Develop Bugs

How to improve 3G?

Hey guys I have had my Evo for awhile now and Sprints network has great coverage BUT the 3g seems abysmally slow. For instance, I can rarely stream videos without it buffering - youtube videos on regular quality mind you. If I stand still in a place with good signal I will be fine but if I'm moving etc it is slow. I get around 100KB/s during daytime where I live and 130KB/s night time which is great but luckily I also get full signal where I am. On the go, it sucks.
Are there any ways to increase 3g speeds or is it purely network related?

Welcome to sprints idea of 3g
God's honst truth man... if thats all you get... thats all you are going to get because sprints 3g network is the worst i have ever seen. Bar none. Even little us cellular has better coverage and twice the data speeds as sprint does here in iowa.
There is no possible way for the phine or any hack to it to speed up sprints crap network.
My advise to you is to cqll sprint and plead your case, that you paid for 3g and are getting 1x rtt speeds 24/7 and politely demand a credit to your account like i do every month.
And then call back about 5 minutes later and ask to speak to the retention center because you want to cancel your service because you arpe not getting service you are paying for.
Then tell the retention persion you were thinking of getting the Airave but cant afford it and see if they will give it to you free on the basis of poor service and they typically will.
I did, and got one for when i am at work and the boss wont let me use it because it uses works internet for voice and data.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Figures... Should have went with ATT or Verizon.

I know in the old days of 3g internet hacks Sanyo phones had a data cap screen that was accessible via ##040793##. From there you could change the data rate, 144K/230K. Not sure if we have the same here but phone codes may be a place to start.

Mmmmhmmm. Just be glad you don't have the epic and are capped at 150kbps up.
I think sprint has finally gotten 2 good phones and 4g, so now they think they're the top dog and can do whatever they damn well please...it's like a cycle with them. Bad service>>>loose all of their customers>>>cheap, semi-good service>>>get customers back>>>become assholes again>>>loose their customers...

werxen said:
Figures... Should have went with ATT or Verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, good luck getting a decent phone on att or verizon. Let alone coverage. Oh and dont forget about the data caps on the phones, 100mb right? or was it 200mb?

Last-Chance said:
lol, good luck getting a decent phone on att or verizon. Let alone coverage. Oh and dont forget about the data caps on the phones, 100mb right? or was it 200mb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well Verizon has amazing android phones for one. There is a data cap for ATT which is true but no cap for Verizon. You know now that I think about it I might do the force roam hack on my Evo and see if if I get better 3g speeds.

I have no idea what any if you are talking about, I get better 3g speeds on Sprint then I ever did with any other carrier I've had.
Sent from my HTC Evo 4g

am I doing something wrong?
on 3g I pull down at least 512 up
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

werxen said:
Hey guys I have had my Evo for awhile now and Sprints network has great coverage BUT the 3g seems abysmally slow. For instance, I can rarely stream videos without it buffering - youtube videos on regular quality mind you. If I stand still in a place with good signal I will be fine but if I'm moving etc it is slow. I get around 100KB/s during daytime where I live and 130KB/s night time which is great but luckily I also get full signal where I am. On the go, it sucks.
Are there any ways to increase 3g speeds or is it purely network related?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish I could get speeds that fast consistently. Actually what you are getting is right about on par for 3g. That's prob the avg speed one would expect to get. There are higher areas and lower areas depending on a lot of things. A 100KB connection is nothing to complain about. I've personally never had a connection over 150 KB.
Sent from your mom's phone.

Not sure if its sprint or my phone but I can't break 40kbs down on anything and 3g cuts out all the time. Crappy....

