Database Users

T Mobile 4g rolling out?

456: Free T-Mobile msg: T-Mobile's new network, available in limited areas, has made your phone even faster! Visit http://www.t-mobile.com/hspa for info
Anyone else get this text message and are now getting 4g?
I am in Hampton Roads Virginia and I am not getting4g yet. Well, I don't think so. Is there settings that I have to change?
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

This has been happening for months. And no, there is no setting you need to change in order to recieve 4G data speeds.

Just to let you know, it's not actual 4G either. Tmobile just markets it at 4G speeds because their HSPA+ is currently as fast/faster than Sprints wimax service. When Tmobile goes to LTE, then it will really be 4G

4G... not really 4G

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/111455/4g-is-a-myth-and-confusing
Plus the fact it's not even close to my area of living

yeah cell providers called it that cause it sounded good, and for them was technincally the 4th generation of mobile internet - but it is not what 4G officially stands for.... there IS NO real 4g networks anywhere, as the standards are in their infancy.

Old news. ITU said this a while back. It's funny, I talked to Verizon at their Chicago LTE launch event and they laughed and said, it's all marketing anyway, so who cares.
ITU has no teeth, so no one really cares.

WiMax and LTE are 4G networks that aren't being used as that yet. All that's needed is a firmware upgrade to make it true 4G.
Tmobile on the other hand will never have 4G with their current network.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

xHausx said:
WiMax and LTE are 4G networks that aren't being used as that yet. All that's needed is a firmware upgrade to make it true 4G.
Tmobile on the other hand will never have 4G with their current network.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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Mmm... No. If you want to equate it to something, LTE and 802.16e WiMax that Sprint and Verizon are pushing out is like 802.11b Wi-Fi. Real 4G (LTE-Advanced and 802.16m WiMax) would be more like 802.11n.
Basically, just ask yourself these questions to tell if it's 4G:
1) Do I see speeds of around 100mbps average?
2) Is all traffic being done via IPv6?
3) Are calls being made as VoIP?

Pretty sure that article is way off. I agree that it's not true 4g, but tmobile's hspa+ doesn't even get close to 12mb. Most of the time it barely reaches 4-5mbs.

yeah verizon and sprints networks are more like 3.5 g or 3.25 g. t mobiles is still 3g but since everyone else is slapping 4g stickers on their network they thought they would too, especially since the average consumer doesnt know what the f 4g is anyway. and meanwhile at&t is still trying to get 3g working lol.

Cal3b said:
yeah verizon and sprints networks are more like 3.5 g or 3.25 g. t mobiles is still 3g but since everyone else is slapping 4g stickers on their network they thought they would too, especially since the average consumer doesnt know what the f 4g is anyway. and meanwhile at&t is still trying to get 3g working lol.
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You got me laughing with the AT&T still getting 3g to work well lol and there drop calls lol.

I don't know about the rest of you all, but I live in the central valley, CA and 4G is widely available throughout the region. I average from 6-10mbs down when I do a speedtest. But I only enable 4G when I really need it, otherwise my battery dies rather quickly.

drmacinyasha said:
Mmm... No. If you want to equate it to something, LTE and 802.16e WiMax that Sprint and Verizon are pushing out is like 802.11b Wi-Fi. Real 4G (LTE-Advanced and 802.16m WiMax) would be more like 802.11n.
Basically, just ask yourself these questions to tell if it's 4G:
1) Do I see speeds of around 100mbps average?
2) Is all traffic being done via IPv6?
3) Are calls being made as VoIP?
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Technically LTE and 801.16 in their current implications are called Pre-4G, however, the networks are being built as 4G networks. They are just not being utilized as such and the standards for both types of 4G aren't even finalized yet. They are fully packet switched networks with support for IPv6. The only place where the networks fall short is bandwidth, true 4G requires 100MB nominal speeds with at least 1GB peak. That can't happen until the standards are finalized.
T-Mo's HSPA+ is 3.5G and will never be 4G. There was a wired (I think) article just today saying they were thinking about chipping in on WiMAXs spectrum for their next generation network, aka 4G.
Edit: From the article:
One network representative, who asked not to be identified, claimed that ITU's 4G line-in-the-sand is being misconstrued. The organization previously approved the use of the term "4G" for Sprint's WiMAX and Verizon's LTE networks, he said -- though not for T-Mobile's HSPA+ network.
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[Q] 4G symbol instead of H for HSPA+ ?

Ok. I've pulled the images from the EVO dump of the 4G connection notification symbol...but how would I link them in a custom framework-res.apk to appear whenever I am connected to HSPA+? I would like to know when I have "4g Speeds" without going to About Phone, then Network.

