T-Mobile in Los Angeles

[diemerm]

I have a Galaxy Nexus and overall have been very happy with it. One thing that has really been bugging me is my T-Mobile Service. Calling and texts are fine, but I have huge issues with data. I work in downtown LA, and while my phone shows full bars with the "H" symbol to indicate I'm on 4G, I can barely do anything in regards to data.

The problem is at its worst when I'm in downtown, but I do have issues with data all over the city. I'm constantly having to put my phone in airplane mode, and then back off, to reset the connection and be able to get data again. All of this while I have full bars and the "H" symbol.

My question is why does T-Mobile seem to be so horrible in LA? People around the country on the Galaxy Nexus forum tell me they get data speeds that I can't even get close to here in LA. And to top it off, I recently went on a vacation with my family to South Carolina. Data speeds were tripled compared with what I get here in LA.

How could this be, that I would have MUCH better service in a small town in South Carolina than in LA? Especially when most people believe T-Mobile only works well in large metro areas. It's very frustrating... because I love my Nexus, but T-Mobile is really my only option since AT&T doesn't have good no contract options. Any advice/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gtbarry]

Just guessing based on your self report that t-mobile capacity in downtown LA doesn't meet user demand. You can have full bars connection in both LA and South Carolina and have significantly faster speeds in one location as there are a fraction of users on the network.

Sorry. It's just a sucky numbers game.

 

[jhawkkw]

Towers only have so much bandwidth capacity. If you're the only one on the tower, you get all of it. If there's 2, you split it. And it grows from there. So if you're in LA, the second most populated city in the US, and compare it to anything in South Carolina, it's going to be drastically different in terms of number of users on a tower. All that can be done is the build more towers or use higher bandwidth capacity towers/devices. A Nexus 4 could see better performance since it has HSPA+42 and LTE compatibility instead of only HSPA+21 like the Gnex has.

 

[diemerm]

Towers only have so much bandwidth capacity. If you're the only one on the tower, you get all of it. If there's 2, you split it. And it grows from there. So if you're in LA, the second most populated city in the US, and compare it to anything in South Carolina, it's going to be drastically different in terms of number of users on a tower. All that can be done is the build more towers or use higher bandwidth capacity towers/devices. A Nexus 4 could see better performance since it has HSPA+42 and LTE compatibility instead of only HSPA+21 like the Gnex has.

Thanks for the replies. I figured it was probably due to overcrowding of the towers, but I just didn't think overcrowding would cause me to get literally no data connection. I attached a screenshot so you can see what I'm talking about. I have full service, and the H symbol shows... but as you can see the bars are grey because it can't even connect to Google's Servers.

jhawkkw: I had considered switching to the Nexus 4 because it can connect to HSPA+42, as you pointed out. Do you think my data connection would be more reliable if I were able to connect to +42 instead of only +21?

Its ridiculous.. I'm in the core of a large metro area and can't even send an email from my phone

 

[mogelijk]

I also suspect that some of your problem may be from towers being "fixed" and bandwidth being adjusted as LTE is being brought online in LA. It wouldn't surprise me if, to make sure they have plenty of bandwidth for future LTE use, that they aren't currently giving enough bandwidth to HSPA+ users (both use the 1700 MHz frequencies) -- though that will fix itself as more people buy LTE phones. It could also be worse if they have had an increase of users with the uncarrier plans.

Let me add, I doubt switching to an HSPA+ 42 phone would help, at least much. My understanding of the technology is that HSPA+ 42 is essentially two HSPA+21 connections running in sync. So, while it would "double" your connection speed, doubling an extremely slow connection speed is still very slow.

I expect you would do much better if you invested in a phone with LTE.

 

[new optimus]

While they are deploying lte all of the service gets jacked up. When they get all of it sorted your data problems should get better.

