AT&T - 4G slow for anyone?

steveu694 · August 20th, 2012, 11:14 AM

I live in Houston. LTE is everywhere here. I just switched from Sprint. I had the Evo and it was pretty fast. My galaxy s3 seems decent, but the 4g seems laggy sometimes. I thought it was the phone, so I went into a store and they all seem that way. WiFi is way faster than the 4g. Is this just the way it is or am I expecting too much from 4g?

james515 · August 20th, 2012, 06:27 PM

does it happen all over Houston, or just in a few areas. inside the stores are really not going to get good 4G LTE reception. I have seen 4G LTE speeds up to 40mbps on a Galaxy S3, typical speeds were around 15 mbps, but it would hit near 40mpbs over on 59 south and Kirby near that Hooters. This was my
co-workers phone.

Downtown Houston will be very hit or miss, mostly on the miss side for LTE.

steveu694 · August 21st, 2012, 06:06 AM

It's everywhere for me. Very slow. Sometimes pages won't load, etc. I wonder if I need to switch carriers....

ardyer · August 21st, 2012, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steveu694

It's everywhere for me. Very slow. Sometimes pages won't load, etc. I wonder if I need to switch carriers....

Call AT&T customer service (or go into a store). They may have put you on the wrong data plan or there may be some service issues.

When I first got my S3, the NOVA cell towers were all suffering problems due to a recent thunderstorm. Something similar may be going on in Houston.

steveu694 · August 21st, 2012, 11:19 AM

I called and went to a store to compare my S3 with the others. They all are laggy. Giving it until the weekend to figure out what to do before I try out t-mobile or Verizon.

TgeekB · August 23rd, 2012, 07:54 AM

I don't live in Houston but, all I know is, when they turned on LTE in my home area (Western NY) speed increased x10. Not that regular 4G was slow, but now it is blazing fast.

lennydude · August 23rd, 2012, 09:17 AM

I really think it is a fact that the AT&T network needs lots of help. If it works well in your area then great but it definitely has it's issues.
At work i get 6 to 7 Mbps down and 20 miles away at home it drops to 3 to 4 Mbps down. Still very usable in my area at least. Best of the major carriers. BTW VZW sux bad in my area

TgeekB · August 23rd, 2012, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lennydude

I really think it is a fact that the AT&T network needs lots of help. If it works well in your area then great but it definitely has it's issues.
At work i get 6 to 7 Mbps down and 20 miles away at home it drops to 3 to 4 Mbps down. Still very usable in my area at least. Best of the major carriers. BTW VZW sux bad in my area

Are we talking LTE?

lennydude · August 23rd, 2012, 06:00 PM

No........no "LTE" in my area.........just HSPA+

TgeekB · August 23rd, 2012, 06:49 PM

Then that is not bad I would say.

lennydude · August 26th, 2012, 12:50 PM

I have a friend that is on the road a lot. He just sent me this screen shot. He said he was about 20 minutes north of Boston.
He has a HOX...................
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ??????????????

TgeekB · August 26th, 2012, 01:24 PM

That is on LTE and amazingly fast! Nice.

dean128 · August 26th, 2012, 07:40 PM

I can't compare AT&T to Sprint, but I know that AT&T is slower in most places than Verizon. Verizon has more 4G LTE coverage. Can you double-check if your phone just says 4G in the Notification bar; or does it say 4G LTE? If it doesn't say 4G LTE, than it's not on LTE.

I switched from Verizon to AT&T about 2 months ago because I wanted the Galaxy Note. I knew AT&T was slower because I compared my HTC Thunderbolt's (on Verizon) speed against a co-workers Galaxy Note (AT&T). His speed results were consistently 1.xx mbps. My Thunderbolt's speed results were consistently 6+ mbps (17 mbps max). The test were run in our in Irvine, CA office. But I wanted the Note, so I had to go with AT&T.

When I was in the Detroit airport, my Galaxy Note was on 4G, not LTE. My phone was useless for web browsing. The web pages wouldn't even load. I couldn't even run a speed test!

However, when the phone is on 4G around Orange County, CA (it's on 4G speed a lot), it's slow, but the web pages load most of the time. AT&T's 4G speed seems comparable to Verizon's 3G speed.

I meet many people from all over the country - Kentucky, Indiana, Boston, Northern California, Minnesota, etc. Nobody has anything good to say about the AT&T network. They look at me like I was an idiot for switching to AT&T. (Everyone said Verizon's network has better coverage for voice and data). Yes, I didn't make a good decision because not only is AT&T's network lousy, the Note is the worst Android phone I have owned.

I wish I never left Verizon.

lennydude · August 26th, 2012, 09:48 PM

I must say i have to agree with you! While riding around my area it becomes painfully obvious that the AT&T network is very bad. On one street i will have a full 6 to 7 MBPS down and 100 feet from there i can not even open a speed test.

When AT&T works in my area, it blows VZW away but as time goes by i have become very upset with the AT&T network. Slower is better than "nothing".

I am thinking really hard about switching back to VZW. They have the phone i have come to love and it would cost me roughly $60 more dollars per month...........yikes!

Oh well, guess it depends on what i am willing to pay. AT&T does not have LTE in my area but VZW does.