This would be nice!
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

agreed ...

Has there been any developements on this subject. Would be really nice to know when I am in 3G or a 4G area. It really should have came that way new

I would also love to see this in somebodys rom!

They could replace the 3G with a 4G, but not both because t-mobiles network is the same tech, just upgraded.
There is no way for your phone to distinguish this in the actual rom. Sorry if this dashes hopes.

T-Fanatic said:
They could replace the 3G with a 4G, but not both because t-mobiles network is the same tech, just upgraded.
There is no way for your phone to distinguish this in the actual rom. Sorry if this dashes hopes.
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The phone's "about phone" section under settings can detect the difference between 3G (UMTS-HSPDA) and 4G (HSPA+), so why couldn't the same info be passed on to the ROM's data indicator?

Why would you want "4G" when the phone is not "4G"....
"H" is good enough for me. it is HSPA+

Why would you want "4G" when the phone is not "4G"....
"H" is good enough for me. it is HSPA+
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HSPA+ is 4G now according to the International Telecommunications Union, so it is a 4g phone and capable of 4g speeds

kakabozo said:
HSPA+ is 4G now according to the International Telecommunications Union, so it is a 4g phone and capable of 4g speeds
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If you want to be "honest about it" Speed requirements for 4G are the peak download speeds are 100Mbits/S for mobile means of communications. HSPA+ is only capable of speeds around 56Mbits/S download.
Technically they (the ITU) have stated our current technology is "4G". but it all honesty, it's only like 3.8G.

Normally that would be true but now legally due to the recent FFC ruling HSPA+ is considered 4G as part of another marketing gimmick by wireless provider. As they all wanted to push for it so now HSPA+ 21 now divide that by half is actually capped on the phone now divide that by half again and thats your actual speed lol. This is why TMo got away with claiming to be the largest 4G network in USA lol hence no one revolted not Sprint or Verizon as TMo beat them at their own game. As delivering 4G in 2010 is just another inside joke you won't believe how many morons would pay or upgrade their dataplan thinking 4G is better without actually getting anything IRL. I had an idiot who argue with me he was getting 4G service on a device that was not even 4G capable. I had to explain to him he is benefiting from the network upgrade but its still HSPA.

If you want to be "honest about it" Speed requirements for 4G are the peak download speeds are 100Mbits/S for mobile means of communications. HSPA+ is only capable of speeds around 56Mbits/S download.
Technically they (the ITU) have stated our current technology is "4G". but it all honesty, it's only like 3.8G.
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I agree with you on the fact that HSPA+ isn't true "4g", i just wanted to point out that people calling it 4g are in the clear....technically lol

kakabozo said:
I agree with you on the fact that HSPA+ isn't true "4g", i just wanted to point out that people calling it 4g are in the clear....technically lol
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Yea i agree. I just cannot wait to see what is going to happen with true "4g" starts to roll out.
"Here at ____ have the first 4G system"
"wait i thought you said had 4G back in 2011"
"we did but that wasn't 4G, this IS 4G"

if we cant get the 4g to appear up at the top notification bar why cant we just create an application that polls the about phone for the HSPA+ or UMTS-HSPA and display an icon on the desktop that tells us which one it is? its not the best solution but at least when i'm on the home screen i can tell if i'm on 3G or 4G

THAT would be sooo cook. I hope someone figures out how to do it.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Cool I meant. Lol.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

On CM7 it reads either 3g or H so you do know, but not on stock.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Like this

Okay but "H" isn't what T-Mobile calls 4G. "H" just means HSPA, not HSPA+. The Mytouch 3G was capable of "H" speeds.
I have seen screenshots from Inspire 4G where you get an "H+" icon in HSPA+ to differentiate it from just plain HSPA. Maybe someone can figure out how to port that distinction over to your phone?

cmstlist said:
Okay but "H" isn't what T-Mobile calls 4G. "H" just means HSPA, not HSPA+. The Mytouch 3G was capable of "H" speeds.
I have seen screenshots from Inspire 4G where you get an "H+" icon in HSPA+ to differentiate it from just plain HSPA. Maybe someone can figure out how to port that distinction over to your phone?
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H is hspa for tmobile there is no difference between hdsa and hspa for the notification bar the only way to tell is to run speedtest
Sent from a guy living in a van down by the river

So ??? is Tmobiles Hspa Network better than Sprints 4G Wimax ?

anyone know if tmobiles hspa is better than sprints wimax

By actual performance yes, but by technicality and service, that's not necessarily true.
What was nice about t-mobile hspa+ upgrade was they even sped up 3g service for regular 3g users. But their network is spotty unless you're in texas pretty much.