You may want to check your apn though as with the wrong apn your service is limited.

and since you are in LA I would suggest you get a lte phone, or even the nexus 4 and unlock the lte going forward from now lte will be the future and hspa + will likely suffer from lack of bandwidth as lte sucks it up.

 

[bob60626]

I've had similar issues with my TMobile S2 in Chicago, a strong TMobile city; I almost always get very good speeds and very good coverage but sometimes I'll have super slow actual use, even with full bars. I'm close to doing a factory reset. You might consider the same.

 

[diemerm]

Thanks for all the help, everybody. I agree with a lot of you that said my signal issues are probably due to T-Mobile's LTE Deployment here in LA.

I've been looking for an excuse to upgrade to the Nexus 4 and you guys gave me one I purchased my Nexus 4 on Google Play last night.

Now, I'll just need help unlocking LTE on the phone once I get it. In the meantime, if anybody is looking to buy an unlocked Galaxy Nexus in near flawless condition let me know!

 

[jhawkkw]

Thanks for all the help, everybody. I agree with a lot of you that said my signal issues are probably due to T-Mobile's LTE Deployment here in LA.

I've been looking for an excuse to upgrade to the Nexus 4 and you guys gave me one I purchased my Nexus 4 on Google Play last night.

Now, I'll just need help unlocking LTE on the phone once I get it. In the meantime, if anybody is looking to buy an unlocked Galaxy Nexus in near flawless condition let me know!

We have a stickied thread in the Nexus 4 ATR subform on how to do so here: http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?t=705892
I don't have LTE in my area or coming soon, but 1 staff member does and can verify that it works.

 

[diemerm]

Thought I should update this in case anyone else is having similar issues:

I received my Nexus 4 on Friday, and have been playing with it all weekend. After 3 days, one thing is clear to me: HSPA+42 is far superior to HSPA+21, at least in the Los Angeles region.

I was in multiple parts of the Los Angeles region this weekend, even all the way out in Pomona, and everywhere I went I was seeing pretty consistent speeds of at least 10 down. I even got 22 down at one point. These speeds are amazing compared to my Galaxy Nexus, where the highest I ever saw in Los Angeles was about 8 down, and even that was extremely rare.

Even at my office in downtown LA, where I was having the most problems, I've been doing speed tests this morning and getting a consistent 12 down. Lets see if that holds up when all the other workers get down here, I'm a bit of an early bird

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with my purchase. If anyone else is having the issue I had, and only has a HSPA+21 enabled phone, I would highly recommend upgrading to a phone with HSPA+42 enabled.

The way things are going, I probably won't even have to enable LTE on the phone

 

[jhawkkw]

That's good to hear that your speeds have improved. I'm still extremely jealous because my city only has HSPA+21 for T-Mobile, no 42 or LTE. The 21 isn't horrible hear though since I average about 6-7 mbps download here, which oddly enough was better than I got on Verizon's LTE on my Gnex. On that device, I couldn't get better than 5mbps, and plus I'm paying 100 dollars less per month. Major Win

 

[diemerm]

That's good to hear that your speeds have improved. I'm still extremely jealous because my city only has HSPA+21 for T-Mobile, no 42 or LTE. The 21 isn't horrible hear though since I average about 6-7 mbps download here, which oddly enough was better than I got on Verizon's LTE on my Gnex. On that device, I couldn't get better than 5mbps, and plus I'm paying 100 dollars less per month. Major Win

Yeah wow definitely a win. Thats crazy Verizon's LTE can't even beat 6-7 down. Hopefully you'll get HSPA+42 by you soon and leave Verizon in the dust!!

 

[jhawkkw]

Yeah wow definitely a win. Thats crazy Verizon's LTE can't even beat 6-7 down. Hopefully you'll get HSPA+42 by you soon and leave Verizon in the dust!!

Yeah, Verizon LTE is so congested here, it's crazy. I don't think we'll get 42, but I know we should get LTE because T-Mobile bought the aws spectrum in Rochester to use for LTE here. So it's only a matter of time.