connection has always appeared to be faster. In my corporate building, amongst all the other users (ATT, T-Mo, Verizon) and phones (Eris, MyTouch, G1, N1, Pre, BB, etc), I've always had the strongest signal and fastest connection. Might just be the area though.

In westwood area, I get 300 - 400 kbps in the day.. and 1 mbps at night.. not that great

Dorick said:
In westwood area, I get 300 - 400 kbps in the day.. and 1 mbps at night.. not that great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's very poor data speed!

I live in Alhambra, never check the speed, but it seems very fast. I can wathc spb tv, youtube and listen to the radio smoothy.

Sprint's 3g speeds are simply horrible in the entire SF bay area compared to to at&t (i know this is not the region you asked for).
I get 300Kbps - 1Mbps down (mostly 500Kbps) and 500-700Kbps up.
I checked pretty much all across the Bay Area. it is like 3g from the 90s....and might just be a deal breaker for me.
They do however have better coeverage than at&t in most places. not sure why their speed is so slow.
With at&t i get about 2-3Mbps down in most areas tested.

not sure up there but down here in FL sprint 3g is way faster than att 3g or tmo 3g.. i have the HD2 on tmo and a 3gs on att and evo ofcourse on sprint and im not sure if is the phone or the sprint network but evo kick the **** out of the hd2 and att on a test i did using the 3 phones.. evo loaded pages significantly faster than the other 2 carriers . in some sases way faster

v2tech said:
Anyone on sprint can comment on this?
What's the 3G speed in Southern California (LA and vicinity)?
I am coming from ATT and just wanted to compare the speed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dude were getting 4g theres absolutely no comparison sorry

shakuyi said:
dude were getting 4g theres absolutely no comparison sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true, in the last month or so I have consistently been seeing 4+ download and 500k up on my iphone 3gs. So other than uploads, Sprints 4g won't be that much faster than what I am seeing now with AT&T. In the suburbs it is dropping to 1.4+ / 400k.

Houston 4G connectivity issues

Greetings folks, long time no see
Anyone having a difficult time staying connected to 4G in Houston? From my experience so far, all 3 locations I have tried it out... (BB, Work, Home) are all in "In-Building" 4G coverage area. NONE of them can connect "In-Building". If I walk outside, it will connect then drop sporadically, or not connect at all. 3G has connectivity issues as well, but I want to focus on the big selling point of 4G here.
Any other experiences to speak of?
-Rock

Guess I should have posted this in the Q&A. MOD: Please feel free to relocate thread.

I have the same experience in the Memorial City (I-10 BW8 W) and East Katy (Fry) area. I'm happy with the 3g speed for what I use the phone for and have only turned on 4g for testing.

Im guessing it might be an issue with both signals from the towers and radio on the EVO. I have called Sprint to express my disappointment with the 4G service. I hope that HTC will make some magic happen with software upgrades. I also have tried the newer radio upgrade but still have issues once im inside of buildings.

just like when the iphone came out there were problems the same is happening now. i was getting good speeds up until a few hours ago here in NJ. my phone says 3G but im getting edge speeds

Not Houston, but same for me...
I am in St. Louis, and although 4G isn't official here yet (last I heard was 6/21) I am seeing the same thing. Indoors, it is almost a crap shoot.
Outside, it will get one "bar" of 4G... sometimes. Never really solidly locks on 4G.
I think it is an issue with the EVO radio firmware, at least I hope so, because I have the luxury of testing it side-by-side with an Overdrive, and I can consistently maintain a 4G signal of 2-3 bars on the Overdrive, if I put it in the window of my office.
Sadly, the Overdrive is seriously outperforming the reception of the Evo in my experiences so far.
-Rob

I'm in Houston. After doing the PRL update I got great coverage, everywhere except my downtown office (15th floor...so thats to be expected)

had connectivity issues the first day, here on the Northside, but if you update your profile, prl, and take your battery out a few times you may find a change..i did

