4g in New York City first time impression

[Nitraine21]

Hi All,

Just wanted to give my impressions for using 4g for the first time in NYC.

I was in the city (actually at a Mets game at Citi Field, which is in Flushing, and was very excited to see I had a 4g signal. According to the settings, my 4g connection was "good" which showed on my phone as 2 bars.

First Impressions

Going into different applications that required network access, I noticed it was a bit faster updating. For example, posting pictures onto facebook seemed to go much quicker, as well as widgets updating seamlessly as well.

As far as the actual internet browsing, I didn't really see much of an increase in speed, and some sites it woud hang for a few seconds, as if it was on 3g still.

Battery seemed to drain a lot faster too. I was at about 80% when started to mess around with the phone, and when the game ended (about 2 hours) i was at a 40% (which includes 4 photos uploaded to facebook, some texting, and some browsing)

Overall

I do realize that wimax is not officially released in NYC so I understand that they are still tweaking and working on the network itself. That being said, I do feel that 4g will eventually be much better then 3g and more stable, and I did see the faster speeds.

It looks very promising and I hope once it is released it will be a strong point to entice customers from different networks over to Sprint.

Forgot to mention...

After toggling the 4g switch to off and go back into 3g mode, it would not connect to 3g. I actually had to put my phone into airplane mode and then back for the 3g to connect. I dont know if that is a bug on the phone itself, or with the 4g, but I just thought I would mention

 

[broken1i]

Thanks for the update. I live in NYC and have yet to experience 4g. I'll have to head down to Citi Field one day.

 

[MisterEd]

After toggling the 4g switch to off and go back into 3g mode, it would not connect to 3g. I actually had to put my phone into airplane mode and then back for the 3g to connect. I dont know if that is a bug on the phone itself, or with the 4g, but I just thought I would mention

I found that if I turn 4G off (when there is a connection) to go back to 3G it takes a couple MINUTES for it to reconnect to 3G if I do nothing else. You may not have waited long enough. Sometimes just by attempting to browse a web page (or access any other data app) kicks in the 3G (or 4G) as well.

 

[wubbie075]

How can we find out if we have any 4G signal in NYC? Does a 4G icon pop up on the notification bar?

I live in Queens, not "too" far from CitiField.

Also, do I need to disconnect from 3G before sparking the 4G connection up?

I found that if I turn 4G off (when there is a connection) to go back to 3G it takes a couple MINUTES for it to reconnect to 3G if I do nothing else.

I've been able to instantly reconnect to 3G. But, of course, this may have everything to do with me never actually successfully connecting to 4G.

 

[RoboMonkey]

After toggling the 4g switch to off and go back into 3g mode, it would not connect to 3g. I actually had to put my phone into airplane mode and then back for the 3g to connect. I dont know if that is a bug on the phone itself, or with the 4g, but I just thought I would mention

I've had this happen after going from WiFi to 3g.

 

[jrstinkfish]

I had a 4G signal in Central Park this evening. Actually, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and saw the 4G signal detection notification, but I'd already passed it by, so I didn't get to experience it

 

[capthr]

I get a 4G signal on the LIRR while in Queens just before reaching the tunnel into NYC. I have Speedtest on my EVO and in the 4G area I've been getting between 3 and 3.75 mbps download but the up speeds are between .3 and.77 mbps.

 

[Nitraine21]

I found that if I turn 4G off (when there is a connection) to go back to 3G it takes a couple MINUTES for it to reconnect to 3G if I do nothing else. You may not have waited long enough. Sometimes just by attempting to browse a web page (or access any other data app) kicks in the 3G (or 4G) as well.

That was what I was doing. I was trying to access a webpage and it kept saying, "data not available" or something like that. It definitely was a few minutes when I waited to connect. Maybe it was just a one time thing for me or something....

 

[Nitraine21]

How can we find out if we have any 4G signal in NYC? Does a 4G icon pop up on the notification bar?

I live in Queens, not "too" far from CitiField.

Also, do I need to disconnect from 3G before sparking the 4G connection up?

I had heard on the forum that they were doing a soft roll out of 4g in the NYC area, so i figured I would I would use the 4g toggle widget to see just for laughs if I would get a connection.

Low and behold, I see 3g disappear and 4g reappear at the top of the screen, and when I went into settings, it showed that I had a good connection. There is also an option to where it will give you a notification when 4g is available

 

[dylan88]

does anyone know if there is a signal around nassau county long island?

