Database Users

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
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It's not "Clear" but Sprint is capping for Qos.

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

Grims said:
Not you're just arguing symantecs
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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.
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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.
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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.

Sprint 4G in North Chicagoland!

I'm amazed, day 1 of launch I didn't get 4G anywhere except Chicago!
Over the past couple days I am getting 4G even in Round Lake & Grayslake, most surprising if you are aware of the area. It's relatively lower income in the area compared to the suburbs 10min South.
Around Lincolnshire I hit 3.8Mbps! I was under the impression 3Mbps was the cap, that's what I get (solid speed) when I checked 4G in Chicago.
I wont lie, I'm impressed, 4G was scarce just a week ago!

No 4g for me :<
You are lucky....
I live in Lake Forest - No 4g for me, and it's a very affluent area. Worse, I get NO SIGNAL in my home (3g / 4g, cell).
I specifically left AT&T because of dropped calls and lack of 3g service. I may have to leave Sprint because of no service....
Any idea if they will be adding towers anytime soon?
I wish there was a way to test Verizon before I switched again.

I have no idea, but hey...you've got another 2+ weeks to decide.
That does stink though, in general I've experienced good service...have you upgraded the radio on your Evo? That makes a difference.

I've rooted, and have a de-crapified build with the latest updates.
The lack of service also kills my battery, as it's continually trying to connect unless I go into airplane mode.
Major bummer :<

alexzogh said:
I've rooted, and have a de-crapified build with the latest updates.
The lack of service also kills my battery, as it's continually trying to connect unless I go into airplane mode.
Major bummer :<
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Call retentions and tell then you get lousy voice service. They gave me a free Airave and waved the monthly charge. Won't help with data much, with data, but works great for voice. You need a broadband connection with it.

I'm in Evanston and I've picked up 1 or 2 two bars of 4G while outside. Inside I had to get an Ariave. Speeds haven't been impressive so far, 3G actually has been faster when I've tested.

Have you tried flashing a verizon radio to your Evo? Maybe a better signal.

if you go downtown you get what i have in my sig
at my place by midway i get about 4mbps. yesterday i was testing and i was getting around 1 to 1.5 but today testing again i get around 3.5 to 4.5. maybe the weather was messing things up yesterday....i was testing while it was raining. today its gorgeous outside...

No 4G around Waukegan, IL either. Though I get full 3G coverage in and around this area, so I don't mind since data still loads pretty quick.

Grayslake has a 4Gtower - from there it's a long run south till the next. Lake Forest doesn't want any towers on their precious skyline so signal there sucks. Drives me nuts.
I ride the train into downtown from Grayslake so I've been watching 4g rollout closely - will stick with the Hero for a bit yet I suspect. No compelling reason to work around early upgrade mess and short supply. Yet.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

Sprint's 4g connection not stable...

Im in the northern chicago area and I'm able to connect to 4g but the connection is slow and unstable...(even with 4 bars). Ive extended the idle time using ##data# but still I have the same issues??? Anybody with a solid connection care to share their ##data# settings? Im thinking the issue might in the settings......
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I'm in Seattle and see similar 4G behavior. Usually 2 bars or so and not great performance (marginally better than 3G). I'd be interested to see if this can be improved by tweaking the settings also.

the 4G antenna in the EVO is half the size of the USB one, I don't even get signal at my house on my EVO, yet I get 1.5MBs on my USB stick. Size matters.

Idk about 4G but i just moved into a new house and i have TERRRIBLE reception no matter where i am. If im not outside, it sucks. Its funny though, as soon as i step out the door, 5-6 bars. Im keeping the phone in hopes that as soon as they get 4G around here (Elmont, NY... Long Island), things will change. =\

sprints 4g is in a horrible part of the spectrum. it's frequency is too high to pass through anything

This thread does not belong here. Take this drivel to the appropriate subforum.

unless you are a running a stock rom with the latest updates, i don't think you can make any of these complaints that you all are unless 4g isn't fully up and running in your city. My girlfriend just got the white evo and we installed the latest updates and she gets a very good 4g signal, i have the black evo running fresh 0.5.3 and i get a pretty good signal myself. Not to mention we live in mpls and 4g isn't even officially here yet. A lot of these problems people are having are user errors, flashing things with no knowledge of what they are doing. I would say go back to stock do to ota update with the new radio and wimax enhancements then tell me what type of 4g coverage you are getting. otherwise you are just trusting the chef that everything is set up right which i would take with a grain of salt because non of them seem to understand exactly how the wimax radio works as of yet. Proof of this is all the problems people are having after trying numerous roms

BB15 said:
I'm in Seattle and see similar 4G behavior. Usually 2 bars or so and not great performance (marginally better than 3G). I'd be interested to see if this can be improved by tweaking the settings also.
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That's not very encouraging, I am very disappointed by Sprint's 3g speeds. I have yet to see over 1mbs, and over the 4th of July weekended saw .2-.7 mbs. Yes, .2 as in 192kbs. This was in Miami.

vespoli said:
This thread does not belong here. Take this drivel to the appropriate subforum.
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I started this thread with the intentions of looking into the settings of the wimax ##data# menu....not too rant about the service. I believe with the good signal I'm getting and the fact that I do connect shows that there's an issue with either the roms were flashing or the setting mentioned above. Anybody care to post their settings?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Changing the wimax idle sleep time from 10 secs to 300 secs could help. My 4G stays on pretty much constantly now instead of switching back and forth between 4G and 3G. You would need your MSL to edit the settings though.

