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Google Listen Podcasts extremely slow, Nexus S, T-Mo

Sphagnum

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2009
102
7
For the past few weeks, my data on T-mo has been great. All except podcasts. I get over 1000 up and down on Speedtest.net, but if I download podcasts (from different sources, same result) I get literally 0.01MB/s

When the download first starts, it goes almost instantly (or in a few seconds if on Edge or bad 3G) to around .25MB downloaded, then pauses for a couple of seconds, then always goes 0.01MB every second, like watching a clock.

Tried BeyondPod, seeminly same result. Try it on Wi-Fi and downloads 20MB in seconds!

Since it doesn't matter WHICH podcast sourse or which podcast app, I thought it must be T-Mo throttling my bandwidth, even though all other speeds are fine. I called them, they told me no throttling was going on.


Any ideas why this might be? Anyone else had any similar problems? It's really frustrating.
 
You could clear the cache and reinstall the app, but I really think this is a T-mo problem, not a problem with the app. I get great speeds on a (good) wifi, dl an hour long podcast in 20 seconds. It's only when on 3G (or edge for that matter) that the podcast gets suddenly throttled. So very frustrating...
 
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Yeah, I'd also like to add that I've noticed every once in a while (like maybe once every 20 or 30 downloads), T-mo doesn't 'catch' it when it starts and the podcast will download just like it used to (ie, very fast). But 95% of the time, it's still extremely throttled for me. So very annoying.
 
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Thanks for that, Wajlee. More confirmation this is actually a T-mo problem.

I face the exact same issue. It just does not make sense to me that they would slow down the download of MP3. I mean, I am able to play Netflix videos with no major lag so what's the point of shaping MP3 traffic?

I also found that Edge is faster than 3G when downloading my podcats. Have you compared both speed?

I noticed that if I disable data while downloading (causing the dowload to pause) and re-enable a few seconds later, the first download is super fast but the next one is slow. It seems to me that if T-Mobile was shaping traffic, this would not happen and it would always be slow.

Finally, this slowness seems to be pervasive i.e. it affects all the podcats applications that I tried.

This is leading me to believe the problem is with the phone hardware or possibly a combination of applications that I have downloaded over the past weeks.

Any thoughts?
 
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francoisp, I doubt that the problem is with your phone or with apps on your phone. Many people have the same problem with different phone models.

Your observation that the problem affects only mp3's and not any other file type supports the traffic-shaping theory. Also, your observation that the download of mp3's is affected on every application further supports traffic-shaping and not a problem with your apps.

Just a guess, but T-Mobile's rationale for shaping might have been that lots of people start listening to a music mp3 but stop after a few seconds, during which time the full mp3 downloads, wasting bandwidth on the un-listened portion of the mp3. They might have allowed a faster speed for the first .25 MB to allow for buffering. If this is what they did, they obviously did not think through the consequences it would have on people who download large podcasts on their phone (podcasts are often over 20MB while music is usually under 5MB).

I have not tried using EDGE to download mp3's. I'm not sure how to force my phone to use EDGE but will try to see if it makes a difference.
 
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I've had the same issue, and asked a friend of mine on a different network (Sprint with the Evo 4G) to try downloading a podcast over 3G or 4G, and he had the exact same issue. I wonder if this is a result of the Google Listen app not being maintained by the people at Google. I'm almost to the point where I'm going to jump to another podcatcher. I can stream the podcast through the web browser pretty well, but when I try to download it, it goes really slowly.

-jalsk
 
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I have the exact same issue. I've tried Doggcatcher as well. Funny thing is if I got to the Engadget podcast page: Podcasts --Engadget and download the AAC version, it's nice and fast. If I download the MP3 version, I get about 10 kb a sec. What the hell? My friend who lives in another state does not have this problem and he is using the same type of phone that I am (Nexus S).


FWIW, I'm located in Orlando.
 
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Called T-mobile and they redirected me to their PDA and BlackBerry division to try and solve it. The dude said he had never heard of this issue before, but he would put a request for the engineers to take a look at the area and resolve the issue, if they "found" one. Hopefully they can "find" it, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

Everyone that has this issue should call in. I have already emailed Engadget, Gizmodo, PhoneDog, pocket now, and Android Central.

When I emailed Android Central I got an immediate email back from one of the writers letting me know that he will be getting in touch with tmobile to see what they say and they may report on it. I would suggest you email android central as well.
 
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I found a work-around! I was at a public wifi hotspot yesterday and started downloading a podcast, the wifi was so clogged though that it was going very, very slow (but not quite as slow as T-mo's throttling), after a minute I gave up and turned off my wifi. My podcast said "waiting" and when the 3G connection established a few seconds later, the download was off and running! Fast as ever, like it used to be.

Not that it usually makes sense to jump from wifi to 3G to complete a large download, but if you're ever around crappy wifi, try this trick, hehe

I think it has to do with the download not starting from the beginning (as my podcast was partially downloaded when I connected to 3G)
 
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