T-Mobile, Los Angeles fake "HSPA+"??? - Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Always Include:
Carrier: T-Mobile USA
Phone: Nexus One..
Running: Cyanogen 6 RC2 + Froyo Radio + Amon recovery
I seriously don't understand what's going on. I live in Los Angeles and when I run the Speedtest.net application on my N1, I NEVER have seen my download speed go above 2.0 Mb/s on "HSPA".
I see people posting pictures of their speed tests in Las Vegas getting more than 4.0 download and 1.5 upload.
Is something wrong with my phone here? I run tests infront of friends and look retarded when my speed level dips down to 0.98 and there running some crappy AT&T thats beating me!!!
(Is GPS supposed to be on when selecting a server because its selecting some Arizona servers when im in Los Angeles!!!)
Thanks for the 'noob' help. =P

Which FroYo radio? Have you tried the Korean radio?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Honestly, Los Angeles and all of SoCal have very inconsistent signal strength, this is even more true the further West you are. The closer you are to the beach the worse signal will be either because you're just too far from a tower or there's just a big ****ing hill blocking your signal. Vegas is just big open flat space in the middle of the desert vs. SoCal's endless maze of mini mountains and valleys. I was just out in Vegas last month also, and my speeds were only slighly better than LA (but at the same time reception is not the best inside casinos).
check if you're in a dead zone: http://deadcellzones.com/t-mobile.html
According to the T-Mo HSPA+ zone info these CA cities currently should have live HSPA+:
Anaheim
Burbank
Glendale
Irvine
Los Angeles
Long Beach
Ontario
Future:
Oakland
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
Now, anyone from LA knows "Los Angeles" is a pretty vague description of it's coverage. My guess is it's probably limited to downtown LA since you could be in the middle of Hollywood and have a "Los Angeles" mailing address/zip code. However, I live on the border of Burbank and I've never gotten above 3.5Mb down, and only once or twice. I average around 2-2.5; and that's with -60 to -70dbm, arguably some of the strongest coverage I get in SoCal. Actually, when I head into Burbank for errands or in the direction of the airport, signal is terrible.
If you're speed is really just unbearably ****ty compared to what it should be on just HSPA, not HSPA+ you should call T-Mobile and hopefully you get someone on the phone who can do some of their OTA black magic.
Edit: Just noticed the T-Mobile website explicitly lists those live cities as having HSPA+ coverage. The best I get anywhere in LA is HSDPA, even Burbank - so I'll be calling up T-Mobile today myself to see what's up with that.

I knnow for sure la description is vague. I live in Pomona and the fastest I get is a 1.5mb/1mb. Last week I was super surprised a the speed I was gettinng in Rowland heights! I was at a restaurant. And I wanted to check my speeds .. I was getting almost 5mb/3mb. That's the fastest I've seen on my nexus.

bestofrhcp said:
I knnow for sure la description is vague. I live in Pomona and the fastest I get is a 1.5mb/1mb. Last week I was super surprised a the speed I was gettinng in Rowland heights! I was at a restaurant. And I wanted to check my speeds .. I was getting almost 5mb/3mb. That's the fastest I've seen on my nexus.
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what the hell, I get less than 1mb/s download from there >.< actually anywhere for that matter... what should I do? call t-mobile? anyone know what I should ask them?

Even though the software (HSPA+) is in place for Los Angeles area but some of back haul has not been upgraded yet.

Perhaps the problem is that our phones simply do not support HSPA+, which they do not. They support up to ~7M down on HSDPA.
T-mobile is just running around saying they've upgraded their network and to enjoy faster speeds, yet at the same time is saying the G2 will be the first device on their network to be able to even use HSPA+.
Anyone care to clue me in on how a HSDPA rated phone is going to have improved network speed on a network it isn't compatible with and isn't completely live?

