Develop Bugs

How is your Tmobile USA 3G coverage?

I have had my TP2 for a few weeks. I really like Tmobile' 3G, Where I live it's fairly reliable, I was wondering for others in the U.S. how is the coverage?

DC Checkin' in..
Here in the Nation's Capitol I'm loving the High-speed 3G plus being in the City there various Open Wi-fi Spots.. Sometimes i think there's 3G+ here from the blazing speed i get..

Bargsbeer said:
I have had my TP2 for a few weeks. I really like Tmobile' 3G, Where I live it's fairly reliable, I was wondering for others in the U.S. how is the coverage?
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And where do U live?
It rocks in Vegas...

edit: delete please

galaxys said:
And where do U live?
It rocks in Vegas...
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Sorry, I'm in Tampa FL, just south of Orlando my coverage is good.

I do field work all over the northeast, from Delaware to Maine. 3G coverage is spotty between cities, as expected. There are parts of the NJ turnpike where there's no signal at all! In Maine there's hardly any 3G up there. Compared to AT&T's 3G coverage, T-mo's is a step down, though the speeds are very comparable. I have a company supplied Verizon wireless modem that has 3G coverage almost everywhere.

New England is spotty at best...not completely upgraded there..NY is not bad, Chicago is great...

aragorn771 said:
New England is spotty at best...not completely upgraded there..NY is not bad, Chicago is great...
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That's good to hear, I can't wait to switch to TM. AT&T has **** coverage just about everywhere for me. At work I'm getting 2 bars at the moment, which is 1 bar higher than I've ever seen before. My boss has an iPhone and he constantly has to walk to a window to make phone calls.

Bargsbeer said:
I have had my TP2 for a few weeks. I really like Tmobile' 3G, Where I live it's fairly reliable, I was wondering for others in the U.S. how is the coverage?
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Click to collapse
I live in Atlanta, and I must say the coverage is REALLY good. I get great connection speed as well. It's weird, I actually get better reception on my TP2 then I did on my Wing.

ATL GA, Coverage is good!

Decent in Denver
It's not too bad in the Denver area. Sometimes just a couple of bars, but seems to work fine.
Question on "My Location" Service (e.g. google maps). w/o the GPS turned on. For me, it only works if I disable 3G.
Perhaps there's not enough towers to triangulate.

I'm in Phoenix & I get 3G just about everywhere I go except work, but that's because that's 30ft underground at the hockey arena.
When I went to El Paso, Tx they had 3G in only parts of the city. I don't know why Tmobile would just implement it in certain parts. From what I hear the whole West side & most of the NE of the city has no 3G til January-ish.
@david Google Maps will not triangulate while on 3G with Tmobile. Its a known issue if you want to search.

david31262 said:
It's not too bad in the Denver area. Sometimes just a couple of bars, but seems to work fine.
Question on "My Location" Service (e.g. google maps). w/o the GPS turned on. For me, it only works if I disable 3G.
Perhaps there's not enough towers to triangulate.
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This is pretty normal. GPS doesn't use a ton of battery life, so just leave it enabled in Google Maps.
And I am in Orange County, CA. Coverage here is awesome overall. I have issues at my home, but that is all. I have it solid otherwise with HSPA.

Here in Queens, NY and the 3G is great!!! 2-3 bars at home, mostly 2. But I don't have any problems at all with 2 bars on 3G. At work I get full bars!!!
I'm all good.

I live in Portland and I rarely have more than 1 or 2 bars of 3g. I'm a bit disappointed because my wife has almost full on her G1.

It sounds like TMO has done a fairly good job at rolling out their 3G. I must say they have been modest when it comes to bragging like At&t.

I am out in the west burbs of chicago. I get 1 bar 3g, if it's on 3g at home. Usually goes to 2g. I am in a bit of a weak spot for 3g. I don't use 3g much at home. Everywhere else it is very good. Doesn't cover as much as edge though. Just past aurora and it's gone. (Orchard rd at I-88 seems to be as west as it goes). They updated edge in western Illinois with the 3g rollout. It used to stop at dekalb but now it goes all the way to the quad cities. Sweet!
I was in Tampa when it was rolled out there. Near Brandon/Tampa/Riverview. (kinda near 301 and causeway). I get 1-2 bars edge. Nothing 3g. Very weak spot. They need a tower there!

Seattle Washington area. So far so good.