I have similar issues in the chicago land area as well. Very frustrating. I am using a stock rooted rom, but I am using an older OTA update. When I'm outside I always have a strong 4G signal. However, as soon as I go in doors I either loose the signal or have a very weak one. Before you say anything about updating, my GF's EVO is completely stock with the newest OTA update and her 4G behaves very similarly. I actually pick up a better signal at times. It just sucks because if the signal was just a LITTLE bit stronger I would be really happy.

Thats just due to the spectrum used for wimax is at such a high frequency that it does not penetrate walls very well. I'm not sure how sprint will try to remedy this problem, I'm not sure but I get strong signals at my work office and thats inside a building. At home I can get 4G if I am outside once inside I cant seem to get it at all.

What's "##data#" ? I would search it but haven't quite figured it out yet on the app. Google didn't help either (surprisingly).
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

jrpointer said:
Im in the northern chicago area and I'm able to connect to 4g but the connection is slow and unstable...(even with 4 bars). Ive extended the idle time using ##data# but still I have the same issues??? Anybody with a solid connection care to share their ##data# settings? Im thinking the issue might in the settings......
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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jr - I am in Gold Coast and recently noticed the 4G signal was junk. It used ot be great inside my 13th floor apartment. I went to the sprint store and they said one of the towers was being serviced (they called a tech. and he said this while I was there). They said end of this week it would be fixed. I was going to give them another week or so and see what the deal is then.

IMO it kind of defeats the purpose of having 4G then. 90% of the time that I want to surf the internet or use 4G I'm indoors, and I would imagine that goes for pretty much everybody. I know this isn't a problem for everybody so it seems, but I think for a lot of people it is.

interesting you say 4 bars of 4g. when i look at my phone i can get up to 6 vertical bars for 3g's signal strength, but with 4g on, and outside i can get 3 "bars" more like "upper wifi arcs" above the 4g signal. and inside my 4g doesn't even register anything, it just shows 4g with no arcs...
however my technique is to put the phone right next to the window and run my micro usb cable from there to my computer. and i then get great data connection...
still experimenting, (had the phone for less than a week) but i think it might work better to go to menu/settings/wirless&networks/ and uncheck mobile network so the phone doesn't use the 3g for data connection when 4g isn't there...
thus if the 4g signal is low, it doesn't drop it to grab the higher signal 3g...
lastly. i'm heading to the store to try to pick up a 2 buck plastic soap dish with a suction cup for the "high tech holding station" on my window. that and a 10 foot micro usb cable i think that will help even more...
best of luck.

I have figured out where in my neighborhood I can get a 4G signal (and I too keep my phone near the window when I want to use it at home). However since the OTA, I noticed that if my 4G signal drops it won't come back unless I toggle the 4G radio. It will just sit in "scanning" and use 3G.
Anyone else noticing this problem?
I would assume that one of the settings/timers need to be tweaked, but I have no idea what my those values were before the OTA.

oreoOozZz said:
Idk about 4G but i just moved into a new house and i have TERRRIBLE reception no matter where i am. If im not outside, it sucks. Its funny though, as soon as i step out the door, 5-6 bars. Im keeping the phone in hopes that as soon as they get 4G around here (Elmont, NY... Long Island), things will change. =\
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4G has nothing to do with 3G. Clearwire maintains the 4G network and Ericsson maintains the 3G/1X network do if your 3G is bad now, it won't be any different when 4G launches unless Ericsson improves the situation.

If I'd got this device predominantly for 4G...Id've returned it in day one...(IN Chicago also). In fact wouldn't have bought it going in knowing what I knew about the spottiness of tapping into 4G frequency wirelessly.

that makes absolutely no sense.
per your words, 4G has nothing to do with 3G as in Clearwire has nothing to do with Ericsson so what would it matter if Ericsson decided to step its game up if Clearwire is the 4G company?
4G is on a whole different frequency not to mention a whole different tower technology and tower location possibly so there's definetly a good chance that I can maintain a great 4G signal once it arrives in my area compared to the terrible 3G coverage I get.
well see what happens... my luck they will never put 4G by me lol.

4G in NJ

I'm in Totowa NJ for meetings today, and I'm picking up a decent 4G signal where last week there was none. It keeps connecting and disconnecting, but I managed to get a few speedtests in, and pulled 6748kbps down and 1038kbps up as the fastest, with averages about 5500-6500kbps down and 1000kbps up.
nice.

