Why are 3G speed tests so slow?

[dan330]

Ok this is rather sad. Me and my friend were in the train and we were both deep into Facebook when I lifted my head I see his phone loading pages normally while my phone took 4minutes to load a page that had flash content like a video link. It took 4 minutes tk load the text not the video content previewpreview picture. I told hik to check out how fast his phone will load that same website and it took 30 seconds. He is on sprint with a much crappier phone which apparently is much better at browsing the internet. Oh and my download speed on good coverage is about 100kbs with 700 mili seconds latency and extreemly choppy speed when i look at the chart the line looks like my grandma's ekg exam at the doctor. I am going to drag myself to the sprint store and see if they can do something about otherwise I am going to kick the Evo the curb. I need a phone that works not one that makes we wait until I get home and get it on WiFi to view Facebook.

have you tried the suggestions from the few posts above you?

 

[alextop30]

have you tried the suggestions from the few posts above you?

I tried the "solution" with the network app. What the app says is I am running at -88dBm and I am getting 100 mbs download and virtually no upload.If you ask me that solution does not seem to work very well for me!!!

 

[EarlyMon]

I tried the "solution" with the network app. What the app says is I am running at -88dBm and I am getting 100 mbs download and virtually no upload.If you ask me that solution does not seem to work very well for me!!!

Ok - the network/CDMA auto thing is primarily a stability fix - this is the 3G speed fix: http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-tips-tricks/280082-major-solution-fix-your-slow-3g-speeds-evo4g.html

If that all fails, you may simply have a defective Evo, in which case, you'll need to exercise insurance or consumer rights, whichever applies in your case.

 

[Grung]

Coincidence or not, my speeds seem to nosedive right after I changed the proxy ports to correct the audio streaming problem. Called Sprint and asked for my MSL..why do you want that?...to correct the audio streaming problem. OK, I'll do it for you...No just give me my MSL...too late, it's done. The proxy ports changed...but it seems like ever since, so have my 3G speeds.

My buddy who has the same phone, but no proxy port changes, gets close to a 1.0 DL and 0.5 UL speeds, sitting two feet away from mine getting 0.4 DL and 0.3 UL using the same server on Speedtest net. I do have a few more apps than him but not significant.

What gives here?

 

[alextop30]

Yesterday I was messing around with my phone (isn't that what we all geeks do all the time ) and updated my profile after which I updated the pln from the options and had a wick glimpse of those crazy speeds everyone is getting for the first time I saw 1 meg download on my phone, however after continuous testing it seems that the speed goes down quite a bit. I am planning to do some testing in Downtown Chicago where I am having the major problem of full 3 g signal and absolutely no connection my websites do not load at all and I am right under the Sears Tower aka Willis Tower now a days. I will report back when I do those tests.

 

[wiltok]

Alextop - I am right across the river from you. IMO - the Sprint towers are just overloaded - that's why we are getting crappy 3G speeds. I have called, reset, yada yada yada. It works fine at home (Western Burbs) - but as soon as I get in the city the speeds nosedive. I will be cancelling and going to Verizon. ATT btw is no better. I have an IPad with a data plan and their speeds pretty much suck as well.

 

[alextop30]

Alextop - I am right across the river from you. IMO - the Sprint towers are just overloaded - that's why we are getting crappy 3G speeds. I have called, reset, yada yada yada. It works fine at home (Western Burbs) - but as soon as I get in the city the speeds nosedive. I will be cancelling and going to Verizon. ATT btw is no better. I have an IPad with a data plan and their speeds pretty much suck as well.

Hey glad to hear from someone in the area that I am having problems in. It is pretty much what I am seeing. Full 3g signal and 100k download on a good try. Most of the time I see network communication error. Pages do not load - it takes 3 minutes to load google (are you serious 3 minutes for the mobile google site the one that got 1 picture on it). Next I live out west too and on the train ride I can barely stand my phone it shows at lest 3 bars and it takes minutes to load pages especially bbc news page. I find this ridiculous when my friend with a windows phone from htc can watch stupid movies from netflix on his phone.

I think I will be calling sprint and seeing what can be done and if they dont fix it they can have their phone back and I will just go to varizon or am just going to buy a dummy phone.

 

[verngator]

Seriously - I recommend the Network app to avoid that confusion, I really do.

The less time you spend mucking inside the area where the MSL is required, the less chance you have of making a mistake that only Sprint can fix.

I urge all to follow the steps as I gave them for that app.

Even if already at CDMA Auto, select GSM Auto, exit, restart app, select CDMA Auto.

The app will read a bad setup oddly and report CDMA Auto when it's not.

This fix goes back to the Evo launch days.

Thanks for reminding me about this one! I had to totally wipe, reflash, re-provision my EVO, and I forgot to do this again. This made a huge difference!

