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Why are 3G speed tests so slow?

Speed tests, speed tests. So I get 1.45 down and .54 up on 3G. But all this could matter less to me. I've went in Apple stores and tested my EVO vs the iPhone 3GS, needless to say, with my EVO on 3G, I left the apple store before the iPhone got done loading.
 
coolguy949 said:
Late last night I did some 3G speed tests and got around 1600 down and 650 up. It may actually be a backhaul issue. This morning i'm back at around 600 down and 350 up.
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i tend to agree that the slowdown in network related, rather than an issue with the EVO it'self. I would hope that the EVO sales are not enough to affect Sprint's network. Sales have been great, but nothing like the iPhone on ATT. I don't have a history with Sprint, so I do not know how agressive they are in upgrading and expanding their network.

I never got great 3G speeds from the EVO, but I was averaging about 700KB down at home before I updated my PRL on Wed. Is it possible that Sprint put out a crappy PRL update ?

I forgot to post speed results with the new PRL....
I am now averaging between 200 - 500 KB download (at best) Uploads have been stellar at between 400 - 600 KB.

I'm getting 1.5 MB - 2 MB consistently from my Verizon Incredible with a signal strength averaging around -77. Since I'm getting a signal strength of around -85 on my EVO, I'm not expecting the same results, but I'd think I could consistently get close to 1MB down (I thought I read that anything of -85 or less was very good signal strength)
 
From 6/15-today my numbers have been getting worst and at this point the phone seems to crawl on websites. I am on prl 60667. I notice that when i first got my phone it was extrmely fast loading pages and recently it has gotten really slow. I really think this is a sign of throttling by sprint. All these extra evo's running data may be why.

Is anyone having an issue with sites loading half way and the browser just stalls and the loading bar stays at half way? I usually have to turn off the phone to get it working again. I accepted it for a while but now its just annoying.
 
Droidone said:
From 6/15-today my numbers have been getting worst and at this point the phone seems to crawl on websites. I am on prl 60667. I notice that when i first got my phone it was extrmely fast loading pages and recently it has gotten really slow. I really think this is a sign of throttling by sprint. All these extra evo's running data may be why.

Is anyone having an issue with sites loading half way and the browser just stalls and the loading bar stays at half way? I usually have to turn off the phone to get it working again. I accepted it for a while but now its just annoying.
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I'm having no problems.

Maybe a good idea is to get Spare Parts (free). On that, goto battery history, top selector choose Network Usage.

It'll then show usage by class, in a descending histogram style. Tap on any of those to get some idea of what's using data.

Use also in concert with SystemPanelLite to zero in on any given process.

Could be some odd app doing things you don't want?