My friend with a t-mo TP2 never gets reliable speeds. Its always fluctuating. Idk about the G2 though with its hspa+
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I was under the impression that hspa+ requires certain hardware like wimax so the only phones that actually utalize the service are the g2 and mytouch 4g. Technically neither wimax nor hspa+ is really "4g" by the official definition, however, from what I've read, wimax is probably the closest we have right now. Hspa+ is an upgraded 3g network, like 3.5g. Both will run faster than 3g though so its more about what area you live in and the kind of coverage you get than which is faster. I know sprint doesn't have coverage in a lot of areas, but I'm not sure about tmobiles network.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Yes and no..the reason why wimax right now is that speed is because sprint is only running it in 10mhz of spectrum..if they run it in larger mhz it will be faster...
overall though while HSPA+ on t-mobile you might get faster speeds it will diminish greatly..HSPA+ is not as efficient as wimax, thus cannot support as many simultaneous users as wimax can.
And yes HSPA+ upgrade should offer some benefit to HSPDA devices as well even if they cannot utilize the HSPA+ speeds..
Wimax is also suppose to offer lower latencies...but I don't know if that can be seen or not..I do get around 100ms when I test which isn't too bad...but some got a lot higher...

The great thing about hspa+ and hsdpa is that the switch is made without affecting the user. There's no need to turn anything on or off and there's no message popping up in your taskbar. You can go from GPRS to EDGE to UMTS to HSDPA to HSPA+ or any combination of the 5 without doing anything. Your internet just gets faster or slower depending on where you are. Tmo has good building penetration and MUCH faster speeds than any other network today.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Herd sprint is leasing the 4g curently for verizon and tmoible(gsm cdma) I don't care its what I was told. As far as speed? Id like to see 4g at all.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

i have the g2, on my epic in my area i would get 2.2-2.4 Mbps on tmo in same area i get a much larger coverage of the hsdpa speeds and i get about 3.5-5.0Mbps down. i have yet to see hspa+ in my about phone but i do get faster speeds with tmo.
the thing i like is its using the same radio so i get the increased speeds without loss of battery unlike wimax

Shadomastr said:
I was under the impression that hspa+ requires certain hardware like wimax so the only phones that actually utalize the service are the g2 and mytouch 4g. Technically neither wimax nor hspa+ is really "4g" by the official definition, however, from what I've read, wimax is probably the closest we have right now. Hspa+ is an upgraded 3g network, like 3.5g. Both will run faster than 3g though so its more about what area you live in and the kind of coverage you get than which is faster. I know sprint doesn't have coverage in a lot of areas, but I'm not sure about tmobiles network.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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+1 for mentioning the truth of 4g!

I loved my G1 with its internet speeds and voice reception when I lived in New England and its speed kicked the **** out of Spring 4g service but when I moved out to the midwest I couldn't get 3g barely anywhere yet alone HSPA+ and Sprint is much better overall out here. So pretty much its better as long as you live in a highly populated area that they deem is worthy for their service.

I had the G2 but due to my house being in a t-mobile black hole I decided to switch to sprint.
I live/work in an area that has both HSPA+ and Wimax and in the areas that I had a strong signal, HSPA+ would d/l at 2-6Mbps and with Wimax I average 4-5Mbps.
For me, T-mobiles coverage was spotty. Sprints has been much better.
As for the ease of switching between networks, I had a really hard time with t-mobile staying on HSPA+ even when there was a decent signal. It was much more prone to staying on the slower 3G network unless I manually forced it to stay on HSPA+
IMO, Long term, since Wimax and LTE will be the prevailing technologies, T-mobile will most likely be changing their network over at some point. HSPA+ is just helping them to buy some time so they don't fall to far behind in the carrier data race.

It all depends on what market you are in. I live in the midwest and TMobile coverage sucks all around. ATT isn't much better. ATT still doesn't even have 3G in the city I live in, which is only 10 miles north of the biggest metro area in the state. (I laugh at my one buddy who has an iPhone) It's basically Sprint, Verizon or US Cellular if you want quality coverage here.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

shabbypenguin said:
i have the g2, on my epic in my area i would get 2.2-2.4 Mbps on tmo in same area i get a much larger coverage of the hsdpa speeds and i get about 3.5-5.0Mbps down. i have yet to see hspa+ in my about phone but i do get faster speeds with tmo.
the thing i like is its using the same radio so i get the increased speeds without loss of battery unlike wimax
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I'm not sure what your 4g signal is where you live, but even in Denver, where 4g isn't official yet, i get anywhere from 4-9 Mbps. Then again, it isn't Live yet, so it could go down as more people start using the 4g service.