I got a text message saying that its up in my area I am in the west valley of the san fernando valley I get 4 dl speeds at work in calabasas but at home in encino I get 700 kb at best I think its tower to tower
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Yeah this is nuts. I live in Glendale and I never see above 1.0mb/s....just ridiculous.
Mountains and everything are ruining the reception and yeah I love closer to the water!
What the heck is going on Tmo!?!?

akalior88 said:
I got a text message saying that its up in my area I am in the west valley of the san fernando valley I get 4 dl speeds at work in calabasas but at home in encino I get 700 kb at best I think its tower to tower
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
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Just today?
I'm in the valley on the edge of burbank/studio city and get decent speed, but not HSPA+ and yeah encino/sherman oaks sucks ass out but the 405/101.
Your phone will hate you as it switches from 3G-Edge all day in that area.
mortal300 said:
Yeah this is nuts. I live in Glendale and I never see above 1.0mb/s....just ridiculous.
Mountains and everything are ruining the reception and yeah I love closer to the water!
What the heck is going on Tmo!?!?
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Natural topography?

SeEsAw12 said:
Which FroYo radio? Have you tried the Korean radio?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
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I am using regular froyo radio recommended in cyanogens cm6 thread. Can I flash Korean radio on top? If I get issues can I just go back and flash regular froyo radio?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

mortal300 said:
I am using regular froyo radio recommended in cyanogens cm6 thread. Can I flash Korean radio on top? If I get issues can I just go back and flash regular froyo radio?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you can do all that.
A lot of people have reported faster speeds on the new radio.

The radio increased my download speeds. I usually top out at about 700Kbps down/ 1300 up around Placentia.
After installing, those numbers flip-flopped

SeEsAw12 said:
Yeah, you can do all that.
A lot of people have reported faster speeds on the new radio.
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I can flash the radio without doing a wipe and clean install of CM6-RC3?
So in other words im using CM6 right now with Froyo radio...I can just throw the update.zip and flash that korean radio and it will still continue to work?? (And also go backwards incase I dont like the difference..)

yes, you can install the latest radio 5.08 and then go back to the 4.xx if you choose so. ROM is not associated with radio. radio controls all the wireless/signals in the cellphone.

mortal300 said:
I can flash the radio without doing a wipe and clean install of CM6-RC3?
So in other words im using CM6 right now with Froyo radio...I can just throw the update.zip and flash that korean radio and it will still continue to work?? (And also go backwards incase I dont like the difference..)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes sir.
You DO NOT have to wipe.
and you can go back whenever you please.

whoisthedrizzle said:
Perhaps the problem is that our phones simply do not support HSPA+, which they do not. They support up to ~7M down on HSDPA.
T-mobile is just running around saying they've upgraded their network and to enjoy faster speeds, yet at the same time is saying the G2 will be the first device on their network to be able to even use HSPA+.
Anyone care to clue me in on how a HSDPA rated phone is going to have improved network speed on a network it isn't compatible with and isn't completely live?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd also like to know the answer to this question. I'm strongly considering picking up the Nexus S and would like to know if when hspa+ comes to the city where I live if my N1 or NS would see a big jump in download speed despite not "having hspa+"?
On my N1 I get no more than 1Mb/s down. If that number would jump to 7Mb/s when hspa+ comes to town and can definitely rationalize the Nexus S not being hspa+ compatible. 7 times my current speed will do.
Can someone please explain how this really works?

Related

[Q] AT&T Rep showed me his captivate on 4G???

