T-Mobile HSPA+ getting slower and slower for anyone else?

[CoMoNexus]

It is for Verizon in comparison to CDMA. GSM is a little different.

LTE deployments signal new revenue for tower companies - FierceWireless

"Verizon, AT&T, U.S. Cellular and others are using 700 MHz for LTE, and one of the chief benefits of the low-banded spectrum is its strong propagation characteristics. The result is that carriers may need fewer tower sites to cover the same area."

Exactly: "One of the chief benefits of the low-banded spectrum is its strong propagation characteristics." It's the band where LTE is deployed, not LTE itself, that enables signals to travel farther. With any wireless technology, even broadcast radio and TV, signals travel farther at lower frequencies. That's just physics.

Going forward, LTE will use increasingly smaller cells in urban and suburban areas because a macrocellular architecture won't provide the capacity and speeds users want. VZW is one example: Light Reading - Verizon Ready for LTE Small-Cell Advance

Small cells create even more challenges for handset vendors because now users will spend more time on the fringes of cells simply because there are so many of them. So handsets have to be able to work well under weak signal conditions.

For operators, LTE's savings come more from things such as a flat network architecture. But some of that savings is offset by the CapEx and OpEx of backhaul for so many sites. A major operator today has 30,000 to 50,000 sites. With small cells, it's easily double.

 

[Biggnaa20]

My service has severely degraded from a usual ~5,000 kbs to a measly 60kbs in the same locations.

It started happening right after the announcement of the new contract plans, so I thought it was a capacity issue, but every once in a while, I get my normal speeds again.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened with Sprint :-/ I hope I don't have to switch again.

 

[mcshaggin]

Almost all towers communicate by back haul cable which is a cable or cables that take data received for antennas and send it by cable to other towers. It's this cable that would be saturated so they may be prioritizing LTE over HSPA + and other sorts of data. I'm would expect additional users would also have a significant effect but not as much as some of you are reporting. My guesses T-Mobile really what's to get LTE up as much as possible as quickly as they can afford to. They want to be able to advertise LTE in as many markets as possible and LTE is actually cheaper in the long run for the carrier. It has greater range so requires fewer towers for one.
Verizon LTE performance is much less since the iPhone 5 came out which was the first really large volume of LTE phones but its still pretty darn good and far ahead of 3G.
T-Mobile in the U.S. does not have the revenue to support anything like AT&T or Verizon and the parent company in Germany is not interested in subsidizing them

Yes, but I'll bet the majority of the backhaul is fiber and not copper and guess who owner the majority of the fiber to all the cell sites....AT&T. I'm sure the bandwidth on fiber is more than enough for most traffic but it could depend on what T-mobile is paying for.
On another note, I would test your phone at different times of the day. Like the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping and prime times.

 

[CoMoNexus]

Yes, but I'll bet the majority of the backhaul is fiber and not copper and guess who owner the majority of the fiber to all the cell sites....AT&T.

I doubt that AT&T owns the most fiber going to sites. ILECs such as Verizon do, as well as facilities-based CLECs.

I don't think that LTE can use copper, even bonded copper. Fiber definitely is preferred, but carriers will use microwave if they have to.

 

[bobsacomano]

My service has severely degraded from a usual ~5,000 kbs to a measly 60kbs in the same locations.

It started happening right after the announcement of the new contract plans, so I thought it was a capacity issue, but every once in a while, I get my normal speeds again.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened with Sprint :-/ I hope I don't have to switch again.

I don't think it's capacity. Although my service at home has become a complete joke, in other locations I've not noticed any degradation at all. Speeds are still fantastic everywhere for me except at home, which is served by one tower that has probably had some modification done to it (and that is not being acknowledged by T-Mobile).


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Kamin]

I hope that TMO doesn't suffer the same fate as Sprint, which went downhill after getting the EVO. The iPhone was the coup de grace.

I know man, my fear as well. I hope T-Mobile continues to remain a viable choice. It's been awesome to leave Sprint and cut my bill in half while immensely improving the quality of data service. I mean, cummon, how often does that happen when the average consumer wins so decisively?

 

[CoMoNexus]

It's been awesome to leave Sprint and cut my bill in half while immensely improving the quality of data service.

Yup. TMO works great for my needs and budget. I got tired of Sprint's promises to upgrade. And don't get me started on the WiMAX debacle.

 

[Biggnaa20]

I don't think it's capacity. Although my service at home has become a complete joke, in other locations I've not noticed any degradation at all. Speeds are still fantastic everywhere for me except at home, which is served by one tower that has probably had some modification done to it (and that is not being acknowledged by T-Mobile).