I'm in Tampa also, and the 3g here always has full bars!!!
Bargsbeer said:
Sorry, I'm in Tampa FL, just south of Orlando my coverage is good.
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SUXX here in NJ in certain places ( my home...lol) I have 1 bar and no 3G or even Edge in my house ...Tj

Is it normal/acceptable for "4g" speeds to be less than 2 Mb?

About a month ago my area upgraded from EDGE to HSPA+. I finally decided to play with the speedtest.net app yesterday and I was only managing download speeds of maybe 1 or 2Mb, on a good test. This is enough for casual use, I suppose, but most people (on this board at least) seem to be getting much better speeds than that. A nearby area where the State University resides also produces similar speeds on my GNex and my previous phone (AT&T Galaxy S2).
Is this normal or do I need to change something on my phone?

blackplague1347 said:
About a month ago my area upgraded from EDGE to HSPA+. I finally decided to play with the speedtest.net app yesterday and I was only managing download speeds of maybe 1 or 2Mb, on a good test. This is enough for casual use, I suppose, but most people (on this board at least) seem to be getting much better speeds than that. A nearby area where the State University resides also produces similar speeds on my GNex and my previous phone (AT&T Galaxy S2).
Is this normal or do I need to change something on my phone?
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1-3mbps is pretty normal for me indoors with 2-3 bars of signal, with 4-5 or so outdoors with better signal. I can only pull down those crazy numbers of 10+ with HSPA+ late at night when the towers aren't as busy. I'm in a small town, but we've had HSPA+ for a good year or more now (heck, I was on Verizon when it was switched on, so I don't know exactly how long...). Maybe your network is still getting upgraded / installed and the process isn't done yet?
I'm on the T-mobile $30 plan, by the way. I've heard AT&T's HSPA+ can be significantly slower in some places, so that may be part of it?

if they just rolled out the towers a month ago and upgraded to HSPA+, I'm not at all surprised by those speeds.

Att's hspa is notoriously slow compared to Tmo. I see between 6 and 18 mbps on my Tmo phones and my Att phones max out at around 6, averaging around 3.
For an area that just now got hspa turned on when the rest of the country is getting LTE, those speeds you are describing seem perfectly normal.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I'm on T-Mobile and 1-2Mb is normal for me with 5 bars. If I'm extremely lucky I sometimes see 3Mb.
T-Mobile's "4G" in Phoenix is exactly the same speed as my 3G Vibrant.

Ravynmagi said:
I'm on T-Mobile and 1-2Mb is normal for me with 5 bars. If I'm extremely lucky I sometimes see 3Mb.
T-Mobile's "4G" in Phoenix is exactly the same speed as my 3G Vibrant.
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True, location also plays a big role.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I would be happy to get 6Mb down with AT&T in Austin. Max is about 3.1Mbps which I think is crap since we know it is capable of more. Interestingly, AT&T LTE in the same areas rock!

TJBunch1228 said:
Att's hspa is notoriously slow compared to Tmo. I see between 6 and 18 mbps on my Tmo phones and my Att phones max out at around 6, averaging around 3.
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Well that's also because T-Mobile has HSPA+ 42mbps deployed, and devices that can make use of it. Most AT&T devices are at best 21mbps capable, and not all of their towers are.

Depends on signal strength. On VZW LTE I can pull 20+ mbps in Seattle, but only 2-5 mbps in outlying areas.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Winesnob said:
Depends on signal strength. On VZW LTE I can pull 20+ mbps in Seattle, but only 2-5 mbps in outlying areas.
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Well, we're talking about AT&T HSPA+ in here so...

martonikaj said:
Well, we're talking about AT&T HSPA+ in here so...
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...so the thread title asked about 4g speeds. 4g = HSPA+ or LTE.

Winesnob said:
...so the thread title asked about 4g speeds. 4g = HSPA+ or LTE.
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"4g" in quotes, and OP specifically is talking about AT&T.

I'll have to run speedtest some more when I'm out of town and see what kind of numbers I can get. I would be interested to see what speeds a 3G phone gets in the same region as my "4G" Gnex (HSPA+ via AT&T, not LTE via Verizon).

t-mobile frequencies

Did t-mobile finally switched their 3g/4g frequencies to use any compatible ATT device? if,so, can I use my unlocked i747 with tmo 4g prepaid plan?