Ok, so the other day I visited an AT&T store, and while I was there I got talking with one of the reps there. We were talking about flashing different ROMS and such, when he showed me his phone. He was running a custom rom that he cooked up in the romkitchen. He then showed me his speedtest.net scores and they were off the charts! He was getting something like 9 Mbps down, and 30 Mbps upload speed! He tried to explain to me how he had done this, off the record of course, but I haven't been able to figure it out! If there is anyone out there who can help out an aspiring noob, I would really appreciate it!
its called HSPA (aka HSPUA and HSPDA for upload and download)
They probably also have a signal repeater or a microcell in the store too increase performance
yeah tricky a-holes... "see how good att reception is? ..... (in our store) "
Interesting, so I guess to simplify, captivate is still unable to access what AT&T calls "4G"? Also how would one know if they were accessing HSPA?
dillonc said:
Interesting, so I guess to simplify, captivate is still unable to access what AT&T calls "4G"? Also how would one know if they were accessing HSPA?
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The captivate us capable of hspa it just needs to be flashed to a different modem.bin that supports it
The signal icon at the top will say H instead of 3g.
As for 4g that will never work.
dillonc said:
Interesting, so I guess to simplify, captivate is still unable to access what AT&T calls "4G"? Also how would one know if they were accessing HSPA?
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where your 3G signal is it will have an H instead of 3G
TRusselo said:
yeah tricky a-holes... "see how good att reception is? ..... (in our store) "
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How much experience do you have with at&t as a provider? Or are you just regurgitating what you have read. Every carrier has their issues but you seem to have some deep seeded hatred for at&t.
@op, the captivate will connect to hsdpa just fine but the speeds the rep was getting are not possible.
newter55 said:
How much experience do you have with at&t as a provider? Or are you just regurgitating what you have read. Every carrier has their issues but you seem to have some deep seeded hatred for at&t.
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most people do. one of the things im starting to have a problem is is with their rates when everyone else is becoming fairly cheap. other than that ive been with them since cingular...
bignate78 said:
most people do. one of the things im starting to have a problem is is with their rates when everyone else is becoming fairly cheap. other than that ive been with them since cingular...
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They actually lowered my monthly rate a couple months ago. I was shocked. As for everyone else being a lot cheaper, I am not so sure. I have had Sprint, still have a Verizon plan, and recently looked into T-Mobile. In the end it comes down to coverage for me.
newter55 said:
They actually lowered my monthly rate a couple months ago. I was shocked. As for everyone else being a lot cheaper, I am not so sure. I have had Sprint, still have a Verizon plan, and recently looked into T-Mobile. In the end it comes down to coverage for me.
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well their prices(AT&T) are still higher than the other providers. unlimited data plans for $20-$30 when at AT&T you only get so much but get unlimited when on wifi....then again wifi isnt everywhere. i myself have almost the lowest plan with one of the lowest data plans and still pay almost $100 a month!....just sayin
Hey I appreciate all the input regarding my question, ive done quite a bit of reading on this forum lately and am learning a lot! So I guess my next question would be, what kind of speedtest.net scores would one get if connected to HSPA?
HSPA that Att is deploying currently is limited to 14.4Mbps. Real world speeds up to ~12Mbps. The captivate does NOT have HSPA, only 7.2Mbps HSDPA.
dillonc said:
Hey I appreciate all the input regarding my question, ive done quite a bit of reading on this forum lately and am learning a lot! So I guess my next question would be, what kind of speedtest.net scores would one get if connected to HSPA?
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Click to collapse
I realize that there is probably a post regarding these scores already, however if somebody could point me in the right direction i would really appreciate it!
That's why I have straight talk. $45/mo unlimited everything with att service!
When my phone says H, I average about 3mbps dl
my favorite part of this whole thread is that nobody even questions the speeds that the OP posted.....
those speeds are impossible on ATT cell network, period. sounds like he was on wifi in the store.
pirate. Microcell and speeds not possible have been mentioned.
newter55 said:
pirate. Microcell and speeds not possible have been mentioned.
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i guess that was a reading fail on my part, because i never saw it when i read through the initial posts, yesterday.
Pirateghost said:
my favorite part of this whole thread is that nobody even questions the speeds that the OP posted.....
those speeds are impossible on ATT cell network, period. sounds like he was on wifi in the store.
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Its because everyone knows their BS
bignate78 said:
where your 3G signal is it will have an H instead of 3G
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Wireless network speeds depend on a number of variables. If you see the H, it just means the software is turned on in the tower you are connecting to. The faster speeds are dependent on whether or not there is expanded backhaul (fiber from the tower into the network) in your area. Until that's added, you won't see speeds above what you get from 3G. Of course geography, your location, number of people connecting to your tower, etc... also play a role.