 

[LGMofield]

I just switched from the Palm Pre and I noticed before I switched that Sprint 3G which we got about 6 months ago was not as fast as it was when it first started in the area.I now have the EVO frrom Sprint and it is about the same or a little better.Sprint said it depemds how many people are on the 3G speed tthe more people the slower it will run sometimes.If that is the case they ought to pay us for the EVO instead of us paying them the extra 10.00 for smart phone fee.

 

[EVU]

Ok - the network/CDMA auto thing is primarily a stability fix - this is the 3G speed fix: http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-tips-tricks/280082-major-solution-fix-your-slow-3g-speeds-evo4g.html

If that all fails, you may simply have a defective Evo, in which case, you'll need to exercise insurance or consumer rights, whichever applies in your case.

Earlymon - what do you mean that this is stability fix vs. the above?

I did the above & am rolling @ 1mbps on 3G.
Was wondering if I needed to do the stability fix also....

 

[quejay19]

Did a trick that I found on a xda thread, the one where you hack the phone to work on VZ network. Worked great, got consistent speeds above 1mb at home where before i was getting only about 200-350kbps. but lost 3g after a day and a half, guess went over the roaming limit. But in the same thread there was another post about changing the SID, looks like most evos are set to Kansas city, changed mine to where i am, Providence, RI, and I am getting a bit better speeds. still hovers around the old speed some times, but more near or above 500kpbs most of the time, and sometimes jumps up to about 800kbs, only got that one time before at 2am, lol.

[6/16]*techknowfile's* - Hack the HTC EVO - 3G w/o Sprint EVDO coverage! - xda-developers

here is where i found the sid if anyone wants to try and not read the whole thread, it is somewhere in the middle. Sprints seems to be in the 4000-4999 range, just make sure you find the closest to you and that it is a sprint one.
The Roaming Zone-System ID (SID) List
You need your MSL to be able to do it, ##DATA#, Edit mode, enter MSL, go to advanced and scroll down to Home SID/NID, leave NID alone and just change SID, the first set of numbers. Hit menu, and commit changes. If it lists 4139 that means it was set to Kansas City. This is not the hack for VZ 3g, thats a whole other process, lol.

And just to add, been using sprint tv since the change back to sprint 3g with the SID fix, and it is running much better, little lag and no to little pixilation, much better than before at the same location.

This IS the solution guys. Trust me. By changing the SID to the closest SPRINT server so no roaming is involved. No need to fear Sprint kicking you off. I learned to do this on my HTC Hero. Warning: Flashing a new radio changes the SID back. Enjoy!

 

[spyder40]

My speeds have been crap for quite a while and that's just using it not trusting speedtest numbers which also show crap. Tried the various tricks to no avail. Pings are huge at 250-700ms. Tethering/hotspot (which I'm paying for) is also about worthless. Something is up because it wasn't like this when I first got it at launch.

 

[armandov99]

FWIW I get a ping of 459ms, download speed of 79kbps, and upload of 41kbps. I can't even use some of my apps because they time out (like when sending a picture of a check using Schwab app for deposit).

So much for the "now" network. Although I hate Verizon and I'd pay much more I'm close to switching to them just so I can actually have some damn service. This is pathetic.

 

[EVU]

Did a trick that I found on a xda thread, the one where you hack the phone to work on VZ network. Worked great, got consistent speeds above 1mb at home where before i was getting only about 200-350kbps. but lost 3g after a day and a half, guess went over the roaming limit. But in the same thread there was another post about changing the SID, looks like most evos are set to Kansas city, changed mine to where i am, Providence, RI, and I am getting a bit better speeds. still hovers around the old speed some times, but more near or above 500kpbs most of the time, and sometimes jumps up to about 800kbs, only got that one time before at 2am, lol.

[6/16]*techknowfile's* - Hack the HTC EVO - 3G w/o Sprint EVDO coverage! - xda-developers

here is where i found the sid if anyone wants to try and not read the whole thread, it is somewhere in the middle. Sprints seems to be in the 4000-4999 range, just make sure you find the closest to you and that it is a sprint one.
The Roaming Zone-System ID (SID) List
You need your MSL to be able to do it, ##DATA#, Edit mode, enter MSL, go to advanced and scroll down to Home SID/NID, leave NID alone and just change SID, the first set of numbers. Hit menu, and commit changes. If it lists 4139 that means it was set to Kansas City. This is not the hack for VZ 3g, thats a whole other process, lol.

And just to add, been using sprint tv since the change back to sprint 3g with the SID fix, and it is running much better, little lag and no to little pixilation, much better than before at the same location.

Not sure if their roaming agreement is so restrictive that SPCS actually permit the lousy end user experience.

Or else they are the worse when it comes to configuring the handset to acquire the closest tower.