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Why are 3G speed tests so slow?

Hi everyone,

I was reading on XDA earlier about a fix for the 3g speeds being so slow. I would give the link except XDA is down right now. You will need your MSL number and it is a small process. I think it only works on stock Roms. I tried but couldn't get past the ##3282# dialer part.

Charles

I must have had a corrupted Rom wiped reflashed now I can access the ##3282# fix
 
If you're referring to clearing proxies, yes, we have that info on our forums. :)

Post back when they're up - or google it and post the proxy link - and we'll check it out.
 
I have the same problem. I just upgraded to the evo 4g from the moment. With the moment I was getting around 330 down and 150 up. With the evo I was only getting 10 Kbps down and 110Kbps up. Called sprint and after going through 4 customer I don't care reps I finally got to "advanced tech support" tech support. Needless to say they are not so advanced, but did help. Finally I agreed to a hard reset, not thinking it was going to work I was reluctant as I would lose everthing. After setting up I ran speedtest again and what do you know, a little better speeds. I was at 350 Kbs down and 800 up. Still not satisfied but atleast I can browse pages. The only thing I can come up with is using the taskiller killed some important background service and would not allow it to turn back on. It was only 3 days that I had the phone until today when I finally got it partially fixed. If anybody has the answer to why speeds suck please let me know. Thanks ahead.
 
So I called Sprint about another billing issue, and while on the phone I asked about the trouble ticket that was put in a few days ago, where a tech was supposed to come out and check the towers in my area. The guy said that ticket was closed again, and told me that a tech will only come out if there are multiple people having problems in one area, which there obviously isnt. He told me it must be my phone, and I told him I have had 4 brand new phones in the past 4 months, and all have had the same problem.

He asked me what my speeds were exactly, and I told him usually around 50kbps, slower than dial up. He said that's normal, and that 3g speeds will NEVER be faster than dial up. Facepalm...

I then told him how when I roam on Verizon, even if I only get 1 bar, I get normal speeds. He said that's impossible, as you cannot get data while roaming. Another facepalm...

So he basically told me to go to the store, again. Even though I have been there dozens of times, and every time they tell me that if a reset doesnt help, and reprogramming the phone doesnt help, then it must be a hardware problem, and they order me another one. So I will be headed back to the store tomorrow to probably get my 5th evo.
 
Hi All,
I noticed that with my EVO, I was getting very low page loads on 3G. I did a speed test and got around 120 kbps down fairly consistantly. I ran a speed test side by side with my Wife's EVO - I posted the picture below, but I got 120 kbps down and she got 1234 kbps down. Same location, side by side, same speed test app. Mine was fresh from a hard reset, and her settings are all default.

I since exchanged my EVO because I figured it was defective, but I am getting the same speeds on the new one.

So, not sure what is going on. Anyone have any suggestions?

IMG_4042.JPG






Thanks!

-David
 
ceabbott2 said:
Hi everyone,

I was reading on XDA earlier about a fix for the 3g speeds being so slow. I would give the link except XDA is down right now. You will need your MSL number and it is a small process. I think it only works on stock Roms. I tried but couldn't get past the ##3282# dialer part.

Charles
Click to expand...

Yes! I was going from sprint store to store trying to find something that could help, and one of the employees did a data reset for me which completely fixed this error for me. Previously I was getting scores ranging from 18-120kbs, and now I'm up to a consistent 1mb+. You do need your MPL number, let me see if I can post the procedure up in case anyone needs it (or it's not up already, which I doubt).
 
Just grabbed this off xda, but it is the exact procedure I used to fix my problem. Enter ##3282#. Once you put in the ##DATA code, select edit. Enter in your MSL. Press Menu. Select Restore. Once that's done and the phone resets, go into your settings and update Profile.

Not positive where to get MSL from as I got it in store, but here is the thread I pulled this from:

{Q}Data Reset Through ##3282# - xda-developers
 
The restore worked for me! I got my first evo on 1/14/11 and 3g speeds were horribly consistently slow out of the box. Got a new one on 1/21/11 and same exact problem. Was doing many tests with speedtest.net app and from mobilespeedtest.com from many locations w/in about a 25 mile radius of my house. Before my downloads were 1 - 130 Kb/s. Just did aobut 10 tests after restore and now I'm averaging ~700 kb/s with the last 2 tests hittin 1 mb/s.

For other newbies like myself, I did exactly this:

1. ##3282#
2. Select Edit
3. Enter MSL
4. Select Data Profile
5. Press Menu
6. Select restore

I called Sprint, told them I've been having consistent very slow 3g speeds and that I've been researching my own solution. Said I wanted to do a hard reset on my phone and I needed the MSL code. She gave it to me w/o hesitation.

