Help Unlocked HTC One has 4G LTE issues on T-Mobile

[pasadenabill]

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]

Hello and welcome to AF. Thanks for joining up.

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.

 

[chong67]

OP, I have a HTC One by T-Mobile and I just bought a new HTC One on Google Play store. Both our phones are prepaid. I did see H on her phone but her phone is only pay by the minute and no data and she uses Wifi.

 

[Medion]

Just to expand on what jhawkkw said (Dude, I swear I'm not picking on you ), here goes...

First, for a better understanding, please read THIS POST.

Ok, now that you've hopefully read that post, here's the addendum for your phone. The Google Play Edition HTC One, like the Developer/Unlocked editions, does not support AWS HSPA+. So, you're limited to GPRS/Edge everywhere, LTE where available, and HSPA+ in refarmed areas that have not yet received LTE.

The thing is, a place HAS to be refarmed in order to get LTE. Without refarming, it doesn't happen. So in refarmed areas, you'll get LTE, or HSPA+, but going forward it will become exclusively LTE. In non-refarmed areas, you're limited to Edge. This means that you effectively have 2G and 4G, but no 3G (once LTE deployment is complete). In areas with little to no LTE coverage planned, you're on a 2G phone. This will change when T-Mobile expands their refarm effort to areas that they only offer 1900mhz (PCS). These places will be upgraded from Edge to HSPA+, but that's after their LTE deployment is nearly finished.

Also, are you actually seeing "4G" as a network indicator? The Google Play Edition Galaxy S4, and I believe the Nexus 4 as well, don't actually display a "4G" icon. They display;
GPRS = GPRS
Edge = E
3G (HSPA 7.2 and slower) = 3G
3G/"4G" (HSPA+ 14.4 and faster) = H
LTE = LTE

I believe that the Google Play Edition HTC One displays the same.

 

[Medion]

Also, are you actually seeing "4G" as a network indicator? The Google Play Edition Galaxy S4, and I believe the Nexus 4 as well, don't actually display a "4G" icon. They display;
GPRS = GPRS
Edge = E
3G (HSPA 7.2 and slower) = 3G
3G/"4G" (HSPA+ 14.4 and faster) = H
LTE = LTE

I believe that the Google Play Edition HTC One displays the same.

Correction - The Nexus 4 displays "4G" for LTE. So, I'm curious to see which method the HTC One GPE uses. The Galaxy S4 GPE behaves as I've listed above.

 

[chong67]

My wife got the HTC One Goo edition and I saw H on her phone in my area. I am surprised.

I only get her voice plan with no data, so no H is ok for her. She uses wifi mainly.