The first thing I would do to verify your 3g speeds is to unroot your phone, and make sure you are running the latest .93 hboot release and sprint ota release. If your phone is already in this state (un rooted and latest hboot) then ignore me.
You should also look into unrevoked forever if you haven't already...it runs off the current hboot, and I've noticed that something about that hboot does help 3g speeds on some rooted phones if you go that route.
I've done a ton of research and practical testing on this subject and I can say without a doubt that the evo's current rooting methods DO have a negative impact on some 3g phones in some areas. And I'm not talking about 100 or 200 kbps here or there. In the same house, same phone, 1 rooted and 1 not. That was the ONLY difference. The rooted phone got 7 kbps. The stock got 1800kbps. I swapped phone setups so that the rooted one was now unrooted and vice versa. That time the rooted one got 47kbps and unrooted was 1681 kbps...in other words the problem followed the rooting process, and not the phone. I've done dozens of tests like this and others in various areas within the surrounding wilmington delaware area.
I have access to 3 rooted evos, 1 evo that is always stock, as well as a samsung moment. The 4 evos are all rev 3 nova. I also did similar tests on the hero with the same sorts of results. Feel free to pm me or post here with any questions.
EDIT: the kbps numbers I listed were for download speeds. Upload speeds on both rooted and unrooted, regardless of build or boot version, were consistent at around 600 -700 kbps during almost all of my testing.
EDIT2: I forgot to say - this problem also happened to me when I changed recoveries from clockwork to AmonRA. So it's not JUST the rooting process that can cause this, but several low-level engineering commands, such as flashing a kernel, upgrading a ROM, etc.
Tiepoz baught two yoo bi swype"3

That's pretty crappy, I get full 3g pretty much everywhere around St. Louis until I get out to the country. And pretty good 4g around town. My 3g is about 1.5mb down. 4g is 5 to 7mb down.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Flash the PRL to connect to Verizon's towers. I get 1.2 mb/s even see 2mb/s occasionally. Of course ping times are raised.

It's pretty hit or miss here, one day I will get 50-150k down and the next it will be +1meg. Next time it get drops below 500 you can bet I will be talking to somebody about it though, their advertised 3G speed is 600kb - 1.5mb.
100kb is ridiculous

I get anywhere between 500-1mb down 100-200kb up. My 4G easily does between 2-6mb down and 1mb up. People just love to complain. You didn't realize this within your 30 day trial? If so, why didn't you switch carriers?

What should the prl be right now ? And how are you guys testing the speeds? Nvr done it
Sent from my netarchy_toast, froyo beast of a machine evo!

You live in an area with poor coverage or your phone has a faulty radio.
I get good signal and up/Downs on 3g. If I nandriod away from cm6, I can get 6-7mb down and 1mb up with 4g in San leandro CA.

evohack99 said:
What should the prl be right now ? And how are you guys testing the speeds? Nvr done it
Sent from my netarchy_toast, froyo beast of a machine evo!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speedtest... its in the market.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I think it is my radio. I was getting fine speeds up until 3 days ago when I noticed severe loading lag in my tethered apps. I get decent pings ~ 200-300ms which is not too out of the ordinary. I did a speed test other day and it was 50KB/s down and 70KB/s up. I figured it was just a faulty day but it has gone on far too long now. This is with 5/5 bars too... Just gotta wait for my new Evo to come in. Seems like every hardware ****up is happening at once.

[Q] Really slow data speed

I have been dealing with Sprint this past week about very slow data speed. I have been getting around 50-100 kbps down and 300 kbps up. When I went to a nearby town I was getting 800- 1300 kbps down and 400-500 kbps up. All of these are on 3G. Today when Sprint called me I was asked if " EV " was displayed instead of 3G. I was told there are 3 levels to 3G. I vaguely remember EV before I rooted and ROMed but I have not seen it since. Is indication of " EV " typically removed from a custom ROM? I have used Frozen 1.2 and am now using RandomRom 2.3.4. I tried all of the available modems with Frozen with no change before I installed EG22 and Flashed RandomRom. I have a few friends that also are complaining about slow data speeds in our area so I don't think its my phone anymore. Any thoughts or advice on the subject?? Thanks!

I think you mean EV
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

viper786 said:
I think you mean EV
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your right! Fixed!

Fryedchicken said:
Your right! Fixed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you mean "you're"
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Sprint has horrible 3G speeds which is also why Im going to drop them soon.

