Lousy down/up load speed on 3G

[gtl408]

Well, the Fascinate on the Verizon network looks to not have the same upload issues as us. It's registering the expected down/upload speeds: http://androidforums.com/samsung-fascinate/172795-whats-your-3g-speed.html

 

[gtl408]

You would think that Samsung would have been wise enough to squish these major bugs out prior to doing such a massive launch. Samsung phones have a reputation of have weak radios, but this is ridiculous.

Good luck with the Evo. I had one prior to the Epic and it provided by far, the better initial experience. I also found the battery life to be pretty close to the Epic, which isn't great, but far from how horrible the Evo's reputation had suggested it to be.

I hit my "final straw" with the Epic yesterday when I found that the WiFi range was pitiful - showing almost no signal and very slow performance even when a littany of other devices were showing MAX signal,

I've never had so many issues with a device before in my entire life. I don't mind the odd software bug at launch, but a series of issues, all dealing with radio issues, that it isn't clear CAN be fixed by software is just assinine.

Sprint's general cluelessness about the issues (different stories every time I called, none of them making any sense), combined with them not surfacing on any of the major tech sites, and Samsung's track record of reticence in providing updates (let alone timely updates) soured me to the whole experience. I am unconvinced that these issues will ever get properly fixed, and certainly no longer had hope they would do it in the first 30 days.

I returned the device yesterday, tried two others in the store just to attempt to verify it wasn't a broken handset I was dealing with, and when they all acted identically I took advantage of the fact that had Evo's back in stock and swapped the Epic for one of those.

End result: GPS that locks in seconds without needing a reboot to clear the stale cached data, much better GPS SNR, 3G speeds of 2 Mbps downstream and 750 Kbps upstream, WiFi that has acceptable range and no wondering when I'll get Froyo since it's on the Evo now out of the box.

If Samsung ever publically fix the issues (and they are independently confirmed) I'll grab another Epic ... right now I need a phone that has a full complement of properly working features and isn't compromised in its communications functionality.

For everyone waiting it out, I really hope Samsung come through!

 

[Bperry]

So what is the general consensus here? Is it a hardware radio issue, or software/oding problem that is causing the slow U/L speeds?

 

[robl45]

assuming they used the same hardware in the fascinate, I'd guess software for this issue. GPS, I don't know.

So what is the general consensus here? Is it a hardware radio issue, or software/oding problem that is causing the slow U/L speeds?

 

[Pitbull329]

assuming they used the same hardware in the fascinate, I'd guess software for this issue. GPS, I don't know.

I would hope its just software related. Would hate to find out its hardware, or that Sprint somehow put a restriction on the upload for this phone? (not too familiar with how these things work so if its not possible, dont laugh haha)

 

[robl45]

I would hope its just software related. Would hate to find out its hardware, or that Sprint somehow put a restriction on the upload for this phone? (not too familiar with how these things work so if its not possible, dont laugh haha)

i don't think t hey put a restriction on as the Evo has no problem and sprint does seem to believe it should be doing higher uploads.

 

[jim2point0]

Guys, I actually went into a Sprint store today to have them look at it up close. I came out of that store ****ING IRATE.

Well first of all, the customer service guy was nice as always. He was actually shocked when I showed him my download speeds of 1500 Kbits, but only 150 Kbits upload max. He said that isn't normal for the Epic. He changed the server a few times on the speed test app... same result. He said the Epic should be faster and to take it to the tech guys.

So I waited in line for about 20 minutes. There were a lot of people with issues related to their blackberries (hah). Anyways, they finally got to me and I showed them my upload speeds. They said that's probably normal for the phone. When I asked him if it sounds normal that a brand new $500 phone has a slower upload speed than a 2G phone, he said "but that's a 4G phone." When I asked if it's okay that I'm paying $10 more a month for a REALLY POORLY capped upload speed, he said I'm paying $10 a month more for 4G... even though I don't even have 4G at my house.

He then plugged the phone into some diagnostic tool that also can tell what the actual download\upload speeds of the phone are. He said 150 is average 3G upload for this phone and there isn't anything they can do about it. It is what it is. Samsung HAS to fix it... or it wont get changed. He didn't seem like he cared at all though. He talked down to me as if I was a spoiled brat.

I dunno... as much as I don't care about my 3G upload.... this is ******ed. I wanted to return my phone right then and there but the idea of going back to my EVO depressed me... so I'm going to stick it out and see if this issue is brought to Samsung's attention.

 

[Shane112358]

Based on this, the GPS fix problem, the bluetooth connectivity problem, and the surprising lack of good EAS support, I plan on exchanging my phone at day 30 for an Evo if these problems aren't fixed.