As I understand it, an AT&T phone won't be able to take advantage of T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42Mbps even if they have switched. T-Mobile's network is a work in progress, there's not telling if they have or have not. Try finding a coverage map?

Medlock87 said:
As I understand it, an AT&T phone won't be able to take advantage of T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42Mbps even if they have switched. T-Mobile's network is a work in progress, there's not telling if they have or have not. Try finding a coverage map?
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Actually, it's a little more complicated than that. What T-Mo is going through is a two step process: first, 'refarming' (which will reallocate AWS (EDGE) channels to LTE Band 4, and also turn on the AT&T access), and then next year rolling out their LTE. AT&T phones use the same channels/bands, so the refarming is all that's necessary to access HSPA+; unfortunately, the refarming is going on now and isn't complete in more than about 12-15 markets. However, my home market (Chicago) is listed as "promised" but changing by the day, and I am now routinely getting the magic 4G light on my status bar (however, not in farther out suburbs and the like). This is in contrast to just a month ago, where it only seemed to work in the Loop. So, in other words, check with (ahem) sources around the Web that are doing a good job of tracking what markets are being worked on and which ones are live. If you're not in a major metropolitan area, you'll probably have a wait. I just got the phone November 9th, and for this market, it's been pretty much perfect timing.

Ridiculous data speeds while on a call

Ok... I have gone round and round and round and round with AT&T on this issue. My data is nearly unusable while on a call. Most of the time it times out, and when it does work, it is ridiculously slow.
I have gone through the stores, technical support, wrote their corporate headquarters (which got no response whatsoever), Twitter, and finally I filed a complaint with the FCC.
The FCC complaint is where I am now, and they want to work with me on this issue. They keep focusing on the towers in my area (although it happens EVERYWHERE), and my phone (even though this is my second phone). Basically I am tired of wasting my time with this issue, and I want to point them to this thread to tell them this this is NOT just me. Maybe it is the Note 2, but I think it is their network. Hopefully this thread will tell me AND THEM.
So with that said, I would love for everyone to post their City/State, and 2 speed tests (one while on a call and one while not on a call). Not moving would be preferable.
I will post mine shortly.

Tampa Bay North
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

Not sure why you so frustrated. But signal's are suppose to drop while on a call!! Your using data, and yes we can be on the web and be on a call at the same time. I've been doing it since I was first on AT&T. :thumbup:
But I'm thinking it's your area or the modem. Here's my results after reading your post. I decided to go out for breakfast and perform this test to see if it was that BAD! :what:
Here's my results:
NO CALL HERE
ON CALL NOW
Still above 10 mb down. BUT IT DID DROP DRASTICALLY BECAUSE I'M NO LONGER ON LTE CONNECTION.
Just my 2¢®
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

To answer your question, I am upset because they advertise themselves as being able to use voice and data simultaneously and I can barely use my data while on a call. Most of the time it times out and I constantly have to redo my request. I think my problem is the ability to send data (which include acknowledgements and the request). I don't so much mind that it slows down, but being nearly unusable is a whole other story.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

Milkman00 said:
To answer your question, I am upset because they advertise themselves as being able to use voice and data simultaneously and I can barely use my data while on a call. Most of the time it times out and I constantly have to redo my request. I think my problem is the ability to send data (which include acknowledgements and the request). I don't so much mind that it slows down, but being nearly unusable is a whole other story.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4
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And that I have been able to do always. Be on a call and the web. But I understand your frustration on it not writing when you want. And it being so slow.
Not sure what Rom, modem your using? But I don't really see that much of a problem. Unless I'm inside of a metal building!!
Lol
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

Yeah look at my on call upload speed compared to you. Definitely a problem.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

Milkman00 said:
Yeah look at my on call upload speed compared to you. Definitely a problem.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4
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I agree with you completely. On that note! What modem are you using. Take a screen shot of your about phone. Just curious if that is what is causing your problem. Wondering if your on the latest modem release..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

I am rooted stock.