After Sprint did not renew its tower leasing agreements and lost its Alltel tower network, its % nationwide coverage area dropped precipitously. Even with SERO, I am now questioning whether it's worth staying with Sprint given the decline in service over the past few years.

bnguyen1983 said:
Sprint has horrible 3G speeds which is also why Im going to drop them soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have fun when you reach your 2g of 5gig cap. which is really easy to do.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

You're most likely on 1x. The Epic doesn't have 1x or EV signal icons by default. Try this app and it will tell you everything about your connection.

before the evo came out, sprint was worty of its name.
it had the fastest 3g in the country. 3-5mbps on my hero in nyc
then evo came out and who needs 4g when your 3g is more than enough?

Everyone saying they dropping sprint soon. Sprint will phase in their new type of signal next year, they will discuss it on the 7th of next month. I think they may have started on some towers. My 3G has greatly dropped but my 4G is almost as fast (if not as fast) as my DSL internet. I am happy with it and being with Sprint 6 years and compared to what others complain about from their service I'll stick with sprint for 6 more. Unless they raise prices.
Sent from my non-rooted Epic 4G using the free XDA App

R3537L1F3 said:
Everyone saying they dropping sprint soon. Sprint will phase in their new type of signal next year, they will discuss it on the 7th of next month.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, hopefully it changes things for the better, but I still don't see how it makes up for the lack of towers. And what's good is 4g if I can't get it in 50% of locations? Giving it until the end of the year.

I guess im lucky. I get ok 3g (0.9mbs) and great 4g ( 5-7 mbs). But driving around my city, it cones and goes once I hit a few city hills.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Me and my g/f both have Epics. Mine is rooted and running a custom rom and hers is stock. Both of us were experiencing crappy data speeds until i updated both phones modems to EH17.
Speeds are much better in some places where we have good signal, from 300k to 1.5 - 2.2mbps. So it may have something to do with the modem you currently have as well.
Although i did talk to a sprint employee at the nearby store and I was told they were going through some tower upgrades in the DFW area. Tearing down old towers and putting up new. He suggested that it would be around 6 to 8 months time before things are completed.

I also have been in contact with sprint over the last 6 weeks or so about crap 3g. At times I see 12KB downloads with 6 out of 6 to 6 bars.
Sent from the Drivers Seat of my Suby txting and Driving doing 100MPH+ in a school zone! Ha.

I ran that clear nvram thing from the other thread. I suggest you try this. It fixed my GPS perfectly and my 3g speeds have increased dramatically. I ran a speedtest earlier and got 300-350kb/s. Before I did it my 3g was atrocious at less than 50kb/s.
sent from the Galaxy S Pro

Problem with all this is that CDMA "4G" eats a ton of battery compared to just as fast (or in Sprint's case, 20x faster) HSPA+ network. This is just my very personal observation between Epic and LG G2X. My super personal opinion is that CDMA should just burn in hell and die. Voice quality is better...
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk

herzzreh said:
Problem with all this is that CDMA "4G" eats a ton of battery compared to just as fast (or in Sprint's case, 20x faster) HSPA+ network. This is just my very personal observation between Epic and LG G2X. My super personal opinion is that CDMA should just burn in hell and die. Voice quality is better...
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Anyone ever run their phone in airplane mode from a full charge to 0%? The battery lasts AGES. I had to run benchmarks repeatedly on performance mode for hours to kill it purposely. The ****ed up part is that I ALWAYS have NY 3g off and 4g on. The radio in this device is horrid for battery life.
sent from the Galaxy S Pro

I've also called sprint this week to ask/complain about data speeds. The best I've ever had is around 1100 kbps down, but lateley it's only been 100 to 300. So a couple of days ago I went to a verizon store and asked the girl to compare speeds with me. She was getting 1900kdps down and my epic NEVER even found the nearest server. I was blown away and very red faced when I left. I could get better data speeds with two soup cans and some string.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

M1Quinn said:
I've also called sprint this week to ask/complain about data speeds. The best I've ever had is around 1100 kbps down, but lateley it's only been 100 to 300. So a couple of days ago I went to a verizon store and asked the girl to compare speeds with me. She was getting 1900kdps down and my epic NEVER even found the nearest server. I was blown away and very red faced when I left. I could get better data speeds with two soup cans and some string.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know who else has 2 soup cans and a string? Mah maaammm!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I gotta say the slow data speeds were killing me but now things have changed for the good. I hit my 4g icon by accident and now my data speeds fly! 5700kbps down and almost 1700kbps up....truely awesome!!!! Thanks Sprint!!!!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

