Unloced HTC One on T-Mobile, limited 4G

[Android Question]

A clerk at the T-Mobile store suggested I post here to see if anyone knows of a software fix to this.

I bought an HTC One from Google Play. It is unlocked.
T
-Mobile told me it would work on their network, which it does...to an extent.

I get calls without a problem. It's the data that has the issue. The phone mostly operates in Edge mode (2G) but sometimes will pick up H or LTE (4G). Not always though, maybe 20% of the time. I've had multiple calls with T-Mobile support and in-store. Nobody seems to know why it doesn't pick up 4G most of the time.

I have a Samsung 4S that when sitting right next to the HTC One will have 4G and the HTC One will be on Edge.

It's really frustrating to pay $600 for a phone and not be able to access the faster network on a consistent basis.

Phone has the latest Android version 4.3 and I have tried 3 different SIM cards.

Is there something I can download and install that will let me access 4G speeds?

 

[jhawkkw]

There are a couple of things at play here.
1)The GPE of the HTC One doesn't support HSPA on the 1700/2100 band. That's the band that T-Mobile operates a majority of it's HSPA on.
2)Since the One supports the 1900 HSPA band, you're picking that up when you're in an area that has been re-farmed from the 1700/2100 band.
3) When you see 4g, that means you have LTE. T-Mobile started the rollout of it this year and while it's expanding quickly, it's still not nearly as large as their EDGE or HSPA network.

There's nothing you can do about it except wait for T-Mobile to continue to re-farm areas to the 1900 hspa band and bring LTE to more areas.