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Help Horrible Download speeds

side0ut

Member
Jun 11, 2010
54
3
Hi,

Just wanted run this by everyone to see what they think. When I use my phone at my house, I get horrible download speeds. I get between 60 kbps - 100kbps download and about 600kbps upload most of the time on 3g. Don't have 4g at my house since I live outside of San Antonio. Every once in a while, I get 600kbps - 1200kbps download speed. I used to get consistantly 1000kbps when I had my Touch Pro. I called sprint and they said it was because there must be a bunch of users on the network at that time and there was nothing that they could see wrong with the tower in my area. Since noone else called about download speeds, they could not help me other than wanting me to power all the way down and back up. I tried that once, but it did not make a difference. When I am in town, I get the normal 600 - 1200 speeds. My question is, does anyone think that sprint is correct and that the speed is just that low due to alot of people using the network? Or is there something wrong with my tower? Or is there something I can do to my phone to get better download speeds? 80kbps just sucks.. Can't hardly even surf the internet much less watch a video.
 
My question is, does anyone think that sprint is correct and that the speed is just that low due to alot of people using the network? Or is there something wrong with my tower? Or is there something I can do to my phone to get better download speeds?

There are more than 2 factors that play into your data speeds, but the biggest ones are signal level, and the capacity of the resource you are using. At their highest, EV-DO speeds can reach 2.4 Mbps down, but that is with a very small amount of users and at least 2 T1's feeding the card. As the card fills up, data speeds will decrease as the bandwidth needs to be shared.
 
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When I had my Hero I noticed decent speeds here in Central Florida, but since I have had my EVO, I average 500-600kbps downloads.

I just tested the Tampa server on Speedtest.net and got a less than steller 282kbps down and 192kbps up. I don't understand the slowdown, but I am guessing due to the EVO, the amount of traffic has increased on the network without upgrading the infrastructure.

The guys I work with that have iPhones are getting 2200kbps on ATT's 3G network. I hope Sprint does something soon.

My signal level is showing 4 bars. I think I will call and ask for my $10 a month back.
 
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My signal strenth is between 3 and 4 bars. So I guess there are just that many people on the network. Just would not have expected it since I am out in the country. Maybe it is because more people are moving to sprint and using up the bandwidth..:(

Download the app real signal, it will give u a separate 3g signal meter so u can tell what it really is. Shows cdma(phone) and evdo (3g). I only use it for 3g since the cdma gets redundant with the stock meter.
 
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Thanks. I will try the real signal app and see what my 3g signal is. Hopefully, it is just a bad signal and I can find a better one in the house and use my wifi tether. I have been with sprint since 2004. They have gotten alot better on 3g speeds since 2004, I can tell you that. When I first got sprint, I had the HTC 6700 and could only get 1x at my house. I used my sprint insurance to upgrade to the 6800 mogul and then the Touch pro. Up until I got the evo, I was getting about 1mg down with my touch pro and wifi tether. I have not done any of the updates for my evo since I don't want to loose the wifi tether. Correct me if I am wrong but the evo update only increases the 4g signal and not the 3g so the update would not help me, any would it? If I knew I could consistantly get 1m down again by doing the update, then I would.
 
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Download the app real signal, it will give u a separate 3g signal meter so u can tell what it really is. Shows cdma(phone) and evdo (3g). I only use it for 3g since the cdma gets redundant with the stock meter.

another thing you can do is put your phone in debug mode and read the true RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator). In the phone App enter ##33284# and select EVDO engineering. Look for Rx Power, it will be a negative number, the closer it is to zero, the better the signal strength. Anything -90 dBm or higher should be just fine for good EV-DO speeds.
 
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another thing you can do is put your phone in debug mode and read the true RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator). In the phone App enter ##33284# and select EVDO engineering. Look for Rx Power, it will be a negative number, the closer it is to zero, the better the signal strength. Anything -90 dBm or higher should be just fine for good EV-DO speeds.

Yeah, that app gives u those numbers when u pull down the notifications bar.
 
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OK I'm in an area where I get full bars most of the time, my old Hero usually got anywhere from 1.6 to 2.1 mbs DOWN. But with my Evo I'm consistently gettings only 400-600 kbs DOWN... its really annoying me especially when my co-worker that has a Hero gets like 2.1mb DOWN standing right next to me... its something with the EVO. Anyone else experience this? My co-worker also has an EVO and he gets about the same DOWN/UP speeds as me.
 
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another thing you can do is put your phone in debug mode and read the true RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator). In the phone App enter ##33284# and select EVDO engineering. Look for Rx Power, it will be a negative number, the closer it is to zero, the better the signal strength. Anything -90 dBm or higher should be just fine for good EV-DO speeds.

I know this is an old thread but it helped me a lot. When I entered ##33282# and followed all the instructions, my Rx Power showed .79 dbm. It wasn't a negative number. What does this mean?

Thanks,
Michelle
 
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