[Q] Poor Sprint Wireless Connection

I have been having very poor service in and around my area, Adrian and Ann Arbor Michigan. I also was recently in Anaheim, CA for Blizzcon, but I assume I had issues there because of all the extra people on their towers. When I do connect to 3G it seems to work fine, but is only one or two bars. I am often bumped down to 1x and still only at one or two bars. I have been told its Sprint's problem as they say they are trying to upgrade the towers here for 4G. However, this is going on about 5 or 6 weeks of issues. I would like to believe that Sprint would not allow tower issues to go on for that long. I wanted to see if I should check and/or update anything before I complain at Sprint.
ROM - Evo Deck 1.3
Radio - 2.15.00.0808
PLR - 60681
Kernel - Tiamat 2.6.38.8
Thanks.

I have the same issues. It gets really hard to stream music while I'm working sometimes because it drops down to 1X a lot. This has been happening since the summer but seems to have gotten worse. When I do have 3G its very sporadic. Sometimes I'll get as high as 1500 kbps and others down to 150 kbps. They can't use the expanding 4G excuse here cause my 4G is ****ing terrible. I usually get around 1.5 mb to 2 mb and I can't drive more than a mile down the road without dropping the signal. I'm getting really fed up with sprints service. I'm in Cary nc btw
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Sprints current network is so old it can't keep up with all of today's data hungry apps.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

You're not alone OP. You'd be hard pressed to find someone NOT having data issues. Also, every time i've called over the past 6 months, they only tell me they have tower outtages. Seems to be the standard BS.
I went into the Sprint store last week to raise hell. The employees seemed absolutely beat down by that question. The lady i talked to told me that i would just have to wait for LTE in 2013 because "data and 4G is bad for everybody"
I also tried most of their new heavy hitters(SGS2, Photon, etc). None of them could hit the market and all of them were searching for 4G. Things are bad all over man.

Here in nyc data is fine. Both 3G & 4G work flawlessly.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I'm from Adrian as well and Sprint said they been having tons of problems in the area and gave me a $100.00 credit without asking ..... Ann arbor seems to b better than Adrian tho....
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

-IT- said:
I'm from Adrian as well and Sprint said they been having tons of problems in the area and gave me a $100.00 credit without asking ..... Ann arbor seems to b better than Adrian tho....
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am surprised someone else from Adrian in on here. I think I will be calling Sprint tomorrow then, $100 credit is a nice thing.
Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Yeah I was suprised that I seen someone from Adrian also Haha
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

I'm nearby in Monroe, I haven't gotten above 100kbps on 3g in over a year. I have called and called and complained and it has gotten nowhere, they keep telling me there is no problem.
I have been told its Sprint's problem as they say they are trying to upgrade the towers here for 4G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is an absolute lie, and they tried to tell me the same thing. I don't know if you heard, but sprint is abandoning Wimax and switching to lte. This means they haven't added any new 4g towers in over 6 months, and won't be adding any new one until at least summer next year.

Sprint 3G finally improving?

So I have been horribly frustrated with sprints 3G speeds since I got my epic. I live in metro Detroit. (Fairly large sprint market) and have averaged around 50-75kbps DL. With a 600ms+ ping. And there is ZERO wimax anywhere. I was getting fed up. Until over the last month or so I have seen 600%+ increase in speeds. I now average closer to 500kbps DL with a 111ping. And I have even had consistent tests of 1mb DL. Could this be the first fruits of network vision? Or other tower upgrades? Or somehow less traffic. I had considered it could be the newer ROM/modem. (CM10/FH13). Has anyone else seen recent speed increases?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

