Database Users

Slow 4G Speeds?

I live near San Jose and today I tested out the "trial" 4G network at the Cisco campus. I seemed to get a good signal but the results were disappointing - 1.5 Mbps downstream, 800 Kbps upstream.
Is anyone able to get better? Maybe the "trial" network at Cisco is just crappy??

Here in Atlanta I'm getting download speeds of about 3megs. I believe that they are capping the speeds. I have a 4g usb dongle and that is the same speed I get on it. Once upon a time I used to get anywhere from 6-11megs using the dongle and it now only gets 3megs (just like my phone). I know there is no signal strength issue because the tower is on the roof of the building and I get a very good signal.
Anyone else experiencing this?

I got 2.2mbps, but no 4g. I was thinking it was 4g, but I shut the 4g button down and it's never said 4g and I still get 2.2mbps down and .32mbps up. I'm in Pasadena. I'm not sure what to make of that.

I'm in a 4g coverage area and still cant get it to connect to 4g unless im at sprint or bestbuy... and even then 3g is still faster...

Nothing against anybody, but I would kill for 3G where I live, let alone crappy 4G.
Be thankful for what you have, no matter how much you may think it sucks.

In the roswell/alpharetta area and I am getting about 4.7mbs works pretty well. Sprint tv needs improvement though otherwise very happy with new phone. Seems snappier than incredible phone I have too.

I'm in Dallas and I"m loving my 4.5ish download and 1.3 upload, you heard right. 1.3 upload.

pretty bAd
I'm getting 1 bar or less of 4g service at my house.. I live in tacoma wa. The 4g coverage map shows that I should have about the best service speed.. I just have to stand outside and down the block to get it. so much for pitching Comcast.

Dallas, TX
I am currently north of Dallas and I get zero bars of 4G, though sometimes I see one bar light up. So far the most I have seen in a speed test is 1.6 mbps down and 223 kbps up.
I will test again when I am actually in the City of Dallas and see if it improves. Web is still quicker than any other phone I have owned.

in san antonio tx i get about 1.8 down and 1.5 up lol.... and before the launch a friend used to get from 10-11 megs on his wireless card... i think since the phone is new the network is congested with ppl doing speed tests and downloading apps

mrmomoman said:
In the roswell/alpharetta area and I am getting about 4.7mbs works pretty well. Sprint tv needs improvement though otherwise very happy with new phone. Seems snappier than incredible phone I have too.
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I'm also in roswell, however i'm not seeing speeds above 3mb

Are you getting close to the speeds of 3?

splicitysplat said:
I'm also in roswell, however i'm not seeing speeds above 3mb
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I've tried running the speed test in the Roswell, Sandy Springs, Smyrna, Airport area, and McDonough and I still keep getting the same speeds nothing higher than 3.3 down. I consistently seem to get anywhere from 2.7-3.0

ShawnN said:
I live near San Jose and today I tested out the "trial" 4G network at the Cisco campus. I seemed to get a good signal but the results were disappointing - 1.5 Mbps downstream, 800 Kbps upstream.
Is anyone able to get better? Maybe the "trial" network at Cisco is just crappy??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OP, I did a whole write up on the Bay Area 4G network - which in case you haven't noticed, is just for developer testing, NOT meant for EVO devices - over on my blog. Please read.
http://dylandersen.me/post/633300884/4g-in-the-bay-area-how-fast-is-it-really

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 yesterday, 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.

I dont think clear caps their 4G at all. See if you can connect to clear's 4G from your phone.

I get 2.5-3.5mb down and 800-1.3mb up. Still better than my dsl.

1.33 mpbs is the most I've gotten with 4G enabled. I am going to try again when I get home and see if the speed improves.

Anyone out there in the LA area getting 4g? I don't get 4g at all. My 3g is really fast, but no 4g shows. It just shows "scanning" in the settings.
Ok nevermind: LA still shows as coming soon on the sprint site.

****, I'm in Portland, one of the first WiMax areas, and I'm only getting 300/k down and 800/k up as I speedtest it now.
No big to me. I have wifi at home that pegs 5/5ish and at work about the same. I usually keep the 3g/4g off unless I am out and need it. Battery suckin' pig that stuff.

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.

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.
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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!!!.
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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.

WiMax Upload Cap Raised?

Has anyone verified this yet? I saw that it was supposed to be raised to 1.5Mbps today, and having been in an office building all day, I can't check it!

Based on a few speedtests I just ran... I'd say no (Sorry the color is a little off for some reason).