Note, my phone is stock (unrooted). Status:

Phone:
HTC EVO - Unrooted (stock)

Hardware:
Hardware Version - 0003

Software:
Android version - 2.2
Baseband version - 2.15.00.11.19
Kernel Version - 2.6.32.17
Build number - 3.70.651.1
Software number - 3.70.651.1
Browser version- WebKit 3.1
PRI Version - 1.90_003
PRL - 60674

All these versions were the same before and after the reset (phone automatically checked for updates after reset). I probably do the proxy bypass lil later but for now I'm very happy. Good luck.
 
It's the alphabet soup name for Master Subsidy Lock.

All we really care is the expression - MSL code - it's a number sequence that lets you kinda log in to the service menu areas of your phone.
 
So, I just got off the phone with sprint an hour or so ago. They sent a tech out to the area where I was having trouble. They said that it was most likely an issue because I was at a major intersection, and there were several towers in the area, and I was being bounced back and forth.

Soooo...assuming I understood her correctly, there is too much coverage? I've never heard of such a thing.
 
techiedork said:
Hi All,
I noticed that with my EVO, I was getting very low page loads on 3G. I did a speed test and got around 120 kbps down fairly consistantly. I ran a speed test side by side with my Wife's EVO - I posted the picture below, but I got 120 kbps down and she got 1234 kbps down. Same location, side by side, same speed test app. Mine was fresh from a hard reset, and her settings are all default.

I since exchanged my EVO because I figured it was defective, but I am getting the same speeds on the new one.

So, not sure what is going on. Anyone have any suggestions?

IMG_4042.JPG






Thanks!

-David
Click to expand...

I had this problem too with 2 phones. I bet the slow phone on the left is stuck in 1X mode but since sprint/htc has fudged the 3G icon to say 3G regardless, you won't know unless you download a 3rd party app.

I used the one that is featured on this page to prove it to the sprint store i took it to: Signal Strength Widget - Android app on AppBrain

Joel
 
4thHorsemen said:
The restore worked for me! I got my first evo on 1/14/11 and 3g speeds were horribly consistently slow out of the box. Got a new one on 1/21/11 and same exact problem. Was doing many tests with speedtest.net app and from mobilespeedtest.com from many locations w/in about a 25 mile radius of my house. Before my downloads were 1 - 130 Kb/s. Just did aobut 10 tests after restore and now I'm averaging ~700 kb/s with the last 2 tests hittin 1 mb/s.

For other newbies like myself, I did exactly this:

1. ##3282#
2. Select Edit
3. Enter MSL
4. Select Data Profile
5. Press Menu
6. Select restore

I called Sprint, told them I've been having consistent very slow 3g speeds and that I've been researching my own solution. Said I wanted to do a hard reset on my phone and I needed the MSL code. She gave it to me w/o hesitation.

Note, my phone is stock (unrooted). Status:

Phone:
HTC EVO - Unrooted (stock)

Hardware:
Hardware Version - 0003

Software:
Android version - 2.2
Baseband version - 2.15.00.11.19
Kernel Version - 2.6.32.17
Build number - 3.70.651.1
Software number - 3.70.651.1
Browser version- WebKit 3.1
PRI Version - 1.90_003
PRL - 60674

All these versions were the same before and after the reset (phone automatically checked for updates after reset). I probably do the proxy bypass lil later but for now I'm very happy. Good luck.
Click to expand...

I just had the same issues you did i wasnt getting anything past 128 kbps download and 190 kbps upload!

I just did the same thing you did and now same location same server on speed test i am getting 1012kbps download and 604 kbps upload
 
I will look into this. Sprint is doing some pretty big reorganizing of it spectrum and tower spacing. That could cause a few problem. A lot of the towers are being backhauled right now. They are changing from copper to fiber. They are also changing from copper to wimax. Some towers are being moved. techiedork Please unplug your phone and try again. Do a full update, everything under the system updates. If you use taskkiller to remove some programs, like the program that controls the 3g radio, you will drop the phone down to 2g. Turn off the task killer and run the test again, also run the program on wifi. If that does not fix your problem, turn off all the streaming programs, like pandora. Remove anything that was not stock, ie, batteries, stickers, and custom items. My sister loves to sticker things, with the metal backed stickers. Just looking at the bars, you there should not be a huge difference between them like that. So you may have a bad antenna. If you can not get the phone to download right, take both phones into sprint, show them the difference in reception and get another phone.
 
I used to be able to roam on Verizon with unlimited speed. Now I am restricted to the 1x it seems. Its ok tho, I am now a wiz with changing my PRL to my advantage
 
So yeah, did the proxy change, can't even watch a regular low quality youtube video without it stuttering, tried giving it load time and it still sucked, did the speedtest.net thing and even with gps on its having me go through brittish server tests which are no where near Minnesota :P
 
The only thing that worked for me was a hard reset and starting from scratch. I did all the tips. tricks, changed this and that and nothing worked. I finally got fed up and just wiped and reinstalled my ROM. I didn't restore any of the apps from my back up either. I chose instead to download them fresh from the market. So far my speeds are back to normal.
 
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