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Root T Mobile, AT&T, & MetroPCS LTE fix.

So, after wanting to for a long time, I finally got up the courage to try this. I rooted my Nexus (first time ever rooting a phone). And flashed the radios. It's working! :)

This screenshot shows my speeds
 

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After my first full day with LTE service in DTLA, I'm reporting back with mixed results.


First, I'll get the negative part out of the way--I'm extremely unimpressed with speeds. The screenshot I attached is of THE BEST results I got out of probably more than 30 tests in various locations throughout downtown (Financial District, Historic Core, and Civic Center areas for you locals). As you can see, its barely better than what I got at my apartment yesterday where my signal was much weaker. I've noticed speed is always a huge issue in LA... I'm never able to get anywhere close to the speeds people in other cities post whether its with HSPA+ or LTE and almost anywhere I've gone on vacation I get better speeds than in LA. I can only assume the issue with LA is it's overpopulated, and thus all towers are overcrowded. My best test was done in the very early AM--which seems to support this theory since at that time there wouldn't have been as many people on the towers yet. Even with this in mind, I'm holding out hope LTE speeds will improve as T-Mobile's network matures.


Ok, now for the happier part--I'm still very glad I did all of this work to enable LTE. Why? Because, even with the slow speeds, LTE has been MUCH more reliable than HSPA+. Throughout my tests, I never got anything lower than 3 down, whereas with H+ it was very common to get just 1-2 down in congested areas. LTE signal also held in places where I would usually drop down to Edge. For example, I was able to pull data during the entire 22 Floor elevator ride up to my office. I use to drop to Edge, or if the phone was able to hold H+ nothing would load.


Sorry for the long post, but to sum it up: my speeds kind of suck (for LTE at least) but speeds and signal strength are much more consistent than they were with H+. So overall, I think it was definitely worth the time to do this mod. I'd be interested in seeing fellow Angeleno's speed tests... and Bruce, I'm definitely gonna have to make it up to Los Feliz to see that 35 down u got :) I've yet to get anywhere near that. I was in Echo Park this weekend, but that was before I had LTE working.
 

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I finally got 4g to work on my nexus 4 on metropcs!

Follow all the steps for setting up t-mobile, except change the apn to: fast.metropcs.com

More info here

Cheers!
- i2f
 
@diemerm: if you look at a T-Mobile coverage map, you'll see that the stretch of Los Feliz that runs from the park through Atwater to Brand is a solid 4-bar area, probably because it's flat and fairly open (coincidentally, there's a T-Mobile store right in the middle of it, lol).

I think definitely the customer to tower ratio downtown is a huge factor, but will no doubt get better. I worked in the financial district for years and I remember when 3G first came out how crappy it was. My phone's battery wouldn't last a day as it was constantly switching between that and Edge.

Keep in mind that if you do your testing of H+/H connected to the fast.t-mobile.com APN, you won't get much more than 2-3Mb down since it's capped on that. I'm sure you'll see better results if you switch to ecu.mobile.com (on WCDMA).
 
bruce73 said:
@diemerm: if you look at a T-Mobile coverage map, you'll see that the stretch of Los Feliz that runs from the park through Atwater to Brand is a solid 4-bar area, probably because it's flat and fairly open (coincidentally, there's a T-Mobile store right in the middle of it, lol).

I think definitely the customer to tower ratio downtown is a huge factor, but will no doubt get better. I worked in the financial district for years and I remember when 3G first came out how crappy it was. My phone's battery wouldn't last a day as it was constantly switching between that and Edge.

Keep in mind that if you do your testing of H+/H connected to the fast.t-mobile.com APN, you won't get much more than 2-3Mb down since it's capped on that. I'm sure you'll see better results if you switch to ecu.mobile.com (on WCDMA).
Click to expand...

Thanks, yeah I made 2 settings on my phone so I have easy access to both the fast.t-mobile.com and epc.tmobile.com


Did you mean to put
 
jhawkkw said:
There's a high chance that if you did the radio flashes, the ota won't work. If this is the JWR66V update, you'll have to be on the .48 radio. If it's the JWR66Y update, you'll need to be on the .84 radio.
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This.

The update will download but prolly won't flash. Went through this several times myself.

But if it's 4.3 I wouldn't update to it. With all the bugs and stuff I keep seeing it seems it's better to just stay at 4.2.2. My thoughts at least.

Good luck
 
Thanks again for your help guys. I have one more question. I just flashed the .84 radio back on my phone. Now that I've done that, can I just go ahead with the update? I'm rooted, have the bootloader unlocked, and TeamWin custom recovery installed and I'm wondering if I need to undo any of that before I do the update.
 
diemerm said:
Thanks again for your help guys. I have one more question. I just flashed the .84 radio back on my phone. Now that I've done that, can I just go ahead with the update? I'm rooted, have the bootloader unlocked, and TeamWin custom recovery installed and I'm wondering if I need to undo any of that before I do the update.
Click to expand...

Can anybody answer this question for me please?
 
It's tough to tell, sometimes updates will go through cleanly, sometimes they won't. If the radio is back installed, you can try to take the update and see if it takes. You might lose root, but it would be easy to get back.
 
jhawkkw said:
It's tough to tell, sometimes updates will go through cleanly, sometimes they won't. If the radio is back installed, you can try to take the update and see if it takes. You might lose root, but it would be easy to get back.
Click to expand...

The update worked, I'm now fully up to date and back on LTE! Thanks for your help
 
I'm digging these supposed pictures of the next Nexus but I really hope they don't leave out lte especially att's bands.

This s3 is nice but I miss my nexus but after tasting these att lte speeds, the next Nexus has to have att lte options.
 
So I decided to jump into a 4.3 rom today, went with PSX my is it fast, however I don't have the network setting for LTE/GSM any longer under menu/settings/mobile networks.

anyone else see that happen?
 
Hey guys I flashed the hybrid radio, edited the build.prop, changed to LTE/GSM as preferred using *#*#4636#*#*, and added the LTE APN(T-Mobile) but I still don't have LTE. Just HSPA. Any tips?
 
Sasuke082594 said:
Hey guys I flashed the hybrid radio, edited the build.prop, changed to LTE/GSM as preferred using *#*#4636#*#*, and added the LTE APN(T-Mobile) but I still don't have LTE. Just HSPA. Any tips?
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Try setting the network from lte/Gsm to LTE only. If it won't connect, then you might not have it in that area.
 
jhawkkw said:
Try setting the network from lte/Gsm to LTE only. If it won't connect, then you might not have it in that area.
Click to expand...

Oh okay I thought about that but wasn't sure but I'll see because before I updated to 4.3 I would get as high as HSPA+15(non rooted) but I don't get that anymore as well.
 
Damn I just escaped from a 99% bricked device lol I soft bricked then wiped the system -.-! Anyways, if I leave all my LTE efforts alone and I want to go to back to just HSPA until further notice can I just use the HSPA APN and change to WCDMA preferred in the *#*#4636#*#* menu? Seeing as the Hybrid modem is a mix of .33 and .84.
 
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