THIS NEEDS TO BE SETTLED! I think I have an objective view.
I'm in Houston, TX so we have 4G coverage with ClearWire. I got my EVO on Friday, along with everybody else. I went to Best Buy to look at some accessories, while I was there I was chatting with the ClearWire rep running the demo and trying to sign up new customers. He was inside with store with his Clearwire USB dongle and laptop. We decided to run some speed comparisons, so I downloaded 2 speedtest apps from the Android market, one of them being for Speedtest.net. The best speed I got on my EVO with 4G enabled (and 1 bar of 4g) was about 2.25 Mbit down, and 1.1 Mbit up. I ran this test multiple times with me standing next to him, then putting my EVO next to the USB dongle to make sure I was getting the same signal. The rep's laptop, again running the speedtest from Speedtest.net and us using the the SAME servers, he got at least 6 Mbit down and almost 2 Mbit up. The best he got that I saw was like 7.2 Mbit down. He said that earlier that day he got as high as 10 Mbit down.
This is just telling me that it's either the processor that is limiting the speed, or it's the 4G antenna in the EVO. I saw that his 4G signal was pretty good being a bit outside the city, in Katy at Fry Road and I-10. I live just outside downtown I do get 4G inside my home, but again 1 or 2 bars. With my limited investigation I'm going to have to conclude that the network speed is NOT ClearWire's fault, but more like a hardware limitation on the EVO. If someone modded the phone with a better antenna the speed might improve.
About the existing 3G speed and with EVO is WOW! 3G response is soooo much faster on the EVO that it was on my G1. Another comparison is my home AT&T U-verse: I get 5.71 Mbit down and 0.94 Mbit up. I'm trying to think of a way that I can get my TV another way and get ClearWire for home instead of U-verse.

More likely clear is capping us to maintain QoS for direct customers.
Sent from my EVO

Hmm, I'm inside my house on Katy "Fry Rd. @ I10" and have 2 bars. Walk outside the front door no change. Typically outside around the Katy area I get about 2-3 bars.

Grims said:
More likely clear is capping us to maintain QoS for direct customers.
Sent from my EVO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not "Clear" but Sprint is capping for Qos.

nunyabiziz said:
It's not "Clear" but Sprint is capping for Qos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not you're just arguing symantecs

Grims said:
Not you're just arguing symantecs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a little upset for the reason being that Sprint would state that their 4G is 10x faster than EVDO. Taking the lower results of EVDO(600Kbps) and comparing it to the higher 4G(6Mbps). I have yet to see 3Mbps downstream on their 4G network in Houston. I have tested Clear's and Sprint's usb side by side and ofcourse it's only capped on Sprint. So on that point its not the same.

nunyabiziz said:
Just a little upset for the reason being that Sprint would state that their 4G is 10x faster than EVDO. Taking the lower results of EVDO(600Kbps) and comparing it to the higher 4G(6Mbps). I have yet to see 3Mbps downstream on their 4G network in Houston. I have tested Clear's and Sprint's usb side by side and ofcourse it's only capped on Sprint. So on that point its not the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see that, but even 3G on this phone seems way faster than other phones. I'm sure it has to do with the CPU beign able to render pages much quicker than previous devices.
That said, my 4G speeds are averaging about twice as fast as 3G

Drove down 45 from the medical center to Spring yesterday and got 4G all the way. As far as the downspeed goes, I agree, it's probably QoS since Sprint's 4G network is still in its infant stage.

Antebios said:
THIS NEEDS TO BE SETTLED! I think I have an objective view.
The best speed I got on my EVO with 4G enabled (and 1 bar of 4g) was about 2.25 Mbit down, and 1.1 Mbit up. I ran this test multiple times with me standing next to him, then putting my EVO next to the USB dongle to make sure I was getting the same signal. The rep's laptop, again running the speedtest from Speedtest.net and us using the the SAME servers, he got at least 6 Mbit down and almost 2 Mbit up. The best he got that I saw was like 7.2 Mbit down. He said that earlier that day he got as high as 10 Mbit down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this info, I think you are right, something is capping our throughput. I hope Sprint come out with new firmware patch to resolve this. I am not happy with my less than 2Mbit download speed on 4G!