 

[Bperry]

Jim you have the same experience I have had. Both with calling sprint and going to the store. These people suck, here we pay their wages and they don't care if your brand new $500 phone and $120 a year purchase is good or if it sucks. Unfortunately I am between a rock and a hard spot. This is sprints nicest phone IMO. But to switch to another carrier means fighting to not pay the $200 and then going to a tiered data plan. Well for me anyway because I would get an iphone 4.

I guess I'll just ride it out and keep looking at the forums and hope 2.2 comes out and fixes some stuff before 30 days is up.

I really wish they would have the 4g charge as an option also. sprint already has the tethering as a pay option why can't 4g be a option instead of ramming it down everyone throat to pay for the infrastructure

 

[robl45]

actually they are misinformed at the sprint store, the 10 dollars is for premium data, which clearly we are not getting. 2.2 will never be out before the 30 days is up. we will be lucky if 2.2 is on the phone before the end of the year if ever. i'm seriously debating what to do, I love the phone but this issue is beyond stupid.

Jim you have the same experience I have had. Both with calling sprint and going to the store. These people suck, here we pay their wages and they don't care if your brand new $500 phone and $120 a year purchase is good or if it sucks. Unfortunately I am between a rock and a hard spot. This is sprints nicest phone IMO. But to switch to another carrier means fighting to not pay the $200 and then going to a tiered data plan. Well for me anyway because I would get an iphone 4.

I guess I'll just ride it out and keep looking at the forums and hope 2.2 comes out and fixes some stuff before 30 days is up.

I really wish they would have the 4g charge as an option also. sprint already has the tethering as a pay option why can't 4g be a option instead of ramming it down everyone throat to pay for the infrastructure

 

[gtl408]

Hopefully all of you have called Sprint to complain. I've done my part and in fact, called them again today to get status on the support tickets that were supposedly filed for me a couple of days ago. Of course, no updates were logged and it was explained to me that Sprint tech support folks deal on a 1 to 1 basis. No field tests will be done unless 3 or more folks in the same area complain about service issues. According to their records, I don't live in a EVDO Rev. A area, so the upload rates I'm getting are 2x better than the norm and it's unknown how the Evo 4G that I had before was getting close to 1 Mbps for its uploads. That record will prevent any field work to be done. I further explain how this was not an area specific issue and we have a couple threads on this forum alone that shows that I'm not alone. The interest wasn't there to check it out, so I decided to give Sprint the finger and return the phone. That call and all the work arounds (like toggle flight mode to avoid a worse battery drain) I have to do to get this thing to work properly made me decide to throw in the towel. So, I'm back with the Death Star network and got back into Job's walled garden, which I was so wanting to avoid. The iPhone has it's annoyances, but at least the important stuff (for me) work. Anyway, I wish you all best of luck and hope that Samsung/Sprint get the issues fixed for you before your 30 days are up. I've just run out of patience, mostly with Samsung as I've gone through the Vibrant, Captivate, and now the Epic.

 

[Araliss]

Hey guys, sorry everyone is still having problems. Mine were far more then the terrible uploads. I had terrible downloads and dropped calls. I took the Epic back and I have a Fascinate. I miss my beautiful slide out keyboard, but now the phone, the 3g up and down, all work as they should.

 

[infamousjax]

Hey guys, sorry everyone is still having problems. Mine were far more then the terrible uploads. I had terrible downloads and dropped calls. I took the Epic back and I have a Fascinate. I miss my beautiful slide out keyboard, but now the phone, the 3g up and down, all work as they should.

Hey, can you elaborate a little bit on the problems that you had? I have horrible download speeds, and am wondering if it's the phone, location, or just a general problem with Epics all together. I'm on my 2nd Epic, and the one before had the exact same problems as this one with the data speeds being really screwy. I'm aware that the upload cap is in place for all Epics, but my downloads are the thing that I'm worried about.

My phone will be at 3 bars, and then drop to zero bars after a couple seconds, and go back and forth from there every couple minutes. I can't update the PRL or profile as it says I can't get a connection. I've had a couple dropped calls but it was in a no service area around town.

I'm just concerned if I should maybe try and switch out my phone again or think about switching carriers~!

Thanks!

 

[Araliss]

Hey, can you elaborate a little bit on the problems that you had?
Thanks!

Hey, I hear you. Everything you listed I had it. Part of it is the Epic. The Evo has a much better Radio. If you check back to page 1 and 2, I listed my speeds often lol. I had some of the worse on here. So weaker radio and a weak Sprint signal. Dropped calls, internet way to slow to even consider tethering.

At my husband's job I could get 4 to 5 bars. And it was pretty fast, minus the upload cap. Once I went to Verizon, for my area, my connections were fast on both up and down.

If your new to sprint you could try the Evo to compare. The Evo was usually twice as fast at downloads and uploads then my Epic running them side by side.

 

[Torq]

You would think that Samsung would have been wise enough to squish these major bugs out prior to doing such a massive launch. Samsung phones have a reputation of have weak radios, but this is ridiculous.