bighuta said:
I'm not sure what your 4g signal is where you live, but even in Denver, where 4g isn't official yet, i get anywhere from 4-9 Mbps. Then again, it isn't Live yet, so it could go down as more people start using the 4g service.
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Thats about what I get here in Baltimore and we had WiMax first. I average about 6-7 Mbps inside my house

Funny, I live in philadephia, pa area. I have epic, 2 of my friends have tmobile {hd2 and tmobile gs phone}.
I get 2-4 mbps, they get 3-4, shockingly their upload is better as well. Seems their faster coverage is better on the outer areas of my 4g coverage and get it where I can not sometimes[suburbs and south nj]
Sent from my Epic 4g powered by EE Froyo, Emotionless Beast themed!

Sprint wimax seems pretty useless here in san francisco. It gets pretty good data rates when it works but you pretty much have to be outdoors in the open. The main problem though is that it's very spotty and every time it falls back to 3g or switches back up to 4g there's no connectivity AT ALL for at least 30 seconds or so, which makes it more or less unusable. I just leave it turned off. Also the battery doesn't even last half a day with it enabled.

One problem I've noticed w/Sprint 4G in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale -- your connection drops & IP address changes whenever you 1)get ip lease from a tower, then 2)move somewhere more than 1 tower-hop away into a new tower's area with 3 bars of signal strength.
The moment you hit 3 bars, the connection drops to release your ip address back to the first tower... but the phone will have no connectivity at all for a few seconds, and won't try to reconnect to 4g for a few minutes unless you manually toggle 4g off & on to force an immediate reconnect.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

[Q]Noob question about 3G taksbar icon

I'm new to the Android thing so please don't kill me for the stupid question...
While I ran WinMO, I always had the 3G icon....Now on droid (coredroid latest version) The icon will switch between "E", "H", and "3G". Whats the difference between them and what do they mean?
My carrier is T-Mobile US. I was told by T-Mobile that they now longer have a 3G network, even though my HD2 is a 3G phone, it will get 4G speeds....

broknindarkagain said:
I'm new to the Android thing so please don't kill me for the stupid question...
While I ran WinMO, I always had the 3G icon....Now on droid (coredroid latest version) The icon will switch between "E", "H", and "3G". Whats the difference between them and what do they mean?
My carrier is T-Mobile US. I was told by T-Mobile that they now longer have a 3G network, even though my HD2 is a 3G phone, it will get 4G speeds....
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Since the HD2 isn't a 4G phone, "H" is the almost equivalent; I think it's 3.75 or something like that. So, when you see the H, highest "letter", you are getting faster than 3G speed.

T-MO doesn't even have a 4G network, strictly speaking. But even if it had, your HD2 wouldn't be able to support it.
The max you can get is indeed 3.75G or HSPA, with up to 14/6 mbps down/upload speeds respectively. This is shown by the 'H' icon.
The 3G icon should refer to a UMTS connection, which is considerably slower than H. Some builds however also use the 3G icon when actually you're on a HSPA connection. This is just the icon, the connection is always as fast as possible.
E stands for Edge, an elder (and less battery consuming) protocol with much slower transfer speeds.

StephanV said:
T-MO doesn't even have a 4G network, strictly speaking. But even if it had, your HD2 wouldn't be able to support it.
The max you can get is indeed 3.75G or HSPA, with up to 14/6 mbps down/upload speeds respectively. This is shown by the 'H' icon.
The 3G icon should refer to a UMTS connection, which is considerably slower than H. Some builds however also use the 3G icon when actually you're on a HSPA connection. This is just the icon, the connection is always as fast as possible.
E stands for Edge, an elder (and less battery consuming) protocol with much slower transfer speeds.
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If T-Mobile doesn't have 4G, then why do they sell two 4G phones and advertise 4G? Does Sprint not have 4G,either? They do have 4G, it's just that some areas are not utilizing it yet.

No, they don't have 4G. They claim they have, and the speeds are faster than a typical HSPA network, but it's not 4G.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...doesnt_have_4g_and_theres_no_santa_claus.html
I'm not sure on Sprint, but at first they sure falsely advertised their network as 4G. They may have upgraded it to true 4G by now, again, I'm not sure.
Edit: nope, all carriers are still lying about their 4G network.

If its not 4G, they why are they all calling it 4g?
And if 4G is non existent since no carriers have it, then wouldn't HSPA really be 4G?

I don't get this. So Evo users don't get 4G?

Okay third time, no it's not 4g it's an upgraded kind of 3G. I have even included a link about it, click it and read some.