Why does my data service suck so badly?

Att is aweful. No matter what I do, kernal, modem, rom, the data service is just plain aweful. I have friends on verizon just downloading appear left and right with ease and quickly. I sometimes I try to download one and it doesnt download or so painfully slow. Please help me I have another year on my contract.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
goob1284 said:
Att is aweful. No matter what I do, kernal, modem, rom, the data service is just plain aweful. I have friends on verizon just downloading appear left and right with ease and quickly. I sometimes I try to download one and it doesnt download or so painfully slow. Please help me I have another year on my contract.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Little more specific about rom, kernel, modem please.
Continuum, ginger reorineted v1.2 #13, and jp9
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
jp9 make my data slow and my phone get really hot, also kills my battery. some say the opposite.
data speeds vary by area. i get 4mbps on my captivate and 6mbps on my infuse. locally verizon is lucky to get 2g speeds even on 3g, it took 3 or 4 minutes to reinstall maps on my friends fascinate. in manhatten lte on verizon can get 20mbps. if verizon is better in your area and you can deal with there politics then get verizon. there plans are basically mirrored from att's plans now and you can go non contract with them as well if you want to pay full or near it for the phone. as verizon tries to atract att's costomers there rates, plans and obligations are getting better and better for new subscribers. old costomers they can't care less about and are subject to insane overage charges and dumb policies. they also offer unlimited data as there only data plan now so it is like the old iphone billing.
Dani897 said:
jp9 make my data slow and my phone get really hot, also kills my battery. some say the opposite.
data speeds vary by area. i get 4mbps on my captivate and 6mbps on my infuse. locally verizon is lucky to get 2g speeds even on 3g, it took 3 or 4 minutes to reinstall maps on my friends fascinate. in manhatten lte on verizon can get 20mbps. if verizon is better in your area and you can deal with there politics then get verizon. there plans are basically mirrored from att's plans now and you can go non contract with them as well if you want to pay full or near it for the phone. as verizon tries to atract att's costomers there rates, plans and obligations are getting better and better for new subscribers. old costomers they can't care less about and are subject to insane overage charges and dumb policies. they also offer unlimited data as there only data plan now so it is like the old iphone billing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got the hot phone ... melted some chocolate in my pocket once and it made me so angry. And I hate that no matter where I go, the data speeds suck. And my phone switches from h to 3g back to h which causes delays too
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
goob1284 said:
I got the hot phone ... melted some chocolate in my pocket once and it made me so angry. And I hate that no matter where I go, the data speeds suck. And my phone switches from h to 3g back to h which causes delays too
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use kc1 modem it is the best overall i have used, no issues, great call quality. also kp1 was good, gps positiong is wonky on some roms but the call quality is good.
i hear jkv is also awesome but it is not included in the rom because it defaults to 900mhz not 850. i think after an 850 mhz mode is on there you can just flash jkv but im not speaking from experience that it works. you dont want the hot phone issue or a lack of service if you can avoid it so maybe try kc1 first.

Rogers v20c 4G speed?