Good luck with the Evo. I had one prior to the Epic and it provided by far, the better initial experience. I also found the battery life to be pretty close to the Epic, which isn't great, but far from how horrible the Evo's reputation had suggested it to be.

Me again

Given all the bad press about the GPS on the other Galaxy S phones it really is surprising that that issue, at least, wasn't properly tested and sorted before the Epic shipped.

The other radio issues are more surprising still!

This is my fourth Evo now! I got one on launch day and it's radio was obviously faulty (that handset, not the device overall). I returned my 2nd replacement (so third phone) right after picking up the Epic.

The new Evo actually works properly unlike the prior 3 (all faulty units, though we could put that down to poor QC at HTC ... at least it wasn't endemic functional issues). Most notably the HotSpot is giving me about 1 Mbps down and 600 Kbs up on 3G (4G is even better). Previously that function was uselessly slow!

Oddly when I went from Evo to Epic it was "Okay, the screen is bright and the contrast is good, but the PenTile stuff is very obvious", going back to the Evo it really shows how nice that SAMOLED screen is (it'd still be better as RGB!)!

 

[Charles C]

And the speeds, to be honest, are way underwhelming:

using speedtest.net the first time:

Down: 335 kbps
Up: 11 kbps

Yes, that's ELEVEN. I thought that couldn't possibly be right, so I ran it again immediately:

Down: 6 kbps (yes, SIX)
Up: 139 kbps

I've updated profile a couple of times, but no dice. I also can't send (but can receive) text messages at all. I'm starting to think I got a defective one. Sadly, I bought it from Amazon and ported my AT&T number to it, so I don't even know if I have the safety of the 30 day guarantee without losing my number.

In the phone's defense, the call quality was pretty awesome and the screen is a thing of beauty.

 

[Nucleartx]

Not a sprint cap. Just tested on verizon 3g and same results. So it looks like software issue.

 

[gtl408]

When the Droid X was out, I had ported my AT&T over to Verizon for a couple of weeks. I was able to port back to AT&T without a problem and free. You should check with AT&T to see how long you have, though, as I forget if it was 30 or 45 days. As for your speeds, you should go to your local Sprint store to run the speed test and compare with the demo units.

And the speeds, to be honest, are way underwhelming:

using speedtest.net the first time:

Down: 335 kbps
Up: 11 kbps

Yes, that's ELEVEN. I thought that couldn't possibly be right, so I ran it again immediately:

Down: 6 kbps (yes, SIX)
Up: 139 kbps

I've updated profile a couple of times, but no dice. I also can't send (but can receive) text messages at all. I'm starting to think I got a defective one. Sadly, I bought it from Amazon and ported my AT&T number to it, so I don't even know if I have the safety of the 30 day guarantee without losing my number.

In the phone's defense, the call quality was pretty awesome and the screen is a thing of beauty.

 

[gtl408]

Not a sprint cap. Just tested on verizon 3g and same results. So it looks like software issue.

Are we talking about running an unlocked Epic on Verizon?

 

[Araliss]

And the speeds, to be honest, are way underwhelming:

using speedtest.net the first time:

Down: 335 kbps
Up: 11 kbps

Yes, that's ELEVEN. I thought that couldn't possibly be right, so I ran it again immediately:

Down: 6 kbps (yes, SIX)
Up: 139 kbps

I've updated profile a couple of times, but no dice. I also can't send (but can receive) text messages at all. I'm starting to think I got a defective one. Sadly, I bought it from Amazon and ported my AT&T number to it, so I don't even know if I have the safety of the 30 day guarantee without losing my number.

In the phone's defense, the call quality was pretty awesome and the screen is a thing of beauty.

I think you have 30 days to port your number back to AT&T without a fee to turn your phone back on. Amazon is amazing to work with. But you do need to port your number somewhere before you turn off your phone or you lose your number. And you do get the 30 day return window. I just returned one there myself, no issues. Great way to buy a phone.

 

[Charles C]

I took a walk through town and tried it outside my house. Speed was definitely better, still not mind blowing (80kbps upload pretty consistently). Also tested out the 4G while out. Got 1800ish kbps download, still only 160 up. So it could just be that 3G in my house is not great. Annoying, but not unworkable.

Still can't send texts though - looks like that one will require a call to Sprint.

 

[Nucleartx]

Are we talking about running an unlocked Epic on Verizon?

Roaming in a former Alltel area with a 3G agreement still in place(for the short term).

 

[Araliss]

Roaming in a former Alltel area with a 3G agreement still in place(for the short term).

Nice, I wish I could have taken my Epic to Verizon.

 

[gilgehmesh]

I sorry that you guys are getting such bad 3G upload speed on your Epic. Those upload speeds are not acceptable. They really need to fix this issue.

 

[Bperry]

So what if we all just start filing a complaint with the BBB?

These SOB's aren't going to do anything until they are made to.