cknuth said:
So I have been horribly frustrated with sprints 3G speeds since I got my epic. I live in metro Detroit. (Fairly large sprint market) and have averaged around 50-75kbps DL. With a 600ms+ ping. And there is ZERO wimax anywhere. I was getting fed up. Until over the last month or so I have seen 600%+ increase in speeds. I now average closer to 500kbps DL with a 111ping. And I have even had consistent tests of 1mb DL. Could this be the first fruits of network vision? Or other tower upgrades? Or somehow less traffic. I had considered it could be the newer ROM/modem. (CM10/FH13). Has anyone else seen recent speed increases?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah man here in st pete i finally saw a consistent 1 meg down and i was inside ( but near a window) the network map said theres about to be another speed increase here its usually a lie tho.... i doubt its anything permanent sprint fails im moving to straight talk once its all over but im supposed to have lte in my area at the end of my contract and i got employee plan pricing if i have lte at my house then ill keep them if not oh well. could network vision not just be a giant false marketing scheme?
edit well i just did a speed test and im back to the usual 300kbs lol lucky i pay a dial up price and get dial up service XD so i guess not. sprints the most useless unlimited ever. Even living in a wimax area the wimax sucks everywhere but the beach. ( where i dont even need wimax)

I have 5+ months horrible experience with Sprint 3G speed after last two days on roaming service came back this morning better than ever from 0.09Mbps download to 0.89Mbps download huge improvement sadly it last till this evening when service cut off came back horrible as always. :banghead:
At least I know they are working on it.
Arecibo, PR 00612
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Whatever spring says "network vision" is. Clearly they are trying to or want to improve their service. One area they are strong, customer service. But their tech(except phones) sucks. So the question for me is, just like the first guy who replied. Is if they can get LTE working by the time my contract is up. Or at least get 3g solidly above 1mb.. then I would stay no question.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

cknuth said:
Whatever spring says "network vision" is. Clearly they are trying to or want to improve their service. One area they are strong, customer service. But their tech(except phones) sucks. So the question for me is, just like the first guy who replied. Is if they can get LTE working by the time my contract is up. Or at least get 3g solidly above 1mb.. then I would stay no question.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, I have 1 year left on my contract. Next July I will re-evaluate sprint and see how things are going. If sprint stepped up to the plate then bonus I will stay but if its the same ol song and dance crap I am gone. Maybe this xmas I will do that re-evaluate of sprint and see what is up and just maybe I might buy off the rest of my contract, pay a etf and jump ship. But having to pay a extra 10 bucks a month just because of a smart phone crap aka 4g is bull**** considering sprint does not have wimax, 4g, lte or what ever here where I live and 3g is absolutly slower than dial up modem speeds.

Well Sprint Vision says that in the next 6 months a tower will basically be put in my backyard, according to their map. My contract is up in 12 months, I'll make a decision then.

I get 8kb/s out here in Toledo....
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

Mine has picked up in some areas the past few weeks but its still crap in other areas and at random times. Its also still much slower than 3G from any other carrier. My Sprint 3G speeds are often similar to Tmobile Edge speeds I had 4 years ago but Edge was more consistent.

Every week my 3G speed changes, today I am getting less than 100kbps when last week or so I was getting almost 600. I am hoping this is due to them upgrading the towers and that is causing the inconsistencies.

Are you using updated maps to see this info or are you just using the maps on Sprint's website?

cknuth said:
So I have been horribly frustrated with sprints 3G speeds since I got my epic. I live in metro Detroit. (Fairly large sprint market) and have averaged around 50-75kbps DL. With a 600ms+ ping. And there is ZERO wimax anywhere. I was getting fed up. Until over the last month or so I have seen 600%+ increase in speeds. I now average closer to 500kbps DL with a 111ping. And I have even had consistent tests of 1mb DL. Could this be the first fruits of network vision? Or other tower upgrades? Or somehow less traffic. I had considered it could be the newer ROM/modem. (CM10/FH13). Has anyone else seen recent speed increases?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure they've actually, finally, started work on Network Vision for our area.
We're supposed to be apart of the network vision plan for the second half of 2012.
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/

mattykinsx said:
Pretty sure they've actually, finally, started work on Network Vision for our area.
We're supposed to be apart of the network vision plan for the second half of 2012.
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If they do manage to get LTE going by next summer I'll for sure stick around. Prolly with the 2nd nexus device if possible.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

cknuth said:
If they do manage to get LTE going by next summer I'll for sure stick around. Prolly with the 2nd nexus device if possible.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I practically guarantee they will by then.
Personally I'm more concerned about getting 3g speeds in the 1.5 - 3 mbps range and the improved service that comes with Network Vision.
Really couldn't care less for LTE/Wimax with that. :silly:

Same crappy speed here.

metro Detroit here too, and I haven't noticed any increase. For some reason my phone now roams constantly. Hopefully not so much that they terminate my contract and force me to jump on T-Mobiles new deal.

3G still sucks here ...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

Rob the plumber said:
metro Detroit here too, and I haven't noticed any increase. For some reason my phone now roams constantly. Hopefully not so much that they terminate my contract and force me to jump on T-Mobiles new deal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My friends from the bay area (California) started roaming when their towers were being upgraded so it could be a could sign. Here S4GRU website says you guys are should be upgraded soon:
S4GRU Detriot

I'm only with them for the price an unlimited...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

mrrogers12 said:
I'm only with them for the price an unlimited...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I'm saying. I'll stick it out for the prospect of unlimited 4g...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Metro Detroit here as well... Get the FH13 modem, you won't be disappointed
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

Torn. Keep E4GT or get GN2?

I've been due for an upgrade for a few months now, was waiting on the GS3 then heard about the Note 2. I know the Note 2 will be my next phone. The only thing stopping me is lack of LTE coverage in my area.
Major reason for staying with my E4GT is Wimax. I use it to tether at home. Leaving Wimax for 3G on the Note 2 would be a noticeable difference.
Thoughts?

Went from et4g to s3 to note 2 and haven't looked back. The 3g in St Louis is awful but I couldn't pass up the hardware of the other 2 phones. I can use wifi at home and get by with 3g for the time being. My wife's s2 feels like a toy after the other two I have used now.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda premium

And this alone makes up for it...
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda premium

Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda premium

Check S4gru.com to see when Sprint LTE will be available in your area
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

I changed on release day. It's so awesome that I can't even describe how much better the phone is.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app

Haha,
You guys are awesome and I see all of your points. I wonder if I post in the E4GT forum if I'd get different responses.
If I had wifi at my house I would've gone with the GN2 at launch.
I've checked S4gru and apparently Orange County isn't getting LTE until the middle of 2013. That's a long time to wait for someone who runs their internet via tether. I called Sprint a few times and they couldn't give me an answer one way or another when LTE would be lit in my area.

I was in the EXACT same dilemma as you (OP), I was on my old Evo4G and had great Wimax connection and speeds. But after watching all of the videos for the options(software) and hardware I couldn't pass it up. But then again I know that LTE is coming to my area within a month and a half. But regardless after picking up this device I am sooo happy I did, even with 3g which internet surfing is fine on really I just use the multiple page loader in the browser(tabs basically) and i have a few pages open and switch between them while surfing. Ex) open two on XDA then maybe one on PA another on AA and maybe another on TB (phonearena, technoBuffalo,AndroidAuthority) along with other sites after changing. Then just click a link on one after reading an article or thread then flip to the next which has the page loaded already(which loaded while I was reading my previous thread or article). And you don't even notice the difference with that method. Not to mention the 3g isn't all that bad anyways nowadays. Yes compared to 4g it is horrible but hey.
In short YES upgrade. if you dont want to take a good hour to 2 to get it setup at home with 3g which I did and it wasn't bad at all. I am speaking of using the Play market and downloading all the apps you want, then maybe stop at a Wi-fi hotspot and piggyback. hit a Mcdonald's or Starbucks.
I sure hope when the LTE hits here in my area it is comparable to AT&T the speeds on the tablet in my household connected to that is crazy fast. 42mb/s - 48mb/s

Orange County CA? LTE is due in Riverside in April....and i know the OC started before Riverside.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

Jcossack88 said:
Orange County CA? LTE is due in Riverside in April....and i know the OC started before Riverside.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you know this?
Yup. OC, CA. April is 6 months away.
And let me play devils advocate for a sec: What good is this phone if Internet is so slow it's almost unusable (at times).