I don't know if anyone else has this issue but they boast up to 21Mbps download speeds with the upgrade to v20c. I'm lucky to see 2Mbps at the most. Anyone else notice little to no speed increase after the upgrade?
it all depends on your area i live kinda i a country area it says 4g or h+ but i get 2mbs down but if i go in to the city i get 10mbs just cuz it says 21mbps just means that the most the network can handle dosent mean you get thoughs speeds just like home internet i pay for 12mbps and only dl at 1.5mbps ive call them and talk to them before and thats what they said you wont ever reach that speed but thats what the network can handle.
All the towers have the software for 4g soon to get lte but only like 5% of the towers have the hardware to support this this is another reason for slow speeds when your phone tells you you have 4g or h+ and when lte comes it will be the same story its just a gimic
xstokerx said:
it all depends on your area i live kinda i a country area it says 4g or h+ but i get 2mbs down but if i go in to the city i get 10mbs just cuz it says 21mbps just means that the most the network can handle dosent mean you get thoughs speeds just like home internet i pay for 12mbps and only dl at 1.5mbps ive call them and talk to them before and thats what they said you wont ever reach that speed but thats what the network can handle.
All the towers have the software for 4g soon to get lte but only like 5% of the towers have the hardware to support this this is another reason for slow speeds when your phone tells you you have 4g or h+ and when lte comes it will be the same story its just a gimic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that I won't see the 21Mbps down, however I think I should at least see an improvement over what I had before the upgrade. I live in Niagara Falls. I'm right downtown and get Full to just under full signal at home. I was just curious to see if anyone else notice little to no improvement.
If your paying for 12 mbps you should be getting at least 10 . Maybe you should look into a router firmware update. Phones are different them home internet. I better be getting what I paid for. Not being rude. Just saying look into that. My friend was getting the same as you . As we live in the country too. I done a firmware upgrade on his router and jumped to 15 mbops.
Sent from my LG-P925 using XDA App
well im on shaw and i have to use there crap smc modem router in one and you cant update the firware cuz its locked out
xstokerx said:
well im on shaw and i have to use there crap smc modem router in one and you cant update the firware cuz its locked out
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O dude thats crazy. i would demand something at least! lol

Sprint network is horrendous.

Been waiting for the 4g since 2010 and I've had enough. Time to go to T-Mobile.
Sent from my HTCONE using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
thinking about doing the same thing, I'm in Queens and it sucks haha
just worried about building penetration with them, especially in NYC
Yeah I hear you. I got sold on it today at work. One of my guys has been with T-Mobile for years I did a speed test and you see the results. He did it with his Samsung note 3 and got 29 mbps download and close to the same on upload. Frigging amazing. It's faster then my Wi-Fi on comcast at home. Time to make a move. Sad thing is I've been with sprint since 2000. Gonna be weird.
Sent from my HTCONE using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I have been with Sprint over 10 years now. I don't know how much more I can take either. The network is so unstable in my area. Constant dropped calls, 3G is to the point where even at full signal I have to do toggle airplane mode for it to kinda work sometimes. 4G signal strength is a joke. Tri band is coming very soon but I'm just so so so tired of waiting.
You think your speeds are bad?
Sent from my One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Here are results from my newly upgraded Network Vision Tower not even a mile away from me just down the road.
Sprint 3G with "great signal".
Verizon 3G will usually run faster than 4G Sprint LTE. Even though I'm very close to the tower, it constantly cuts in and out. The speed sucks.
Thank god for Comcast. I know a lot of people hate them but I am very happy with my connection except for netflix congestion which should be fixed soon. I usually am above my rated speed even at peek times.
My tower is absolutely pathetic. They aren't all done but my tower has been borked since July of 2013. Now 3G pretty much doesn't work at all.
The only thing that is nice is I now have an HD Voice tower which does sound awesome when it works when talking to someone else with Sprint on an upgraded tower. That's if it can actually hold a call.
Dan Hesse is still promising a Super 4G network to rival the competition when he did a recent interview on Mad Money seen here.
The build out is taking way too long. I know a new network is not built overnight but it's absolutely awful. It's so bad my local news did a story on it cause so many viewers were calling in wanting them to do a story.
I'm still holding out for Tri-Band is the only hope left, but I just don't know how much more I can take.
At least your guys 3G "works" if you want to call those speeds "working"
I have the same results in maplewod, voice in my house is terrible always getting dropped. I manage to get pretty good 4g in bloomington, but I am not in bloomington that often. perhaps if sprint actually buys t-mobile that will help things along.
drifty999 said:
I have the same results in maplewod, voice in my house is terrible always getting dropped. I manage to get pretty good 4g in bloomington, but I am not in bloomington that often. perhaps if sprint actually buys t-mobile that will help things along.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of the towers around here are just borked. What I have been reading it's the hand off between new equipment to older legacy equipment. So eventually it should all be replaced but yea pretty much anywhere in the metro it sucks big time. Most of our towers should be getting 800 MHz & 2.5 GHz LTE in the coming months. I will be upgrading to the next HTC in tri-band flavor. We *should* see awesome speeds on the 2.5 GHz band since we were in a wimax market. We will see how the handoffs go between the 3 frequencies. I'm expecting dumped signals & dropped connection but it's suppose to be seamless.
The fastest I got out of Sprint
Here's what I'm looking at
And that's after most of the university students went home for spring break. Usually at 4 AM the speeds skyrocket though I've hit the max that our 3G supports (I probably have insomnia)
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk
luigi311 said:
Here's what I'm looking at (IMG quote removed)
And that's after most of the university students went home for spring break. Usually at 4 AM the speeds skyrocket though I've hit the max that our 3G supports (I probably have insomnia)
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Click to collapse
I don't have any problems for the most part in the north east. Almost always 4g (LTE) and only occasionally does it drop to 3g while driving on highways.
I can stream netflix while driving and it only occasionally has to buffer.

