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Data: HSPA/HSPA+ very spotty; Edge data almost nonexistant

R

ragnarkar

Well-Known Member
I got an unlocked Nexus 5 on the $30/month 100 min 5GB plan a month and a half ago. Since I live in an area with extensive LTE coverage, I've been pretty satisfied with that. However, I went on my first roadtrip this Labor Day weekend with the phone and really learned about the limitations of the HSPA and especially EDGE services on T-mobile. If given a choice, I'd rather have great LTE service where I live and little/no service out in the boonies, but I'm wondering if my experience is typical when LTE is unavailable.

Edge Experience.

I didn't bother watching videos or doing anything data intensive on Edge for obvious reasons. However, even simple activities that should consume very little data have failed. This includes doing Google searches, checking email, navigation, etc. Many times when I try to go to a web page or refresh my email, the connection would time out on Edge. It's a very rare occurrence to be able to do anything that involves data whenever in an area with Edge coverage! Fyi, I used to be with Virgin Mobile and their 2G was slow as usual but at least useable, unlike T-mobile's edge.

HSPA Experience:

I'm pretty surprised how spotty and unreliable HSPA and HSPA+ was. Here are the cities with HSPA that I can think of off the top of my head and how reliable my data connection was in each place. Later, I downloaded an app that can give details of my connection and it seemed that HSPA and HSPA+ were being toggled between each other constantly whenever I didn't have a reliable connection.

- Rancho Cucamonga, CA: I got HSPA or HSPA+ (H icon) but the connection was quite slow (probably 3G speeds.)

- Barstow, CA: I saw an "H" icon but got literally 0 data, just like in the Edge areas.

- Needles, CA: First time through here, I didn't have any trouble using data with an H connection. 2nd time through, I could do anything that involved data.

- About 10 miles south of the Grand Canyon: Oddly, HSPA is available here with no cities nearby. Even more odd is the fact that I had very reliable data access here with no problems whatsoever.

Does this sound like there's something wrong with my setup? Or this experience is pretty typical especially with my combination of phone and plan?
 
Its all area based some places only have like hspa+7 but its still called 4g , my trip to Ohio this month surprised me in a good way great data all down to cedar point, I could tell when I left reframed areas my droid 3 was on E but the moto x was on h+
 
I've never seen a "4G" icon on my Nexus.. only E, H, LTE, and (very rarely) 3G..

It seems from my experience, the few areas that get HSPA+ but no LTE around Los Angeles still get decent data but the rural HSPA is not that great.
 
I think with the nexus 5 they changed the normal typical 4G icon to LTE because so many people wanted that icon.

As to your testing, its about normal, t mobile has city coverage very good, but get a few miles away from the city they lose out, mostly because they use the higher frequencies which do not carry as far and they are spending all the time/money building up the LTE coverage, which they should be. Att coverage out on the roads/highways is reasonably good, I have tested both here in florida, get in the city and t mobile LTE will exceed att hands down, but get out in the sticks att is usable, and sometimes actually fast.
 
So far for me, where LTE is at it's pretty good. But 4G is just so so. Bummer for me, coming from AT&T because their 4G was almost as fast as their LTE. its worth it for 30 dollars a month, though.
 
bg1287 said:
So far for me, where LTE is at it's pretty good. But 4G is just so so. Bummer for me, coming from AT&T because their 4G was almost as fast as their LTE. its worth it for 30 dollars a month, though.
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I suppose it does make a difference where you live, but here in Jax fl att lte is not fast.

t mobile has faster service, on both hspa and lte here.

I believe part of that could be network congestion though.
 
T-Mobile's 4G LTE is pretty fast when I have full service. Might be even faster than AT&T. At least here.

Only difference is AT&T's 4G LTE network is much bigger. When I had them, it pretty much used to work everywhere. Even on 2 bars or so it was really fast still. Not the case with T-Mobile.

Anywhere I go deep in a building, 99% of the time AT&T would work. T-Mobile's kinda iffy on that.
 
bg1287 said:
T-Mobile's 4G LTE is pretty fast when I have full service. Might be even faster than AT&T. At least here.

Only difference is AT&T's 4G LTE network is much bigger. When I had them, it pretty much used to work everywhere. Even on 2 bars or so it was really fast still. Not the case with T-Mobile.

Anywhere I go deep in a building, 99% of the time AT&T would work. T-Mobile's kinda iffy on that.
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From what I've experienced, t-mobile' s Lte and Hspa have pretty good building penetration compared to sprint (virgin mobile) although I only had wimax with them previously. I usually get H inside buildings like malls but still no signal in basements.. Then again, neither do my friends with att and verizon when they're underground.
 
Its all relative your area. I just know EDGE is laughable! Funny cuz back in the sidekick lx days as well as BlackBerry 8320 and 8900, 2G speeds seemed much faster then.
 
ragnarkar said:
From what I've experienced, t-mobile' s Lte and Hspa have pretty good building penetration compared to sprint (virgin mobile) although I only had wimax with them previously.
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Well yeah definitely. Anything has better service compared to Sprint. At my work, where I use my phone a lot, everybody has 4G/LTE in that area/in the building. T-Mobile, ATT, and Verizon.

Sprint still only has 3G.
 
I tried forcing HSPA and Edge in an area with LTE (urban area in S. Cal) and ran a speedtest.. both were completely usable (about 0.18Mbps on Edge and 11.8 Mbps on HSPA.) Last time I was in the mountains where I was only getting Edge, even the speedtest failed to run. I even checked that particular address in the mountains on T-mobile's coverage site and they claim LTE is available there.

Fyi, the app I use for speedtests is Kyago.

Edit: Also tried the suggestion of changing the APN from fast.t-mobile.com to epc.tmobile.com since it seems only the latter fully supports Edge (i actually created a new profile with the same settings except using epc instead of fast). For some reason, epc also has LTE although I've read elsewhere that fast.t-mobile.com is require for LTE. Anyways, gonna try using the epc APN next time I'm in an Edge-only area and see if data works, albeit very slowly.
 
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