Well, I wish I was seeing the same coverage as everyone else. I can't get 4G inside at all. I got all the updates last week, but see there is yet another PRL update I was unaware of. *Finders crossed.

I don't think wimax will ever have good indoor coverage. The frequency it runs at is much too high.
Sent from my EVO

Since I work for Clear, I can tell ya'll that we do not cap anything. Also, as far as Sprint goes, they just use and resell our service. I will, however, be willing to be that there may be something with the device that maybe a firmware upgrade may fix but honestly who knows.
I have yet to see anyone get above 4mbs on the Evo...I think it has something to do with the device.

And you think you have bad 4G speeds...

Sprint says they have 4G in Boise, ID and the surrounding area including Nampa, which is where I live (About 20 mi. from Boise). I've been running speed test on 3g and 4g everywhere I go. I'm lucky if I even have the dot on 4G unless I'm in a sprint store or LOS of a tower.
So far, 4G is always half the speed of 3G, almost always. The only time it hasn't been much slower is when I was standing in the sprint store.
On 3G I avg. between 150 to 850 kbps down - 50 to 500ish up.
On 4G I've gotten anywhere from 150 to 3000 kbps down. But anything over 1000 kbps down was when I was standing in the sprint store or within sight of a sprint tower.
Ping is 200 at its low and has been all the way up to 800ms.
As far as which sprint servers I'm connected too, they seem to be anywhere from KS to CA and once in a while in ID or CO.
I don't know about you, but this seems to be wayy slower than what the rest of you are reporting as "slow", sadly. Because at this point, 3g is beating 4g and 3g isn't even close to its capasity. (Got 1.5mpbs down on my iphone 3G)
Wifi works great, 5 down, 1 up even with 0 bars cross the house, by the way.
I love the evo and android, and sprints pricing, but even with millions upon millions of iphones out there, att can somehow keep their speeds up.

I'm almost right there with you. I was driving down I-270 in St. Louis with full 4G bars and I was only getting 1.5 Mbps. I get that through 3G!!! So why am I enduring the pain of this battery life when I got the same speed from my blackberry?
Ok...that's not meant to be answered. I really really really love my Evo, but like any mobile device, it has its flaws.

i have a lot of family in both marsing and nampa, too bad they all have verizon, i myself live in fresno tx and area that is supposedly saturated in 4g according to both clear maps and sprint maps and i am not getting 4g at all, on top on that i one main sprint tower down the street and about 6-7 antennas (repeaters) in fresno, for any small town thats overkill and fresno is small i can get 4g if i walk down the street towards arcola (another small town next door) and in the opposite direction towards houston i get 4g but were i live nothing and the speeds....one 4g test says .65kbps up and 125kbps down

I usually get ~3mbs in st louis. I've had 9mbs bursts too.

Be patient..
I recommend being patient. In my area (where Clear has had a presence for while), as soon as the EVO came out, speeds hit the floor. My 3G was handily beating the 4G speeds I was getting up until a couple of days ago. My guess is that the influx of all these Wimax devices hit their network pretty hard and they're still doing whatever it is they do to bring the speeds back up.
On the brightside, I've gotta give them credit for at least keeping it stable. It may have been slow, but it always seemed to work when I switched to it.
I'm sure if it was AT&T we'd be screwed.

TeknoJnky said:
I usually get ~3mbs in st louis. I've had 9mbs bursts too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
topdawgn8 said:
I'm almost right there with you. I was driving down I-270 in St. Louis with full 4G bars and I was only getting 1.5 Mbps. I get that through 3G!!!.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've only tested 4G through I-55 in Arnold and out in Fenton at Gravois Bluff. Moving I've never hit over 2-2.5mb, and stationary outside the Great Escape theater at Gravois Bluff I hit 3mb once. I have NEVER hit above 3, which is kind of a disappointment. It could just be the fact that Arnold & Fenton are both kinda on the fringe of 4G coverage, but still...
I'll be going into downtown Saturday for the Cardinals game and I'm interested to try it out then actually in the city. Hopefully it's a little better. Sprint, here's your chance to blow my mind with some amazing speeds
P.S. @TeknoJnky DAMN! You're lucky with those 9mb bursts! Thats as fast as my cable connection at home! Jealous...