Not yet. Woot another 50kb lol
sent from the ePc4gee

Not that I expect any monumental performance changes, but I REALLY want to see an upload speed on my speedtest over 1Mbps.
ps - What ROM do you use ph?

sent from the ePc4gee

Im still getting around a meg
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

Not here yet. There have been intermittent 4G outages here recently and I wondered if this change had something to do with it.

Not yet here either. I just tested to find out. 7.5Mbps down and it was at 1.2Mbps up for a few seconds, so I got excited, then leveled off around 0.98Mbps after that and finished reporting 1.0 on the head.

Just went to lunch and ran three tests around the Downtown Denver area.
Speeds spiked to a futuristic 1.02 but averaged no better than .97

Xiutehcuhtli said:
Not that I expect any monumental performance changes, but I REALLY want to see an upload speed on my speedtest over 1Mbps.
ps - What ROM do you use ph?
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Currently on Midnight 5.2 w/ Honeycomb Fusion theme. Didn't want to flash again until official GB drops...

That's still slow by comparison to other carriers...COME ON SPRINT!!! =/

I've barely got 3G right now and the signal has dropped way down. Either the tower here has chronic issues or they're up to something...I hope.

It's quite depressing. I have a friend with the Thunderbolt and my DL speeds regularly best his in areas with a strong signal here in Denver (of course he gets much better coverage) but his upload speeds average a minimum 3x faster. He went with me at lunch and where I was DLing at 6.5-7 he was getting 3-3.5, but upstream he gets the same speeds as downstream!

Sprint's going to eventually start losing customers if they don't do something about this poor data performance. Oh, how the mighty have fallen =/ Formerly the fastest network.

Hey DroidApprentice, I think you are on to something here. My upload speeds never topped 1000 before. Thanks for the screenshot. It inspired me to do some testing this morning and something definately changed...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

I sit under a WiMax tower.

I just got 1.49 and our tower is 2 streets over. 7 mbs dl on that same test.

So, it happened a week later than it was supposed to. I only hope it spells the end of the flaky behavior that almost made me believe I was having software or hardware issues on my phone.
And unfortunately, no improvement to ping, although I didn't expect any...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1345636745.png This is My Home internet, 2nd test on home internet right after the 1st one MAJOR DIFFERENCEhttp://www.speedtest.net/result/1345660172.png
1st attachment my phone using WiFi
2nd Attachment 4G
3rd Attachment 3G
Now mind you guys my home internet is Clear Wireless, which sprint pays clear to use their 4G. Sprints 4G is Clear's 4G basically.
My 4G gets better speeds then WiFi lol should be other way around and i only had 1 bar of 4G during that test. And my 3G and 4G were in the same spot. 3G should have more bars i only had 1 bar for 3G. because 3G came out first it should cover most where 4G doesn't.
So can someone explain to me how on same internet 4G and Home 4G, i get almost 8Mbs @ Home but in same spot my phone gets half pretty much, but my upload is more on my phone than it is on my Home internet when its all the same lol
Notice how crappy my 3G is as well in that exact same spot the bars differ each day from 1 to 6 and its never consistent its all over the place

Very slow Verizon 4G speeds

I live in Virginia Beach, near Norfolk Airport, and at my house, 4G speeds are god-awful slow.
I did some exploring, and eventually got a -64dBm signal..
The speedtest results were absolutely pitiful. Less than 3mbps down, and for some reason, 4mbps up. Should I call Verizon Wireless about this, cause from the looks of it... seems like the 4G tower I'm connected to has very poor backhaul..

Maybe that tower is overloaded?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

Psh, if youre upset with that, look at me on simple mobile, the MOST i get on their 3G is about 300kb dl / 100kb ul per second.
Its horrible ..... but hey, you get what you pay for ($40 a month...)

donsh00tmesanta said:
Maybe that tower is overloaded?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
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I've considered that, but LTE is still newish. Of all places, Virginia Beach, I just have a hard time believing that the speeds here are lower than in NYC because of overloading, cause here, I just doubt that there's THAT MANY people on 4G. And my pings are always less than 100ms whoch further hints the load isn't too high. On top of it all, uploads are 4-6mbps while downloads are now under 2mbps. I'm considering calling Verizon Wireless, but doubt they'd do anything :/

did you check the coverage maps?

Evet cok yavas.
Very slow

xtrem88 said:
did you check the coverage maps?
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I did, indeed the day it was "officially" turned on (It had been on for weeks before October 20th)
And was pleased to see that my address was in the dark red, not extended lte coverage. Then I got home and made a yukky face at my phone when I saw how slow it was at home and thought "This can't be right..."
Today, I'm noticing much better speeds, I'm guessing they added another T2 line to it, as its still to slow to be a T3 line (I got as fast as 8mbps down, and 4 up, but that was at 4AM LOLOLOL