4.1.2
i317ucamc3
3.0.31-578342

As an RBS Engineer I can explain why this happens to you.
Its due to a few reasons
1. What frequency is 1st carrier in your market 1900mhz or 850mhz
2. How many carriers are in your particular area (the most i have seen is 5 in the major metro areas)
3. How far away the next tower is to you
4. How saturated each carrier is
Whwn testing a new LTE site i will get 30-50mbps download and 20mbps up
Thats cuz im the ONLY one on the carrier at the time.
So a tower is made up of carriers, each carrier has sectors with a corresponding antenna that face a different direction (Alpha Beta Gamma)
You have multiple carriers in areas where theres heavy traffic.
now back to your phone its multi banded 1900, 850, 700/2100(lte)
If your market is 850 first carrier and 850 second carrier your data while on the phone will be almost non existent becuase that band on your phone is in use with your call. But if you have 850 1st carrier then 1900 second carrier or vice versa then your speeds will be decent. For whatever reason when you place a call your data automatically switches to HSPA most likely due to the VOIP on the LTE band leaving only the 3g band for data. Now I dont engineer the network itself becuase I dont understand why LTE isnt left open for data while were on calls.
I dont know if i confused you more or if that helped.
Hope it helped though
Its like a highway
A carrier is a single highway with multiple lanes 850mhz 1900mhz 700mhz(for lte 1st carrier) and 2100 (for lte 2nd)
If your area has only 2 carriers 850mhz and 850mhz its like 2 lanes on a highway going in the same direction and the other side of the highway is blocked
If its 850mhz and 1900mhz but there is heavy traffic and not enough carriers its like bieng stuck in 5 o clock traffic and trying to turn around. Its busy on both lanes so everything is slow
Each carrier adds lanes for traffic in a typical metro area you will see someting like
1st carrier 850mhz
2nd 850mhz
3rd 1900mhz
4th 850 mhz
5th 1900 mhz
LTE 1st carrier 700mhz
LTE 2nd Carrier 2100mhz
Thats a lot of lanes for traffic

tramane said:
As an RBS Engineer I can explain why this happens to you.
Its due to a few reasons
1. What frequency is 1st carrier in your market 1900mhz or 850mhz
2. How many carriers are in your particular area (the most i have seen is 5 in the major metro areas)
3. How far away the next tower is to you
4. How saturated each carrier is
Whwn testing a new LTE site i will get 30-50mbps download and 20mbps up
Thats cuz im the ONLY one on the carrier at the time.
So a tower is made up of carriers, each carrier has sectors with a corresponding antenna that face a different direction (Alpha Beta Gamma)
You have multiple carriers in areas where theres heavy traffic.
now back to your phone its multi banded 1900, 850, 700/2100(lte)
If your market is 850 first carrier and 850 second carrier your data while on the phone will be almost non existent becuase that band on your phone is in use with your call. But if you have 850 1st carrier then 1900 second carrier or vice versa then your speeds will be decent. For whatever reason when you place a call your data automatically switches to HSPA most likely due to the VOIP on the LTE band leaving only the 3g band for data. Now I dont engineer the network itself becuase I dont understand why LTE isnt left open for data while were on calls.
I dont know if i confused you more or if that helped.
Hope it helped though
Its like a highway
A carrier is a single highway with multiple lanes 850mhz 1900mhz 700mhz(for lte 1st carrier) and 2100 (for lte 2nd)
If your area has only 2 carriers 850mhz and 850mhz its like 2 lanes on a highway going in the same direction and the other side of the highway is blocked
If its 850mhz and 1900mhz but there is heavy traffic and not enough carriers its like bieng stuck in 5 o clock traffic and trying to turn around. Its busy on both lanes so everything is slow
Each carrier adds lanes for traffic in a typical metro area you will see someting like
1st carrier 850mhz
2nd 850mhz
3rd 1900mhz
4th 850 mhz
5th 1900 mhz
LTE 1st carrier 700mhz
LTE 2nd Carrier 2100mhz
Thats a lot of lanes for traffic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it seems to happen everywhere that I go which is as far as 70 miles in any direction. The big 3 are in my area (Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon) as well as T-Mobile and Metro (but I am not sure if Metro is their own or they use other carriers).
The major metro areas that I visit are Tampa and Orlando and they do the same thing. I live in a rural area (so the towers are not very saturated), and there is a tower about 1.5 miles (tops) in either direction of me.
I am not sure what frequency my area is. How can I tell?

This is expected. AT&T doesn't support voice over LTE yet, so when you place a phone call the modem needs to switch back to the 3G/Fake 4G HSPA+ network. I'm guessing you just have poor 4G reception. Can you disable LTE and then do a speedtest on the regular 4G network?