To the OP simply_Dave and the poster above me, you guys know you are looking at the "Launch date" for Orange County which is April. The launch date is when it is roughly 45-50% completed, chances are if you live in a populated area of OC you could be using the LTE market much before. Basically how is works is you can pick up signal much before the date but if you are having spotty coverage or issues dont complain cause they haven't "launched" it yet. But you know your city, Like for instance in mine on a map our City covers roughly a 25mile diameter each way from downtown, but my actual address and location is literally within the actual city. So when they start work in my City in December I will theoretically have 4gLTE fairly quickly(which has also been verified by acquaintances at Sprint). Although my city doesn't Officially "Launch" until June 2013.
I'm stoked though cause I have a Sprint tower that is scheduled for an LTE upgrade within a 1/4mile of my house!!

simply dave said:
How do you know this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S4Gru.com
People have already seen many crews beggining work all around us. A few weeks ago my service was horrible, and a tower was down (my guess is due to matinence). But like I said, I am pretty sure OC is due to release prior to us in Riverside, but check that site for when it is expected to drop...I will see if I can find the link to the specific completion rate for you and post it here when I find it.

The Administrator on S4Gru.com seems to believe LTE will launch in the OC in Q1 of 2013....that is if you do not live in Brea, Yorba Linda, or Placentia.

That's great news! Thanks for the look up. Maybe I should make the jump. I just ordered a bunch of new cases for my E4GT too. Haha.

I'm in the same position. I use 4G tether on my E4GT *all the time*. Wimax speeds for me are 6-8Mb during the day, 8-10Mb during the night. I just bought a new Anker battery for the E4GT and i love the screen brightness, etc., but especially the speeds with my tablet. What makes it worse is that i have the Note 10.1 with quad core 1.4 with 2GB and i know how good this tablet is, i only expect wonderous things from the Note 2 consdering it's a higher spec'd processor with near same specs.
At this point, i think it's safe to assume not to go with GS3 - even with the Best buy deals coming up. I *would* suggest waiting 2-3 weeks though....if you are thinking of upgrading. It looks to be a great phone with great battery and great screen and great camera. I'm not sure there isn't something great about this phone, honestly, but that's still to be said about radio reception because i had to recently get rid of my GS3 because it was a worse radio than my E4GT - off topic, i know, so back on topic - wait 2-3 weeks if you must get this (and if you love samsung, you MUSTget this) i would keep the E4GT around though - for those times you want to SWAP back to use your tether through sprint.com/activate website. Enjoy...

I moved from the E4GT to the GN2 and I live in an area that has wimax and lte
The sprint LTE speeds for me are:
About the same download as WIMAX for me 6-10 mb/s
faster upload speeds, Wimax is capped at around 1 mb/s my LTE has gotten anywhere from 2-4 mb/s
(No these are not anywhere near the crazy att and verizon lte speeds but still very usable)
Ping times are faster for me on LTE than they were on wimax
ability to hold the connection seems better for me on lte. It used to drop for me with wimax causing downloads to error, streaming music to stop etc.
As long as i stay in coverage area my connection seems pretty stable on lte.
As far as everything else there is pretty much nothing not to love. I look around my apartment and wonder why I have so many charging cables laying around now since now i just plug it in every day or two or three.

Phone wise, I also made the switch from the ET4G and its like night and day. Longer battery and better all around phone (I also have a Note tablet...)
Since your using it as your internet makes it a tougher decision.
I gave up having Wimax in the hope to have LTE in the near future.
For now I use my 40mbs WiFi and I have about 1.75mbs 3G at my home address.

Meh, think I'm going to keep my phone with wimax. I tried living with internet at 3G and just couldn't do it. I didn't go for more then 10 mins before getting frustrated and turning on Wimax. :/

One reason to get the note
.:Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Note II:.

I'm sure you know that tethering is not yet working on GN2. I have seen one report of bluetooth based tethering working but a no go for me. If your area isn't getting lte for while there's no upside to the GN2. It's a great phone mind you but no tethering for the time being.