I test my 4G speed, and it's usually 1/4 of the 3G speed, but i download webpages faster through the browser in 4G, despite the lower bandwidth score. It's a weird phenomenon, but another user on PPCGeeks mentioned the same thing.

T-Mo To Double HSPA+ Speeds By 2011!

T-Mobile To Double Speed By 2011
Eat that Sprint 4G!
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

T-mobile is much better than Sprint because they aren't scumbags to their customers by charging an extra $10/mo just to nickel and dime them...

This can't come soon enough.
I was holding a HTC Incredible in one hand and my Nexus One in the other. Full bars on mine and only 2 bars on the Incredible. Site after site, the Incredible loaded faster. Ran SpeedTest on each and the Incredible did better each time.
I didn't think my N1 was slow by any means, but the Incredible was really quick in loading sites and general navigation.
My SpeedTests for my area never get above 1mbps down.

I can't wait. Given, I get plenty speed in my area (around 5MB up), 10 wouldn't hurt!

Sprinj
Wow, bring it on! Sprint is already left in the dust

My city has yet to be covered by HSPA+, but I can't wait for when it hits! SO MANY market downloads...

AT&T Needs to get the ball rolling with HSPA+ grrr.

ATT is crap. If i could get out my family ETF then i would be going to tmobile just for their HSPA+.

I'm in a T-Mobile HSPA area here in Vegas.
I get 5 Mb/s Downloads and 1.3 Mb/s upload

xguntherc said:
I'm in a T-Mobile HSPA area here in Vegas.
I get 5 Mb/s Downloads and 1.3 Mb/s upload
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where in Vegas? Im in North West and I normally get 3mb down and 2.5 up

eh whatever.
how about just provide better 3G coverage everywhere?! HSPA+ is nice but they don't even have it where I live.

Blueman101 said:
Where in Vegas? Im in North West and I normally get 3mb down and 2.5 up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Henderson, South East. I was getting over 4mb down every time, and I still get 1.3mb up no matter what.. it got faster on FroYo builds.
CM6 I dropped down to like 2.5 Mb/s and the same 1.3 Mb up. but a little tweaking got me back to about where I was.

xguntherc what were the tweaks.
P.s. there won't be a huge speed increase mainly because there are few HSPA+ devices out there to take full advantage of this.

i would much rather see tmobile get better coverage before 10mbps speeds.

Nice.. I was up the mall the other day and asked the t-mobile people when can we expect faster speeds and she said they told her by end of 2010 beginning of 2011. I thought she was full of SH*T since we just got 3g a few months ago but it's listed as "Coming soon" on the coverage map. I can't wait..

Dang, you guys are lucky. Im in North Las Vegas and my 3G goes back and forth but luckly i use wifi in my home. When im near the strip i get good speeds though. I hope they expand just alittle bit north though.

This is very funny. In the UK T-Mobile is so crappy I doubt we will be seeing any investment in new hardware over here!
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

seeking said:
i would much rather see tmobile get better coverage before 10mbps speeds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amen. I'm so sick of losing all data connection when I walk in a store. I enjoy tmobiles speed as is I just wish it would work regularly. And forget a road trip or any coverage between cities. Seems the main places I need a data connection are the places t-mobile doesn't cover. I don't need it around my house, I need it in stores and on the road. Off topic but I'm also waiting for google maps to be available offline that'd ease my concern a bit

Im convinced its a myth.
Im in NYC and by all means should have it. I never get past 2mb in manhattan and easily drop to 2g in the boroughs.
You evidently have to be underneath a tower with a sattelite dish to get it here.

I call BS on this as well.
I'm lucky to see 3G at all. When I do see it (in areas other than where I live, where I rarely spend time), I've never hit above 300-400kbps.
As I sit here at work. No 3G... 65kbps.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Sprint already has 4G up here, too. My EVO friends rubbing it in my face.
It's awesome that I pay $160 a month for two Android phones on T-Mobile and don't even get close to the 3G coverage or connection speeds they're seeing.