Prior to the LTE implementation I was getting far better speeds on the HSPA+ network..
How do I disable LTE to get a current HSPA+ test?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

Looks like this might be the easiest way: http://forums.androidcentral.com/t-...3-you-can-disable-hspa-too-2.html#post2551614
Edit: while on a call I get 1663Kbps down and just 93Kbps up, so this might not be unique to you.

saturnspike said:
This is expected. AT&T doesn't support voice over LTE yet, so when you place a phone call the modem needs to switch back to the 3G/Fake 4G HSPA+ network. I'm guessing you just have poor 4G reception. Can you disable LTE and then do a speedtest on the regular 4G network?
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Click to collapse
On HSPA+ I get 2.2 meg down and almost 1 meg up (910k).
FAR better than what I get while on a call in an LTE area.

OK after reading this thread. Do y'all think this problem will be fixed for the Note 3 because I read the note 3 will have the strongest LTE chip available? Or will it be determined on how heavy data traffic is on your frequency?

At&t hasn't supported voice+LTE data. Its the original voice+3G data. Its not the phone.

A given market can be very large it can encompass a whole state. I work in the south texas market which is basically EVERYTHING south of killeen texas. I have driven as far as 6hrs to south padre from austin and I remain in the same market. That was almost 400 miles south. Houston is part of the same market as well as all the way to east to the border of lousiana.

rangercaptain said:
At&t hasn't supported voice+LTE data. Its the original voice+3G data. Its not the phone.
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ranger - thanks but that doesn't explain the problems I experienced.

tramane said:
A given market can be very large it can encompass a whole state. I work in the south texas market which is basically EVERYTHING south of killeen texas. I have driven as far as 6hrs to south padre from austin and I remain in the same market. That was almost 400 miles south. Houston is part of the same market as well as all the way to east to the border of lousiana.
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So how can I determine the frequency of my market to answer your original inquiry??

[Q] About the M8 LTE bands for different version

Because I live in hong kong. I am going to buy a M8 hong kong version, which has a LTE band 1,3,7,8,17(28) [ 17 and 28 are both 700Mhz, I don't know which one is right] and I will go to America several months later. I found that M8 att version has LTE band 2,3,4,5,7,17. I don't know whether the hong kong version m8 will support att mobile network in LTE. If supportted, will the speed of mobile network be slow?

Att m8 doesn't have 3. Att mostly uses 4 and 17 and some places 5. I don't know the other details. You should be fine on hspa though. Great signal, decent speed except when congested, I.e. a big city, should be fine in smaller cities and suburbs. Does hong Kong version support aws hspa? Tmobile's hspa network is loads better as far as speeds and sometimes latency is decent if not congested. Problem with T-Mobile though is it doesn't penetrate walls and buildings very well though they have gotten a lot better in Houston and surrounding areas lately.
sent from my sm-9005.

@rbiter said:
Att m8 doesn't have 3. Att mostly uses 4 and 17 and some places 5. I don't know the other details. You should be fine on hspa though. Great signal, decent speed except when congested, I.e. a big city, should be fine in smaller cities and suburbs. Does hong Kong version support aws hspa? Tmobile's hspa network is loads better as far as speeds and sometimes latency is decent if not congested. Problem with T-Mobile though is it doesn't penetrate walls and buildings very well though they have gotten a lot better in Houston and surrounding areas lately.
sent from my sm-9005.
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m8 hong kong version doesn't support aws(1700MHz/2011MHz ?) hspa [I believe, except T mobile, no other carriers support this band]. Hong Kong version m8 supports 850/900/1900/2100MHz hspa and hspa+. If I cannot use LTE, is it OK for me to only use hspa? Because I will use phone to watch a little bit of videos and for most of the times, I use it for reading some news, email and other information only with words and picture, can hspa satisfy it?

You should be fine with hspa. At%t's hspa network is pretty robust as far as coverage and penetration. Your more worrying problem would be speed. At doesn't have many places that go over ~10Mb/s and that is usually at night. During peak times expect 1-5mb/s in the city.
sent from my HTC One M8 using hofo mobile app

@rbiter said:
You should be fine with hspa. At%t's hspa network is pretty robust as far as coverage and penetration. Your more worrying problem would be speed. At doesn't have many places that go over ~10Mb/s and that is usually at night. During peak times expect 1-5mb/s in the city.
sent from my HTC One M8 using hofo mobile app
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Thank you for your reply