I'm in Bloomfield and I get 4g no problem at my house. About the same speeds you saw using the speedtest.net website (not the app) so it's flying. I take the train from NYC every day and I can generally pick it up while in Jersey but it disconnects alot (while on the train). Doesn't disconnect at my house although I got some of those Error 61 bad PCS username/password errors last night, but it didn't seem to affect anything.

Bayonne nj 4g dl speed 9320 ul 1983....wow.

I was driving down the NJ Turnpike today, and noticed that I was getting 4G service from about exit 5 down to exit 3, strongest around ex 4. Encouraging...from that, and the other posts in this thread, it's north and south of me. Hopefully it'll keep working its way closer...

let the fist-pumping begin

Ive been spending my Summer in NJ and NY. I was on the boarder line of Belleville and i also be in Bloomfield Nj and ive never got a 4G signal not even a little connect and disconnect

YoungAceAtlanta said:
Ive been spending my Summer in NJ and NY. I was on the boarder line of Belleville and i also be in Bloomfield Nj and ive never got a 4G signal not even a little connect and disconnect
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I don't think 4G goes as far as 3G signals......little reluctant to say where in Bloomfield I am, but suffice to say I definitely have been getting 4G service. It's only been for about the last 3-4 weeks or so. Maybe I'm just closer to the towers?

4G in Old Bridge! Sweet! It ends about 1/4 mile away from my house, but that's all I need! It's not super fast here, but still gets around 3Mbps.

There's also 4g in passaic, clifton, hackensack, and Elizabeth NJ. I haven't check any where else because I'm always drive and don't look at my phone.

Passaic 4g question.....
I've always kept the 4g radio off because I wasn't expecting the service to be available in Jersey but out of curiosity the other day I put her on and BEWM!
One question though, it connects to 4g for only about 10 secs and then disconnects. Is this the normal functionality of the 4g connection or does this only happen in test areas where 4g isn't official? I've read threads in the development section that go into changing the timeout of the reconnect and would have no problem doing so, just wondering if there's something wrong with my rooted phone or if this is normal.

I get 4g in Newark and around bloomfield, I don't get it in fairfield or rt 46

Elmwood Park is live.
Sent from the EVO via XDA App

Clifton
Nothing in Clifton

I think there is another thread about this.... but I get 4g in Newark, Elizabeth and some parts of union

lloyddefrance said:
Nothing in Clifton
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I get 4g in Clifton by the Clifton/Passaic border.....right by the supermarket and the strip club ;-)
my evo won't stay connected for more than 10 seconds if the phone is idle...
ie: the phone connects to 4g....I don't do anything.....it will automatically disconnect...and then reconnect automatically...then the whole process just keeps looping.
If I do "use" the internet connection while on the 4g network....it stays connected.
I posted a video on youtube of my download speeds with this connection....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26PlfJM70v8

anyone have problems with 4G in philly?

I have been unable to connect using 4G. 3G works very slowly. I can click the 4G widget to establish a connection, I get a 4G icon at the top with full signal bars. But unable to connect to any web sites or even the android market.

This seems to be happening in a lot of places. NYC is trash right now.

Mine has been quite goofy lately. It will connect with bars but like you said, then nothing will connect. I noticed it the last week trying to run a speed test to show a friend. It couldn't connect to a server, so that demo went REALLY well.
EDIT: Popped your Cherry

4g philly has been horrid all day until like 10pm...... try connecting to 3g by the art museum? impossible

YES in philly my 4g just dosnt work... Neither does my fiances on her evo... I got full bars but can't use it.... Glad I'm not the only one.. Means it'll be fixed soon
Edit: the independance day show was great
Sent from SynCity

I'm not in Philly but maybe 1hr northwest in Reading and that happened to me yesterday. 4G on and couldn't connect to the net or market and even tried a little speed test and nothing. I did noticed it back around 9 or 10 in the night, so maybe it will be a half a day for you guys.

I'm currently about 5min outside Philly but I hit a tower in the city for 4G. I'm able to access sites but randomly pages will fail but if I reload they will end up loading the second time. I've heard issues in other cities so maybe it's a Sprint problem.

Update for 4G
3996 kbps down
1369 kbps up
In north Philly today

Problems again... Anyone else?
Sent from SynCity

exek215 said:
Problems again... Anyone else?
Sent from SynCity
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Yep, they started all over. No connection to 4g

I had the same problem in Moorestown, NJ this afternoon. Near Philly. 3G and 4G both dropped out for a while. Better for the past 30 minutes or so...

danbriggs said:
I had the same problem in Moorestown, NJ this afternoon. Near Philly. 3G and 4G both dropped out for a while. Better for the past 30 minutes or so...
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yeah i was at the moorestown mall around 1 and connected with full bars but no go on the internet... went down to cherry hill mall and bam 10mb down, 1.8mb up... 3g has been better too, 1.3mb down and 700k up