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

I've had the same thing happen with my phone...It's given me enough hope to not go shopping for another carrier yet, but I'm getting close.

nb

 

[Frank999]

I've just read your post last night. I haven't really noticed any slow downs as far as web browsing is concerned for example, but I decided to do some speed tests today. This was done is the middle of downtown Boston and got results of 328kps down and 24kps up. I did a retest and this time got 92 down 756 up. Ironically when I went underground to a subway stop I got faster results 3631 down 750 up. However, no where near the 14000kps to 16000kps I've gotten in the past.

 

[CoMoNexus]

Ironically when I went underground to a subway stop I got faster results 3631 down 750 up.

There's probably a distributed antenna system (DAS) down there. That can make a noticeable difference in performance.

 

[6tr6tr]

I am convinced this is 100% due to TMobile switching their HSPA+ towers over to LTE and their E/G towers to HSPA+. The E/G towers, while now communicating via HSPA+ protocol, must not have enough bandwidth or strength (its a higher band I *think*) to handle HSPA+. They're swering all the customers who bought into the whole 4G HSPA+ thing TMobile's been selling for the past years. And at the 12-15mbps I USED to get, it WAS 4G speeds. But at 500kbps, I'm going to look elsewhere if it doesn;t get better soon.

 

[JHBThree]

I am convinced this is 100% due to TMobile switching their HSPA+ towers over to LTE and their E/G towers to HSPA+. The E/G towers, while now communicating via HSPA+ protocol, must not have enough bandwidth or strength (its a higher band I *think*) to handle HSPA+. They're swering all the customers who bought into the whole 4G HSPA+ thing TMobile's been selling for the past years. And at the 12-15mbps I USED to get, it WAS 4G speeds. But at 500kbps, I'm going to look elsewhere if it doesn;t get better soon.

Its actually a lower band, I believe. As part of the switchover tmobile has also been switching the backhaul at those sites from copper to fiber.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[6tr6tr]

What time of day did you run the speed tests? New York is notorious for speeds grinding to a halt, regardless of carrier, during peak hours.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Tested three times: 3pm, 9pm and 9am. 9am was fastest but still under 1mbps. Previously in NYC, I'd get 12mbps or better.

 

[JHBThree]

Tested three times: 3pm, 9pm and 9am. 9am was fastest but still under 1mbps. Previously in NYC, I'd get 12mbps or better.

Sounds like network loading unfortunately. Not much you can do about it

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[6tr6tr]

To everyone having seeing slower speeds, please contact TMobile and let them know about it! If more people start complaining, they *might* do something (they also might not), but if you don't say anything, they definitely won't do anything becuase they won't know anything's wrong.

How to contact TMobile: Dial 611 on your phone (Does not count against minutes)

You can also go here: Contact TMobile

 

[bobsacomano]

To everyone having seeing slower speeds, please contact TMobile and let them know about it! If more people start complaining, they *might* do something (they also might not), but if you don't say anything, they definitely won't do anything becuase they won't know anything's wrong.

How to contact TMobile: Dial 611 on your phone (Does not count against minutes)

You can also go here: Unsupported Browser

Contacting them by multiple methods has done nothing for me. I've even tried Twitter and Google+, with no resolution. I have two separate gmail conversations, 25+ messages long, filled with responses like "we're working hard on it and will let you know" or "our engineers have found and fixed it".
I agree though that as many people as possible that have this slowdown problem should contact them.


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[CoMoNexus]

Contacting them by multiple methods has done nothing for me. I've even tried Twitter and Google+, with no resolution. I have two separate gmail conversations, 25+ messages long, filled with responses like "we're working hard on it and will let you know" or "our engineers have found and fixed it".

Sounds like my final year with Sprint. That's the beauty of the N4: a kick-*** phone that I can take to lots of other networks if TMO has problems. But my options become limited if those problems are affecting TMO's MVNOs, too.

 

[Mastaking]

I am in NYC and ever since the TMobile Metro merger my speeds have been horrendous.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[JHBThree]

I am in NYC and ever since the TMobile Metro merger my speeds have been horrendous.

Posted via Android Central App

Those two things don't have anything to do with each other. The two companies might be merged legally, but they haven't even begun the process of combining operations. (If they even do)

 

[6tr6tr]

Contacting them by multiple methods has done nothing for me. I've even tried Twitter and Google+, with no resolution. I have two separate gmail conversations, 25+ messages long, filled with responses like "we're working hard on it and will let you know" or "our engineers have found and fixed it".
I agree though that as many people as possible that have this slowdown problem should contact them.


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

+1 If one person says it, they don't care. If 1000 people do it, they might notice.

- - - Updated - - -

I am in NYC and ever since the TMobile Metro merger my speeds have been horrendous.

Posted via Android Central App

Not the merger, it's since TMobile started changing the HSPA+ towers to LTE and the G/E towers to HSPA+.