Not saying this is your problem, just saying if it is, this will help track it down.

~~~~~~~~~~

General note on speed tests:

Probably most people know this, but not everyone, so kinda just in case -

Speed tests have to share your network pipe with other running apps using the network.

This is why desktop versions warn you to shut down other network activity.

Exercise extreme common sense.
 
Just checked for background apps and i dont see anything out of the ordinary. The freezing of the browser has been happening for a while now. Im gonna root after tomorrows update thats supposed to be coming. I will hard reset then and see what happens. This probably wont do anything for my speeds but i think i will call sprint about the speeds tomorrow.
 
I get mid 900's to 1.1 here in West Virginia straight 3g. I'm fairly happy.
No issues with pages loading or slowdown.
 
Droidone said:
Just checked for background apps and i dont see anything out of the ordinary. The freezing of the browser has been happening for a while now. Im gonna root after tomorrows update thats supposed to be coming. I will hard reset then and see what happens. This probably wont do anything for my speeds but i think i will call sprint about the speeds tomorrow.
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what state are u in?
 
I only get 37 kps at my house. Most places in virginia beach I get 500 to 800 downloads. I think for $ 10 extra a month I should get at least 1mps down.... I am going to stop telling people to buy an evo so I can have better speeds.
 
Just tested, 1198kbps down, 653 up, 154ms ping with speedtest.net app

AT&T doesn't even have 3G here, but then, they don't have 3G very many places at all.

My experience in this general area has been that Verizon and AT&T (where ATT has a 3G signal) generally give higher download, much lower upload, and higher latency.

Did I mention that AT&T's 3G coverage sucks? ;)

I do get the feeling that backhaul is limiting the results, and I've been meaning to see if I could manage a test of some sort between two Evo's off the same tower that doesn't traverse the backhaul, although I don't know enough about their network to know if that's even possible.
 
Droidone said:
Atlanta Georgia
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3g this morning (5am) I got 1236 down and 761 up.

I'm 35 miles North of Atlanta. I regularly (during peak hours) with a good signal see 700-900 up 500-600 down. Try moving around. Some spots just don't get good reception maybe due to firewalls and tower location.
 
heavychevy said:
3g this morning (5am) I got 1236 down and 761 up.

I'm 35 miles North of Atlanta. I regularly (during peak hours) with a good signal see 700-900 up 500-600 down. Try moving around. Some spots just don't get good reception maybe due to firewalls and tower location.
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Tried it this morning and got 700 down and 526 up. Im thinkin something in my bedroom was blocking speeds. I used to get great speeds on my patio but something is slowing it down. My lowest last night was 46 down 81 up.
 
3g: 79kps down and 640kps up with Speedtest app/

wtf? Shouldn't it at least be the other way around? I even ran the test like 10 times.

Web pages load pretty fast though, so I have no idea what's going on.
 
Speed Test have been very jerky for me the last couple of days. It stops and starts. Then adjusts the numbers down for the time it stopped. Is there another way to test?
 
Well, I broke down and did a factory reset, my last troubleshoot task before I returned this week and pre-order the X. Before, I was getting anywhere between 200-500 kbps download. After the factory reset, all I did was install Adv Task Killer and Speedtest.net. Ran the test and my 3G speeds went way up. Easily over 1mb, even got close to 2mb in some Chicago metro areas.

Now I wonder what app did I install that bogged down the speeds. I had:

Rock Divx player
Flash 10.1 Beta plugin
Swype
XM/Sirius
EBuddy
Slingmobile
Facebook
Twidroid
Unrevoked
Wireless tether
NewsRob

Many others, but none I think would affect the speed. None of the above apps were running in background. The only apps I have approved in background were eBuddy, NoLock, NewsRob (updates every 4 hours) and Clock (to keep alarm on).

So I will install apps one at a time and see if there is a culprit.

Try a factory reset, just install Adv Task Killer and kill all open apps, download Speedtest and see what your speeds are.
 
I'm gonna be trying the same thing in a couple days. I think something is causing the problem. Now that we have the new update, I think a hard reset would be a good thing. Start from a clean slate with the most up to date software.
 
I have the above results.
I live in South Florida and use a promotional very slow Comcast internet connection for $19.99 a month. I get the same results on my PC.
My question is: why does speedtest select a server in Michigan and why does it think that is only 84 miles away from me?
 

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Thank you, o.k. I did that, but I had to go to a window before it found a server nearby. the results were not as good as this morning though.
 
TravyEvo said:
Ironic timing for this thread. I have been testing 3G here in seattle and can't get over 500k consistantly. A lot of the time, it stays around 200-300. My upload speeds vary from horrible to great (700k). 4g speeds are 2.5 meg down and about 1 up, but I'm on 3G more than 4G.

Hoping this gets fixed.
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Agreed the 3G coverage in Seattle isn't bad but the speed are mediocre for example I am in downtown and I am in the same boat at around 500k - 800k 3G, my upload is very poor however 75k - 200k.

I don't think these are unusual 3G speeds, but certainly at the lower end of the 3G speed percentile.
 
I have an EVO and Epic and I only get g3 were i am at, I was thinking the EVO was downloading slower than my Epic so I ran the test on both of them the EVO is 0.12 and the Epic is getting 0.87. I was told the EVO is fast and better Phone so far there is nothing faster about this phone not happy at all.
 
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