slow T-Mobile LTE

I live in Louisville Ky and im experiencing very slow lte. I did a speed test and my 3g is 2-3 times as fast as lte. Anyone else getting very slow lte speeds or maybe know whats going on?
chris6278 said:
I live in Louisville Ky and im experiencing very slow lte. I did a speed test and my 3g is 2-3 times as fast as lte. Anyone else getting very slow lte speeds or maybe know whats going on?
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call tmobile, maybe they are having issues locally
me too!!
chris6278 said:
I live in Louisville Ky and im experiencing very slow lte. I did a speed test and my 3g is 2-3 times as fast as lte. Anyone else getting very slow lte speeds or maybe know whats going on?
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Holly hell!!! Finally someone who lives in my city, I also get horrible LTE speeds...the most I get is 23mbmb...on 3g I get 25-30
Are you on the new 5.1 radio or older 5.0.1 radio? I was on the new one and my lte was horrible but flashed the old one back and they are alil better, still not great
jamescable said:
Holly hell!!! Finally someone who lives in my city, I also get horrible LTE speeds...the most I get is 23mbmb...on 3g I get 25-30
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Click to collapse
whats horrible with 23mbps?? doesnt matter if you upload speeds are faster, 23mbps download speeds are very FAR from horrible.
what are you using to test your speeds. I use Speed Test. I get 30.31 mbps down and 24.51 mbps up in Eagan MN. This on the new M build with the 95R radio. You may want to try a different server if you are using Speed Test. Other wise it could be a problem in your area.
Perhaps LTE is loaded.....but wow complaining about 23mbps haha
PunishedSnake said:
Perhaps LTE is loaded.....but wow complaining about 23mbps haha
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Click to collapse
Well, on Tmobile in pdx area, I got 60+ Mbps on 5.0.1, but *only* 23 Mbps on the 5.1...D build, but going to the proper 5.1...M build I am back in the 60 Mbps range, so I would say that 1/3 speed is terrible.
arvonn said:
Well, on Tmobile in pdx area, I got 60+ Mbps on 5.0.1, but *only* 23 Mbps on the 5.1...D build, but going to the proper 5.1...M build I am back in the 60 Mbps range, so I would say that 1/3 speed is terrible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without speed test no one would tell the difference lol
M is meant for tmo so of course its optimized for tmobile networks.
While on D I did not speed test so I didn't notice any speed difference.
Maybe I'm not going crazy! I'm having the same issue in Louisville, KY. Before 6 in the morning, I can manage close to 10Mbps, which is fine. After 6 in the morning, I'm lucky to get 2Mbps, often below 1Mbps. It's bad enough that I can't even stream music on Google Play when I go jogging. And, this is in a populated area in the interior of Louisville.
I'm on the 5.1 radio, but I've been having problems all month long even on my 5.0.2 radio.
Like you, my network actually runs faster in 3G than it does in LTE. I'm considering switching over the StraightTalk next month if the problem persists since I'm only getting 3g speeds at best anyways.
By the way, I'm on a Nexus 5, not the 6. So, it's not phone dependent. I just happened to stumble across your post while researching.

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