 

[Nitraine21]

does anyone know if there is a signal around nassau county long island?

Anything in New York would be in the metro area for 4g, it will probably be another year before it comes out east across the island

 

[dylan88]

Anything in New York would be in the metro area for 4g, it will probably be another year before it comes out east across the island

i was afraid of that. darn..

 

[wubbie075]

I had heard on the forum that they were doing a soft roll out of 4g in the NYC area, so i figured I would I would use the 4g toggle widget to see just for laughs if I would get a connection.

Low and behold, I see 3g disappear and 4g reappear at the top of the screen, and when I went into settings, it showed that I had a good connection. There is also an option to where it will give you a notification when 4g is available

I've been turning it on from time to time, but I have yet to actually find a signal

 

[Der Geist]

I hear by july we should have 4g in NYC and Long Island. We should have been the first state geez..

 

[Yankees368]

Ok, here is my report. I have been all around the NYC and LI area in the past few days, and what I have to report is not great. There was no wimax at either LGA or JFK, which is surprising. I could not find any in the areas of midtown that I was in. The wimax infrastructure in at least my part of long island (southern nassau county) doesn't even exist yet. There are no antennas in places that antennasearch.com says they are, nor on the sprint sites around me.

However, I did find Wimax in 2 spots. One was at Coney Island, at the Cyclones stadium. Although the signal was there, no data was working over it. The only place where I found active WiMax was in Jamaica, Queens, at the LIRR terminal. I pulled down 5100 kbps and sent back 1000 up.

Long story short, its nice where it exists in NYC, but its a LONG way off from a real launch.

 

[jrstinkfish]

Leaving NYC today, and I grabbed a 4G signal maybe 2 or 3 times while staying in my hotel and going to my class in the Financial District (hotel was at Front and Wall, class was 90 Broad St). The only difference I noticed was that my phone began to lag like crazy, so I usually just turned it off when that happened. The signal was very weak, so maybe that's why the speed wasn't that impressive -- I've got no explanation for why it was killing my phone.

 

[sbjp31]

I float between 2-3 bars in 4G in the Bronx by Yankee stadium.

 

[Yankees368]

I float between 2-3 bars in 4G in the Bronx by Yankee stadium.

I went to the Yankee game today, and I had my first chance to actually leave 4G on for an extended period. I sustained speeds of 5000kbps down. This concerns me. Odds are that this network is or is near empty. If we are only pulling down a max of 7 mbps, and 3G GSM can do over 7, wimax is going to come to a quick death

 

[broken1i]

Went down to Citi Field and was downloading at 8mb/s, uploading 1mb/s.

 

[Rigmaster]

I went to the Yankee game today, and I had my first chance to actually leave 4G on for an extended period. I sustained speeds of 5000kbps down. This concerns me. Odds are that this network is or is near empty. If we are only pulling down a max of 7 mbps, and 3G GSM can do over 7, wimax is going to come to a quick death

Sprint won't have the same level of traffic on wimax as others will on fsm 3g. Also, 3g gsm speed won't matter if you can't connect like so many of us former ATTers couldn't.

 

[wubbie075]

I was in a part of manhattan today that I do not often go to so I tried turning 4G on. It did not find a signal so I hit the widget to disable it again abd the very moment I hit it I got a notification that there was a 4G network available. I turned it back on right away, but of course it did not find the signal again *sigh*

 

[broken1i]

We'll get it soon, but yeah def looks promising. All it takes is a few antennas. Easier said than done right?

 

[KF2M]

No 4G loving here at 30 Rock, but I do get a 4G signal on my train ride home in NJ. From about North Ave in Elizabeth to Milton Ave in Rahway (yes, I get 4G at home if I stand out on the back porch).

 

[Nightrider276]

I pick up 4g on the LIRR when i pass through Jamaica station.

 

[Rigmaster]

I was in the Times Square/Theater District this weekend. No 4G signal at all. 3G was interesting though. At 4:30pm, it was low at 500-600 down & only 100 up. At 7:30pm, it ranged from 700-900 down and 600-700 up. After 9:45pm though it spiked up to 1300-2000 down and 1000 up. Never had trouble getting signal, making calls, or sending info, but there were definitely speed variations.

I had fun though because I got to watch my friends on ATT fail to connect. Again.